How To Make Your Own Vitamin Enriched Body Butter
Skin Nourishing Home Made Body Butter
What you need to make this Body Butter
The ingredients required to make this Body Butter are:
- Coconut Oil – 50 gms
- Virgin Olive Oil – 1 lbs
- Almond Oil – 1 lbs
- Beeswax – 30 gms
- Turmeric juice – 3 tsp
- Neem leaves – 10
- Tulsi (Holy Basil) leaves – 10
- Aromatic Oil – a few drops
- Vitamin E – 5 capsules
Proven Results of the Home Made Body Butter
One of the best things about winters is the compulsion for skin-care that it comes with. Skin requires special care and protection when the mercury levels dip and what other way of nourishing and moisturizing your skin than your own home-made Body Butter?
Today, I want to share with all my readers, this very special home-made recipe of a Body Butter – another of my mother’s kitchen concoctions – which I have been using for years now.
I had once developed some light skin patches on my elbow for which, my mother took me to a dermatologist. The Dermatologist examined the skin on my hand carefully and to our surprise, wanted to examine my mother’s skin too. After the tests, she told us that both of us have very good skin on the hands and neck and with a smiling curiosity, shot the inevitable question, “What cream do you use on your skin”? My mother smiled and described in her inimitable way, a long-winded procedure of how to make the Body Butter with a careful explanation of the benefits of each ingredients on the skin. As a teenager, I was always embarrassed about my mother’s long-winded, never-ending descriptions and somehow managed to cut her short, get the prescription and dart out of the doctor’s chamber.
But I still remember the doctor calling and thanking my mother a month later, saying that her dry, chapped skin was not only softer and smoother but even fairer!
The Goodness of Neem (Azadirachta Indica), Tulsi (Holy Basil) and Turmeric (Haldi or Curcuma Longa)
Skin Benefits of the Ingredients Used in the Body Butter
Each ingredient used in this Body Butter hasunique skin-nourishing properties of its own. They are historically considered as some of the best friends of skin. I do not mean to endorse this product over the much revered and branded Body Butters available in the market. I myself am very loyal to one or two such brands, but this home-made Body Butter is special because it is a blend of some of the basic natural ingredients required for healthy skin.
The benefits of the ingredients can serve as an eye-opener for those who would like to try this concoction this winter:
1. Coconut Oil
a) Effective moisturizer
b) Provides anti-oxidants for the skin
c) Works against sun-tan
d) Prevents flaking of skin with its deep moisturizing capabilities
e) Prevents wrinkles
2. Olive Oil
a) Age-old anti-ageing remedy
b) Contains 4 anti-oxidants that moisturize, rejuvenate and nourish the skin.
c) Hydroxytyrosol in Olive Oil helps prevent damage to skin due to UV rays or pollution.
d) Strengthens nails
3. Almond Oil
a) Rich in Vitamins A, B and E which are essential for daily skin care
b) Is mild and gets absorbed on moist skin without clogging pores
c) Helps prevent itching and skin eruptions due to allergic reactions
4. Turmeric Juice
a) Turmeric is the best herbal skin antiseptic. It heals and soothes rashes and dry skin conditions.
b) Turmeric, since the age of Mahabharata, is used as a skin fairness agent. It is said to contain the most effective skin fairness elements.
c) Prevents acne and blackheads
d) Effective against stretch marks
5. Neem (Azadirachta Indica)
a) Prevents the appearance of pores
b) Skin antiseptic-prevents pimples and acne caused by dirt, impurities and pollution
c) Skin toner
d) Improves skin elasticity
6. Tulsi
a) Anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties prevent rashes and acne
b) Removes dark spots on the skin
c) Imparts glow to the skin
d) Relieves and soothes skin after ravages of waxing
The Process of Making the Body Butter
I will now describe the simple procedure of making this excellent Body Butter. The time required for this is one hour.
- Pour the Coconut Oil in a clean pan and put in the Neem and Tulsi leaves.
- Let it boil for 5-7 mins. Remove from fire. Leave it for another 10 minutes and then, strain the oil.
- Put in the Olive Oil and Almond Oil and stir well.
- Put the oil back into the pan and back on very low heat.
- Slowly dribble in the Turmeric Juice. The mixture will make a loud, crackling noise. Stay away from the pan for 2-3 minutes and then, carefully switch off the fire.
- Stir the mixture well with a dry spoon and put the Beeswax in.
- As you keep stirring, the Beeswax will melt with the rest of the ingredients.
- Puncture the five Vitamin E capsules and squeeze out the oil into the pan, one by one.
- Stir well and then perfume your Body Butter by dribbling a few drops of your favourite Aromatic Oil into the mixture. I used an organic Ylang Ylang oil. You can use a few drops of Rosemary or Lavender oil for a light scent that it will leave on your body after every use.
- Pour in the oil into your Body Butter tub and let it cool, set and solidify overnight.
Your home-made, extraordinary, Vitamin-enriched Body Butter is ready to use!
Storage of the Body Butter
Usually in cold climates, this blend works well. Coconut Oil often tends to become thick and difficult to absorb for the skin. But by blending in Olive Oil and Almond Oil, the mixture attains a thinner and lighter texture.
In warmer climates, this Body Butter may tend to melt during summer and become difficult to store or use. Two suggestions to avoid a messy bathroom counter are:
- Transfer the contents into a bottle as soon as it melts.
- During preparation, use about 50 gms of Beeswax instead of 30 gms. This will keep the blend tight even in warm climates.