Slather it on!

Just the words sound fabulous..."body butter." Butter for your body. Something that is as delicious on your skin as melted butter is on corn. Mmmmm!

When I see G's bare legs after a warm day of play and scooting around on the floor of the multipurpose room at school, rolling on the grass, and digging in the sand, her dry ashy skin just screams out to be buttered! Well, it does to me anyway. :)

Just plain old lotion has never seemed to do it for me. It's too wet and runny. Not fun, not earthy, not nearly as natural and pure as what I put on her hair. Usually one of the first ingredients in lotion is mineral oil. No thanks. Why have all those ingredients that you cannot pronounce when there exist such decadent things as "kokum butter, aloe vera butter, jojoba butter, tucuma butter, mango butter, macadamia nut butter, avocado butter..." and on and on! Jeez I am suddenly craving a fresh loaf of french bread!

I decided to use coconut oil as a base and just try to make my own body butter. I had tried pure shea, the unrefined one from West Africa, but it was a bit too hard to scrape out of the jar when you're in a hurry...you really have to melt it well in your hands. Whereas coconut oil melts almost instantly. Us being a "hurry hurry get out the door Mommy's gonna miss the bus!" kind of family, we needed something faster. So I tried combining coconut oil and shea butter. It worked great because the coconut oil softened up the shea. All I did was melt both of them in a double boiler. But I was dying to give other butters a try. There are fabulous websites such as Mountain Rose Herbs and Essential Wholesale where you can buy these in small or quite large sizes. You can try it yourself at home. Try putting in a couple drops of essential oil! (Make sure it's not a skin irritant first, and that its scent will mesh well with the natural scent of the butters. Refined butters tend to be deodorized, whereas unrefined, or raw, butters retain their original scent, which can sometimes be strong). Mountain Rose Herbs is nice because there is background information on the source and use of all the butters. They have a ton of other cool stuff there, too, like teas and bulk organic herbs and spices.

The perfect blend of body butter scoops up easily in your fingers, yet isn't too wet. And it doesn't sit on the skin too long, it rubs in well. Some people whip their body butter, but I don't. My jar is heavy and a little goes a long way. There is no air blended into it. Some people swear by mine, but I only have it at certain times after I have gathered the ingredients at special prices, and then I usually sell out. I call mine "Mama Snap's Body Buttah" and it contains Kokum (although I may start attempting substitutes for this one), Shea, Coconut, Mango, and a few others. When I do have it, it along with pure 100% Virgin Coconut Oil is available at Snapaholics.com

With so much great, wholesome stuff available for the body, I figure why not stay all-natural, like we do with our kids' hair? Does the body deserve any less? I mean, c'mon....Cyclopentasiloxane or Shea Butter? Propylene Glycol or Jojoba Oil? DMDM hydantoin or Macadamia Nut Butter? Is it any contest?

 Get some small sizes and try melting some of your own! Take a look at natural body butter ingredients and see what some of the popular ones are. Then get your double boiler out and have fun! It also makes a great gift and will keep a long time.