DIY: Whipped Shea Butter with Lavender & Vitamin E

I tend to have really dry hands due to spending all my waking hours with kids – which always includes a lot of hand washing, messy projects, clean up and food prep.  At times, particularly in winter and also when I attend hand drumming classes consistently, my hands can even develop painful cracks.  Store-bought lotions typically do not cut it for relieving and repairing these small cuts, and those same commercial lotions are also full of a million chemicals that are not good for anyone. (However, I will say that if I’m going to buy a store bought lotion, I absolutely love this one called Mimosa Blossom Dream Cream by Super Salve Co.  It is fantastic!)

In the past I’ve tried using straight coconut oil on my hands when they get dry, but I’m not crazy about the greasy film left behind. I had come across recipes over the years for homemade whipped lotions and finally decided to order a few ingredients to create my own.

I made this recipe a while back and quickly documented it here before I forgot how to recreate it.  I started with getting a pound of unrefined organic shea butter and small mason jars off Amazon.  I also purchased some Jason’s brand Vitamin E oil from Whole Foods.  I intentionally chose not to add coconut oil to my recipe because I have seen others have the problem of shea butter lotions liquifying in warm temperatures.  I suspect those lotions may have had coconut oil in them… I may be wrong though and will update if mine (without coconut oil) ever melts the same way.

I put the block of Shea Butter in an electric mixing bowl after breaking it up a bit and softening the mass as best I could with my hands to help the motor out.  Then I added about three teaspoons of Jason’s vitamin E oil and turned on the mixer to a relatively high speed.

I scraped everything down a few times and restarted the mixer.  Then, after the mixture was well-softened, I added about 25 drops of essential oil and started the mixer again until it was whipped to the consistency of cake icing.  I chose lavender to scent my batch of lotion, and was happy with the way it turned out.

It looked yummy enough to eat!

Here is the final recipe I used:

Ingredients:
1 lb of organic, unrefined shea butter
3 teaspoons of Vitamin E oil
20-25 drops of your favorite essential oil

Whip ingredients in electric mixer until fluffy.  Fill jars and lightly press down the moisturizer as you go to fill any air pockets.

I stored my moisturizer in 4oz glass mason jars, and this recipe makes approximately 6-8 jars of moisturizer.

This is a great gift for friends, and does a fantastic job deeply moisturizing my skin! Let me know if you try the recipe or if you have your own. The shea butter I used had an expiration date of about 12 months after the date of purchase, so that is the same expiration date I am assuming for my lotions to stay fresh.

Enjoy!

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