I just love that feeling. You know, the one you get when you’ve done something good for yourself… for your body.
You see, I grew up slathering myself with chemical lotions and perfumes, but once I fell in love with natural living, I began to slowly but surely remove chemicals from my life. Specifically, chemicals in my skin care products.
I can remember the first time I intentionally chose to buy a “natural” skin care product for myself. It was a Burt’s Bees gift set that included a peppermint foot cream. I almost felt guilty about spending more money on it when I could get the same thing, only the toxic version, for much cheaper. No matter, I made the decision to invest in it and my health, and I’m so glad I did. It changed my life ya’ll. Seriously!
It smelled just like a peppermint candy cane at Christmas. It was smooth and creamy, and it made my feet feel alive! I would rub it in before bed, breathing its fresh scent. Next I would put on a clean pair of socks and drift off to sleep with tingly feet that would be super soft come morning. It made me want to paint my toenails and put on a really cute pair of shoes. Of course my nail polish was still full of chemicals, but hey, I was taking it slowly and moving forward one step at a time! Progress over perfection, right?
So now that you know of my fond memories of my first peppermint foot cream, I have a special treat for you today.
Can you guess what it is! It has something to do with peppermint and feet!
Long gone are my days of buying natural skin care products. Nowadays, you’ll find me getting creative and messy in my kitchen making my own skin care products because I like to save money, use high-quality ingredients from my favorite companies, and keep things relatively simple.
When I get going my countertops can be found covered in jars of dried herbs, butter and wax smeared everywhere, and essential oils just waiting to be blended into sweet submission.
So in honor of the launch of my newest e-guide – The Ultimate How To Guide To Making Herbal Butters & Creams – today I’m sharing my recipe for Mint Chocolate Foot Butter. I created this recipe to replace the Burt’s Bees foot cream I loved so much, and you can always find it in my bathroom come cold weather.
Now you won’t find me painting my toenails and showing my feet off that much at this time of the year, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to have soft feet! I mean, my husband wouldn’t be so fond of me rubbing my cold feet against him in the bed at night if my feet were rough!
Below you’ll find my Mint Chocolate Foot Butter recipe, and I hope you love it as much as I do.
Mint Chocolate Foot Butter
This foot butter comes out soft, smooth, and the perfect shade of off-white. It melts into your warm skin and is the perfect thing to use before bed or whenever you can put socks over your feet and let the butter soak into your skin for a while.
And the scent! It’s divine! The combination of cocoa butter and my Plant Therapy peppermint essential oil (which I got as a free bonus from the 2015 Ultimate Living Bundle, BTW) is just perfect! It makes me want to grab a spoon and eat it slowly like mint chocolate chip ice cream. YUM!
Ingredients:
- 48 g. cocoa butter
- 48 g. sesame oil
- 24 g. mango butter
- 30 drops peppermint essential oil
Directions:
- Fill a small saucepan with 2 inches of water. Put over high heat until it comes to a boil.
- While water is heating, measure out butter and oil. Combine in a glass measuring cup and place in your saucepan.
- Heat until butter has melted. Turn off heat, and remove measuring cup from the saucepan to let the oils cool for 12 hours to completely thicken.
- After 12 hours, add essential oils and blend with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy. You will have a thick, mint chocolate glob of white goodness your feet will thank you for!
- Bottle, label, and store.
Want even more herbal butter recipes? Check out my e-book, Herbal Butters & Creams: The Ultimate How-To Guide! Not only will it tell you the difference between butters and creams (lotions too), but when to use them and why. It will also walk you through the steps of making them yourself! Not only that, but you’ll learn how to source quality ingredients, about “natural” preservatives and natural emulsion techniques, and how to add “advanced” ingredients into them. Oh… and you’ll get 5 exclusive recipes to help you get started making your own herbal butters and creams right away! Learn more about it here!
Where do you buy mango butter??
You can get it at Mountain Rose Herbs or you can search through the Amazon options to find a good quality one.
I’m curious as to why you would use sesame oil? I have almond oil and coconut oil on hand, could I substitute?
The only reason I chose sesame oil was for the great skin properties it has, but yes, you can definitely substitute it. I’d personally go with a different liquid oil instead of an oil that is solid at room temp so my butter is easier to maneuver when it’s finished.
I have a 5 month old baby. Is it safe for me to use this with the essential oil and her around? If so, is it also safe for me to use it on her?
I’d say it would be okay to use on yourself, but I would not use it on my baby or on me if it could get on her skin. Peppermint is strong and is not to be used on kids that young. You can learn more about essential oil safety and what oils to use when in this post and this post.
Hi Meagan,
what can I substitute for mango butter? I don’t have it on hand and I’d like to give it a try asap, instead of waiting for one more ingredient..
Thanks!
The mango butter is a soft butter so if you have something like avocado butter, you could use that. If you don’t have any soft butters, I’d substitute coconut oil for it. Hope that helps Alina! Best of luck making this!
This is a silly question but could you tell what the gram equivalent is to cups or teaspoons? This sounds wonderful and I can’t find a good conversion chart. This sounds wonderful and I would love to make it. Thank you for your help!
No problem Nancy. I like using grams because the numbers are cleaner, but teaspoons can be easier at times. I used this site which said that 48 grams is equal to 9.6 teaspoons and 24 grams equals 4.8 teaspoons. You could round each of them up to the nearest teaspoon, and I don’t think it will make that much of a difference. Hope that helps, and thanks for the comment!
Now that a foot butter ! Mm make me want to eat it! 🙂
I love that it’s so natural you could eat it! Not that it would taste that great, but you know what I mean. LOL!
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Would this recipe work with different essential oils? I have a newborn and I don’t want to use peppermint oil for his safety. I’m excited to make this though, both for me and as gifts.
You could substitute spearmint essential oil which would be safer around your little one.