Easy Homemade Body Butter Recipe

I just whipped up our first batch of homemade body butter and it was so easy! It literally took me about fifteen minutes and we were done. This recipe for easy homemade body butter only has two ingredients and it is shelf stable. That means it is made with ingredients that won’t go bad in a few weeks or a month and it doesn’t need to be refrigerated. On top of being super easy to make, it works wonders on my dry skin!

I mentioned in the Dandelion Salve tutorial that I like simple, low cost recipes for homemade body care products. I don’t like having to spend a ton of money on pricey ingredients I may not use very often. I used to use coconut oil in a lot of my homemade skin care products. I found that sometimes using coconut oil everyday actually dries my skin out more. I’ve heard great things about shea butter so tried it in homemade body butter and it is so nourishing! 

Falling in Love With Shea Butter

I recently discovered this amazing Fair Trade unrefined, raw organic shea butter (you can find it here). This shea butter is rich in vitamins A, E, F and K and is so nourishing to my skin. It has a nutty earthy scent and is a lovely cream color so it makes a great natural base for a variety of homemade body care products.

The consistency reminds me a bit of Little A’s homemade play dough, although shea butter is much nicer on the hands! I’ve tried a different brand of shea butter in the past but it was bright yellow and left my skin with a yellow hue. I don’t know about you, but I surely don’t want to walk around looking like I have jaundice for the sake of moisturized skin!

When we first opened our package of shea butter, Little A and I scooped out a small portion to rub into our hands. As the shea butter softened, it rubbed into our skin and made it so soft. I loved that the shea butter nourished our skin without leaving an oily film like coconut oil does. Although we loved how nourishing the shea butter was, it is thick and wasn’t as easy to rub in by itself like a thinner lotion is. With some of our added homemade infused oil, this shea butter whipped up into an amazing homemade body butter. It works wonders to moisturize the dry chapped skin on my hands after a long day working in the garden!  

Homemade Body Butter Recipe

This recipe is quick and easy to make. The quantities given in this recipe can easily be cut in half or doubled depending on the amount of body butter you want to make. I think I’ll be making another big batch of this homemade body butter later in the fall to use as holiday gifts (family if you’re reading this, forget you just read that and pretend to be surprised when you open your gift in December!) This recipe will make about one cup of homemade shea body butter. 

The first time I made homemade body butter it was in the middle of the summer and my shea butter was quite soft and easy to whip. Shea butter will firm up when cool so will need to be warmed up before using in this body butter recipe. To warm up the shea butter, put it in a glass jar and sit the jar down in a pan of water to create a double boiler. Heat the water (don’t boil it) until the shea butter is nice and soft. 

Are you ready for this? In just fifteen minutes, you will be able to make yourself some amazing, nourishing homemade body butter with this recipe. Just think, no more buying expensive body butters and lotions at the store with ingredient lists you can’t even pronounce! 

Ingredients: 
-4 ounces of unrefined raw shea butter (this is the kind we use)

-2 TBS olive oil (I prefer to use homemade herbal infused oils which you can learn how to make in this post)

-OPTIONAL if not using an infused oil: 10-20 drops essential oil (my favorite to use is lavender)

Directions:

1. Place the shea butter and olive oil in a bowl. If you choose to add essential oils, add them to the bowl.  Mash everything together with a fork.

2. With an immersion blender or mixer, whip the ingredients together for a few minutes. The body butter will become smooth, creamy. and multiply in size. 

3. Scoop the body butter into a glass jar with a tight fitting lid and you’re done! Store the body butter in a cool dry place. It has a shelf life of at least six months, if it even lasts that long! 

Thank you to Beauty by Shea for providing us a sample of this amazing raw shea butter for review!  I loved this stuff so much I actually went and bought more so I can whip up a big batch of homemade shea body butter for holiday gifts. All the opinions in this review are my own, I truly do love this stuff!

What’s your favorite way to use shea butter? 

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