How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter

by - 11:36:00

How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter
How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter

Hey ladies! I am literally jumping with excitement because a homemade beauty recipe turned out super successful this morning. Commercial body butters always were too expensive for me considering the tiny amount that retailed in jars. But my dry skin always yearned for the luxurious feel of body butters. Since I am not into business of skincare products, getting raw materials at wholesale prices was not an option for me. And butters like cocoa and shea do retail at higher prices in online stores. Then came the discovery for me: Kokum Butter..Ta-daaaaa!



Indigenous to Indian subcontinent, kokum butter is produced from the fruit Kokum which is primarily found in Western India. While other natural butters may be pore-clogging, kokum butter although very emollient, does not clog pores. Here are a few more trivia about Kokum Butter:
ü Has healing properties which fights natural toxins produced by skin
ü Has regenerative properties which slow down ageing.
ü Nourishes the skin and combats dryness without being too greasy like other natural butters.
ü Fights infections and promotes healthy skin cells
ü Perfect for sensitive skin since it repairs skin damage.
ü Very light and almost no fragrance.


All these properties along with its lower price tag were enough for me to grab it before other skin butters. After going through endless customer reviews, I zeroed in this one from Amazon (Click HERE)

How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter
kokum butter


Once I had this in my cart, I also needed a carrier and softening oil and an essential oil for a bit of fragrance and extra benefits. My natural choices were coconut oil and lavender oil because the first increases hydration and has anti-fungal, anti-bacterial properties while the latter is anti-inflammatory, soothes eczema, detoxifies skin and its smell is known to de-stress. These are the ones I chose from Amazon (Coconut Oil HERE, Lavender oil HERE). I also added a round glass jar that could sit pretty on my dresser (Buy it HERE)

How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter
Ingredients: How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter

Now, all things sorted, the entire process of making this body butter was a piece of cake! I did not use any measuring cups, so I will just wrote down the rough estimate of the amount of ingredients I used.
Ingredients:
·        Kokum Buttter : I have used less than 1/4th of the this 500gm block.
·        Coconut oil: I have used almost 100ml this time (half the bottle)
·         Lavender Essential Oil: 15-20 drops
Tools required: A borosil pan (if you wish to microwave) or any regular saucepan if you use double boiling method over gas stove. An electric blender (Hand whisks work too but that would require a lot of work), A piping bag for non-messy filling into the jar (I used a plain polythene packet) and finally a glass jar with lid.

How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter
Crushed kokum butter

Steps:
1.    Using a knife or a grater scrape out required quantity of kokum butter into the vessel (Small pieces or grated shavings melt faster)
2.    Pour in coconut oil.
3.    Place the pan over another bigger vessel of boiling water and keep it there only till butter melts. No overheating. If you are microwaving, keep for a maximum of 10-15 seconds.
4.    Once melted the otherwise off-white kokum butter and coconut oil will look brownish. Let it cool and then pop it in freezer for 15 minutes. My freezer wasn’t empty, so I just kept the pan in fridge overnight.
5.    If you find the butters have solidified too much, just keep the vessel out of fridge for sometime till they soften. I had to keep it out for an hour (since it’s winters here)
6.    With an electric beater, whip your heart away to fluffy butter :D It literally took me only 3 minutes to get the desired fluffiness. But don’t stop there. Keep whipping for a good 15-20minues. If you see that your mixture had melted too much and is not whipping good, just pop it in fridge for a few minutes and then whip again.
7.    Transfer the contents into piping bag and fill your jar. Make sure there is no trace of water in the jar. Butters will go bad if there is moisture.
8.    Take a tiny amount and rub on your skin. Less is more for body butters.
9.    Do a happy dance ;)
10.           Return to real life and go clean up the blender :P


How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter
melted kokum butter and coconut oil

How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter
How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter

Mine and my mom’s skin just soaked up the butter :D There was no greasiness, but the skin felt tremendously nourished. If you want that cool tingly sensations that most commercial creams have, you can add peppermint oil. Kokum butter is compatible with most essential oils. Just remember not to add citrus essential oils (lemon, orange etc) since they can aid to skin sensitivity when exposed to sun. Since I am not a skincare expert, I cannot comment on the correct amounts of citrus oils that can be used. So better stick to safer options like lavender, peppermint, avocado, rosehip etc.
You can also use soap dyes (NOT food colors) to add pretty colors to your body butter. I skipped since it was unnecessary.

How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter
How to make body butter at home with Kokum Butter

Points to remember:
v Homemade body butters may turn hard. The point is to use less of hard butters (kokum, cocoa, shea etc) and more of oils (coconut, jojoba, sunflower etc)
v Whip with the electric beater for atleast 20 minutes. Do not stop even if the whipped butter looks perfect after 2 minutes of whipping.
v You may add Vitamin E capsules for increasing shelf life.4
v Before trying any ingredient, may sure you are not allergic to any of it (ALWAYS do patch test)

Disclaimer: All products are bought by my own money and I am not promoting any brand here. Readers’ own discretion on which brands of raw materials suit them.

Happy whipping up you butters :D Share your recipes too in the comment section <3

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