DIY whipped body butter + Shea Butter productreview #BioFinestSheaButter

Promo image provided by BioFinest. Other photos were taken by me.

Today I made a glorious mess 

and my skin feels fabulous!

I follow a few bath and body DIY craft sites and have been meaning to play around with Shea Butter for a while now. When the chance came up to try out Biofinest's Premium Raw Unrefined Shea Butter, I said "Heck Yeah!" and started scrolling through my bookmarks for an easy yummy online project.

Disclaimer: I received this package of BioFinest Premium Unrefined Shea Butter at a discount in exchange for an honest & unbiased review.  All opinions expressed here are my own. 

So, what is shea butter? It is a fat extracted from the shea tree nut through a fairly elaborate process. Wikipedia has an easy to follow synopsis here.

It has a number of applications, but the majority are cosmetic. Applied topically, it alleviates dryness. I find the silky feel lasts for hours - much longer than the average store bought lotion. Shea butter is full of Vitamins A & E, as well as antioxidants and fatty acids. Repeated use is is reported to help relieve eczema, psoriasis and other skin conditions. 

It also is supposed to lessen wrinkles and stretch marks when applied regularly. When I was pregnant and gained about a million pounds, I was given a shea butter and herb cream to try and prevent stretch marks. I used it daily and don't know if it was the lotion or lucky genes, but something worked. 

For the last few weeks, I've been rubbing straight shea butter on my perpetually cracked heels (always running around barefoot) and it is fantastic. Semi firm when you first break a piece off, it softens in your hand. It is very greasy when first applied, so I'll wait until I'm going to be off my feet for a while, rub it in and put on a pair of spa booties or old socks. You'll want to be sure to clean your hands before touching any papers or whatever.

Well, enough of my yaking. Let's get on with the project: This is what the shea butter looks like fresh out of the resealable package. It is double packed, which is a good thing as the inner bag was a bit slipper. Love that the outer sack has a zipper lock, as a little shea butter goes a long way.

If you purchase your shea butter from BioFinest, they will email you an e-book loaded with recipes and ideas. I managed to lose my email (note to self: contact them for a replacement) but found an impressive quantity of bath/body craft projects online. Many involve melting, mixing and cooling ingredients. I decide to start with something even easier. I found this DIY for Whipped Shea Butter Moisturizer on The Sparkle Collective. Monique makes it for her hair, but it works well as a skin cream too. Super simple sounding and I already had the other ingredients - perfect!

Following Monique's directions, 1 cup of shea butter goes into the bowl. It looks a lot like cow's butter but has a slightly firmer texture (at first). It kind of feels like creamy wax, if that makes any sense.

A quick twirl of the electric beaters on high. Then a couple of tablespoons each of jojoba and coconut oil were added, as directed. I ended up using 2 jojoba and 3 coconut. Things were getting pretty liquidy but a couple more minutes of whipping fluffed the concoction back up again. It had more of a white than yellow color at this point. 

Then essential oils were added. I used lemon and lavender, mostly lemon. And more than the original project called for, since this unrefined shea butter has a distinctive scent that I don't really care for. I didn't really notice this when rubbing it on my feet, but the scent is a bit to strong for my arms or face. It is often described as nutty or smoky. I wouldn't say that. This is going to sound odd, but it reminds me a little of play dough. Please note, this is just my take on it. Many folks don't notice and even like the smell. 

Here's the final body butter. The amazingly light and silky texture is fantastic! However, I couldn't get past the "undercurrent" shea butter smell. After tested it out on a couple of folks. I found someone who absolutely loves the scent and was happy to make her a gift of it.

The little tin is from Michaels Crafts and perfect for gift giving

This was a fun and fast project to make and the final feel of this lotion is absolutely luxurious. I will definitely try it again once I track down a more neutral scented shea butter. Wondering why I was able to use a similar product while pregnant without the aroma bothering me, I poked around and found this interesting and very thorough Guide to Different Shea Butters over at HumbleBee & Me. It looks like my nose might prefer a product that is more refined and neutral smelling. I'll have to track some down and let you know how it goes.

For more info about BioFinest Premium Raw Shea Butter, visit their website, Facebook and Amazon pages. They also have a 100% money back guarantee if you purchase from Amazon. (By the way this is not an affiliate link - I receive nothing from any purchases. )

Thanks for taking the time to check out this post. Are you into making your own bath and body products? Do you have any favorite ingredients or recipes? Have you ever used/worked with shea butter? I'm new to this type of crafting and am looking for any advice or suggestions.

Pop by later this week for a decoupage photo project and craft kit product revew. Here's wishing you a creative day!