Welcome to a colorful and fun article on how to add a splash of color or tint to your DIY Body Butters, Lotions, Lotion Bars and Lip Balms!
This is a basic, beginners article on how you can add a nice hue to your skincare products, using only natural products.
Two Simple Ways to Color Your Skincare
1. Mica powder / Eye shadow
The most common way to add color to your homemade body butters or products is mica.
Mica is a natural product derived from rocks, that’s really the simplest explanation. Mother Earth has rocks, crystals and other naturally occurring deposits that have a color to them. When you grind the material down to a powder form, and add some color pigments, you have mica.
Word goes around about some questionable ways in which this product is extracted and produced, and I have read that some countries use minor labor to achieve this. Welcome to capitalism, I guess. I personally cannot stop all the evil in the world, and forcing a child to labor is outrageous (note to self – asking your kids to clean their room and do dishes doesn’t count as forced labor).
What you can do to avoid these unethical practices is to research your supplier and be satisfied that they are being honest and ethical, and that they only use fair labor to produce their mica.
Eye shadow to color your skincare
This is an easy alternative to adding color to your body butters and adds some sparkles to your products. We all have some unused eye shadow that just doesn’t look good on the eyes, but because of the colorful options, can be used in small doses in your skincare.
How much Mica to use
For the homemaker or DIY enthusiast, you can simply eyeball how much to add to your formula. I always start with a teaspoon for a formula that yields about 8-10 oz of Body Butter, and I add more as needed
When to add Mica
Because Mica is in powder form, the best way to incorporate it in a body butter is before the whipping step. You can fold it in (hey Schitt’s Creek fans, you know that folding in the cheese scene, right?). Simply add a little at a time, fold it in gently so it doesn’t get everywhere, then decide if you need a little more to get the color or tint you want.
It’s fun to add a color AND also a glittery mica, gold or silver are the typical pigments that leave a subtle hue on your skin and make it glow in the sun.
2. Butters and Oils
The second 100% natural way to add a tint to your body butters is to use butters and oils that have an intrinsic shade of color. This includes:
Raw Cocoa Butter – it’s a darkish creamy color
Blue Tansy Essential Oil – this gives a blue tint
Cold Pressed Rosehip Oil – it has a nice amber or close to red color
Yellow Shea Butter – this butter contains a small percentage of a yellow African Root that gives it a yellow color. When added in a small dose, it gives your products a gold/yellow tint
There are other natural oils and butters that have a more intense color, and you are welcome to research away, but you get the idea, right?
How much to use and when to add these
These ingredients are added in at the melting step. In the recipe below I added Cocoa Butter and Rosehip Oil at the melting step in a ratio of 1:1 (1 oz of butter and 1 oz of oil), that way my butters to carrier oil ratio stayed consistent with my first recipe that has mica.
Recipes In This Article
In both recipes I used a ratio of 40% butters to 60% carrier oils. This makes a soft body butter that is easy to apply to your skin and melts on skin-contact quickly. Start with a small amount because these body butters are water-free, and this makes them very rich. I recommend using them after a shower or bath, when your skin is moist and your pores are open and receptive to more body butter absorption.
First Recipe – Coloring with Mica
4 oz Mango Butter
6 oz Apricot Oil
Mica (I used about 2 teaspoons, this can be varied based on how vibrant you want the product to be)
Optional (not shown in the video): 20-40 drops of essential oils of choice
Second Recipe – Coloring with Butters and Oils
4 oz Mango Butter
6 oz Almond Oil
1 oz Cocoa Butter
1 oz Rosehip Oil
Optional (not shown in the video): 20-40 drops of essential oils of choice
Easy Steps to Make Your Tinted Body Butters
- Add the Mango Butter and carrier oil of choice (apricot, almond or any other light oil) to a heat proof container, place over a pan with 1-2 inches of water, and let everything melt slowly over low heat.
- When the butter is completely melted, stir, remove from heat and place in the fridge for about 1 hour, or until the top and sides have solidified but the center is still soft.
- Optional: add any essential oils of choice
- Add mica for recipe #1
- Fold in and stir, to incorporate your colors
- Whip with an electric mixer at medium speed for a few minutes, making sure to scrape down the sides along the way, until you have achieved a creamy consistency
- Fill your jars, and voila, your amazing body moisturizer is ready to use!
Store these at room temperature in a jar with a lid or similar container. Use on your body daily for the ultimate, natural moisture and relief from any dry skin.
Recipe Video
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