I’ve recently been paying more attention to my skin care routine, in particular my face.

One of the items that I find to be very beneficial is a morning  facial steam.

It can also be nice at night – along with a clean pair of jammies and clean bedding AND  a good book – it doesn’t get much better than that!

It takes about 10 minutes if I do it in the morning and really makes me feel clearer for most of the day. You can heat the water when you make your morning tea or coffee.

It’s a nice way to relax into the day while at the same time, energizing. It’s not hard to get up a little earlier to do this if that’s what you need to do since it is so enjoyable and takes little energy, especially if you get your items ready the night before.

It is making a huge difference in how I feel throughout the day. 

 I don’t have one of the facial steamers that you can buy although I wouldn’t mind checking one out, I have a bowl that I use especially for this, it’s stainless steel with a rubber bottom so there is less chance of spillage or breakage – something to always watch out for – a spill can be nasty, especially if you have children or pets around.

I keep it simple – add a few drops of what ever essential oil I’m in the mood for – eucalyptus, spearmint or myrtle if I want to be refreshed, frankincense is all around wonderful and today I used some Australian Sandalwood that I have, a lovely way to start the day.

DON’T OVER DO

Especially for the stronger essential oils, it’s important to let some of the essential oils diffuse before sticking your head under the towel over the steaming water so that they don’t burn your eyes or nose/throat.

Don’t get too close and enjoy.

You can see a selection of my essential oils here.

I think it would be a great idea to put an assortment of 5ml bottles together for this, stay tuned and let me know if you have any preferences for essential oils that you would like to start the day with. 

GREAT PRODUCT IDEA 

If you sell soaps, this would be a wonderful and easy product addition to your site as well. If you can find some nice headbands it would be even nicer, you could even go whole hog and add a plush towel.

A smaller one for blotting the face after spells l-u-x-u-r-i-o-u-s.

I did this to make up a few face spa Christmas baskets and it worked very well. I used a large plush towel as the basket/spa bag (I used a small basket and wrapped it up with the towel – I sewed one to make a beach bag for a Florida trip and just tied the other one for a more casual look – they were both nice.

You can put this together any time of the year and vary the colour scheme to suit the theme of the essential oils or time of year. I did all white with silver accents and it came out very nicely.

If you’re in the US, you can get some nice essential oils at a reasonable price at the sites listed on the sidebar, or for an absolutely decadent experience, try Nature’s Gift essential oils (I get no kickback for that, I just LOVE Marge’s oils, her rose otto would be to die for in a face spa basket).

Related posts:

1. Essential Oil Blends for Mature and Aging Skin
2. Spooktacular Halloween Soap Recipe
3. Cranberry Skin Care – thank you!

I like the soft powdery feel that cocoa butter adds to body butters and lotions. I’ve been using it regularly to replace palm oil as well in soap – cocoa butter gives a fantastic fullness to the lather and a hardness to the soap.

Since many of us are busy preparing our Christmas items… or will be very soon… our Steam Deodorized Cocoa Butter – Fair Trade Organic – seemed the perfect item for this weeks Surprise Special. Special pricing will be available until next Saturday Nov 6/10.

Cocoa butter is a staple in so many items, if you are looking for a cocoa butter with no scent to interfere with your essential oils this one is perfect.

It is also very light in colour, it’s the one I use if I am going for a white or light coloured end product.

I wrote an article on how cocoa butter can benefit your skin and a few tips and tricks on how to use pure cocoa butter on your skin here…

Pure Cocoa Butter – Skin Care Benefits and How to Use It – It’s got some great video clips and also some information on shaving your cocoa butter and cocoa butter for scars and stretch marks – does it work or doesn’t it?

I found some interesting specs and information at Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_butter

BODY BUTTER RECIPES CONTAINING COCOA BUTTER

Here’s a link to some body butter recipes I made quite a long time ago. Most of them contain cocoa butter. They may be able to use some updating. If you make them with some of your own tweaks, be sure to post them!

Body Butter Recipes With Cocoa Butter

SPECIAL PRICING

Regular price: 14.99lb – Sale 12.99lb

Regular price: 5lbs 64.99 -Sale 54.99 (10.99lb)

A note on pricing…

This is an especially good time limited offer. My cost on this item seems to be rising steadily so regular pricing on this butter is going to be going up when the new cart system is ready, – and it’s almost ready! I’m hoping to switch over in November – more info coming soon…

NOTE: Just to let you know, I’ve set these links to open in a new window so that you don’t lose this page when you order. If you can’t find your cart window it should be in one of your tabs.

Also, I’ve set these links to open in a new window so that you don’t lose this page when you order. If you can’t find your cart window it should be in one of your tabs.

BTW, this is the last day to grab some certified organic, fair trade yellow shea butter on sale as well. You can order both today only.

CONTINUE SHOPPING

If you use the above links to order, you can continue on at our current shopping site if you would like to add more goodies to your order.

Shop Skincare Naturals

Btw, if you are shopping in the US and looking for certified organic cocoa butter, you can get it here.

A NOTE ON SUPPLIES – SITE MAY BE DOWN UNTIL MONDAY:My main supplies site at the url www.handmadesoap.ca is down right now due to an overload of traffic. I am working on getting them to put it back up but since it’s the weekend it seems that it may take 48 hours, putting it to Monday. If you need to order anything before that time just shoot me an email at jan.ferrante (at) gmail.com

Also, I do have natrasorb, carnauba wax and glycerin here. If you need those or anything else that you can’t find just leave a message in the message box on the cart when you order and I will get back to you with pricing and instructions on how to add it to your order.

LAST DAY FOR CERTIFIED ORGANIC FAIR TRADE SHEA BUTTER SALE

You can grab your unrefined shea butter at a discount today – and tomorrow!

Special links on this page will be good until Sunday Oct 31.

US SHOPPING – CERTIFIED ORGANIC COCOA BUTTER

Mountain Rose Herbs is a founding company with many years experience in providing a large selection of quality organic herbs and natural skin care supplies located within the United States.

Certified Organic Cocoa Butter

Related posts:

1. USDA Certified Yellow Organic Fair Trade Shea Butter – Saturday Surprise Special
2. Black Cocoa Butter – Saturday Surprise Special
3. Deodorized Cocoabutter

When formulating body butter recipes, the possibilities are endless when you consider the number of oils and butters , essential oils and additives that you can use.

It’s mind boggling and very exciting to get started on trying them all!

I find that often when I create a recipe, it is too tempting too try a slightly different ingredient to make something completely different to be used for a slightly different use or even to suit my mood as far as scent or consistency go.

The following body butter recipes are all variations of the same body butter recipe to give you some idea of the ease and endless possibilities you’ll find in making your own natural body care products. This site has a recipe called Blissful Body Butter that includes a few suggestions for making an herb infused body butter.

Using choice ingredients such as shea butter, cocoa butter and select nutritive carrier oils and essential oils, you can make it perfectly suited to your own liking.

All it takes is one good idea and some time to play.

Here are a few reasons to make your own body butter and a recipe idea at eHow.

Splendor in the Grass Body Butter

I’ve listed a few variations of essential oils that you can add to scent this body butter recipe, unscented it has a very subtle *green* smell to it due to the base oils used. The essential oils I’ve listed will give you a slight variation on this theme. If you aren’t interested in obtaining this scent, you can sub other base and essential oils.

This body butter, in my mind is made to order for anyone who is heavily into natural and *green*. I added liquid chorophyl to obtain a deeper green, you can make it without for a very light green/golden colour, which may be more attractive to some :0)

.5 oz carnauba or beeswax

1 oz refined cocoa butter

.5 oz unrefined shea

1 oz unrefined hempseed oil

1 oz jojoba oil (or 2oz hempseed)

1 tsp natrasorb

a few drops vitamin e

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Bronze Goddess Body Butter

1oz Unrefined Cocoa Butter

.5oz shea butter

.5oz natural beeswax

2oz golden jojoba oil

3/4 tsp natrasorb

smidgen of bronze mica

a few drops vitamin e

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Golden Goddess Body Butter

1oz Refined Cocoa Butter

.5oz shea butter

.5oz white beeswax beads

2oz golden jojoba or kukui oil

a few drops vitamin e

3/4 tsp natrasorb (optional, gives a smoother less greasy feel)

smidgen of gold mica

English Chamomile Essential Oil (I know this oil may not be easy to come by, Roman Chamomile can be substituted. I’m hoping to have some in stock soon, it’s expensive but absolute heaven if you like chamomile)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pure Goddess Body Butter – You Glow Girl!

.8oz Refined Cocoa Butter

.5oz ultra refined shea

.4oz white beeswax beads

1.2oz virgin coconut de creme

1.1oz coconut nutri oil (or emu or fractionated coconut oil – any fairly emollient light coloured oil will do.)

a few drops vitamin e

3/4 tsp natrasorb (optional)

smidgen of iridescent glitter to taste :0) I sprinkle it directly onto the parts of the mold that I want the lotion bar to have, it works beautifully.

This body butter recipe is excellent for those who don’t like added scent, it smells great all by itself. Another variation is to use all or part Unrefined Cocoa Butter and Golden Beeswax. I’m experimenting with complimentary eo’s. I’d love to hear any suggestions.

BODY BUTTER RECIPES INGREDIENT NOTES

Here are a few notes that I kept while making the butters that you may find helpful.

WAXES:

I find beeswax easier to work with for these body butter recipes because I like to keep the temps as low as possible although either one can be substituted. I have been working on butters that don’t contain any wax. They are  easier to make and a very light consistency.

OILS:

I haven’t tried it yet but I was also told by a reliable source that it is best to melt your butters separately then combine them. It would be something worth experimenting with, I find that I do prefer to add the less stable oils last when making anything to protect the beneficial elements of the oil as best as possible from the heat. Some oils stand up better to it than others.

Oils and butters can be substituted and percentages changed to better suit yourself. I like to use oils that absorb quickly (jojoba and fractionated coconut are my favourites because they are light and effective, nut oils are heavenly for something with a little more oomph) but any oil can be used and even preferred depending on the effect your looking for. Virgin Coconut de Creme is one of my favourites due to the fresh coconut scent, you just can’t get that naturally anywhere else (that I know of!)

SHEA BUTTERS:

I’m now carrying an assortment of unrefined shea butter as well as ultra refined shea butter, there is something to suit every taste and every body butter recipe! The best way to find out which you like is to order a sample pack and tweak the recipes to your own preference.

GLYCERIN:

Depending on the final effect you are looking for, only a small amount of glycerin is needed (I use more for foot butters). It may not even be necessary to get the smoothness, I haven’t tried it without yet, the trick is possibly the temps and whipping and the cornstarch helps consistency as well. Anyway, the glycerin can be tricky sometimes, far better to mix it when the temps are as cool as possible, after the butter is starting to look like butter, but not so solid that you can’t mix it. You will see what I mean :0) I’ve found some sitting at the bottom of the bowl once in awhile that didn’t mix. The top portion was fine though. Just to let you know :0)

NATRASORB:

I was using cornstarch until I tried Natrasorb. It is much lighter and more effective. You can use cornstarch if you don’t have any natrasorb to give a thicker constancy and less greasy feel, it’s optional and can be adjusted to your own preference.

PRESERVATION:

Although as a rule to my knowledge butters and lotion bars don’t need synthetic preservation, I have had one butter grow mold. I made many more at the same time with no problem so far, but the fact is that one of them did go bad. I was re using a jar, so maybe I didn’t sterilize it properly, or my kids where using it too, it’s possible some bacteria was introduced that way, I don’t really know. But it’s important to stress the importance of stringent cleanliness when making and using products with no synthetic preservatives. Also it’s important to keep any water out of the mix, don’t use it with wet hands etc. If your giving your products away be sure to pass this info on.

CONSISTENCY:

You may find that according to your climate that you may want to adjust proportions so I would recommend a small batch first. You can also remelt and add what ever you need. I am finding as the winter is coming on here, that I think I will start mixing with a slightly higher proportion of oil as our house is a touch cool (unless my husband has a few too many coffees and gets carried away with the wood stove!)

COMMENTS:

These body butter recipes take a bit longer to soak in than a lotion but they are by far my favourite choice for supreme skin softening capabilities, especially on really rough spots like feet and elbows. They are great for fingernails and to use as a skin barrier when washing dishes or swimming too.

Shop for the ingredients you will need to make your own body butter recipes.

Additional Information

Related posts:

1. Black Cocoa Butter Homemade Soap Recipe
2. USDA Certified Yellow Organic Fair Trade Shea Butter – Saturday Surprise Special
3. Black Cocoa Butter – Saturday Surprise Special