This light and creamy honey coconut body butter smells just like honey and a warm summer day, and I am utterly smitten with it. As I write this I am constantly pulling my hands up to my face for a good sniff—I imagine I must look a touch bonkers, but I’m ok with that.
The base of the body butter is virgin coconut oil and beautiful, unrefined Canadian beeswax (this particular block is from Raven Creek Farm in Manitoba, and it’s just lovely). The coconut oil contributes a summery sweetness to the final product, while the beeswax brings a nice honey note. On its own coconut oil is a pretty thin moisturizer, but when paired with beeswax it gets just enough of a thickening kick to deliver the perfect dose of summer moisture.
From there I’ve added just two essential oils—clove bud and labdanum. Clove bud adds a hint of spice and warmth that isn’t clearly distinguishable in the final blend, but works beautifully with everything else. Labdanum is a favourite of mine, derived from a small sticky shrub called the Cistus ladanifer. Egyptian pharaohs wore false beards made from goat hair soaked in labdanum, and it’s popular in perfumery. And, as a plus, it’s said to be good for mature skin. It smells of sunshine on a warm day, with sweet and musky notes, and hints of the sun on dry grass. If you haven’t ever tried it, get a bottle. You won’t regret it.
Honey Coconut Body Butter
8g | 0.28oz beeswax (USA / Canada)
36g | 1.27oz virgin coconut oil
2 drops clove bud essential oil
25 drops labdanum essential oilEnsure the bottle of labdanum essential oil is well sealed, and place it in a hot water bath. It’s a very viscous resin, so you’ll need to warm it up to get it to drop.
Melt the beeswax and coconut oil together in a double boiler. Once melted, remove from the heat.
Stir in the essential oils and decant into a 60ml/2oz container to set up.
To use, massage into the skin and enjoy the decadent scent! (Don’t put it on your lips, though, it tastes awful!)
Lovin me some Humblebee!!!! Love your post on the body butter and lip creme.
Barbie
Thanks so much, Barbie!
Hi Marie!
What do you think of this oil ingredient list? $150??? Too crazy!!
RODIN olio lusso Luxury Face Oil
SIZE 1 oz
WHAT IT DOES:
Applied morning and night, olio lusso is perfect for anyone seeking hydrated skin, and a luminous complexion. Great for all skin types, RODIN olio lusso moisturizes without appearing greasy, and restores your skin’s natural, healthy glow.
• Neroli oil: Contains Vitamin C to soften wrinkles and improve skin elasticity
• Sunflower oil: Provides nutrients to the skin and fatty acids to soften and even skin tone and texture
• Calendula flower oil: Emollients sooth mature skin, reducing redness and protecting against cell-damaging free radicals
• Arnica Montana flower extract: Decreases swelling and puffiness around the eyes
• Rosehip Oil: Vitamin C, Omega 6, Vitamin A, and Omega 9 promote collagen, increase elastin levels, reverse sun damage and other signs of aging including skin pigmentation
• Sweet Almond oil: Contains Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, E, minerals, fatty acids and protein, lightweight texture and penetrating properties
• Argan Oil: Nourishes the skin and repairs environmental damage
• Evening Primrose Oil: Contains essential fatty acids that help the skin to look younger, healthy, and nourished
• Jojoba: Promotes supple skin without appearing greasy
• Apricot: Easily absorbed and lightweight, contributes to clarity, elasticity retention and hydration, contains oleic and linoleum acids, Vitamins A and E
• Jasmine: Scent relaxes, calms, and soothes the mind, body, and skin
WOW!!! Somebody is making a mint off that stuff, haha 😛 Perhaps I should dupe it? ;P
Please do!!!!
🙂 Stay tuned!
Hi! Quick question: how much body butter will this recipe (these exact ingredients’ measurements) make?
8 + 36 = 34g, + ~0.5g for the essential oils.
So the ingredients ratio is about 1:4 beeswax :coconut oil? I’d like to try this but I too lazy to bust put the scale, ;P
(Although today I am making some cocoa butter and coconut oil vegan soap…yum!)
It’s 1:4.5, but that’s by weight—no promises if you go rogue 😉
Hi Marie, I love this recipe. I need to get some labdanum to make it and see it is only available on the New Directions site as an absolute. Just wondering if the quantity, 25 drops, would be the same.
Are you talking about this stuff? Solvent extracted, but called an essential oil for added confusion 😉 If so, yes, the same amount of drops as that’s the stuff I’m using.
I gave up on labdanum, I just can’t heat it enough to get it out of the darn bottle!
Hi Mandy! Taking out that dropper and using a really hot water bath works for me 🙂 You’ll never get it through the dropper top, and it’ll always blob a bit, though.
Would this get really hard at room temp? The coconut oil by itself gets super hard. Also, could you whip this for an airy consistency??
I don’t find it does for me, but it is summer here with an average temperature somewhere around 20°C. Coconut oil is hard at room temperature (~21°C), but melts very readily at 24°C, which is well below body temperature, meaning it melts quickly on contact with the skin.
I do not have the clove bud. Wonder how it would turn out without the clove bud, or is there another eo I could sub?
You can drop it, or use a drop or two of cinnamon bark EO instead 🙂
First of all I want to say again…Genius on using the labdanum..what a terrific complement to the “honey” scent.. before I came back to read the comments I made this and yes, despite a very hot water bath the stopper/drop dispenser is a bust so I “tipped” drops out, may have erred on the count of labdanum drops but it’s still a dream..keep on bloggin Marie, you’re keeping us diy-ers strong!
Fantastic! Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me, Jan, and enjoy this super awesome smelling balm (just don’t try it on the lips, it tastes HORRIBLE).
Thanks for sharing all your recipes for the natural beauty products. I’m new to this and have a very quick question about beeswax used in some of your recipes. There are different types of beeswax: refined, unrefined, organic, purified, yellow and white. Which one do you use in your recipes? Thank you very much.
Hi! I use only lovely golden, honey-scented beeswax I buy from local beekeepers 🙂 You should be able to use any kind you can get your hands on, though.
This looks amazing! Will definitely try this out.
Enjoy & thanks for reading 🙂
Been thinking about getting some labdanum EO for a while now, now you have given me the perfect project for it. Cant wait to try it, thanks
Awesome! Let me know how you like it, I’m utterly addicted 😉
I am new to your sight. Love it!!! I am also new to the DIY. I was wondering what eo’s would work for a “manly” scent. Love your site and looking to further my talents with your help.
Welcome, Robin! I love tree scents (fir, spruce, cedar) and smokey scents like cade for dudes 🙂
Thanks for answering so quickly. One more question. The cosmetic base you have on your site, can that be a base for the mineral veil, the mineral foundation, and also the blush? Does it have to be adjusted in any way for them? Sorry that was two questions.
Hi Robin! The point of the base is that it’s the same across the recipes, and the recipe itself is the tweak. However, if I don’t call for the base as part of the recipe, then no, don’t add it 🙂
Hi Marie – thanks again for all you do. Re the Labdanum, is it used for a particular reason or just scent. I can’t get that right now, so would like to use an alternative. Can you suggest anything or if it’s just scent I can use something I already have like frankincense. But would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
Hi Gina! Thanks for reading & DIYing with me 🙂 The labdanum here is really mostly for scent, so feel free to use whatever you have on hand instead 🙂
Hi there…we have bees and will harvest the honey in July..so will have plenty of beeswax. I would really like to make some of the body butter…a friend of mine has been researching the essential oils for making the body butter and …we are confused as some oils are really expensive and others are not. What is a good price or name brand we should use? Have you tried your recipe using different brands? Help!!
Hi Gloria! 99% of my EOs are from NDA and Saffire Blue (links in the big box above), and I’d heartily recommend either of them 🙂 Some brands (doTerra comes to mind) are significantly more expensive, but from my experience with different brands I cannot understand why. As long as the EOs are pure, go for the ones sold by companies that sell to makers, not consumers—those who make for a living require better pricing for it to be feasible. You’ll find those companies usually have less marketing materials, but the product is still great.
hey! I love the container you used for the lotion! Where can I find those? Thanks!
Saffire Blue—link above in the big box 🙂
Hi! I was wondering where you bought the storage container you used for your lotion. I can’t wait to try this recipe out!
This one is from Saffire Blue—link in the big box above 🙂
marie, i just want to say you have such a lovely site. you have gotten me HOOKED on diying. i can’t stop making your recipes. particularly the body butters! and they come out so much better than all the products i used to shell out big bucks for at lush and similar shops. i have a question which may be somewhat silly, but i want to make a much bigger batch of this. the ingredients sound absolutely lovely and i imagine it smelling heavenly. i’d like to make enough for like 8oz, so i know would simply quadruple the recipe, but i am wondering if would this be fine if i put it in a 8oz glass jar?
perhaps this is too broad a question, but so far i have made the coco cocoa whipped body butter, coconut body butter, and white chocolate body frosting– i followed the recipes to the T (and they came out perfectly!) and stored them in tins– if next time i wanted to make bigger batches, could i use a glass jar / deeper tin or is the recipe best left for small quantities?
thank you for sharing your wonderful recipes and for inspiring a new hobby for me 🙂
Hi Mimi! One of my favourite parts about working in weights is that it makes it easy to multiply recipes with good results 🙂 Volume measurements can be a bit wonky when scaled up, but weight measurements tend to scale up beautifully.
Since you’re talking in ounces, please be sure you’re converting grams to WEIGHT ounces, not fluid ounces! This will all fall apart if you try and do this by volume measurements 😉
Hi there! Is there a way to substitute labdanum? It’s not easy to find here in Portugal.
Thanks!
I’m afraid not, I’ve never smelled anything like it elsewhere :/
Dear bee,
I’d like to try this recipe. does the honey reduce the shelf life? would it still last few months at room temperature? thanks heaps for your work!
Hey Sarah! There’s no honey in this body butter 🙂
Hi, wow , really like your blog. I’d like to know regarding this recipe, how long does this coconut bodybutter last without going bad, in other words what is it’s expiration date more or less?
Thank you for this wonderful blog!
Hey Karina! Check the FAQ for your answer 🙂 Happy making!
Can you add honey to this recipe and propolis? Also if I make your lip salve with bees wax and coconut oil can I add some honey too or do I need to add lecithin? As in your maple lip salve?
Hey Linda! I’d recommend making this recipe instead—it makes a great lip balm as well 🙂 You can add the EOs from this recipe if you like. For the lip balm, yes, you should include lecithin for a stable product 🙂 You could basically just make the maple syrup lip balm and use honey instead of syrup!
Marie your pic has been stolen. It is on instagram. @naturalsbynessav
Everything she has up there is stolen and she has a store that she uses stolen pics. She is kinda known for this.
https://naturalsbynessa.com/
Quite a few people have let me know about this so I got the take down request in straight away and it’s gone. Thanks for having my back!
help! i can’t seem to ever get labdanum to fully blend in – i end up with thousands of diddy drops in suspension every time. what am i doing wrong? am i not heating it up enough?
Hmm. Do you have a link to the particular one you’re using?
i’m using mystic moments labdanum essential oil
Thank you!
Hi, Marie: This body butter is a HIT! I thought I added too much labdanum and too much clove e.o. My husband said it smelled too much like a ham. But my friend raved about this butter. I made mine a tad creamier — I used 2 grams less of beeswax. She is also smelling her hands like a crazy person. Should we start a “Crazy People Smelling Their Hands” group? That’s all she did yesterday! Now I have easy presents to make with minimumal fuss. Thanks for a great recipe.
Wonderful! I find it so funny that your husband so strongly associates cloves with ham—to me cloves are more gingerbread, and ham smells so much like, well… ham… that only ham makes me think of ham LOL. We should definitely start a club! Perhaps it is best if we meet in private… 😛
I’d hate to come off the wrong way, but recipient is actually for a balm (oils plus beeswax) and not for a butter (oils plus a butter such as shea butter or cocoa butter).
Those terms aren’t regulated in any way; that might be how you use those terms, but there’s no hard definition for any of them. If you look at all the products The Body Shop sells as body butters they’re all emulsified lotions, and if you try making this recipe you’ll see that it feels much more like a butter than a balm.
Can this be whisked to make it fluffy?
You can certainly try—given the wax content I’m not sure how soft it’ll stay once whipped, but it can’t hurt 🙂
I really want to try this recipe! I was just wondering if it’d work well as a body butter during pregnancy? For stretch marks, dry skin, etc.??
Also, I’m SUPER new to beeswax, (haven’t made anything yet!) so if you have any suggestions on what to start with, I’d really appreciate it!!
Thanks for your time!!
Hey! The general blend would work well for pregnancy but I would recommend consulting your physician re: essential oils.
For beeswax recipes, check this out 🙂 My free DIY for Beginners e-course also uses lots of beeswax!
hi, im loving all of the ideas im getting on here. where do you get your black pots from? is this any good to use in the lotions you make?? Naissance Emulsifying Wax Beads 1kg – British Pharmacopoeia (BP) Grade – Use in DIY Beauty Recipes, lotions and creams
The black pots are from YellowBee here in Calgary 🙂 That e-wax isn’t something I’ve ever worked with before. The reviews sound promising, but the INCI is strange—”Cetearyl Alcohol 86.5%, Sodium Lauryl Sulphate 9.5%, Distilled water 4%”. I’ve never seen SLS used as the primary emulsifying ingredient in an emulsifying wax before. I’d keep looking if I were you—I have a list of many places to shop here 🙂
Hi Marie, been enjoying your channel for a while and learned plenty from it.
You seemed to have made a bit of a ‘turn’ in formulating since you studied at Formula Botanica. It seemed to result in more complex formulations (I can imagine how that came about with even more knowledge at hand 🙂 )
With that in mind, would you still happily do this formula or would you adjust it?
My reason for asking:
I keep being told that honey in anhydrous products doesn’t work (it separates one way or another) as honey contains a water % and presents is a preserving challenge.
Thank you so much, Sandra! And yes, I have definitely upgraded since studying with FB 🙂 The only change I’d make to this formulation would be re-evaluating the amount of clove essential oil as it may be too high—you’ll note there isn’t any honey in the formula, so that’s not a concern 😉
All I’ve ever used is straight up coconut oil and straight up shea butter and I didn’t like any of those, I mean, as one ingredient body butters.
The coconut and honey coconut body butter seem simplest to me, so I’m trying to decide between the two. Which one is your favorite among these two, since this one seems pretty thicker than the other one
Also, as sandra asked above, would you change your coconut body butter recipe or would you make it the exact same way?
Hello! The Coconut Honey Body Butter – does this have honey in it? I didn’t see it listed and I want to make sure I did not miss it. (Assume the Honey could also be from the particular beeswax you are using. If the wax has a nice honey scent) Love your recipes!! Thank you for sharing!
Your assumption about the honey note coming from the beeswax is correct 🙂 Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making!
Hello ! I would like to know if I can replace the essential oils. I have lemongrass Eoil available. If I can replace it, what quantity should I use?
You can; lemongrass essential oil is limited to 0.7% in leave-on products, so no more than that 🙂
Is it 0.7% of all the oils?
Percentages are always for the entire formulation 🙂