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
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!
Hi I made this recipe today and it turned out grainy. Wondering what I did wrong? It seemed like everything was melted all the way. I had on hand food grade coconut butter and avocado oil instead of olive oil. My first thought is it was the food grade coconut butter. Any thoughts? TIA
I followed the exact same recipe and got perfect whipped butter. Here are some tips.
1. I heated the butter in a pyrex measuring cup kept on a steamer.
2. .I started with melting the cocoa butter (roughly chopped). Once it started melting (may be 40% done), I added the roughly chopped shea. Once the shea and cocoa butter was almost done ( 90%), I added coconut oil. Once all the oils were just melted, I added the almond oil. So the idea here is not to over heat the butter. Throughout the process the butter/ oil was just warm and never hot.
3. Once all the butter and oil was melted, I poured it into a wide bottom steel bowl that was kept in freezer for several hours. I wanted the bowl to be cold to help in the cooling process.
4. Placed the steel bowl on an ice bath and kept it in fridge for 10 min.
5. After that I whipped it for 5 min and got perfect body butter.
. Keep in mind the oil should just be warm. The rapid cooling is the key here. So I guess freezing the metal bowl and ice bath plays the key role.
Hope this helps. 🙂
Thank you for the advice! Can’t wait to try. I’m fairly new to making my own products for my family! ??
Hello.
Can one open a small company to manufacture home made butter creams?
What is it needed exactly? I want to start mixing organic skin products and sell them. Maybe oneday I will have my very own brand.
Thanks
How many ounces total does this make?
what if i don’t have cocoa butter?
Any other similar butter can be substituted including shea butter, mango butter, etc.
Thank you so much.
Hello! I made this last evening. Did not have time to whip it up until today. I realized I did not include the light oil. Can I add this light oil even after I have whipped the ingredients? And will it be more fluffy as the way it is now it is in a solid state (could I have whipped it to long?) The butter feels wonderful with how it came out but it is not light and fluffy. Would whipping in the light oil help make it fluffy? Thank you!
It would help it be more fluffy. You can remelt all ingredients and add.
How much body butter does this recipe make?
I love this body cream, I have been making it now for almost 2 years. My question is can I use this for my 7 year old daughter who weighs about 46lbs. My daughter has very dry skin, it marks up easily and in the Florida summer she gets eczema and her face spots up white.
I’ve read through the comments but didn’t see an answer to this question: can I substitute another oil for coconut oil? I don’t like the smell of coconut so need a recipe that works without it. Thank you!
You can, just reduce the amount by about half to keep the consistency if you use a liquid oil
I am a massage therapist and this is an excellent butter with a good glide that isn’t too greasy. The only part of the recipe that I found inaccurate was the whipping time. After refrigeration the first time my mixture whipped into a very buttercream icing consistency. I whipped beyond that until the mixture suddenly came together and became very thick. This happened for me after three minutes. I was using a hand mixture. I stopped there and jarred it. I feel super excited to use this on all my clients!! Thank you.
Can the coconut be removed entirely from the recipe? I’m allergic.
Yes, you can use another oil in place of coconut, but the finished product might be a little thinner if you use a liquid oil. I like to use a 50/50 mixture of a liquid oil like jojoba or olive and shea butter.
I would love to make this but for now would like to buy some homemade Shea Butter that is already made. Do you have any recommendations for reputable blogs that sell these products? There are so many companies advertising and I would like to support small businesses and also find a good product for my Father in law who’s skin is in need of some TLC 🙂 Thanks! Paula M
Check these guys? https://wellnessmama.com/go/hardlotion/
I have made this recipe before and it worked amazing, but i have tried to make it twice in the last week and both turned out really hard. when i made it before it was soft and would just scoop out nut now it keeps it shape and doesn’t scoop. Any idea on what I wrong?
I had the same thing. Worked perfectly first time round and the consistency is amazing, made a double batch yesterday and thought I had the process down even better but turned out very hard! Maybe better in smaller quantities..
Hi there…. For some reason my oil won’t set even in the fridge. I added some tahitian monoi. Would this be why it’s not setting?
Thank you
Hi Wellness Mama 🙂 I tried your recipe but added some Aloe Vera gel but my mix did not whip much at all. It became very liquidy. I don’t know if I put it to cool in the fridge too long or too little. Any idea on why that could be?
Is the body butter safe to store in a tin jar instead of glass?
Hi WM,
Love your recipes! I just tried the body butter but unlike yours, mine is a bit brown! I added only shea butter along with coconut oil and olive oil.
Also, can I store the rest of the shea butter in the fridge?
Thanks xoxo
That might be due to the color of the olive oil
my cocoa butter is in blocks how do I measure out half cup ? Im not that savvy on conversions
It might be easiest to melt and measure but it is roughly four ounces by weight
If we don’t have a hand mixer what is an alternative tool that we can use to get the same consistency?
How many ounces does this recipe yield?
Hi, I was wondering if you could add vitamin e oil to this? If so, what would I substitute?
You should be able to add to this recipe no problem.
I love making my own body butters and I have a dilema I would like to correct. How do I keep the body butters from melting when they get into heat? Is there a stabilizer I could use?