DIY Whipped Coconut Body Creme

OH MY GOODNESS – I love DIY whipped coconut body creme  this recipe so much! I was at a high end green beauty boutique the other day and found a line of “Whipped Coconut” body cremes that smelled divine. They were, however, very expensive. So I got home and whipped out one of my Trader Joe’s jars of Virgin Coconut Oil and had a go at making my own. The result is fabulous. (See my photo on the right – it looks good enough to eat, right?) You will adore your new body creme, but here’s the really cool thing: Why not spoon into pretty jars and give as Holiday gifts too? The recipe is insanely simple, too.

It helps to have a stand mixer. You can probably use a hand held mixer, however I do like a stand mixer for aerating the oil.

Here are 2 recipes:

• 1 1/2 cups coconut oil (you need to use unrefined virgin or raw coconut oil and the most inexpensive store I’ve found to buy it is Trader Joe’s, however Wholefoods also carries their own brand, which is pretty reasonable too.
• 4 tbsp shea or mango butter*
• 1tsp of vitamin E oil
• 4 tsps aloe vera gel
• 1tsp pure vanilla essence

Place all the ingredients, except the aloe and vanilla essence in your mixer bowl and if you have a stand mixer, blend on high for about 3 minutes.  Place the mixer bowl in your fridge for about 1 hours. When you take it out, smash up the hardened oils with a wooden spoon until you have tiny pieces. Add the aloe gel and vanilla essence and blend again for about 4 minutes on high. I would stop the blender every minute and use a spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl down and to loosen any chunks of oil that may be stuck in the bottom. Spoon into your sterilized jars. You can either store them in the fridge (if it quite warm where you are,) or in a cool, dark cabinet.

Yield: This recipe yield approx 16 ounces of creme. So, I recommend using 2 8 ounce jars. You can even use Mason jars and pretty them up with creative labels if you’re making them as gifts.

Here’s the deluxe version:

• 1 1/2 cups coconut oil
• 1 tsp of rosehip seed oil
• 4tbsp shea or mango butter
• 4 tsp aloe vera gel
• 15 drops of rose absolute essential oil*

*You can purchase both these oils from Mountain Rose Herbs. The rose absolute oil is expensive, but one small bottle will make at least 6- 8 jars of creme. If you want a less expensive oil, but still want a delicate flowery scent, try Ylang Ylang instead.

Make the recipe as above. This is the one I make for gifts because the delicate rose scent is so beautiful.

When you apply your creams, you’ll notice tiny little “pearls’ which will dissolve when you rub the creme into your warm skin – heavenly!

Important note: I’ve just made a batch of creme, and the temperature is really warm here (above 70 degrees), so I’ve found that if I keep it out of the fridge, it gets a little too soft (remember, coconut oil turns to liquid in warm temp), so keep in the fridge unless it’s turned cool in your neck of the woods!