Nothing can compare to natural body butter when it comes to taking care of your skin. “Body butter” is a term used to describe different body creams that are dense and full of nutrients that add extra hydration to your skin. Most body butters are filled with essential oils, vitamins, and nutrients that make them invaluable in a skincare routine. There is a huge range of ingredients used to make body butters, all of which have distinct benefits which make them useful in a variety of ways.
In most cases, body butters are made from cold pressed oils extracted from nuts, seeds, and fruits, combined with fatty acids and other forms of oil to thicken the consistency. Most body butters are solids at room temperature and melt from your skin’s heat when you slather them on, creating a deeply moisturizing treatment that lasts for hours.
The best benefits of natural body butters are described below.
- Protection: Ingredients in body butters form a protective barrier over your skin to keep moisture in check which prevents you from drying out in heat, hot sun or cold winter air that otherwise sucks away moisture. Natural butters take advantage of the natural emollients found in nuts and seeds to trap moisture deep into the fatty layers of your skin for optimal moisture protection.
- Plenty of Moisture: Skin absorbs everything you put on it, natural body butters provide nothing but hydration. Nut-based butters are filled with emollients that provide skin soothing moisture long after conventional lotions have quit.
- Skin Nourishing Vitamins: Body butters are rich in omega 3 fats beneficial both inside and out. These highly moisturizing fatty acids help keep inflammation in check and make vitamins far more accessible for your skin to absorb.
- Softer Skin: Regular usage of these rich creams can eliminate dry, cracked skin and even clear up chronic conditions like eczema. Immediately after showering, apply body butter to your skin and it will stay noticeably softer throughout the day.
- Reduce Wrinkles: No matter your age, protect your skin with moisturizing body butters to help your skin retain its elasticity to keep a healthy glow.
- Affordable: Switching over to homemade body butters will save you money, and you can control exactly what goes in them.
- Cuticle Saver: Applying a gentle coating of body butter to your cuticles will help them stay hydrated and healthy.
- Stretch Mark Solution: Body butter can make scars from having children a little less visible. Regular applications of body butter help the skin to heal and regenerate.
Ingredients for Making Homemade Body Butter
Whether you choose ingredients like coconut, shea butter, cupuacu or jojoba butter, the possibilities of what you can do is endless.
Use a ratio of 75% solid to 25% liquid oil for your natural butter. The oils listed below are some of the best when first getting started:
Almond Butter: Make a butter with sweet almond oil. This rich, thick butter is great for moisturizing and a way to hydrate a dry scalp.
Cocoa Butter: Known for being a highly stable fat, cocoa butter can last for years and is flush with natural antioxidants. Pregnant women have been relying on cocoa butter to prevent stretch marks for centuries. However, because of the high moisture content of cocoa butter, it may not be a good choice for oily skinned people.
Shea Butter: One of the most popular butters available today, shea butter has a unique fatty acid composition that makes it versatile for many products, including dry skin, massage creams, and sun protection.
Jojoba Butter: An intensive moisturizing, jojoba oil is worth checking out. Jojoba oil works well on all skin types and is good for treating eczema and psoriasis.
Coconut Oil: Gives your body a delicious tropical smell and is great for treating troubling dry spots.
Cupuacu Butter: Is a perfect ingredient to add to your homemade hair conditioner, though it should be used sparingly on your skin if you tend to be oily. Cupuacu butter is made from the cupuacu fruit (commonly grown in Brazil).
Two Ways to Make Your Own Natural Body Products
These recipes will get you started!
Extra Hydration Body Butter – This recipe combines four types of butters into one batch in order to get you maximum skin hydration.
Combine half a cup each of shea butter, mango butter, coconut oil, and olive oil in double boiler on medium heat. Stir the mixture constantly until it all melts and remove it from the heat. You can add between 10 to 30 drops of essential oil for a particular scent. Put the entire mixture into the fridge and let it cool for an hour, or to the point where it starts to harden but is still pliable. Take a hand mixer and whip the batch until fluffy, put back in the fridge for 10-15 minutes. Once the mixture has set and somewhat hardened, store your butter in a glass jar with a secure lid and use it like any regular lotion. The butter will stay whipped if your home is less than 75 degrees F. If not, store it in the fridge between uses.
Homemade Hand Lotion:
While not truly a body butter recipe, this lotion uses all natural ingredients for a hydrating blend that is too good to miss out on. Body lotion and body butter are more similar than they are different, but the difference comes from the liquid content. Lotions sometimes contain up to 70% water, and the moisturizing effects don’t go as deeply or last as long as body butters. Even so, lotions are great when your skin needs a quick pick me up but doesn’t want all the excess hydration of a true body butter.
Instead of water, this recipe relies on oil for its texture, making it more hydrating than other versions. To make your own lotion, combine a half cup of liquid oil (almond works well), with a quarter cup each of coconut oil and beeswax. Melt them together in a double boiler, stirring constantly so nothing burns. Once everything melts, add a teaspoon of Vitamin E and a few drops of essential oil. Pour the mixture into a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid, and dip in whenever you need an extra hydration boost. This product is best used within six months.
Tips For Using Natural Body Butters
Using body butters and lotions is fairly straightforward. Put a little butter on your hands and rub it in where you want it. Try the tips below for usage:
- Since body butters are super concentrated, a little goes a long way. Take a tiny amount and carefully warm it with your hands before putting it on your body so that it absorbs more easily into your skin.
- The type of butter you purchase for your body butter is crucial. Look carefully on labels for terms like “unrefined,” “crude,” and “cold pressed,” these are signs that the oil was extracted through natural methods, not high heat that destroys the butter’s natural nutrients.
- So long as you store your butter in an airtight container, it should last for a year or more.
By relying on natural skin care remedies like body butters, you’ll keep your body’s biggest organ in top shape. Add some homemade body butter to your skincare routine, and your skin will stay hydrated, healthy and beautiful, at almost no cost to you.