Secret Body Butter Recipe

It's a secret because I'm making a batch for my mom.  I'll tell you, but don't tell her, ok?

Body butter is for when you live in a very cold and/or dry place where lotions aren't enough to moisturize your skin. If your skin gets dry enough to crack, body butter is for you!

There are a lot of recipes, and I have made several.  My favorite to make for my mom is this:

1 part vitamin E oil
1 part almond oil (more if you need it softer)
3 parts cocoa butter
3 parts coconut oil
3 parts shea butter

The cheapest source for most of the ingredients seems to be Bulk Apothecary.  I'm guessing if you got the one pound sizes, you'd spend about $35 counting shipping, and have 4 batches or so: 8-12 Christmas presents, although you wouldn't need them all to be in the same season - the ingredients will be good for several years. They also have containers, I think.

Also, most recipes don't include vitamin E, but it's wonderful stuff for people whose skin gets really damaged by the cold. 

Melt all the solids in a microwave, mix it all together, and let it cool a little.

Now it can be poured into soap molds to make body butter "bars," or into a container for a tub of body butter.  I've never been able to figure out what the exact consistency will be until it's cooled.

If it's too firm, I often remelt it and add more almond oil to loosen it up (or pour it into bars).

If it's too soft, I can either whip it into "whipped body butter," or remelt it and add either cocoa butter, or beeswax.

You'll note my recipe has no additional scent.  It does smell subtly of coconut and chocolate, which works well for my mom (allergic to every fragrance known to man), but you could add any fragrance oil you like.

I do a lot with fragrance oils in soap, and my suggestion with body butter would be to add half of what you think you need to start out.  Also, try out different scent combinations on cotton balls before committing it to more expensive materials,  A fringe benefit: the cotton balls make nice drawer sachets!

I think a peppermint with orange or vanilla would be nice, particularly as a Christmas gift, and it's hard to go wrong with bergamot (a citrusy herbal scent) and jasmine. You might want to stay away from peppermint, ginger, or cinnamon oils if it's for someone whose skin is damaged - those oils could irritate sore skin.