In my last post I already mentioned that our minimalist journey turned into a lifestyle concept. We wanted to live better with less. Focus on the essential things, and then make those really good.
In this spirit, I found myself staring at my body lotion bottle a while ago. It is a very nice body lotion. Paraben-free, silicon-free and perfume-free. It is nice and rich and makes my skin baby-soft. But, there is a catch. It costs me 24 euros for 400ml. This, I thought to myself, is ridiculous. While all the chemical-infested body lotions in your regular drugstore are available for a forth of this price and less, I have to spend much more for something that contains less. The irony. This was not right.
Yes, I get it. The body lotion I am using is made from quality ingredients and contains the soothing essences of thermal water (yes, by now you probably guessed which brand I am talking about), but still, this is a heavy price and being currently unemployed, not one I am willing to pay.
After a bit of research which was as simple as google-ing "body butter", I had plenty of DIY body butter recipes at hand. And you know what? They are ridiculously easy. I urge you, before you invest in another store-bought product, have a look for yourself and decide if one hour of your time can be spared to make some clean, natural, chemical-free, scented to your taste, heavenly-creamy body butter. That is it. One hour. The same time it takes me to cycle into the city, walk into the drugstore or pharmacy, pick up the body lotion, wait in line to pay and cycle home.
Want to know how I did it? Here it is:
The basic idea behind making body butter is a ratio of 75% hard oils to 25% liquid oils (roughly).
In my case, I chose the following combination:
1 cup of cocoa butter
1/2 cup of coconut oil (solid in my temperature zone)
1/2 cup of olive oil (because I had that in the cupboard, but almond oil or jojoba would be amazing here)
1 tablespoon of essential oil mix (you can use whatever you like. My mum made this one for my superdry and flaky skin, but I do not remember what was in it. Smells warm and a bit woody, though. Perfect for fall and winter)
Combine all ingredients except for the essential oil in a bowl and dissolve au bain marie. That means, in a waterbath. See?
Then, transfer the liquid mix into a whisking bowl and add the essential oils to taste.
Transfer the bowl to the fridge for 1-1.5 hours until it starts hardening. When you see flakes of hardened up mix. It will look more white and opaque, like this:
Then, get your mixer out and beat it, just beat it. The body butter, I mean.
The finished result will look a bit like buttercream or yellowish whipped cream.
This is your finished product. A soft and fluffy body butter ready to use. Time to pot it up in a pretty jar and use it!
Do I have to tell you that it smells fantastic? No. You know it does. It has the warm scent of the essential oil mix, as well as a hint of chocolate... it is just soooo good. How much did I spend? Less than three euros! And what did I get for this amount? A paraben-free, silicone-free, artificial perfume-free body butter!
One fun side effect I noticed. When you apply the body butter, it melts on your skin. Literally. When melted, you are treating yourself with what seems to be a very rich, quite oily texture. However, my skin absorbs this butter very well and within minutes, it is gone. No greasy residue. It acutally is taken up even better than my high end lotion.
I encourage you to try it, but I also warn you: Once you have tried this amazing body butter, you may never want to go back to shop-bought ones.
In this spirit, I found myself staring at my body lotion bottle a while ago. It is a very nice body lotion. Paraben-free, silicon-free and perfume-free. It is nice and rich and makes my skin baby-soft. But, there is a catch. It costs me 24 euros for 400ml. This, I thought to myself, is ridiculous. While all the chemical-infested body lotions in your regular drugstore are available for a forth of this price and less, I have to spend much more for something that contains less. The irony. This was not right.
Yes, I get it. The body lotion I am using is made from quality ingredients and contains the soothing essences of thermal water (yes, by now you probably guessed which brand I am talking about), but still, this is a heavy price and being currently unemployed, not one I am willing to pay.
After a bit of research which was as simple as google-ing "body butter", I had plenty of DIY body butter recipes at hand. And you know what? They are ridiculously easy. I urge you, before you invest in another store-bought product, have a look for yourself and decide if one hour of your time can be spared to make some clean, natural, chemical-free, scented to your taste, heavenly-creamy body butter. That is it. One hour. The same time it takes me to cycle into the city, walk into the drugstore or pharmacy, pick up the body lotion, wait in line to pay and cycle home.
Want to know how I did it? Here it is:
The basic idea behind making body butter is a ratio of 75% hard oils to 25% liquid oils (roughly).
In my case, I chose the following combination:
1 cup of cocoa butter
1/2 cup of coconut oil (solid in my temperature zone)
1/2 cup of olive oil (because I had that in the cupboard, but almond oil or jojoba would be amazing here)
1 tablespoon of essential oil mix (you can use whatever you like. My mum made this one for my superdry and flaky skin, but I do not remember what was in it. Smells warm and a bit woody, though. Perfect for fall and winter)
Combine all ingredients except for the essential oil in a bowl and dissolve au bain marie. That means, in a waterbath. See?
Then, transfer the liquid mix into a whisking bowl and add the essential oils to taste.
Transfer the bowl to the fridge for 1-1.5 hours until it starts hardening. When you see flakes of hardened up mix. It will look more white and opaque, like this:
Then, get your mixer out and beat it, just beat it. The body butter, I mean.
The finished result will look a bit like buttercream or yellowish whipped cream.
This is your finished product. A soft and fluffy body butter ready to use. Time to pot it up in a pretty jar and use it!
One fun side effect I noticed. When you apply the body butter, it melts on your skin. Literally. When melted, you are treating yourself with what seems to be a very rich, quite oily texture. However, my skin absorbs this butter very well and within minutes, it is gone. No greasy residue. It acutally is taken up even better than my high end lotion.
I encourage you to try it, but I also warn you: Once you have tried this amazing body butter, you may never want to go back to shop-bought ones.
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