This Lemon Cream Body Butter is my favorite way to keep my skin nice and smooth through the dry winter months! It’s a super easy DIY all natural skin care recipe that comes together in just minutes. It keeps well for months and makes the perfect homemade gift as well.
This body butter is an all time most popular recipe! And for good reason, because it’s easy to make and works wonders on the skin! Usually body butters take forever to sink in and leave my skin semi-oily. But this body butter absorbs quickly and leaves my skin super soft.
Today is the second time I’ve given this super popular recipe an update with more tips. But the recipe has always remained the same. It’s a classic that’s one of my favorite natural skin care recipes. It’s extra easy because the recipe is all oil based with no liquid ingredients. This means you don’t need to worry about beeswax or emulsifying anything.
It’s as simple as melting together the ingredients, and adding essential oil! From there you can allow it to firm up on it’s own. This can take up to 24 hours depending on how warm it is in your house. Or you can stir it over an ice bath until it thickens up. Either way you’ll have a thick body butter that’s incredibly moisturizing.
Does anyone else slack off on skin care a bit over the winter months? My good habit of using my pumice stone everyday to maintain soft feet, disappeared somewhere over the winter. And now it’s spring and I just got my sandals out, so it’s time to take action. The pumice stone is once again in use, and this Lemon Cream Body Butter is fixing all my winter skin blues.
It’s really nice to have something extra moisturizing, and this really fits the bill. Also, it smells so good that I want to eat it, (sort of like a Girl Scout Lemon Cookie). This body butter is particularly good for softening dry or scaly skin, and restoring it to softness again.
I find that my hands, elbows, and feet need a little extra care throughout the seasons, and a regular lotion just isn’t always enough. Enter this body butter. Lately I’ve started using it as a cuticle cream as well, and it’s been working great.
Let’s jump in and make this Lemon Cream Body Butter step by step!
Step 1:
Start by measuring out each of the ingredients listed in the recipe.
I used lemon essential oil, but any citrus oil smells wonderful, as does vanilla. I buy my cocoa butter at a local health food store because it’s the easiest place to find it. You can also order it online as well.
Step 2:
Next you want to melt the ingredients over low heat until just warm and liquified. If you get the ingredients too hot you can destroy some of their beneficial properties.
Step 3:
After the cocoa/cacao butter is melted together with the coconut oil, add the Vitamin E oil.
Step 4:
This body butter becomes fully solidified after 24 hours. But I like to speed up the process by placing it over an ice water bath and stirring until it firms up. It will loosen up again, but after a day or so it will become it’s final firmed up texture. Mine has stayed solid up to 78ºF room temperature.
This is definitely a luxurious body butter, it feels like buttercream frosting. And I haven’t found anything else that softens my skin quite like this does.
If you don’t like or can’t use cocoa butter, try my Pumpkin Spice Body Butter for it’s incredible moisturizing from shea butter. It also smells so good and you can mix up the essential oils in that recipe for whatever scent you’d like.
This body butter doesn’t have any beeswax in it, so it melts as it comes in contact with your skin. I find that it absorbs into my skin way better than the ones that I’ve tried made with beeswax.
Note: Coconut oil melts at about 76ºF, and cocoa butter at 90ºF. So this body butter will become softer and even liquid if your room temperature approaches 80ºF or higher.
Update: the temperature in our house has fluctuated a lot as the outside temperatures get warmer, and my body butter has melted a couple of times now. You can remix it with a fork to make it fluffy again. Or just use it a little firmer. Either way, it works the same with very little change in texture over time.
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Lemon Cream Body Butter
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: makes 2/3 cup 1x
Description
This Lemon Cream Body Butter is my favorite way to keep my skin nice and smooth through the dry winter months! It’s a super easy DIY all natural skin care recipe that comes together in just minutes. It keeps well for months and makes the perfect homemade gift as well.
Ingredients
6 Tablespoons coconut oil
1/4 cup cocoa butter
1 Tablespoon vitamin E oil
1/4 Teaspoon lemon essential oil
Instructions
Place the coconut oil and cocoa butter in a saucepan. Over low heat, warm until just melted.
Remove from the heat. Add the vitamin E oil and essential oil.
Cool until the mixture solidifies, (a few hours at room temperature). Stir the body butter vigorously with a spatula, and then transfer to a clean container with a lid.
Notes
To speed up the cooling process, you can place the body butter over an ice bath and stir vigorously until it goes from melted to firm and fluffy.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
This recipe was last published in 2016, but has been updated with new photos, more step by step photos, and lots more information and tips.
Hi do you use refined or unrefined coconut oil?
I use unrefined coconut oil, it’s better for skin care products with less processing!
Thanks, for sharing these ideas, as I’m soon to be married this will really help me.
Really hope you enjoy it, this is my favorite body butter!
Will it give me a fairer and glowing skin? And can I whip it instead of using a spatula to turn it?
This body butter definitely deeply moisturizes well which can give you skin a glowing look. It’s also important to take care of your skin from the inside out as well with the usual things you hear like hydration, sleep, exercise, and nutrition! I think you should be able to whip this body butter, but I haven’t tried it myself, so I’d be curious to hear how it goes if you decided to try it!
I doubled my recipe. I did not have any vitamin E, so I substituted jojoba oil My blend came out very thick, smooth, and creamy. A little bit goes a long way. The lemon is more subtle than I anticipated but is a lovely complement to the chocolate-y cocoa butter. Thanks for sharing this simple recipe!
I’m so glad to hear you’re enjoying it, and a little definitely goes a long ways with body butter. Also you can also add a bit more lemon essential oil if you’re looking for a less subtle scent.
Can I substitute olive oil for the coconut oil
You can substitute olive oil for coconut oil, but it will result in a looser texture that I imagine will be closer to a lotion than a body butter.
can I skip the Bit E aspect
You should be able to skip the Vitamin E, just sub in a skin friendly oil of your choice that’s liquid at room temperature like jojoba oil.
I have been wanting to make this recipe since I found it two years ago. Today I made a 4x batch for myself and to give as gifts. This is a lovely recipe and works on my extremely dry skin. The cocoa smell is quite obvious when the creme is first used but the smell does wear off. Because of the large amount I was making, I decided to use the mixer and it came out fantastic! I purchased the cocoa “wafers” and melted them in the microwave on 50% power. I’m going to call it Whipped Body Butter because that’s how it came out. I think next time I make it I’ll use Shea Butter instead of the cocoa butter just to compare. Thank you so much, Kari, for sharing this wonderful recipe.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, and I’d love to hear how this works with shea butter!
Can I use mango butter or kokum butter instead of coco butter?
I think mango butter would work based on it’s consistency, but I don’t know about kokum butter since I’ve never worked with it before. I hope you’ll let me know how it goes if you try one of them out!