How to Make Homemade Lavender Body Butter (Non-Greasy Recipe)
This homemade lavender body butter recipe is formulated so that it’s non-greasy. It is naturally scented with lavender essential oil for a true lavender fragrance. Formulated to nourish your skin with lavender body butter benefits, this non-greasy body butter recipe is perfect for daily skin care to moisturize skin. Or make this natural skin care product to give as homemade gifts throughout the year.
Keep reading to learn how to make this lavender moisturizer, discover the benefits of lavender body butter and to learn how this non-greasy body butter can benefit your skin care regimen for glowing skin.
Homemade Lavender Body Butter
I love the moisturizing properties of homemade body butter. Unfortunately, a lot of natural body butter recipes tend to be greasy. They take a long time to absorb into skin and can leave oily fingerprints on clothes and other surfaces. To avoid this problem, I formulated a non-greasy body butter recipe using lavender essential oil.
My lavender body butter recipe is easy to craft and makes a wonderful homemade gift idea. Not only is it naturally scented with lavender essential oil, it also contains a touch of neem oil is added for its similar properties when used in skin care applications. Neem oil is antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal. Therefore, it works well when paired with lavender essential oil in this homemade body butter recipe to help promote skin health.
I made this non-greasy lavender body butter recipe specifically for my grandmother as a homemade gift. Her favorite scent is lavender. Oh, and did I say lavender? So of course an artificial lavender fragrance won’t do. Therefore, the lavender essential oil is a key ingredient in my homemade body butter recipe. She loved the fragrance of my natural body butter, but she also loved the end product.
As my grandmother struggled with recurring phantom pain from shingles, she also benefited from the skin care properties of both the lavender essential oil as well as the neem oil I used to formulate this non-greasy body butter. As neem oil has strong antiviral and pain relieving properties, this homemade body butter worked great for her.
Traditionally, neem oil is also used in many skin care applications that offer relief from common skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis. Therefore, this lavender body butter recipe not only moisturized her dry skin and helped to keep it hydrated, it also helped with her phantom pain caused by nerve damage.
What is Lavender Body Butter Good For?
Lavender body butter is good for natural skin care. The ingredients found in homemade lavender body butter moisturize, nourish and hydrate skin. In addition, the lavender essential oil used to scent this non-greasy body butter, also offers additional skin care benefits. For body butter recipes that also contain wax or lanolin, lavender body butter will also help to soothe and protect skin.
Homemade body butter recipes made with lavender essential oil can also help to soothe dry skin skin and offer relief from problematic skin conditions such as eczema.
Lavender Body Butter Benefits
Lavender body butter has a number of benefits for natural skin care. Lavender body butter benefits include the following:
- This body butter is an excellent body moisturizer. It hydrates and moisturizes skin. This in turn can offer relief from dry skin or eczema, in addition to helping keep skin looking and feeling soft, smooth and supple.
- Lavender body butter can help calm and soothe irritated skin.
- Due to the lavender essential oil, you’ll find that homemade body butter with this lavender also helps to relax your body and mind. This can aid in relieving anxiety as well as helping to promote sleep.
- It can help to protect skin from the elements as well as prevent chapping and cracking.
- DIY lavender body butter nourishes skin. It can aid in natural collagen production to boost skin’s radiance and promote cell regeneration to reduce the appearance of wrinkles.
- It may help to repel some biting insects due to the natural insect repellent properties of lavender essential oil.
- This lavender body moisturizer may also help lessen acne.
- You may find that this non-greasy body butter also helps to reduce the appearance of stretch marks and scars.
Lavender Essential Oil Benefits
Lavender essential oil has a number of benefits. Here are some of the benefits of lavender essential oil you can enjoy from using lavender essential oil in your homemade body moisturizer recipes:
- Lavender essential oil can help to relieve anxiety. According to a study, aromatherapy is an affordable therapeutic option for anxiety and anxiety related conditions.
- Aromatherapy is helpful for those suffering from insomnia. Lavender essential oil, in particular, helps to promote sleep and improve overall quality of sleep.
- Inhaling lavender essential oil can have a soothing and calming effect on the nervous system. This helps not only with anxiety, but also aids in relieving depression and stress, as well as fatigue.
- If you suffer from nausea, lavender may also help to ease symptoms.
- Lavender essential oil may help relieve headaches when inhaled.
- Lavender essential oil is a natural antifungal agent. In a study, lavender was used successfully on several strains of fungus that can cause skin diseases. It’s thought that lavender attacks the membrane of the cell to destroy fungus.
- Lavender essential oil can also promote healing. One study compared the effects of lavender oil and other agents for wound healing in lab rats. The wounds healed quicker in the lavender group than in the control group.
- Using lavender in aromatherapy may help relieve PMS symptoms for women. In a study, women who used lavender in aromatherapy experienced fewer PMS symptoms.
- Lavender essential oil could reduce insomnia and depression. The study showed positive results, but more research is needed.
- The lavender essential oil in lavender body butter may improve eczema and other skin conditions. Results were promising in one study, but more studies are needed.
- Lavender is high in antioxidants. Antioxidants can prevent the signs of aging like fine lines and wrinkles, but lavender itself isn’t directly linked to anti-aging properties.
- Lavender essential oil is anti-inflammatory, so it can help reduce the symptoms of some skin conditions like eczema and dry skin.
Homemade Lavender Body Butter Recipe
This is my original lavender body butter recipe. It is formulated with a variety of ingredients to help nourish, hydrate, protect and moisturize skin, while also creating a non-greasy body moisturizer for everyday skin care. Following I’ve provided the ingredients you will need to make lavender body butter along with substitutions and variations.
This homemade body moisturizer yields one 4 ounce container of non-greasy body butter scented with lavender essential oil and will weigh about 3.8 ounces. You can easily double or triple this recipe to make more than one lavender body butter at a time to craft homemade bath and body gifts.
Non-Greasy Lavender Body Butter Ingredients
You will need to the following ingredients to make lavender body butter:
- Refined shea butter: You can use either refined or refined high melt point shea butter for this recipe. As refined shea butter has no fragrance, the scent of the lavender essential oil isn’t muddled with the natural fragrance of the other ingredients. In addition, refined shea butter tends to have a higher melting point than unrefined shea butter. Therefore, if you choose to use unrefined shea butter, you may need to make a slight adjustment to this recipe.
- Refined/deodorized cocoa butter: I recommend using refined cocoa butter for the same reason I used refined shea butter for this homemade body butter recipe. It will allow the natural fragrance of the lavender essential oil to shine through. However, you may also use raw cocoa butter.
- Hemp seed oil: This is a dry carrier oil that helps this body moisturizer to absorb quickly into skin. Packed with essential amino acids and other vitamins and nutrients, hemp seed oil is well suited for all skin skin types. It helps to hydrate skin as well as regulate oil production to help prevent acne.
- Lanolin: Lanolin is a natural emollient and occlusive skin care ingredient. This means that it can slow the rate at which water evaporates from the skin.
- Cyclomethicone: Cyclomethicone is a clear, lightweight liquid that gives lotions, body butters and other homemade body moisturizers a silky feel. In this application, it helps to ensure the final consistency of the body butter doesn’t feel greasy on skin and provides additional glide.
- Arrowroot powder: Arrowroot powder absorbs excess oil so this lavender body butter goes on smooth and prevents it from feeling greasy.
- Lavender essential oil: As mentioned above, lavender essential oil is naturally anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and can promote healing.
- Neem oil: Neem oil is used to promote wound healing, reduce scars and boost collagen production. It’s an excellent oil for dry skin.
- Vitamin E oil: Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant. Antioxidants reduce free radicals that can cause signs of aging. It can also help to extend the shelf life of the oils and butters in your homemade lavender body butter recipe.
Substitutions for Lavender Body Butter without Beeswax
Here are some substitutions you can make to this lavender body butter recipe without beeswax:
- If you prefer an all natural lavender body butter then you can omit the Cyclomethicone. However, this ingredient gives the resulting body butter a smooth, silky feel and also helps the end product not feel greasy once it absorbs into skin. To make an all natural body butter recipe without Cyclomethicone, replace the Cyclomethicone with either fractionated coconut oil (MCT oil) or camellia seed oil.
- If you want a vegan body butter, you may either omit the lanolin called for in the recipe or substitute it with another ingredient. I recommend using cupuacu butter as a substitute for lanolin to make this lavender body butter without beeswax.
- You can use unrefined shea butter as well as unrefined cocoa butter to make this homemade body butter recipe. However, as these ingredients have a natural fragrance, keep in mind that it may impact the fragrance of the final product.
- Hemp seed oil can be replaced with another carrier oil of your choice. Meadowfoam seed oil is great for extremely dry skin. Or you can try rosehip seed oil as another dry oil alternative that’s well suited for aging or acne prone skin. You can also make this DIY lavender body butter using baobab oil.
How Do You Make Purple Body Butter?
If desired, you can use a colorant to make your body butter purple. If you’d like a lavender tinted product you can use micas or oxide and ultramarine pigment powders to make purple body butter. Since this lavender body butter recipe has oil based ingredients, you can not use a water based colorant. Therefore food coloring and liquid soap colorants will not work. In addition, food coloring is not approved for cosmetic use. It’s a big no no if you are planning to make and sell your homemade body butters.
Therefore, if you want to make purple body butter, I recommend using mica to color your non-greasy body butter recipe. You want to choose a skin safe mica that’s approved for cosmetic use. Mica makes a wonderful purple hue in this lavender body butter, but take care to avoid adding too much. If you use too much mica to color your body butter, it can stain your skin.
I recommend adding ⅛ teaspoon of purple mica to this body butter if you’d like to color if purple. Add the colorant when you add the arrowroot powder and mix. You can add additional colorant, if needed.
How to Make Lavender Body Butter
Here is how to make lavender body butter:
- Begin by using a digital kitchen scale to weigh out the shea and cocoa butters. Then combine the butters in a large glass Pyrex measuring cup. Melt the butters in the microwave at reduced power of between 30%-50%, stirring halfway through the heating. Alternately, you can also use a double boiler to melt the butters called for in this homemade body moisturizer recipe.
- Once the shea and cocoa butters have fully melted, weigh out the arrowroot powder. Then stir the arrowroot powder into the melted butters until it completely dissolves
- Next, weigh out the lanolin and stir into the melted butter mixture. Continue stirring until the lanolin liquifies and it is no longer solid.
- Now weigh out the hemp seed oil, lavender essential oil and Cyclomethicone. Stir the liquid ingredients into the non-greasy body butter mixtures.
- Using a fresh graduated plastic pipette for each ingredient, measure out the neem oil and the vitamin E oil. Stir these ingredients into the homemade lavender body butter mixture. Then mix well to combine.
- Finally, pour the homemade body butter into a 4 oz. container of your choice. I used a small 4 oz. quilted canning/jelly jar. I like these jars as they are easy to find and make affordable packaging for homemade gifts that can be reused later on. You can easily find these at local grocery stores as well as big box stores. Keep in mind that this lavender body butter recipe will take a while to harden up. You can speed this up this process by placing this lavender body butter without beeswax in the fridge.
Storage and Usage
You should store your lavender body butter in an airtight container away from light and heat. This lavender body butter should last as long as the ingredient with the shortest shelf life. However, typical homemade body butters last 6 months to 1 year.
To use this lavender body butter, simply scoop out a small amount and rub onto skin as desired. Keep in mind that less is more. A little goes a long way and using too much will take the product longer to absorb.
Lavender Body Butter Recipe
Learn how to make a lavender body butter recipe with all the benefits of lavender essential oil. This homemade body moisturizer without beeswax is formulated with a variety of ingredients that nourish, hydrate, protect and moisturize skin. They also create a non-greasy body butter for your daily skin care regimen that you'll love!
Materials
- 3 oz. refined shea butter
- .25 oz. refined/deodorized cocoa butter
- .2 oz. hemp seed oil
- .1 oz. lanolin
- .1 oz. Cyclomethicone
- .05 oz. arrowroot powder
- .07 oz. lavender essential oil
- 1 ml pure 100% neem oil
- 1ml vitamin E oil
Tools
- digital scale
- double boiler or microwave
- heat safe glass bowls or Pyrex measuring cups
- Utensils for stirring
- Graduated transfer pipettes
- 4 ounce airtight container
Instructions
- Use a digital kitchen scale to weigh out the shea butter and cocoa butter. Combine the butters in a large glass Pyrex measuring cup and heat at 50% power in the microwave until fully melted. Alternately you may also melt the ingredients in a double boiler.
- Weigh out the arrowroot powder. Then stir it into the butters until it dissolves.
- Weigh out the lanolin and stir into the melted butters until it liquifies. Mix to incorporate.
- Now weigh the hemp seed oil, lavender essential oil and Cyclomethicone. Stir into the lavender body butter mixture.
- Use a graduated transfer pipette to measure out the vitamin E and neem oil. Add to the non-greasy body butter while still liquid. Then mix well to combine.
- Finally, pour the liquid body moisturizer into a 4 ounce container. Allow the homemade body butter to cool completely before screwing on the lid.
Notes
You can speed up the time it takes homemade lavender butter to solidify by placing the liquid body moisturizer in the refrigerator until solid.
To make an all natural body butter recipe without Cyclomethicone, replace the Cyclomethicone with either fractionated coconut oil (MCT oil) or camellia seed oil.
If you want a vegan body butter, you may omit the lanolin called for in the recipe. Alternately, you may substitute the lanolin with cupuacu butter.
To make purple body butter, add 1/8 teaspoon of cosmetic skin safe purple mica to the body butter when you add the arrowroot powder.
How to Make Whipped Lavender Body Butter:
If you love whipped body butters, you can whip my homemade lavender body butter recipe to make it fluffy. Here is how to turn this calming lavender body butter recipe into a whipped body butter:
- To make whipped lavender body butter, create the recipe as indicated above. However, don’t pour the body butter into the container. Instead leave the liquid body butter mixture for your DIY body butter in the container used for mixing in the additional ingredients.
- Now place the lavender body butter in your refrigerator to cool. Once the mixture starts to look opaque, remove it from the refrigerator.
- After you’ve taken the body butter out of the refrigerator, use the whisk attachment on an immersion blender or a hand mixer to whip the lavender body butter for a more dense whipped body butter.
- Whip the body butter to your desired fluffiness. However, be sure not to over whip your whipped body butter as the heat from mixing can cause it to deflate.
- Once whipped, spoon the whipped body butter into containers.
Tip: If your body butter doesn’t seem to be whipping, it could be that the mixture is still too warm. In this case, allow the body butter to cool for an additional amount of time. Then try again. For faster cooling times, you can also place the emulsified body butter mixture into the freezer for 5-10 minutes, as needed.
Tip: As whipping this body butter adds air to the product, this DIY lavender body butter will take up more volume than when it isn’t whipped. Therefore, if you make a whipped lavender body butter, I recommend sizing up your container for final storage.
More Body Butter Recipes with Essential Oils
If you like my recipe on how to make non-greasy body butter with lavender essential oil, then be sure to explore my other homemade body butter recipes with essential oils. Here are some of my favorite essential oil body butter recipes:
- Orange Peppermint Body Butter with Essential Oils
- Chocolate Body Butter Recipe
- Rose Body Butter Recipe (Vegan)
- Mosquito Repellent Body Butter Recipe
- Neem Oil Body Butter Recipe
You can find more skin care recipes and homemade gift ideas by following my Pinterest boards. If you’d like to read more from Soap Deli News be sure to follow me on Blog Lovin’, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
22 Comments
Ava
December 26, 2014 at 11:10 am
Is there any recipe that is in cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, etc? No worries if that is too hard. Thanks!
Rebecca D. Dillon
December 26, 2014 at 12:10 pm
No, I do everything by weight unless it’s under a gram so it can easily be increased or decreased and for more accuracy.
Ava
December 26, 2014 at 11:11 am
Oh and also, this recipe looks fabulous!
Rebecca D. Dillon
December 26, 2014 at 12:11 pm
Thanks! My grandmother loved this one. And the neem oil really did help significantly for her shingles too.
Tamara
April 11, 2015 at 10:34 pm
This recipe is excellent! I made this tonight, but I added different fragrance oils for a truly enticing experience. Such a great recipe. Thank you for sharing. Tamara
Rebecca D. Dillon
April 12, 2015 at 7:44 am
You’re welcome. So glad you liked it!
Heidi
April 28, 2015 at 1:37 am
Thanks for the recipe! Did the lavender completely cover the smell of the neem oil?
Rebecca D. Dillon
April 28, 2015 at 7:50 am
Yes, it did!
Hanna
July 9, 2015 at 3:44 pm
What kind of pigment was used for such a nice color of butter? I’m curious because commonly used natural pigments are water soluble…
Rebecca D. Dillon
July 9, 2015 at 5:16 pm
I used an ultramarine violet pigment powder.
Agnes
October 10, 2015 at 8:53 am
hey! I realy like your recipe, and I want to try it but i have a little problem here…Im polish and i don’t quite understand : there is a dot before the measure and i dont know its 0.25 or 25 oz?
Rebecca D. Dillon
October 10, 2015 at 9:30 am
.25 oz. is a quarter of an ounce.
Lyn
October 11, 2015 at 4:09 am
I am totally new to this but would like to make some of this cream for Christmas gifts for friends. Where do I source ingredients from?
Rebecca D. Dillon
October 11, 2015 at 10:00 am
I link up to suppliers within the recipe. However, you can find these online at most any soapmaking supplier. I’ve never been able to source the majority of the products used in my recipes locally.
Jen
October 19, 2015 at 10:01 am
Thanks, I’ll try tonight! Do you know if it would work if I substituted hemp butter for the shea butter? And, what oil can be used in place of neem? Otherwise I have everything else.
Rebecca D. Dillon
October 19, 2015 at 5:55 pm
The neem oil is used for it’s very specific properties. Without it you have an entirely new recipe. If the hemp butter is the same consistency as the shea then you can substitute. Otherwise you’ll have to play with amounts to get the proper consistency.
Jodi
October 27, 2015 at 10:06 am
This will make great Christmas gifts! What’s the shelf life?
Rebecca D. Dillon
October 27, 2015 at 1:17 pm
The shelf life will always be the same as the product you use with the shortest shelf life. This will vary depending on when you purchased ingredients and by manufacturer you choose for your purchases.
Anamaria
November 8, 2015 at 10:34 am
Hi Rebecca, what is Cycomethlicone for? Could I substitute it with something else? Where to find it?
Rebecca D. Dillon
November 8, 2015 at 11:03 am
It’s a synthetic silicone that gives your product a silky, smooth feel on skin and helps to make oil based products less greasy. It’s common in dry oil body sprays and lotions as well as cosmetic products. You can find it online through most soapmaking suppliers as well as Amazon.
Lex
November 17, 2015 at 9:12 am
When do you add the mica powder and how much? Do different mica powder colors require different amounts to get color?
Rebecca D. Dillon
November 17, 2015 at 7:35 pm
I’d add it as it as the last ingredient. I’d recommend a pinch to start up to a 1/4 teaspoon depending on what you’re using. You just want a touch of color but not enough that it’ll stain skin.
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