DIY Body Butter

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DIY Body Butter

I love various body butters and lotions and use some every day, especially right now in the winter when the humidity in our house is low and skin is so dry. Body Butters are easy to make, even with just a few basic ingredients, and tend to be more cost effective than store bought lotions. Not to mention the fact that they’ve always worked much better for us!

Once you learn how to DIY body butter you can make all kinds of fun creations for yourself and to give as gifts. Today I’m going to share a few ideas and combos with you to get you started. Make sure to come back and share all your fun creations in the comments!

The Basics

Here are a few things you should have on hand when making your own body butters. Of course there are many more things that could be added to this list, but for cost effectiveness it’s better to have just a few favorites to start with.

Bases

Each of the butters above has different properties. All are a great source of fatty acids which is great for replenishing skin. Each has a slightly different scent; cocoa butter smells like chocolate, mango butter has a very light scent, and shea butter has the heaviest, most earthy scent. Cocoa butter can clog pores, so it isn’t the best for acne prone skin. On the other hand, shea butter will not clog pores and can even help reduce the visibility of scars. Both Mango and Cocoa Butter need to be added to other oils and butters to create a lotion that is a good consistency. Mango butter tends to be harder and cocoa butter can melt very easily. Shea butter can stand alone as a moisturizer or lotion. Each of the butters has vitamin properties which are worth looking into before choosing one (or two!) for your DIY body butter.

Oils

Each kind of oil has it’s own special benefits and rewards. For example, we love using Avocado Oil in our home since it is a particularly good source of fatty acids and helps rebuild the elasticity of the skin which is great for those with eczema. Wherever you buy your butters and oils from, make sure they are as unrefined as possible and have only a single ingredient (or perhaps just added Vitamin E oil). Some products have plenty of extra added preservatives that aren’t necessary.

Extras

These are my favorite add-ins for body butters and homemade lotions. Aloe Vera is very soothing to the skin, beeswax helps solidify some products and creates a moisture barrier, vitamin E can help preserve products while adding in healthy vitamins, vegetable glycerin is another great moisture barrier, and essential oils can add various properties including fun scents to homemade products.

bodybutter

Putting It Together

With a few of these products you can put together some great DIY body butters that will be perfect for your skin type and what you need to have in a body butter! Since all of the products are slightly different, there isn’t going to be a perfect formula that fits all of them. But, as a general guideline you can go with something like this:

  • 1 cup Base Butter
  • 1/4 cup Oils
  • 1-3 teaspoons or tablespoons Extras & Extra Oils (not including essential oils)

Or a recipe could look something like this:

  • 1 cup Shea Butter
  • 1/4 cup Coconut Oil
  • 1 tablespoon Beeswax
  • 1 tablespoon Aloe Vera Gel
  • 1 teaspoon Vitamin E

Or maybe something like this:

  • 1/2 cup Shea Butter
  • 1/4 cup Cocoa Butter
  • 1/4 cup Mango Butter
  • 1 tablespoon Beeswax
  • 1 tablespoon Avocado Oil

The combination possibilities are endless…even with these few ingredients!

Now to mix up your body butter, the directions will be the same on most of them used with the ingredients in this post. You will melt the ingredients together (minus any essential oils) on the stove top until just blended. Remove from heat, pour in a container until everything hardens back up and then use an electric mixer to whip up the body butter for a nice creamy “lotion” feel.

Any essential oils to be added in should be added in after you remove the oils and butters from heat and just a few drops are needed. Make sure to not add anything that would make your skin phototoxic (most citrus oils) to your body butter.

Some DIY body butters that I’ve already created and posted on Little House Living are; Peppermint Foot Cream and Whipped White Chocolate Body Butter. You might want to check them out or just dive right into your own DIY body butter!

Make sure you come back and share your combos in the comments section below!

merissabio

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13 Comments

  1. Merissa, Thank you for this post! I have been wanting to make my own body butter, but before purchasing the ingredients, I was wondering roughly how many oz of butter is a cup? Thank you!!

    1. I’m not sure how many ounces are in a cup, but I always dry measure my ingredients (versus liquefying first) and one pound of shea butter (which is what I order the most often) will make several batches of body butter. I hope that helps a little bit!

      1. Thank you! That does help. Also, when buying these products on Amazon, how do you go about finding a reputable source for products such as the butters? I have noticed that the price for unrefined, unprocessed, shea, mango, and cocoa butter differs greatly from one brand to another on Amazon. Can you simply purchase the cheapest brand? Is there a brand you prefer? Thanks again! 🙂

        1. I’ve actually had good luck with ordering whatever is a fair price from Amazon. I just make sure that it’s unrefined and that it has mostly positive reviews from other buyers before I order. So far I haven’t had a bad batch!

  2. Haha… There are 8 ounces (oz) in 1 cup; 2 cups in 1 pint, and 2 pints in 1 quart. Hope that helps u ladies

    1. Most of the butters are sold by weight, therefore you can purchase, for instance, 4 ounces of Shea butter. This would be different than the liquid measure you are referring to.

  3. I have COPD and very sensitive to scents.Can you advise if I should try this? A little confused about the butter I should try. Or just not to try. I also really have really dry skin. Also confined indoors during the cold spells, Along with cold and scents I end up in the hospital with a flair up of hard time breathing.Brand new to your newsletter and can see I am really going to enjoy Thanks!!!

    1. I would use an expeller pressed coconut oil (it has no scent) and probably shea butter. Shea Butter does have a little bit of an earthy natural scent though so you might want to see if you can find some first to see if you would be able to handle it.

  4. Hey! I figured i would check out Mountain Rose herbs and toss some stuff into my cart because I am slowly switching over to handmade/natural things. Anyway, I added in 8oz of Mango Butter, 4oz of Pomegranite seed oil, 8oz of Grapeseed oil and then therapeutic lavender simply because I need some more. So this comes to just under 90 dollars before tax and shipping etc. I am wondering about how much body butter this would make? I realize the pomegranite and the grapeseed oils would be used in moderation and mostly to keep the mango butter soft, but I am just wondering how much the cost of a container would actually be, give or take? Like, how much would you say your jar of body butter costs? I know that going organic and natural isn’t always the cheapest but a price estimate would be awesome!! They also have tins and jars on their site and I am in NEED of some so it would be great to know how many to buy 🙂 Thank you for this awesome post!!

    1. Personally I would get the butter and oils from Amazon if possible, they have better prices on larger quantities so you will be able to get more for your money. I do get my essential oils from Mt Rose Herbs though but since shipping is rather high I only put in one big order once a year. I would say that one jar of my homemade lotion or body body costs between $1 and $1 depending on what I decide to add to it. The bulk prices of products from Amazon really help to keep that cost down.

  5. hello!

    how many jars would you get from using 1 cup of shea 1 cup of coconut and 1/2 cup of almond? also what size jars/tubs do you use?

    thanks!

  6. This recipe is super helpful. I just need to know what containers you buy and how much one batch makes, so l know how much to order of my ingredients.
    Thanks!