Tips and tricks for homemade shea butter recipes

Shea butter recipes can be difficult and complex to comprehend if you do not know the correct ingredients and techniques. In this post, we will specifically discuss some shea butter recipes for skin, particularly for shea butter acne purposes. The basic ingredients involved are: shea butter, of course, some amount of base oil (carrier) and some amount of essential oil. You can actually opt to skip adding base oil, as combining shea butter and the essential oil will do the trick. Adding base oil will make the cream softer and will make it easier to apply than its pure unrefined product. So, how do you choose which type of base oil and which type of essential oil to use? That will depend on the purpose of the cream, the desired scent of the finished cream and mainly, it’s just your personal preference. Example of base oil is extra virgin olive oil (2 tablespoons should be enough), and example of essential oil is lavender oil (a few drops, for scent, but more if you skip adding base oil).

Shea butter recipes – the best product is always homemade

The concept of making the cream is pretty simple. First, use a double pot to melt the shea butter on the steam. Let the water boil in a bigger pot before placing the smaller pot with the butter above the steam. Next, mix in base oil and essential oil into the melted butter. The most important factor to note here is to NOT overheat all the ingredients because overheating them will render most of their healing effect useless. Basically, the above step is just to melt the butter so that you can mix it easily with other ingredients. Do not ever heat it above 80 degC (175 F). It is recommended to add the oils when the temperature of the mixture decreases to the lowest level, but you are still able to mix it. If you’re not intending to make whipped cream, thne it is not necessary to use the electric mixer. Mixing it by hand will do.

Another important factor to note here is the quality of the ingredients. Unrefined butters and oils always produce the best effect. How much quantity or proportion, then, of all the ingredients we should use? A general rule of thumb is to keep the proportion by: total butter part (4/5) and total base oil part (1/5). If you prefer a less oily cream, use a smaller portion of the base oil – this will make the cream a little harder, though. As for essential oil, the recommended ratio of essential oil/fat total(butters and base oil) is 5 drops/1 oz. fat total. This will give a dilution amount of 1%, which is suitable even for pregnant women. Do take note, however, that some essential oils are not suitable to use when you are pregnant. Seek proper medical advice from your doctor before deciding on the ingredients. Generally, essential oil is not recommended to exceed 2.5% of the total cream. Keep in mind also that your homemade shea butter recipes does not contain any preservatives, therefore store them in proper place (a cool, dry place) and don’t make more than is necessary.