Wednesday, October 26, 2011

DIY: Creamy Extra Potent Shea Butter Lotion

I know some of you (probably 6 out of the 10 people who read this blog) are going to close this blog right away once I hop on my slightly chunky, urban-hippie bandwagon. You go ahead, you'll be missing out on some good info here. For the remaining 4 of you, I have some info to share... gather round... come close so you can hear this THERE'S TONS OF CRAP IN OUR BEAUTY PRODUCTS. That's right! CRAP! Chemicals, fillers, preservatives, colorants, etc....

I love lipstick as much as the next gal, but when I read a report that said there's lead in lipstick I had to step back. Why do we have junk in our cosmetics?

1) Mass produced cosmetics and beauty products require preservatives to prevent molding (AKA: the dreaded parabens)

2) Chemicals are cheaper than the (natural) good stuff

When I became pregnant with my son I wanted to live a healthier lifestyle. We started to eat mostly organic and I began to phase out my non-green beauty products. Likewise, I began to buy green beauty products. I've found that there are 2 types of green beauty products: (1) those that are moderately expensive and (2) those that are hellishly expensive.

So, what's a girl to do? Do it yourself! That's right. DO. IT. YOURSELF. Save some cash and make your own!

I've been taking the DIY approach to beauty and making my own products. After my son was born my skin looked horrible. It was dry, had dry patches, looked blotchy, my eyes were looked wrinkled and old. I decided to stop spending tons of money on things that didn't work and try to make my own. A bit of trial and error is required, but that's how it goes sometimes.

Here's a recipe that you can do at home. You can get all the ingredients at your local health food store.

Extra Potent Shea Butter Lotion

1 Tbsp - Virgin coconut oil
1 Tbsp - Shea butter
1-3 tsp -Grape seed oil/jojoba oil/olive oil (add more oil if you like your lotion runny)

You don't need to heat the ingredients (well, might want to if it's cold out). Simply use a spatula and stir until all the ingredients are creamy. You're done. That's it. I've found that if you heat the butters before mixing, the mixture can harden (and I mean really harden) when it cools. Also, shea butter melts at 75 degrees so DO NOT leave this home made concoction in your car... in the summer, especially. I'll show you how to make lotion bars in another post. Lotion bars are a fabulous way to cart around your own home made moisturizing goodness.

(Tip: I'd like to point out here that one of the reasons that parabens or preservatives are not required in this recipe is because you're only using butters and oil. Once you add water, your lotion has the potential to mold or go rancid.)

Now, how much would you have spent on shea butter before reading this recipe? You're saving some cash, and foregoing all those nasty chemicals. How FAB is that?!

BTW... for those of you who want to read the article talking about lead in lipstick, here you go.
http://safecosmetics.org/article.php?id=223

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