Grapefruit Whipped Body Butter Recipe (Thrifty Thursday)

I love body butter, but when I started reading the ingredients on the labels of all the versions I ran across I knew I didn’t want to be putting those things on my body.  I’ve learned through personal study, that I can’t trust the fact that the government has approved a chemical as safe that it really will be in the long run.  I’m not willing to take the risk just for the sake of beauty.  Neither did I want to put synthetics on Poppet’s newborn skin.

I could just use pure olive oil, or coconut oil for body and face moisturizing, but I really enjoy using a body butter (along with a lot of other home-made beauty recipes I make).  I have toyed around with a recipe for a while, and this is by far my favourite concoction.  This makes a light and airy body butter that I use for facial moisturizer as well.  It makes a y large vacuum seal freezer bag’s worth of body butter (about 6 Body Shop sized containers) for $15-20 – about 1/4 the cost!  And it’s SO EASY to make!

When you are pregnant, you should avoid essential oils, so I would make mine and just leave the oil out and it was every bit as luxurious as the scented version!  Because there is no synthetic thickeners in this recipe it will last a LOT longer than traditional body butter.  To use, rub a small amount in your palms until the warmth of your hands melts it.  Then apply to your face and body.

What you’ll need:

1 kg shea butter (I’ve tried unrefined, but it goes rancid too quickly, so I buy naturally refined)

1 1/2 cups olive oil

1 Tablespoon vitamin E oil

1 small shot glass grapefruit essential oil (or use your favourite scent, but you will have to figure out the amount you need based on the oil used)

What you do with the stuff:

1)  Place shea butter container in a sink of hot water until able to pour out of jar.  Pour into saucepan.

2)  Heat over low just until mostly melted.  When a few small chunks remain, turn off heat and continue to stir until completely melted.  If you allow the shea to heat up too much it will take a long time to cool down enough so you can whip it.

3)  Add olive oil, vitamin E and essential oil.  Stir to combine.

4)  Allow to sit until fully cooled and milky looking.  At this point you want to whip it.  I use a Kitchenaid stand mixer, but you could just as easily use a hand-held rotary beater.

5)  Whip just until white and you can see a slight trail of the beater in the butter.  DO NOT OVER-WHIP OR YOUR BUTTER WILL BE STIFF WHEN IT FULLY SETS!  If you over-whip you can always re-melt the butter and re-whip.

Pour into a pretty jar, or store in a large ziploc bag in a cool, dark place.   You can use this right away, but butter will fully set after 24 hours.

Lather on at will!

Warmest regards,

{jp}

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