Our skin is the body’s largest organ, which makes skincare a top priority for overall wellness. Everyone always wants to have glowing skin, so is the importance of moisturising cosmetics. Plenty of natural products are formulated to make our skin radiate on the outside while keeping healthy on the inside. Among body-friendly lotion alternatives, few things are as effective as natural butter. The consistency of body butter is thicker than the lotion. It is not advisable to use body butter on your face as it may irritate you. 

There are different types of body butter available, you can choose one according to your skin type.

FIRST, UNDERSTAND THE TERM BODY BUTTER…

Body butter is a term used to describe nutrient-dense creams that hydrate your skin. Body butter is one of the absolute best ways to nourish your skin. Body Butter is different from Body Cream, Lotion Oil. Body butter is made of mainly oil and butter. It is formulated without water. The oils included in the composition of body butter vary from argan oil to coconut oil. When you use body butter, you are applying a product that will condition your skin and make it smoother and softer. Body butter nourishes the skin, moisturises, and hydrates to keep it glowing. The butter in the ingredient is essential to this result, while the oil aidspenetration into the skin.

Body butter is much thicker than body lotions. Applying them after showers works wonders. It will absorb into the skin faster and help treat skin damage such as chapping and inflammation The use of body butter is not that different from the creams. Once it is applied to the skin, it melts like a typical butter and is absorbed into the skin. The skin will not be sticky like you might think. It only becomes soft, moisturised, and smooth

Benefits of Body butter: Using moisturising, cosmetics always gives you charming, glowing results. Here are the various advantages which one can have:.

Moisturizes skin: Forms a protective layer around the skin
Reduces wrinkles: Helps soothe skin rashes, sunburn, and eczema Contains beneficial antioxidants, like vitamin C, E & A. The moisture eliminates any sign of dry, chapped skin and leaves skin feeling smooth and Renewed. Applying body butter is the best way to get rid of dryness.

Natural skincare is an easy and effective way to keep the body’s biggest organ healthy and vibrant. By adding body butter to a skincare routine, the skin will stay hydrated, healthy, and youthful-looking.

To formulate any type of body butter, basic requirements are, various kinds of butter, light oils, and heavy oils and aroma oils.

Here is the detailed description of the material used in body butter.

LIST OF BUTTER TO BE USED IN MAKING BODY BUTTER:

KOKUM BUTTER

Kokum butter is one of the important butter to use in moisturising cosmetics, It’s a natural emollient that is easily absorbed into the skin. Kokum has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties making it an ideal moisturiser for oily or acne-prone skin.

MANGO BUTTER 

Mango butter is super nourishing. As a natural emollient, it’s similar to kokum butter but stands out because of the many claims that it protects against UV rays. It is rich in vitamins A, C, and E.

HEMP SEED BUTTER 

It is rich in omega 6 and amino fatty acids. You can have glowing skin with this butter. Hemp seed butter fights moisture loss you can use it from head to toe.

SHEA BUTTER 

Shea butter has proven time over time to be one of the best natural emollients. It is inflammatory, rich in fatty acids, the butter from the shea nut, increases collagen production, strengthens and improves skin elasticity. This helps in removing scars, cellulite, and diminishing the appearance of stretch marks. It helps skin heal faster and reduces the aging effect without being too greasy. Also, there are no strong smell effects; therefore, it is more popular than other body butter. Moreover, it is easily available and has the best softening and moisturising properties

ALMOND BUTTER 

Almond butter, when made at home, is a natural exfoliate that’s high in vitamin E and omega 6 fatty acids. It can protect from UV rays and serves as a sufficient anti-inflammatory.

COCOA BUTTER 

Rich in antioxidants, cocoa butter creates a natural barrier between your body’s natural oils and the rest of the world that tries to break it down by protecting your skin. Cocoa butter reduces inflammation and can moisturise your skin. From all the above butter, shea butter is used widely for nice moisturising properties. Mango butter is good for tan removal.

NOTE……You can use butter to get all the delicious moisturising qualities, but combining your butter with oils and essentials can make the best moisturising your body has been dreaming of. It is suggested to add lighter oil when you melt your butter, particularly oil that works best for your skin. It is not mandatory to use various kinds of butters, one or two types will also give you good results.

CARRIER OIL/ BASE OIL 

While formulating body butter, carrier oils are used. These oils are of two types:

Liquid oils: Can be anything you want in the way of oils that are liquid at room temperature. You can use ordinary cold-pressed canola oil, sunflower oil, or o live oil from the grocery store, or therapeutic oils from the health-food store, such as hemp oil or grape-seed oil. Or you could choose almond oil, rosehip seed oil, black cumin seed oil, and jojoba oil, which are having softening and anti-aging properties.

Solid oils: These are oils that are solid at room temperature. Coconut and palm oils are the example of such oils. Here coconut oil is used.

Essential/ Aroma oils: These aroma oils are used to give therapeutic properties to your butter. It is advised to use aroma oil rather than perfume.

Color: It is an optional ingredient, but can be used to add aesthetic beauty, Try to use natural colours like alkanet root or beetroot powder, or turmeric Powder.

MAKING BODY BUTTER: 

Following the method of melting, cooling, whipping takes a couple of hours, sometimes a day, and results in a beautiful creation.

METHOD TO MAKE BODY BUTTER:

Here are multiple methods to make butter. When no more waxy thickeners are used, they can be made without melting or heating. Here’s how the cold-whipped shea/mango butter above are made:

1. Take the shea/mango butter into small pieces.
2. Put the chunks/paste of shea in a bowl or stand mixer like a Kitchen-Aid or hand blender.
3. Start whipping it on high, scrape down the butter that sticks to the sides, and keep whipping until it looks homogenous
4. Slowly add carrier oils and essential oils as needed and keep whipping until it’s the right consistency
5. And you will get good viscosity of butter.
6. Now you can scoop the body butter in your final containers, or you can pour the whipped butter in a zip lock bag, cut a corner at the end of it, then squeeze it into your glass jar.

Note: The cold-whipping method only applies to soft butter-like shea and mango. COCOA OR KOKUM BUTTER IS NOT USED IN THIS METHOD.

Depending on the season, these butter may vary slightly in hardness, but both shea and mango butter can be cut into pieces, put in a bowl, and whipped without any melting. However, there is some hard butter-like Cocoa and Kokum, as well as waxes that are to be used in any amount in your formula,require the melting step.

There are two methods to make body butter with the melting method:

1. Conventional body butter
2. Whipped body butter

1. HOW TO MAKE A CONVENTIONAL BODY BUTTER

You can add the butter to the jar or continue stirring in the beaker. Let the butter cools down at room temperature. Put in the refrigerator only for10 to 15minutes. As the butter cools down, the viscosity increases. Continue stirring until the butter reaches a consistency.

2. WHIPPED BODY BUTTER

Here is the detailed method of making whipped body butter: As one waxy thickener is used, which should be melt first.

1. Slowly melt the stearic, first then add shea/cocoa butter in a double boiler and melt it at slow heat. A burned butter is never a good idea, so slow and steady is the way to go. Or as stearic melts, switch off gas and add butter. No need to melt butter.
2. Turn off the heat and remove the butter from the burner. At this stage, you can add carrier oils and vitamin E, but it’s still too hot to add essential oils
3. Let it cool off to room temperature either by setting it aside, or by placing your container in a bowl with ice to speed up the process. You can take help of the freeze by covering it properly as single drop of water will spoil your butter.
4. Stir it occasionally while you are waiting for it to cool off close to room temperature.
5. Add the essential oils & starch powder if desired.
6. Whip it again. You whip it while it’s still liquid. In case, you skip this step, it won’t turn out as nice.
7. Put it in the fridge until it’s completely solid
8. Take it out of the fridge and let it soften enough to be able to whip it again.
9. And you will get nice whipped, light-textured body butter. Now you can scoop the body butter in your final containers, or you can pour the whipped butter in a zip lock bag, cut a corner at the end of it, squeeze it into your glass jars

MAKING OF BASIC BODY BUTTER
To make body butter basically, oils and butter are used in various proportions. The common proportion is 1:1, 2:1, 3:1 where the first ingredient is butte rand the second is oils. India is a humid country so people like to have 3:1, which means 75 percent of butter and 25 oils. The thickness is given with some waxy thickeners like stearic acid. But in western countries, people like to have more oils also.