Hair and Skin Butters and Their Benefits

A list of hair and body butters and their benefits.  Learn how to use shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter, and other butters in DIY beauty recipes for the hair or skin.  

When you're making DIY bath and body, DIY hair care, or DIY beauty recipes, you'll need carrier oils, hair and skin butters, and essential oils.  I already have a post dedicated to different carrier oils and the benefits and several posts talking about essential oils, but I didn't have anything devoted to the different body butters and their benefits.

Hair and skin butters are plant based ingredients that are thicker than carrier oils.  They are usually derived from a plant seed, bean, kernel, or nut.

When added to a DIY bath and body recipe or DIY beauty recipe, they each have unique properties that promote skin or hair health.  

Body butters are high in proteins, vitamins, and fats that help nourish and moisturize your skin and hair.  Their fatty acids make them a solid at room temperature, so they are thicker than carrier oils.

The most common skin and hair butters are shea butter, cocoa butter, and mango butter, but there are several more butters that have amazing benefits for natural beauty.  

Each butter has its own unique properties, so you can choose the one that's best for your DIY recipe.  Generally, you can swap butters in most DIY beauty recipes like lotions, body butter recipes, or sugar scrubs.  

How to Paint Soap With Mica Powder Alcohol Easter Egg Soaps

Learn how to paint soap with mica powder and alcohol to make cute Easter egg soaps.  This melt and pour soap butter has extra shea butter in it to moisturize your skin, and it only takes a few hours to make.

Even though Easter is over a month away, I wanted to get a start on my Easter projects early for a few reasons.  First, I'm so over winter.  I love where I live and I love the farm, but winter gets to me more and more each year.  I'm ready to move on to spring scents and fun projects after the long winter.

Secondly, I wanted to give you time to order supplies like this cute Easter egg soap mold so you have time to make things before Easter.

Learning how to paint soap with mica powder and alcohol is fairly easy.  You just need soap, mica, and alcohol.  It's quick to do, and you can really get creative.

I used this technique for my painted gingerbread house molds, and I knew it would be perfect for these cute Easter melt and pour soaps.

You can also use this technique to paint hot process or cold process soaps, but I used melt and pour because it's quick and easy.

HOW TO PAINT SOAP WITH MICA POWDER AND ALCOHOL EASTER EGG SOAPS

I kept my soap white because I wanted to use several colors of mica to make these cute mica painted soaps.  You could also color the the soap.

If you use use a soap colorant, I suggest using a light color.  I've painted on colored soap before, and it does work well, but lighter soap will give you more contrast.

MELT AND POUR SOAP

This tutorial for how to paint soap with mica powder and alcohol is easy to make because it uses melt and pour soap.  If you're new to melt and pour, you just cut it, melt it, and pour it.  It really is that easy!

I used Crafty Bubbles brand melt and pour in white. You could also use clear one with an additive, but I like choosing my own additives for each batch.

SHEA BUTTER

You don't have to add anything to melt and pour soap, but I like to add an extra oil or a body butter.  I added shea butter to this batch.

I added shea butter because it's moisturizing and a natural emollient.  It's great for dry skin with vitamins A and E.

MICA POWDER

I used mica powder to make a "paint" by mixing it with rubbing alcohol.  The alcohol evaporates, leaving the mica.  The colors are bright and vivid and last through a few washings.


This is the set of mica powder that I have.  I was worried about the bags, but they don't spill and are easier to use than I thought they would be.  This set will last me forever, too.

FRAGRANCE

I'm moving on to spring and fruity scents in hopes of warmer weather, so I used the new Blueberry natural fragrance oil from Crafty Bubbles.   It's new, so it's not on their website yet.  You'll have to call or email them to order it.

You can use any fragrance oil or essential oil in this painted Easter egg soap.  

EASTER EGG MOLD

I used this cute Easter egg mold from Wilton.  Each cavity holds about 3 ounces of soap.  The soap was very easy to unmold since it's made from silicone.

I don't see it on Amazon, but this one is similar.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound melt and pour soap  (I used Crafty Bubbles, but you can use this one)
• 1 tablespoon shea butter
• 1 ounce by weight blueberry natural fragrance oil or other fragrance oil or essential oil
• mica powder
• paint brush
• rubbing alcohol
• Easter egg soap mold

DIRECTIONS

STEP #1

Weigh one pound of melt and pour soap with a digital scale.  Cut int 1 inch cubes and place in a Pyrex measuring cup.

Melt at 30 second intervals until melted, stirring at each interval.

STEP #2

 When it's melted, add the shea butter and stir well.  The heat from the soap will melt the shea butter.

I don't like to microwave shea butter because it can get grainy.  It won't make much of a difference in the soap because you won't feel it, but it's still good practice not to microwave it.

STEP #3

Add up to 1 ounce by weight of fragrance oil or essential oil per pound of soap.  I use a laser thermometer to check the temperature of the soap.  Add the essential oil or fragrance oil when the soap is under 180 degrees so it doesn't burn off.  

The blueberry natural fragrance oil that I used is very strong, so I used less.

STEP #4

Pour into the Easter egg mold and let sit for several hours until cool and fully hardened.

STEP #5

Once the soaps are set up, they should pop right out of the mold.

Add about 1/4 teaspoons mica powder to the bottom of a disposable cup and add enough rubbing alcohol to make a paint.  I use a dropper to add the rubbing alcohol.

STEP #6

 Stir the mica and alcohol with a paint brush.  Then paint your soaps.  Get creative!  

Let the painted soaps sit until dry, which doesn't take long because the alcohol evaporates quickly.

Once they are dry, they are ready to use.  The mica will last through several washings.

Although melt and pour soap is ready to use as soon as it's cool, I like to let mine sit to dry for a few days.  I set it on a cookie cooling rack so the air can get all around it.  

To help your painted Easter egg soap last longer, use a soap dish.  This lets the water drain so the soap doesn't sit in water.  

Easter Solid Sugar Scrub Soap Cubes Recipe

This Easter peep solid sugar scrub soap cube recipe is so cute!  It's like a soap and sugar scrub in one, so it exfoliates as you cleanse.  

Why is Easter so late this year?  I've been ready to post fun, cute, and pastel things for a while now.  I can't wait until Easter to share them, so I'm sharing them now.  

I found this adorable Easter inspired mold last month, and I knew that I had to be something with sugar because of the holiday.  I decided on a solid sugar scrub soap cube recipe because I haven't made one in a while.

Solid sugar scrub cubes are so nice because they are convenient.  You use them in the shower like soap, but they exfoliate while you're washing for softer skin.

I also added some glycerin and a carrier oil for more moisture.  In the winter, you probably need to add moisture because heating is very drying for your skin.  In the summer, chlorine and the sun dry out your skin.  

So these solid sugar scrub cubes are perfect for any time of the year.  I added some vanilla essential oil, but you can use any essential oil or fragrance oil that you like.  

DIY Detangler Spray With Marshmallow Root

This diy detangler spray is easy to make and stable on the shelf for weeks without refrigerating.  It has marshmallow root infused oil for slip for easier brushing.

My poor daughter is 11-years-old and still has baby fine hair.  She wants to keep her hair long, but it gets knotted horribly.  

She takes karate, ju jitsu, and weapons, so she has her hair in a ponytail several times a week.  I know that is what is causing breaking, leading to knotted ends, but she needs to keep her hair up and away from her face.

As if that weren't bad enough for the poor girl, she's also extremely sensitive to hair brushing.  Her brothers are both on the spectrum, and she has some sensory issues.  This just happens to be one of them.

I'm glad we don't have neighbors because they would be quite concerned the way she carries on when it's time to cut her hair!

We've tried a lot of detanglers, both from the store and homemade.  I use a hot oil treatment for her hair about once a month to keep the ends healthy.

A few weeks ago, she used the DIY hair oil for dry hair that I made for myself.  I knew it would help her hair, but I was still shocked at how well it worked.

Normally, in the week before her hair cuts, her hair gets very knotted and can even get matted underneath.  I worked this hair oil into it and hoped for the best.

An hour and a shampoo later, and the comb was going right through her hair with minimal tangles at the end.  I'm not sure who was more thankful, her or me!

That hair oil inspired this DIY detangler spray.  The star of this recipe is the marshmallow root, so I don't recommend making it without it.  It's really what helps gets the tangles out.

DIY Hanging Air Freshener With Essential Oils

These cute DIY hanging air fresheners with essential oils are perfect for the car, a closet, or anywhere that needs a little freshening up.

If you have kids or pets, then I'm guessing that you have a need for an air freshener.  I have three kids and four indoor pets, so yeah.  The air could use some freshening with two teenage boys in one bedroom.  

I was buying a fancy air freshener for my car, but even on sale, it wasn't cheap.  I had to buy so many to get them cheap that they lost their scent before I could even use them.

I used my DIY gel air freshener in my car for a while, but it dried up a few months ago.  I plan on making more of those, but I also wanted to try this DIY hanging air freshener with essential oils.

This DIY hanging air freshener is so easy to make, too.  And you can use it in your car, closet, drawers, or anywhere else that needs a little freshening up.

This could even be a great project for scout troops.  Just have them wear gloves when they are working with the essential oils or fragrance oils.

This could be a fun fundraiser for them to sell to make money for dues or a fun trip.