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Showing posts with label heAlth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heAlth. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Homemade Whipped Body Butter

I know...another post about homemade lotion. How many times am I going to talk about moisturizing? 

Well, probably not much more, but I had to post this whipped body butter. My lovely lotion bars are PERFECT for extremely dry skin because the wax helps to seal the moisture in, but they aren't always the easiest to apply to your whole body. So...in comes the body butter. This includes most of the same ingredients, but omits the wax, so it's easy to apply. Since most of your body isn't EXTREMELY dry, the moisture is enough without the beeswax seal. 

Of course, I couldn't follow the recipe I found online, to a T. When they proudly proclaimed it was only three ingredients (yes, I know, this makes it simple to make and means you are putting less on your skin, but...), I asked, what could I add to make it even better? The one thing that I felt it needed was vitamin E oil to help heal scars and cuts, so I made the 3-ingredient whipped body butter into 4-ingredient whipped body butter.

Whipped Body Butter

8 oz of cocoa butter (or shea butter if you prefer)
8 oz coconut oil
4 oz sesame oil or other liquid oil*
1/2 oz vitamin E oil

First, measure out all of the ingredients using a kitchen scale, and melt everything together in a double boiler.






Next, chill the mixture in the fridge until it begins to firm, but it has not yet turned completely solid. For me, this took about 3 1/2 hours.


Then, using a stand or hand mixer, whip the lotion until white peaks form, scrapping the bowl often. 


Finally, scoop the lotion into containers and chill in the fridge for one hour.

Your lessons from me: 1) whip it, whip it good!, and 2) don't forget and over chill your finished whipped lotion. I didn't whip my lotion quite long enough. My peaks were still a little beige, but it seemed fluffy like a yummy whipped frosting (and it smells like chocolate frosting too!). But I don't think there was enough air incorporated into the mixture. Then, I forgot the finished product in the fridge for about three more hours, giving the under aired mixture time to solidify more than it should have. It still glides on, but isn't as easy to scoop out of the container. Granted, I could scoop it back into the mixer, but I'm being lazy and just using it as is. Next time, I'll make sure to whip it longer and set a timer to take it out of the fridge.

This whipped body butter is so silky and smooth and soaks into your skin quickly (just don't use too much or it might take awhile to soak in). It's amazing and keeps your skin feeling nourished, even during a nasty cold winter! 


* Jojoba, almond or a mild olive would work great too. I chose sesame oil because Ayurvedic medicine uses sesame oil to help strengthen joints and alleviate joint pain. While I'm not sure if I truly believe this, I figure it doesn't hurt to see if it helps and I prefer to apply it as a lotion rather than as a massage oil. 

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Homemade Lotion Bars

I LOVE lotion bars! They are the best thing ever! I have dry hands from frequent washing, and nothing seemed to help until I tried my first lotion bar (great for chapped lips too!). 

I first discovered these little beauties at the honey booth at the state fair a few years ago. I fell for the Love's Delight bar from Randol Farms. It smells a-maz-ing! I've ordered a few bars from their site since then, but the shipping can make these little things a bit pricey, so I decided to try making my own. 

There are several recipes out there, but most of them call for equal parts oil (usually olive or coconut) and "butter"...by this, I mean shea butter or cocoa butter. Then just a little bit more beeswax. Some recipes will also include a little bit of vitamin E oil (typically 1 tsp if you are using a 4:4:4.5 oz ratio of the other ingredients). Then, of course, the essential oil of your choice. I decided to follow the recipe on One Good Thing by Jillee, and add my own flare.

I had some leftover cocoa butter and shea butter, so I decided to use both of these up, making two different recipes. First I used up the cocoa butter (I had 4.2 oz left, so I felt I was pretty close to the recipe and could wing it). So I weighed all of my ingredients to ensure I had equal amounts.

Chocolate Oranges Lotion Bar
4.2 oz cocoa butter
4.2 oz coconut oil
4.8 oz beeswax
2 tsp honey  ***Update*** I'll omit this in the future. It left a gooey messy in a few of the bars.
a couple splashes orange essential oil



Next, I combined all the ingredients in a double boiler, allowed everything to melt (it melts faster if you don't leave your cocoa butter in big chunks but I was being lazy), and made sure to stir it well so everything was combined.



When everything melted completely, I removed it from the burner and added the honey and essential oil
.




Finally, I used a ladle to fill my molds. Being my first time using these molds, I over filled a couple, which meant I ended up with 9 and 3/4 bars. 




Allow the bars to cool completely (preferably overnight) before popping out of the mold.



Rub the bar on your skin to soften the bar and rub into your skin. Perfect for dry feet, elbows, knees, and hands!

The other batch I made to use up my shea butter was:

Black Cherry Lotion Bars
4.1 oz shea butter
4.1 oz olive oil
4.7 oz beeswax
1 tsp vitamin E oil
black cherry essential oil

My hands are feeling great! I'll probably still pick up a few Love's Delight lotion bars at the next state fair just because I love the scent, but I'll definitely be making more of these in whatever scent I feel like.