Rose and Shea Butter Body Butter

Rose shea butter is shea butter blended with almond oil and a few drops of rose essential oil, giving a rich body butter with a delicate floral scent. Baraka's shea butter is unrefined, strained and filtered only, and made by hand by the women of the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, Ghana.

The same women's centre also makes Baraka's shea oil, African black soap, kombo butter and baobab oil by hand. This page covers what rose shea butter is, the recipe, how to store it and how much essential oil is sensible.

Rose shea butter: what it is and what it feels like

Rose shea butter is a simple homemade body butter. It uses three ingredients: shea butter, almond oil and rose essential oil. The shea butter is the base, the almond oil is blended in with it, and the rose essential oil adds the floral fragrance.

Shea butter is solid at room temperature and melts on contact with skin. It has traditionally been used on dry skin, lips, hands, feet and hair, which is why it makes a good base for a body butter.

Unrefined shea butter has its own look and smell, and neither is a fault:

• The natural colour ranges from ivory through cream to pale yellow and varies between batches.
• A mild nutty smell is normal. The rose essential oil adds its own scent alongside it.

Because the shea butter is unrefined, nothing has been bleached or deodorised out of it. What you scoop from the jar is the butter as it comes from the women who make it.

Rose body butter recipe: three ingredients, one pot

This rose body butter recipe needs a double boiler, a spoon and a clean jar. There is no water in it, and the whole thing comes together by melting, stirring and cooling.

This recipe was originally published in 30 Shea Butter DIY Recipes.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (120 ml) shea butter
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) almond oil
• 10 drops rose essential oil (about 0.5 g)

For the shea butter, Baraka shea butter is unrefined, strained and filtered only, so the base of your body butter has nothing refined out of it.

The 10 drops of rose essential oil are well within the limit for a body product, which is covered below.

Directions

1. Melt the shea butter in a double boiler.
2. Remove from the heat and stir in the almond oil and rose essential oil.
3. Pour the mixture into a clean jar and let it cool completely before you put the lid on.

Stir the rose essential oil in off the heat, as in step 2, so the fragrance is not driven off by the hot butter. Leave the jar undisturbed while it cools. The butter firms up as it sets.

Storage

Keep the jar closed, in a cool place away from heat and direct sun. Shea butter on its own keeps 2+ years when stored properly, and the same care suits this blend.

Use a clean, dry spoon or clean fingers each time you take some out. The butter may soften in a warm room and firm up again when it cools. Colour can vary slightly from one batch of shea butter to the next, and that is natural.

Shea butter with essential oils: how much to use

Shea butter works well with essential oils, but the amount matters. For a leave-on product, keep essential oils to these limits as a share of the total weight:

• Body: at most 2%
• Face: at most 1%
• Lips: at most 0.5%
• Babies and young children: none

Essential oils are measured in drops. As a rule of thumb, there are about 20 drops in a gram. The 10 drops of rose essential oil in this recipe (about 0.5 g) are well under the 2% limit for body use in a jar this size.

If you change the recipe, do the sum before you add more drops. A face butter should hold half the essential oil of a body butter, and a lip balm a quarter. This body butter is not made for babies or young children, so leave out the essential oil entirely if you are making a version for them.

Choose the oil with some care. Bergamot and lemon essential oils are phototoxic, so never use them in a leave-on recipe. Sweet orange can go in at the same number of drops if you want a citrus note, or you can leave the oil out and let the shea butter's mild natural scent come through.

If you want to make the butter without any fragrance, simply skip the rose essential oil. The shea butter and almond oil make a plain body butter on their own.

Quick answers

Rose shea butter

Rose shea butter is a body butter made from shea butter, almond oil and rose essential oil. It leaves skin moisturised with a delicate floral scent. Baraka's shea butter is unrefined, strained and filtered only, and made by hand by women's producer groups at the Konjeihi Women's Enterprise Centre in Wa, Ghana.

Rose body butter recipe

Melt 1/2 cup (120 ml) shea butter in a double boiler. Take it off the heat and stir in 1/4 cup (60 ml) almond oil and 10 drops of rose essential oil. Pour into a clean jar and let it cool completely. More in Instructions:

Shea butter with essential oils

Yes. In this recipe, 10 drops of rose essential oil are stirred into 1/2 cup of melted shea butter, together with almond oil, once the mixture is off the heat. More in Instructions: