Hello Beauties!
So. It's the end of January. You've already messed up most, if not all of your new years resolutions (Mmmhmm. I see you). And people are getting on your nerves trying to finish up 2009 stuff knowing good and well they had ALL YEAR to do it. I feel you girls (and guys). So let me tell you a little story and we'll get into a "pamper me" tip.
A few months ago, money was REALLY REALLY tight around these here parts. I was looking for ways to budget and decided that some of my personal wants (i.e smell good soaps and things of that nature) had to go. However, I didn't want to buy something that was low quality, because walking around ashy/rashy is not what's hot in these Jacksonville pothole filled dirtroads #shade streets. I had this tub of unrefined african shea butter sitting in my room that I'd originally bought to put in my hair, but I had other products to use up first and I didn't realize when I bought it unrefined=like, nothing but shea butter. (I don't know...look don't judge me ok??) So, I thought--why not try making my own body butter?
Making your own body butter is awesome because you can put whatever you want in it, the scent can be whatever you want, and it lasts longer because a little bit goes a long way! Now, there are a bunch of different recipes out there, but here's my own personal one that I use even now that I can afford the smell good stuff:
Tangerine Body Butter:
Ingredients:
Approx 5 ounces unrefined shea butter (it has to be the pure african shea butter)
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon jojoba oil
Tangerine oil (you can pick any scent you like. I picked this one originally because it's light, so it won't clash with perfume, and it was the cheapest one when I went to the store. LOL)
Melt the shea butter down into a warm oil (you can do this one of two ways. Use a double boiler, or you can be ghetto like me: fill a pot half way with water, put it on low; put the shea butter in a glass jar and put it in the pot of water until it melts. Yesss! #genius).
After shea butter is melted, pour into container with lid. Add olive oil and jojoba oil. Whisk (wire or electric. If you whisk manually, make sure you whisk it as briskly (ha!) as you can without splattering the mixture every which way) for about 3 minutes. Then put the container in the freezer for 1 minute. Repeat until the mixture is creamy. Then add your tangerine oil (about 4 to 5 drops, depending on how strong you want the scent to be). Place a lid on the container and put it back in the freezer for 5 more minutes. Take it out (it won't be completely solid yet but that's ok) and it's done!
A little goes a long way with this body butter so be careful lol. Now for the shea butter, I went to a hair care store and it was about $5. The rest of the ingredients I went to Native Sun, a natural food store here in town, and that came up to about $20. That was about 6 months ago, and I only have to replace the shea butter once every 2 months. The rest of the ingredients, I haven't had to replace yet. So that's an average of around $5-$7 a month for something that's great for my skin, lasts longer than regular lotion, smells good, AND won't have me dry and ashy an hour later?
And here are some links for different recipes and such. Use mine, there's or make up your own...enjoy yourself!
