Lavender Body Butter

This gluten-free homemade Lavender Body Butter is so easy to make, right in your own kitchen! It’s the perfect addition to a calming night routine. It’s also the perfect gift idea for friends and family! {GF + SF}

If you are in the market for a spy-like experience right in your very own home, then this Lavender Body Butter recipe is right up your alley! It happens to be a gluten-free and soy-free lotion recipe that takes just mere minutes to make. And although we’re working with lavender in today’s recipe, rest assured if you want another fragrance instead, you can totally do it!

We ventured into the DIY world of personal care products to avoid allergens that bothered the girls. And, admittedly, I never thought I would make my own lotion. But you gotta do what you gotta do, and yours truly learned to make lotion. Or, in this case, body butter.

As far as allergies go, soy is the absolute worst. Okay, maybe not the worst. Allergies in general are pretty bad. But in our family, soy was the hardest to figure out because it is in EVERYTHING. And it’s marketed as being super healthy. And maybe it is. Unless, of course, you are allergic to it like Toodle is.

Soy is a tricky little numskull, hiding about under different names. Added in place of gluten and wheat (so precious when you also have a wheat allergy and gluten intolerance). I nearly lost my mind reading up on life with a soy allergy. I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. I’m going to end up on an episode of Cops one day for throat punching soy outside a health foods store. I. Cannot. Even.

A few searches around the internet showed that it is possible to make one’s own lotion, and without the use of a homemade ice cream machine. Don’t ask me why, but I always assumed that to make one’s own lotion the use of a cheese cloth and an ice cream maker would be necessary. I was convinced that’s how Laura Ingalls Wilder would do it. Cheese cloth and a hand-crank ice cream maker at the ready. Because isn’t that what everyone was doing on the prairie in the 1800s?

Asking for a friend…

But here we are with a gluten-free and soy-free homemade body butter recipe! And the only tools we’ll need are a stove, saucepan, heat-safe glass jar, and about 20 minutes of spare time. I love this recipe so much I make it regularly, and even though I’m biased, I think it would make an excellent gift for friends and family. Birthdays, anniversaries, and other gift-giving occasions just got a lot more fragrant!

So grab your tools and let’s get melting!

LAVENDER BODY BUTTER INGREDIENTS:

All of these ingredients can be found online or at health food stores.

• Olive oil. Any kind will do.
• Coconut oil. Use less for a softer body butter or more for a harder, lotion bar consistency.
• Beeswax. You can find beeswax online or at health food stores. It comes in solid and pellet forms. I’ve worked with both, and I find the pellets melt faster.
• Vegetable glycerine. Make sure it’s soy-free, if you are trying to make a soy-free body butter.
• Essential oils. Your pick. I typically use lavender and lemongrass. For something even fancier, I like sandalwood, although it can be a little harder to find in stores (and often costs more).

HOW TO MAKE LAVENDER BODY BUTTER:

For this recipe, all you need is a saucepan and a lidded glass jar that can withstand high heat. Voila! You have the right utensils.

1. Combine ingredients in a glass jar that can withstand heat.
2. Put the glass jar in a saucepan. Fill saucepan with water, high enough to be level with the amount of ingredients melting in the jar. Put a lid on the jar without screwing it shut. You will want it loose enough that some steam can escape but not so loose the ingredients don’t melt.
3. Bring water to a boil, periodically removing the lid to stir the ingredients (I like to use a butter knife for this). Add more water, if necessary, to the saucepan.
4. Once all ingredients are melted (the beeswax takes the longest to melt), pour mixture into glass jars and, once cooled, use as you would any other lotion or body cream.

NOTE: A VERY LITTLE BODY BUTTER GOES A LONG WAY. This isn’t a dip-your-whole-hand-in-the-body-butter-jar kind of thing. It’s a delicate dip of the tip of one finger. Applying too much body butter will turn you into a greaseball. A good-smelling greaseball. But a greaseball, nonetheless.

FRAGRANCE VARIATIONS:

The combination of ingredients gives this Lavender Body Butter a wonderful scent of its own. However, if you would like to add other scents to it, a few of my favorite choices and combinations are:

• Lavender and/or Lemongrass (together or by themselves)
• Orange & Texas Cedarwood
• Coconut & lime
• Vanilla
• Peppermint
• Sandalwood

I am not an essential oils expert by any stretch of the imagination. I primarily use them to make things smell nice. But, I have read that citrus scents can cause photosensitive reactions in the sun. As always, you can talk with your healthcare provider about how that could affect you. I typically use lavender during the day and my citrus favorites at night or on areas of the body that aren’t exposed to the sun.

If you are always on the hunt for homemade products to combat dry skin, then you might also enjoy using lavender sugar scrub in the bath, shower, or during hand washing PRIOR to using Lavender Body Butter.

Midwest winters get the better of my hands, and when I finally succumbed to the one-two punch of sugar scrub first and body butter second, my hands were instantly like new.

So get your hands on these recipes (pun absolutely intended)! I hope you enjoy them as much as our family has. 🙂

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