Shea body butter. Smooth, feels great on summer-dried skin, and smells great. I decided to make some whipped body butters for my Mum and mother-in-law for Christmas, and was really pleased with the results. They were inexpensive to make, yet used kick-ass natural ingredients. So nothing in there that's not good for your skin, can be tailor-made to suit people's scent preferences (or left fragrance-free), and work out to be about the same price as a cheap and nasty tub of moisturiser you'd find at a $2 shop. Can't argue with that!
It took a little longer to make than the sunblock etc, but that was only because it needed to sit in the fridge until semi-firm, then be whipped for a good few minutes. The actual time I had to spend doing anything with it was probably only about an extra 5 minutes. By whipping it, it stays nice and 'soft' even when kept in the fridge. Best applied to dry skin, as the oil will sit on top of damp skin, rather than easily soaking in.
1 cup shea butter (or 1/2 cup shea and 1/2 cup cocoa or mango butter, if you want the scent)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup olive oil (or almond, jojoba, apricot)
15 - 30 drops essential oil, if you like it scented (I like lavender)
- Melt all ingredients together, except essential oils, in a double boiler (or in a glass jar sitting in a pot with some water).
- Allow to cool slightly, scrape into a bowl and remove to the fridge.
- Leave in the fridge for an hour or so (I left it in there for almost three hours) until starting to harden, but still soft enough to whip.
- Whip with hand mixer until fluffy (electric takes about 3 minutes or so, non-electric about 10 minutes).
- Put back in the fridge for another quarter hour to set.
- Scrape into jars for keeping butter and start to enjoy! I keep it in the fridge, especially in the warmer weather.
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