Guest Blogger Thursday - Sami's Body Butter Bar DIY

Hello lovelies! It's Sami from Poor & Pretty, and I'm back with another DIY just in time for Valentine's Day! Okay, so I'm a little early, but body butter bar does make an excellent homemade gift for your sweetie - just ask my boyfriend! He's a computer technician, so he's always using his hands and working with rough computer parts, which leaves his skin dry and cracked. I made some body butter bar for the first time a few months ago and now he's addicted. So, for an early Valentine's Day gift, I replenished his stock :)

My body butter bars (I know, try saying it ten times fast!) are jam-packed with super-moisturizing ingredients, so it's perfect for anyone with really dry skin (my younger sister uses it on her Eczema) or for those of us with normal skin who just need an extra moisture boost in some places (hands, elbows, knees, and feet). What's even better is that the ingredients are all-natural, which means they contain no preservatives or other harmful chemicals.

Ingredients:

• 3oz beeswax
• 3oz cocoa butter
• 3oz shea butter
• 3oz jojoba oil (or other carrier oil like safflower oil)
• double-boiler or Pyrex measuring cup and pot
• a soap mold or thick-walled plastic container
• wax paper
• tape or labels

Directions:

• melt the beeswax, cocoa butter, and shea butter on medium/low heat either in your double boiler or by putting the ingredients in a Pyrex measuring cup inside of a pot of boiling water (please do this carefully!). See how I did this in my lip balm diy.
• once the beeswax and butters are melted, remove the mixture from heat and add in your jojoba oil, stirring it in quickly so it blends into the mixture evenly.
• pour into your soap mold or plastic container.
• let cool for a few hours (to be safe, I let it cool for about 3-4).
• pop it out of your mold, cut it up into pieces, then wrap them in wax paper and seal it with a kiss (and tape or labels)!

A note on ingredients: If you can't find these at your local organic supermarket (like Whole Foods), you can buy all of these ingredients online from Mountain Rose Herbs. While everything I used was certified organic and unrefined, I do suggest buying refined shea butter. Unrefined shea butter has a very nutty scent which takes away from the delicious chocolatey scent of the cocoa butter.

Check out the other DIY posts I've written for Jennie: DIY Sugar Scrub and DIY Lip Balm. Also look for my Valentine cupcake soaps hitting the Poor & Pretty Cupcake Soap Shoppe soon!