How to Melt Shea Butter for DIY Body Products

Melt shea butter, cocoa butter, and more for perfectly textured body butter!

Following a recipe is important when you’re creating a product that you want to replicate.

But by understanding how to melt shea butter and other natural ingredients, you’ll be able to get more creative. There’s no end to the variety of custom body products you can make!

And you can use tools you probably already have in your kitchen. 

I’m going to share one of my most popular recipes and walk you through the process of melting shea butter with several other natural ingredients—without getting a grainy texture in your final product.

Watch this video.

Skin-Nourishing Body Butter

This recipe is customizable! Add your favorite essential oils to it for an aroma you love.

Ingredients

• 2 oz (56 g) Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao)
• 2 oz (56 g) Coconut Oil (Cocos nucifera)
• 1 oz (28 g) Beeswax (Cera flava) 
• 1 oz (28 g) Shea Butter (Vitellaria paradoxa/Butyrospermum parkii)

Equipment

• Three 2 oz (60 ml) glass jars
• Several small bowls (to measure your ingredients)
• Kitchen scale
• Glass stirring rod (or a stainless steel spoon)
• Pyrex measuring cup
• A cooking pot that can hold the Pyrex

Directions

1. Set up a method of melting your ingredients over the stove. Try a glass measuring cup placed inside a soup pot that’s about ¼ full of simmering water. The water will heat the measuring cup and melt your ingredients.
2. Melt the beeswax in the measuring cup.
3. Add the butters and remelt, stirring gently with a glass stirring rod or stainless steel spoon. This is your melted body base.
4. Remove the blend from the heat and add your essential oils. Pro tip! Get your essential oils ready while your beeswax melts. Just blend the drops in a small glass or ceramic bowl.
5. Now pour your essential oils into your melted body butter. Stir gently.
6. Pour the butter into your glass jars or tins. Let it cool for at least fifteen minutes before using it. It will continue to firm up over the next day or so, but it’ll be cool enough to use a lot sooner!

TIP: Break your shea butter into small pieces before adding it to the Pyrex. Smaller pieces will melt more quickly.

If you want to add essential oils, you can do it in several ways…

1. Add a single blend of oils to the whole batch of melted butter, after you remove it from heat.
2. Add a unique blend of oils to each jar of melted butter after you pour it, so you can customize each one. Be sure to stir each jar gently with your glass stirring rod.
3. Leave the essential oils out altogether, and keep your jars of body butter in storage. When you need a specific therapeutic blend (maybe you want to make a muscle massage butter), simply re-melt your body butter and add the essential oils. This works great!

Source: Andrea Butje