I had wanted to make my own body butter for sometime. I really wanted to make a homemade body butter for dry skin. Winter and cold weather really suck all the moisture out of me, especially my hands. For some weird reasons, I sometimes get hard, flaky patches on both of my pointer fingers. Nowhere else on my hands, just pointer fingers. If I ignore them, they will crack and bleed. Imagine doing dishes or cooking or bathing my little one or even myself with cracked fingers. Pure anguish! Solution? Homemade body butter for dry skin.

Traditionally, body butter is made with plant butter and oil, with no water. The lotion you buy in the store, on the other hand, contains mostly water. Don’t believe me?! Look at the label. Because of body butter’s rich ingredients – butter and oil, it’s known to be super moisturizing and healing for dry skin. Lush, the Body Shop, Sephora and Sabon all carry body butter. So does Anthropologie. But check out their prices! They sell a few ounces of body butter for between $15 to $40! Outrageous! For just a few ounces!

Like any overworked and stressed out mom, I like a nice affordable luxury from time to time. But I rather pay for something that it’s impossible or impractical for me to make at home. So I put my research cap on and went to work to find a recipe for homemade body butter for dry skin.

I tried making homemade body butter for dry skin multiple (many!) times until I found a recipe that works. Before my “Hallelujah! Body Butter Success!” moment, the body butter (or something like it) was either runny (to various degrees) or hard (to various degrees), and sometimes it had little chunks of butter in it. Yeah, I know. Ugh! Ugh! And ugh!

At times, I thought about just buying some body butter because the process frustrated me and throwing out ingredients in unsuccessful batches was painful. Thinking back, I could have probably reused the ingredients to make all natural soap or something else. But at the time, I didn’t think of it and was just plain annoyed and mad. Well, enough about spilled milk, or butter, or oil. Onward with success. And success looks like the picture above.

Homemade Body Butter for Dry Skin that Uses Only All Natural Ingredients

Prep Time: 2 hours (including 1 hour of freezing, and 30 minutes of thawing)
Yields: 4 oz of homemade body butter for dry skin

I don’t use synthetic preservatives. Because of this, I usually use my homemade body butter for dry skin within a month of creating it.

Ingredients for Homemade Body Butter for Dry Skin

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1. Cocoa Butter – 2 tablespoons (Pure, Raw, Unrefined Cocoa Butter)
2. Shea Butter – 2 tablespoons (Unrefined Shea Butter)
3. Coconut Oil – 2 tablespoons (Trader Joe’s Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil, you can use Viva Naturals Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil)
4. Olive Oil – 2 tablespoons (Trader Joe’s Imported Olive Oil, you can also try other brands of Olive Oil, like La Tourangelle Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
5. (Optional) Orange Essential Oil – 10 drops (NOW Foods Orange Essential Oil)
6. (Optional) Eucalyptus Essential Oil – 5 drops (NOW Foods Eucalyptus Essential Oil)
7. (Optional) Vitamin E – 2-3 drops (NOW Foods E-Oil, I have also used natural vitamin E capsules)
8. (Optional) Empty Glass Containers – Ball brand glass jars work well.

Instructions for Homemade Body Butter for Dry Skin

1. Place cocoa butter, shea butter, coconut oil and olive oil in a container.

2. Place container in a pot that has about 2 inches of water. You are creating a double boiler to melt the ingredients.

3. Melt butter and oil completely. It took me about 5 minutes with medium heat on the stove. The cocoa butter is the last ingredient to melt. I use a whisk to make sure that all the ingredients are mixed well.

4. Place melted ingredients in the freezer for 1 hour. It’s OK to leave it in there longer. I think I took mine out after about an hour and a half, because I was making 3 different things (body butter, hot process castile soap, and lip balm stain) at once and I forgot about the body butter.

5. Take the frozen mixture out of the freezer and allow it to warm up (thaw) in room temperature for about 30 minutes. I think I let mine sat for a hour and a half. Again, I had multiple DIY projects going on at once. The few hours my bug naps are precious DIY time for me, and I try to cramp a lot in.

6. Whisk the softened mixture until you have body butter that’s fluffy, light and can form peaks. I did it manually, and it took me about 5 minutes. Some people use an electric whisk and get very good results. I would use one too, but I am still saving up for one. Will invest in one soon. Promise!

Update: I now use an electric whisk to make body butter. I posted a body butter without coconut oil recipe, and a mint chocolate body butter recipe.

7. (Optional) Add Essential Oil and Vitamin E, and whisk a few more times.

8. Spoon your body butter into an empty container, and your homemade body butter for dry skin is ready to use.

I know, I know. Freezing, then thawing seem kinda weird and redundant. I only know that when I skipped one or both these steps, my body butter ended up in my trash, because the consistency was not right. I have read that other people don’t melt the ingredient first. They just whisk all the ingredients together at room temperature. Maybe that works if you use an electric whisk?? I don’t know. I only know that whisking by hand without melting, freezing or thawing the ingredients resulted in body butter (or wanna be body butter) that got sent to my trash.

Oh, another thing, because this body butter uses very rich ingredients, you only need to use a tiny bit. The phrase “a pea-sized amount” keeps popping into my head. Unlike most lotion you use, the body butter will feel greasy when you first put it on. They don’t call it butter without good reasons. But don’t worry, your body will absorb the all natural ingredients quickly, and the greasy feeling will disappear after a few minutes. I would advise against touching anything during those few minutes. As my hubby has kindly reminded me a few times, you might leave your prints around.

That’s it! This is how you make homemade body butter for dry skin. I also make and use Shea Butter Lotion and Lotion Bars, both use beeswax. The body butter is creamier and melts more quickly on your skin than the lotion and lotion bars. Also, this recipe uses cocoa butter, which means that the body butter smells like chocolate. Delicious! Please don’t eat it, although it definitely smells edible.

You gotta give all of these recipes a try and see which one(s) you like. I would love to hear about your creations. If you like the recipe, be sure to share it and pin it! As always, feel free to ask me any questions about this homemade body butter for dry skin recipe or anything else about making your own bath, body and personal care products naturally.