Coconut Shea Butter Body Balm

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Winter is always so harsh on my sensitive skin. I typically end up with a painful red rash that covers my upper thighs and hips due to intense dry skin, and after learning that 60% of all substances that we place on our skin soaks straight into the blood stream within seconds, I was determined to discover a clean and effective body lotion. 

So, I took it to Pinterest, and started Pinning. I then noticed a similar ingredient in many DIY lotions: coconut oil and shea butter. Oh, you've heard of these ingredients?! Yeah, me too, but I never truly understood their beneficial factors until I began researching their usefulness!

Coconut Oil:

1. In cooking as a great oil with a high smoke point. Great for baking, stir-frys or as a dairy free replacement to butter.
2. Taken as a supplemental for daily energy
3. On the skin as a basic lotion
4. In homemade deodorants
5. As an eye-makeup remover
6. As a cloth diaper safe diaper cream (just rub on baby’s bottom)
7. To lighten age spots when rubbed directly on the skin
8. To prevent stretch marks during pregnancy
9. To support healthy thyroid function
10. To help increase sun tolerance and avoid burning

And you can find many, many more uses for Coconut Oil by checking out this article by the Wellness Mama.

Shea Butter:
1. Skin moisturizer
2. Natural Anti-Inflammatory
3. Anti-Aging properties
4. Helps to heal burns and scrapes
5. Helps protect the skin from harmful UV rays
6. Great shaving cream to reduce razor irritation
7. Helps restore elasticity to skin
8. Restores luster to hair
9. Evens skin tone
10. Improves blemishes and wrinkles

With all of this great info I knew I wanted to create a daily body lotion that would not only moisturize my skin but also offer other health benefits. 

My Coconut Shea Butter Body Balm:

• 1 cup shea butter
• 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
• 1/4 cup sweet almond oil with vitamin E
• 50 drops of sweet orange essential oil (or your preferred essential oil)
• Mixed on medium speed for 3 minutes
• Stored in air tight glass jars

I absolutely love the way the mixture becomes a whipped lotion. It's smooth, creamy, easy to apply, absorbs quickly, and never leaves my skin feeling greasy, yet offers full day moisture. This recipe produces about 16 oz of lotion which will generally last me about 2 weeks when I use it daily.

What DIY lotion recipes do you love?

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