We’re continuing our Watermelon Mint series today with a silky, fruity, easy-to-make Watermelon Mint Summer Body Oil. This lovely oil leaves your skin soft and glowing without feeling greasy or heavy. It’s got a fresh, subtle scent, and can be made in mere minutes. Let’s dive in!
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The bulk of this satiny Watermelon Mint Summer Body Oil is (somewhat unsurprisingly!) watermelon seed oil. This beautiful carrier oil is pressed from the seeds of watermelons; it has a slightly fruity scent and it absorbs into the skin quickly with a lovely almost-dry skin feel. It’s rich in linoleic acid and contains phytosterols that are rarely found in vegetable oils.
Our next carrier oil is sunflower seed oil, though you could easily use a different light-to-midweight oil in its place. Safflower oil, grapeseed oil, apricot kernel oil, and sweet almond oil would all be good choices. If you’re trying to choose between them, I recommend putting a few drops on your arm and massaging them in to see what you think of the feel—choose the one you like the best!
To keep things ultra-lightweight and fast-absorbing I’ve also included some C12-15 alkyl benzoate. I love this beautiful ester; it has a gorgeous, expensive feel and a stunning dry, light skin feel. Swoon. If you don’t have it, isopropyl myristate is a good alternative.
For scent, I’ve kept things soft and fresh. A small amount of peppermint essential oil and an even smaller amount of watermelon fragrance oil create a subdued, refreshing, fruity scent. Lovely!
The finished oil has a silky slip, a gorgeous dry-down, and is utterly lovely on the skin. While I’ve made mine in a small beaker you could very easily just weigh everything into the bottle you’ll be storing it in, cap, shake, et voila! Enjoy!
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Watermelon Mint Summer Body Oil
20g | 40% watermelon seed oil
17.1g | 34.2% C12-15 alkyl benzoate (USA / Canada)
12.5g | 25% sunflower seed oil (USA / Canada / UK / NZ)0.25g | 0.5% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
0.1g | 0.2% peppermint essential oil (USA / Canada)
0.05g | 0.1% watermelon fragrance oilWeigh the ingredients into a small measuring cup or beaker and stir to combine. Transfer to a 50mL (1.69fl oz) bottle, and that’s it! I recommend using a bottle with either a treatment pump cap or a turret cap. An eyedropper cap would also work, but that would be my last choice. I used a 50mL (1.69fl oz) frosted glass Zelo bottle from New Directions Aromatics with a treatment pump cap that looks to be out of stock at the time of this writing.
To use, smooth a few drops of the oil over any skin that could use a bit of pampering!
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this body oil is 100% oil-based, it does not require a broad-spectrum preservative (broad spectrum preservatives ward off microbial growth, and microbes require water to live—no water, no microbes!). Kept reasonably cool and dry, it should last at least a year before any of the oils go rancid. If you notice it starts to smell like old nuts or crayons, that’s a sign that the oils have begun to oxidize; chuck it out and make a fresh batch if that happens.
Substitutions
As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this recipe in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 50g, which fills a 50mL (1.69fl oz) bottle perfectly.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list (C12-15 alkyl benzoate, sunflower seed oil, watermelon seed oil) please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- My top choices for C12-15 alkyl benzoate alternatives would be isopropyl myristate (IPM) and Neossance® Hemisqualane.
- You can drop the essential oil and/or fragrance oil, replacing it with more sunflower seed oil.
- You can use a different essential oil and/or fragrance oil.
Gifting Disclosure
The C12-15 alkyl benzoate (USA / Canada) was gifted by Essential Wholesale. The watermelon seed oil was gifted by Mystic Moments.
Ooh, I have everything except the Watermelon fragrance, going to make this right now and sub some Sandalwood essential oil. Watermelon oil is great, it absorbs so well, and leaves skin feeling great. Thank you Marie 🙂
Oooh, that sounds lovely! Enjoy 🙂
This was SUCH a timely post for me, thank you! I recently moved country and i am struggling to adjust to the (very) hot summers – one of my issues was keeping my skin nourished, as all the creams/oils I am used to would just make me feel sticky and a bit meh 🙂
I got some watermelon seed oil as soon as i saw this and the mixture works so well!! The idea of watermelon and mint is so wonderfully refreshing as well. It all goes in the skin really fast and it is a very nice oily-but-dry feel to it. Leaves my skin soft and lovely, it is just awesome.
I have been using it for about 2 weeks now and all i can say is well done 🙂 I love all your formulas, I have no idea how you manage to come up with 2 new ones every week. Impressive. Truly.
Hi Marie!
Can I substitute C12-15 alkyl benzoate alternatives for Undecane?
I ask because it is a natural ingredient and also more easily accessible for me here in Australia.
thank you so much!!
From what I can see in my research it looks like a good alternative 🙂 You may want to be careful around moths, though—”It is used as a mild sex attractant for various types of moths and cockroaches” (source). HA!