BODY BUTTER
In the dry air of winter, I go through a lot of “body butter”! I have been buying it from Burt’s Bees at $13 for a small tub and it was adding up. I like to apply it all over my body after I shower and butter goes on smoothly and sinks right into your skin and really hydrates. For an updated version of my body butter with lavender, go to my post Lavender Scented Honey Body Butter.
After going through some recipes on line and experimenting with several, I came up with one that works great and costs about half of what I was paying. Plus, I got to use some of my beeswax from my hives! The whole process is so easy, I don’t know why I was spending all that money before.
First of all, gather your ingredients.
I shopped for my oils at MOM’s Organic market. You could try WholeFoods or a good pharmacy, or online. I used 1 Cup of Shea Butter, 1/2 cup of Coconut Oil, 1/2 cup of Sweet Almond Oil, and 50 drops of Vitamin E. If you can’t find Almond Oil, you could substitute olive, jojoba, or any other liquid oil. I also use about 4 Tablespoons of Beeswax. The Beeswax is hard to measure, so I just broke off a hunk from my stash and chopped it up into smaller pieces. The beeswax keeps the butter from becoming too soft and scents the body butter with honey. Here is the recipe:
Honey Scented Body Butter
1 C Shea Butter
1/2 C Coconut Oil
1/2 C Sweet Almond Oil
4 T Beeswax, broken up into small pieces
50 drops of Vitamin E Oil
Melt the Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, and Beeswax in the top of a double boiler until all lumps are melted.
The Beeswax has the highest melting temperature, so will be the last to melt. Beeswax has honey deposited in it so you get the fragrance of the honey from your added beeswax.
Remove from heat, letting cool slightly, and add the Sweet Almond Oil and the Vitamin E drops.
Stir until mixed and place into the refrigerator for about an hour.
While in the refrigerator, the mixture will turn opaque and become very thick.
Bring the mixture out and whip it with a mixer or immersion blender or mixer.
Place in containers. I used an old Burt’s bees container and just some other containers that I had sitting around.
Don’t worry if you forget the mixture in the refrigerator and it gets too hard. Just gently warm it until it softens enough to whip.
With this recipe, I made about 3 1/2 cups of body butter that cost about $25 for materials.  I was spending $13 for a 6.75 ounce container from Burt’s Bees. After some calculation, I figured that if I bought 3 1/2 cups of body butter from Burt’s Bees, it would have cost me twice as much. Plus, I knew exactly what went into it.
I am thinking about making another batch for Christmas gifts!
Sounds lovely, wish I was on your Christmas list. 🙂
I adore Shea Butter I must attempt this for my WINTER SKIN Thanks!
Where is the honey?
The beeswax!!! Beeswax is full of honey.
Made it up and looked great, placed in containers and when I applied it I found it had small salt like crystals (probably not melted beeswax) what should I do now? Is it still ok to use or can I re-melt?
Judy
I would use it and next time, make sure the beeswax is all melted
It’s more likely the shea butter wasn’t melted properly. It can become grainy. You should melt everything and then add the shea butter to melt into the hot oils/bees wax.
That is what happens to the shea butter when it gets too hot and is cooled to quickly…there is nothing wrong with it, it may just need to be melted and cooled again. It’s not the beeswax doing that. I sometimes let it sit on the counter or in the cool basement and let it cool gradually….I whip it and then refrigerate it, and whip it some more. After the second re-heat, it should be okay.
Just made abatch of this and its wonderful!
I have acne prone skin, including on my back. I have heard that coconut oil isn’t recommended for acne prone skin. Could I substitute this with a different oil and if so what would you recommend?
I have never tested it with another oil so I don’t want to recommend something without trying it first.
I tried this today and it was my first attempt at body butter. Mine turned out really greasy and the smell of the coconut oil took it over. I was so excited about my beeswax which I had cleaned myself and it had a great honey smell. I even tried to add some essential oil to help the smell and it couldn’t cover the coconut. Any tips on what I did wrong?
Try to cut back on the coconut oil and add some honey
Fantastic recipe and it looks divine. I’m happy you came to your senses. Those store-bought butters can be real expensive. I’ll be making this real soon. Do you sell your own beeswax? If so, where can I buy some. Thanks for sharing.
Warmly,
Michelle
No I don’t have enough to sell. Try on line as there are lots of companies that do. Good luck and thanks for reading!