I love making natural beauty products as gifts, and homemade body butter is one friends and family always love to receive. It’s a gift that is easy to personalize with custom natural scents (and even can help with sleep if you add a little magnesium!).
Put the finished product in a cute glass jar with ribbon and a tag, and you have a thoughtful and beautiful gift that will make them feel pampered for months.
Even if you aren’t typically the type to make your own gifts, this recipe is easy for DIY beginners and fun to make. Give it a try!
Why Body Butter?
Body butter is thicker than lotion and contains less water. This means it takes longer to penetrate the skin (don’t walk on a floor barefoot after applying body butter to your feet!) but it’s very moisturizing and softens even those tougher, very dry spots like the knees, elbows, and feet.
By whipping body butter, you get the best of both worlds since it is soft and easy to apply but still extra moisturizing.
How to Make Body Butter
This new recipe has similar ingredients to these homemade lotion bars, but removes the beeswax and whips the mixture as it cools to create a cloud-like lotion that is extremely nourishing! The shea butter and cocoa butter combine for a luxurious feel, but you can also add mango butter if that’s what you have.
This body butter is great for babies or sensitive skin, and scents can be added to make it a custom gift for anyone (or to keep for yourself!).
My current favorite is a peppermint-scented version for the holidays, but I also like a citrus/lavender combination.
DIY Whipped Body Butter Recipe
Yield
Materials
- ½ cup shea butter
- ½ cup cocoa butter
- ½ cup coconut oil
- ½ cup almond oil (or jojoba, or olive)
- 10-30 drops essential oil (optional, I use lavender)
Instructions
- In a double boiler or glass bowl, combine all the ingredients except for the essential oils.
- Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until all ingredients are melted.
- Remove from the heat and cool slightly.
- Stir in the essential oils if using.
- Place the bowl in the refrigerator and chill for 1 hour or until the mixture is starting to harden around the edges.
- Use a hand mixer to whip for 10 minutes until fluffy.
- Return to the fridge for 10-15 minutes to set.
- Store in a glass jar with a lid and use as you would regular lotion or body butter. If your home is above 75°F, the body butter may soften and need to be kept in the fridge to maintain the whipped texture.
- Keep for yourself, or give away! Enjoy!
Notes
Body Butter FAQ
This recipe has been around for a while, so here are some of the questions you’ve asked the most:
Will it be greasy?
Body butter is definitely more emollient and has a heavier texture than lotion does, but after a few minutes it will penetrate the skin and lose any greasy feel.
How long will it last?
Stored away from moisture and light this homemade body butter should last 6-8 months. Using a spoon or spatula to dip rather than your fingers will extend the life of the body butter.
Why is mine not white like yours?
Shea butter especially can vary in texture and color depending on the brand. Not to worry, it will still work just as well!
Will this clog my pores?
Nope! This body butter actually did wonders on my cystic acne back in the day.
Other Body Butter Variations
Mastered the recipe? Try mixing up your own combinations! Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Magnesium Body Butter – Get the benefits of magnesium with this therapeutic version
- Vanilla Mint Chocolate Massage Butter – Perfect for a couples’ at-home massage!
- Herbal Body Butter – Marshmallow root and calendula flowers make this extra nourishing for skin
- Orange Blossom Body Butter – I’ve been dying to round up the ingredients for this recipe and try it out.
- Three Kings Christmas Body Butter – For an extra-special holiday gift, use the base recipe above and add 10 drops each of frankincense and myrrh essential oils plus 1 teaspoon gold mica powder.
Ever made your own body butter? Want to try this recipe? Share below!
What would you recommend as a substitute for the cocoa butter and coconut oil? I want to make this for a friend who is allergic to coconut. Thank you!
I MADE HOMEMADE BODY BUTTER AND FOLLOWED THE SUGGESTIONS IT WHIPPED UP NICELY AND THEN TURNED HARD? IS THERE A WAY TO RE DO IT SOME HOW AND MAKE IT SOFTER? I HATE TO THROW IT AWAY AS IT CAN GET COSTLY.
THANK YOU FOR ANY HELP YOU CAN OFFER.
It’s totally normal for the body butter to get hard, especially in colder weather. It’s still usable and will soften once it touches the skin. If you want to make a softer product then you can melt it back down, add more liquid carrier oil (almond, jojoba, or olive), and then re-whip. You may have to experiment with how much you add, but if there’s too much it won’t whip.
I’ve been using this for a few weeks and it seems to drying my skin out. I’ve never had this before, but my arms feel almost like sand paper 🙁 any ideas why?
Beautiful recipe! We use one very similar.
Orange blossom body butter sounds very interesting, I think we might add that to our list too!
Thank you for the great post!
HELP I have tried and tried and my butters sets UP like concrete. Its starts out light and fluffy but in a matter of 5 min it turns hard I have melted, cooled, whipped all the specs. What am I doing wrong? Starting to get discouraged here I cannot get this to work.
thank you and God bless
While this recipe sounds great, a simplified version which works amazingly calls for just 3 ingredients.
Beeswax, coconut oil, and whichever essential oil you prefer.
1 part beeswax to 2 parts coconut oil, and essential oils to meet your scent or therapeutic preference. That’s it.
Thank you! If I wanted to add glycerin to this recipe how much should I add? The lowest amount possible.
This body butter is so soft and creamy but it stayed greasy on my skin.
I used both shea and cocoa butters, jojoba as the light oil, but instead of the hardened coconut oil i used fractionated coconut oil as to not risk clogging the pipes in our old house.
I applied just after showering while my skin was still warm for better absorption, but it did not penetrate as I had hoped.
Katie, you are wonderful!! Thank you for all of these fabulous recipes!! <3 <3 <3 I love this one and the lip balm recipe so much. Better than anything I have ever purchased before! Can you or someone tell me if this will be okay for the face as well? I used mango butter, shea, coconut for the hard and a mix of jojoba, sea buckthorn, grapefruit seed oil, a dash of castor and lovely essential oils for the half cup of "light oils". My skin is loving it. I've used it two days on my face as well and it seems great but wonder if any of these oils will bother pores in time??