Moving to Montana has made me appreciate many things, including humidity and moisturizers. While living in Seattle I was naive and blindly ungrateful for my healthy hair and skin. I’ve never been a huge fan of fancy body products. Recently, moisturizer is an absolute necessity. Between the lower humidity, cold temperatures (it’s -7 Fahrenheit outside right now), our ridiculously hard water, and being pregnant my skin is a little out of whack. I tried lotions, which either did nothing or seemed to last for all of 10 minutes. I tried fancy belly butter, which worked but made me feel like a greased pig. I tried a few in betweens with various results. Then, I decided I was going to do some research and make something myself.

I read up on different butters and oils. Analyzed hundreds (probably not literally hundreds, but it sure felt like it) of homemade lotion and body butter recipes. Researched prices of different ingredients. There are so many combinations it could make your head spin. In the end, I wanted something that was relatively inexpensive and that really worked.

I’m going to give a quick run down of the recipe and instructions, and then elaborate with pictures and what I learned through each step. I hate having to scroll through a thousand pictures just to write down a recipe, so I’m sure someone else does too – this bit is for you. If you have the time, read through, I did make some mistakes along the way and reading about them may help you achieve a better final product. Or, just wing it, it’s your call.

Montanadoodle Body Butter

5 parts Shea Butter

1 part Coconut Oil

1 part Olive Oil

Essential Oils (about 10-20 drops per cup of final product)

Instructions:

Using a double boiler melt shea butter, coconut oil, and olive oil until liquid.

Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes

Stir in essential oils

Allow to cool until mixture is solid, but still soft

Whip mixture until white and fluffy, and transfer to airtight storage container.

You probably noticed that I used parts instead of measurements in the recipe. I made multiple batches, starting with a small test batch for myself and moving up to a large batch that I used for Christmas presents and such. My smallest batch used one Tablespoon as a part, my largest used one cup as a part. They turned out extremely similar.

I chose my ingredients because they are all relatively inexpensive, easy to find, and great for skin. I saw plenty of recipes that used three different butters, two oils, plus this and that, etc. For me, buying 12 different ingredients didn’t seem like a cost effective option. I tried to narrow it down to the lowest number of ingredients possible. I tried recipes with just shea butter and coconut oil, but wasn’t totally satisfied. The liquid oil was necessary for the proper consistency. The essential oils may not be necessary for some, but I’m not a huge fan of the smell of raw shea butter or olive oil.

I experimented with different ratio of shea butter, coconut oil, and olive oil. This is by far my favorite. For me the struggle was adding enough oil so the final product was soft and easy to use, but not so much oil that it left me feeling greasy. Now, onto the recipe!

Lets start with Shea Butter.

I ordered 5 pounds of raw unrefined shea butter from Amazon. After a mix up on my first order (anyone ever heard of Raw Afrian Black Soap? I’ll go there another day) I ended up with 5 pounds of chunky ivory shea butter. The smell was a little stronger than I expected, but overall I was happy with it. The shea butter was soft enough to break up with a butter knife into smaller chunks for easier measuring and melting.

I wasn’t super stringent about my measuring. This is the shea butter broken into chunks and ready to be added to the double boiler.

This is my super fancy double boiler. If you’ve never done this before, it’s a pot of simmering water with a bowl on top. I probably shouldn’t have to say it, but just in case: don’t use a plastic bowl. I went with stainless steel, you could use glass as well as long as it’s heat safe.

After my shea butter was measured into the bowl I added my coconut oil.

Then, in went the olive oil. In this picture the shea butter was already starting to melt. It is rather yellow when melted down if you’re using the raw/unrefined shea butter.

Further proof of the yellow color when melted. During the melting process the mixture does need to be stirred. I didn’t keep a super close eye on it, but wouldn’t leave it completely unattended either. Once everything is completely melted turn off the heat and remove the bowl to cool. I waited until the mixture was more room temperature before adding my essential oils.

Do a little research before you add random essential oils, there are some that are better for skin and body products. Peppermint is a popular choice; one of my larger Christmas batches was peppermint and I really enjoy the smell. For my other large batch I mixed lavender, lemon, and rosemary. I’ve always loved the smell of lavender and citrus, and the rosemary added an earthy note that cut through the sweetness wonderfully. I ended up with 10-20 drops of essential oil per cup of product. Some essential oils, like lavender, are a bit stronger smelling to me and were closer to 10 drops. Other oils, like lemon, needed a bit extra to let their presence be known. Start low and work your way up. You can always add more, you can’t remove it. After the essential oils have all been stirred in it’s time to let the mixture cool.

This is what the mix looked like cooled down. You can use the refrigerator to speed this step along, but be careful! If the mix gets too cold the texture will be too hard for it to whip up properly.

This is the same mix pre-whipping. It’s still yellowish in color and has a texture similar to room temperature butter. It’s easily scooped, but still holds its form some. I struggled with this step. If the mix is too soft it won’t hold the air when whipped, if it’s too hard it won’t whip or won’t be even in texture. Once you reach the soft butter texture it’s time to whip.

This is the result after a couple minutes of whipping. I used my stand mixer on high speed and it worked out wonderfully. I did try a hand mixer for a couple smaller batched. While the hand mixer helps it doesn’t achieve the super soft and fluffy texture I was looking for. It really looks a lot like whipped cream when it’s done.

This is my half-assed before and after picture. The white is the wonderfully whipped body butter, the yellow boogery looking glob on the edge is the before.

Once the mixture is whipped it’s time to transfer to containers. I’m a fan of canning jars because they are airtight and inexpensive (anyone catching onto the inexpensive theme here?). For my Christmas batches I used 4 ounce canning jars. This may not seem like a lot, but a little goes a long way with this stuff. When transferring to your container use some caution in how hard you press the mixture in. There will be some air bubbles. If you pack the body butter in too tightly you loose some of the soft fluffy texture.

I went super classy with my labels. I used one jar lid as a template and cut out circles on printer paper then labeled with the scent. This is all of my Christmas body butter, in mint and lemon/lavender/rosemary. I probably could have gotten a lot more creative with my labeling, but I’m a procrastinator and finished this off on Christmas Eve.

The final product!

I’m pretty in love with this stuff. I use it almost daily and have noticed a significant difference in my skin. It can get a bit greasy if you use too much, but will still soak in eventually. So far I’ve gotten great reviews from everyone I’ve given it too, but they may just be nice because they know I made it from scratch. Feel free to tell me what you think! Stay moisturized friends.