DIY Whipped Shea Body Butter

In the midst of my first Apple Cider Vinegar adventure which will be another week or so there are a couple other things I wanted to try, one of which is whipped shea butter.

I. Love. Lotions. I love to make things for my skin, I love to  make things that smell delicious and feel delicious and make my skin feel softer than a newborn baby's fragile fetus skin. I recently discovered that using coconut oil on my face makes me break out, and then I discovered that it's actually really common for that to happen because coconut oil is very comedogenic. Don't worry, I too had never heard that word before in my life. This blog spellchecker is giving me the red squiggly under comedogenic, but it's damn wrong. Spellchecker needs to go back to school.

Comedogenic basically means, "a tendency to create acne." Oils and products that are comedogenic clog pores, and create breakouts. So while coconut oil can be used for tons of different things including moisturizing the skin, it should not be used on the face and if it is, should be wiped off afterwards like if you are using it as a makeup remover, which I recommend.

Shea butter is another wonder product, and I know that most women have heard it before because it shows up in various products for hair or skin that are super-moisturizing and usually very thick and rich in texture. The problem with store bought mixtures is you can't control what other chemicals go into the butter, which doesn't sit well with me because my skin is extremely reactive and I get to learn about new allergies all the time.

What is Shea butter? It's fat sucked out of the African Shea Tree. Thanks wikipedia. Obviously, since it's a type of fat, it is  beneficial for skin and hair, you can even eat it. I'm not going to eat it, I'm going to slather it all over my face.

Steps to whipping Shea butter:

First, decide what type of texture you want. If you want a creamy lotion-like texture, you are going to need liquid oils to add to to the mixture. I didn't have much on hand so I settled for having a slightly harder texture to my finished product. The less liquid oil, (olive, almond, avocado, whatever) the harder the texture. The ratio should be about a quarter liquid oils to whatever else you have in the mixture.

My ingredients:
Teaspoon Vitamin E oil
Half cup of shea butter
Quarter cup of coconut oil
Vanilla Essential Oil

1. First attempt

Melt the shea butter in a double boiler or a makeshift one like mine, which is a pot with a pyrex baking dish on top. Just make sure that there is room for steam to escape.

When the butter is melted, allow it to cool entirely before adding your carrier oils, if any. I did not do this at first, I added a ton of essential oil but could not smell it whatsoever and I think it's because I did not wait for the oil to cool. Should take about 30 minutes and no longer feel hot to the touch.

After you've added the oils, pop the mix into the freezer for about 20 minutes until the edges start to harden and turn white. The centre may be runny.

Then throw that shit in a mixer and start whipping.

I was amazed, success! The mixture will continue to harden a bit however after you've mixed, moreso if you use less liquid oils or none.

While it technically worked, this was too hard of a texture for me, i wanted to make a more lotion-like mixture. I scooped our about 80% of it and went to re-melt it, keeping a small amount to use for my face since my second attempt, I'd be adding coconut oil. This mixture feels amazing on my face, and has officially replaced my piss-cream.

2. Attempt two

Original mix with coconut oil on top. This time I waited until the oil was cooled until I added the vanilla, and I added a shit ton of it, like 200 hundred drops, and it's a very subtle vanilla scent.

Creamy like pancake batter, oh yeah.

I adore shea butter, and I'll be experimenting with more mixtures in the future for sure and making more of my own body butters.