Warming, Relaxing Massage Butter

Since getting my order from New Directions Aromatics, I have been putting off making anything, because it's been so hard for me to decide what to make! I'm nervous about wasting my product, and I want to make sure it all goes to good use!

Today, I decided to try making a massage lotion to surprised Adrian, since we've both been stiff lately and needing free massages! I wanted something thicker than an oil, because it's so dry here that both Adrian and I just soak up coconut oil, so after some research, I decided to make a melting massage bar using shea butter, cocoa butter, jojoba oil and even a bit of beeswax! I also wanted this to be a warming lotion to use at night, so I used cinnamon bark essential oil, birch essential oil, and vanilla 10 fold.

Both cinnamon and birch can be irritating for the skin, and should be used with caution, in small quantities, so I was very careful about the amount of drops I used of each. The recommended starting concentration of both of these oils is 1 drop per 3 tsp of carrier oil, and then to go from there. Cinnamon bark oil is a great antidepressant, antibacterial/fungal/microbial, and is also an antiviral and antiseptic! It stimulates the immune system, purifies the body and is warming and also an aphrodisiac. It is beneficial for self acceptance and grounding and supports healthy relationships. Birch oil is a wonderful oil for aches and pains, for muscles and joints and bones. It is a natural analgesic, is anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic and anti-rheumatic. This is because it contains methyl salicylate, which has cortisone like properies, acting similarly to aspirin. It is also a wonderful oil for finding inner strength. Vanilla is an antioxidant, aphrodisiac, anti carcinogen, antidepressant and is also tranquillizing/relaxing. It also smells absolutely incredible, and I knew it would smell amazing with the cinnamon and birch!

Source: Sustainable Baby Steps, Organic Facts

To keep things simple, I didn't want a whipped lotion, but I also didn't want a solid bar, so I decided to try a variation on this recipe:

1 part beeswax
1 part cocoa butter
1 part liquid oil
essential oils, as desired

Source: Humblebee and Me

I didn't want mine quite as hard as this would turn out, so this is how I adapted the recipe:

50g cocoa butter
15g beeswax
50g of shea
15ml of jojoba oil
4 x drops of cinnamon bark
2 x drops of birch (a very little goes a very long way!)
5 x drops of vanilla 10 fold

Cocoa butter takes the longest to melt, so I put that in my double boiler until it was almost fully melted, and then added the beeswax. This mix alone smelled so amazing!

Cocoa butter and beeswax

When the beeswax had almost completely melted, I added the shea butter and let that melt fully.

Shea butter in the cocoa butter and beeswax

I then took it off the heat and added the jojoba oil.

Started to solidify after 8 minutes!

When this had cooled to the point where it was starting to solidify around the edges, I added the essential oils, so they wouldn't simply evaporate off of it. To add the essential oils, I started off with just a single drop of each, mixing fully and smelling to decide if I should add more. I added just enough to give this oil a nice, subtle, warm and spicy scent. I'm not a fan of overly scented products, and I think this turned out beautifully. It set very quickly because of the beeswax, and I actually had to put the bowl back on the still warm burner so I could fully incorporate the essential oils!

Essential oils added, ready to cool in the fridge.

After that, I poured it into my sterilized mold/container and stuck it in the fridge with the lid off to solidify completely.

Not too much of a colour change, but you can tell that this is more solid than before! 

Once it had solidified completely (about 30 minutes, thought it didn't even need that long), I took it out of the fridge to see what the consistency was like. I love it! It's definitely solid, but the minute my finger touched it, it started to melt a bit - it's exactly what I wanted. I cut it into little cubes to store in the same container, so that all I'd need to do is pull out a cube and melt it in my hands - way easier than trying to gouge out a chunk whenever I wanted to use it.

It smells amazing - subtle, just like I wanted. This was absolutely perfect. Thick, and moisturizing, it took a long time to soak in, and so lasted for the whole massage! It was a great consistency for massaging, and smelled absolutely incredible as it warmed into the skin. I am so happy with this massage butter! Definitely going to be making more of this, and experimenting with different scents!