How to Love Your Skin With Cocoa Butter

Aura Cacia

by | Updated: December 3rd, 2016 | Read time: 2 minutes

Feb
10

Ahh “..cocoa butter. It’s versatile, smells heavenly and truly loves dry, irritated skin. Better yet, it’s the go-to natural ingredient you can use to make a whole range of homemade skincare solutions–from lotions and salves, to belly balms and foot remedies.

But your relationship with cocoa butter can be complicated. Although prized for its nourishing properties and scent, the solid form of natural cocoa butter can sometimes be difficult to work with. Once you know how to handle it properly, you’ll find yourself falling in love with cocoa butter over and over again as it takes care of a variety of your skincare needs.

The key to your long-term relationship with cocoa butter? Make it melt.

 Stop the world and melt with cocoa butter

To use cocoa butter in your favorite formulas, you simply need to melt it properly. The preferred method is a double boiler. Here’s how:

  1. Grab a medium-sized saucepan and a small-sized saucepan (the small pan should fit in the medium pan).
  2. Break the desired amount of cocoa butter into pieces with a knife.
  3. Place the cocoa butter inside the small saucepan.
  4. Fill the medium saucepan half full with water, then place the small saucepan inside and wait for the water to boil. (This method provides a slower melting process than just putting the cocoa butter in the microwave, and prevents the cocoa butter from burning.)
  5. As the water boils (and your small pan heats up), your cocoa butter will liquefy.
  6. After it’s liquefied, you can add essential oils and other ingredients–depending on what you are making. As a rule, you should use six drops of essential oil to one tablespoon of cocoa butter.
  7. Continue to stir the cocoa butter as you work with it to keep it from going back to a solid too quickly.

Here is a great recipe to take care of those tired, cold, dry winter feet.

Homemade Healing Foot Balm

Ingredients

Directions

Combine all ingredients except essential oils in a small saucepan. Place the small saucepan in a medium saucepan filled halfway with water and bring water to a boil. Stir the oils until melted. Remove from heat; stir to combine thoroughly, then add essential oils. Pour mixture into a storage container.