In the last few months I've been getting more and more into homemade body products.  

I have no idea why it's taken me so long really, it seems obvious that if you care about what you put inside your body you would also care about what you put on your body since the skin is the largest organ of the body and takes on board whatever your throw at it!

It's been a slow transition and i'm not quite there yet, I will be sure to do a full round up of my various discoveries in the next few weeks but for now I have a very simple but totally luxurious body whip... perfect for a little Christmas indulgence for yourself or as gifts for others!

It takes two key ingredients and any natural extracts such as lavender or vanilla that you may choose to include.  The proportions of the oil/butter dictate whether you end up with a thick body butter or a lighter body whip.... I adore the whip!!

I have linked a few websites below that I originally found to help guide me in my experiments, they provide slightly different ratios of solid to liquid oils compared to those i have used- i'm not sure if altitude has any bearing on this but I certainly needed a lot less solid than seemed called for to achieve a beautiful fluffy whip. Have a play and re-blend with extra solid or liquid as necessary. You can also substitute for other oils/butters (such as shea) to those I used.

A pretty jar, a ribbon and label would be all that is needed to transform these simple concoctions into a beautiful gift.

I also gave my sister a set of some of these homemade beauty products for her birthday last month. Body butter, face toner, deodorant, face powder, bronzer... some of these are still works in progress, so I will reveal all in due course...

Recipe: Thick body butter

Ingredients

• 1 cup cocoa butter 
• ½ cup coconut oil (or use extra cocoa butter)
• ½ cup almond oil 
• extracts to suit- I used 4 drops lavender and 1 tsp vanilla bean powder

Recipe: Fluffy body whip

Ingredients

• ½  cup cocoa butter 
• 1 ½ cup sweet almond oil
• extracts to suit- I used 8 drops lavender (creates a very light fragrance)

Method (same for both)

Melt the solid oil/butter in a bowl over boiling water until melted then stir in the almond oil and any extracts.

Allow the mixture to partially cool (edges beginning to solidify), whip well until thick fluffy and white. Cool and whip again if necessary until fluffy.

Note: the lighter whip will fluff up more easy than the thicker butter.

Some links to other blogs recipes:

Great body butter recipe by 'Rawmazing' (great recipe starting point)

Thick body butter by 'Wellnessmama' (she has lots of great natural beauty recipes)

A zest body whip with a difference by 'She Wears Many Hats'  (note this recipe incudes honey so is not technically vegan)