Body butter bars, also known as lotion bars, are a great alternative to skin creams, liquid lotions or moisturizers. The thing with all liquid body lotions (and this include all creams and moisturizers as well) is that there is a water phase and an oil phase and you will always need an emulsifier to mix them. Natural emulsifiers are possible (such as homogenized milk), however most manufacturers will use some inorganic emulsifier since that is more cost-effective. Apart from that, there is the issue of preservatives. All water-based products will need preservatives to kill bacteria and when it comes to preservatives, there is no such thing as an organic preservative. So, you see even when a skin cream or lotion is advertised as all-natural, this information is actually misleading.
Now, come to butter bars, there are only three ingredients involved—cocoa or shea butter, oils (ideally virgin coconut oil), and beeswax—again, ideally unbleached, all-natural beeswax (on this topic, what is the point of bleached beeswax anyway? Wish someone could explain!). So, there is no water involved, meaning there is no need for any preservative either.
How to use a body butter bar?
It’s simple to use body butter bar. All you need to do is rub the bar between your palms and as it liquefies, apply it on your skin just as you would apply any cream or liquid lotion. And any user of lotion bars would be able to tell you how quickly it melts in room temperature. So, if you were thinking you would have to rub hard to liquefy it, that’s not it either.
Again, look at the ingredients. Cocoa or Shea butter melts at 34°C, just a tad below our normal body temperature. And as for coconut oil, it melts at 24°C, meaning it is already soft at room temperature and once applied on your skin, will liquefy almost immediately. And since the bars are made from these ingredients, they come soft at the slightest pressure of your palms and will then sink into your skin nicely. They are not greasy like most moisturizers and take far less time to get absorbed into your skin.
Benefits of using lotion bars
Apart from them being all-natural, these bars work wonders for a number of different skin conditions. They are especially great to use in colder climates. Using the bars during winter will form a nice protective shield for your skin from the cold and dry air. If you still get cracks on your fingers or chapped skin, lotion bars are a great solution for moisturizing them. Then, they work great when it comes to curing cracks on our heels, bunions and cuticles. And finally, you’ll be delighted to hear that you can make these bars right at home without any difficulty at all.
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