Review | Healing Honey Body Butter
I am super excited to share my first brand collaboration with the world: After much planning and preparation, I partnered with a fellow woman entrepreneur and Black business Maiya’s Naturals to create my own body butter: Healing Honey Body Butter!
It’s been a couple of years since I stopped using store-bought lotions and potions. Since then, I opt to make my own skincare products and shop from small businesses that offer handmade products with all natural ingredients. Check out my previous post on how I maintain my beautiful skin, here.
I came across the brand Maiya’s Naturals over a year ago and decided to try out their original body butter. As someone with sensitive skin and eczema, I wanted to see how this brand would work for my skin and if I would be drawn to this product more than the various other butters I’d tried before. I knew I was hooked on this brand’s body butter after I went on a vacation to California and was able to stay moisturized and avoid sunburn during my entire trip. After lots of inquires regarding what products I use on my skin, or how I make my own products, I knew it was time for me to share my version own version with the world.
A lot of thought went into what ingredients to use for this body butter. There are plenty of blends that can be used to make a moisturizer and we worked really hard to come up with this blend to create the perfect texture, melting point and scent. For me, those are the top three things I evaluate when using a body butter. The texture is important, I do not like my product to be too thick or too oily. The melting point of a body butter is also critical; this refers to how easily the butter melts with skin contact and body heat. As the weather is beginning to warm up, keep in mind that warmer temperatures effect the melting point of butters. Lastly, yet equally as important is how the product smells. Smell is so essential because the olfactory bulb, which is central for sense of smell, is directly connected to the to the amygdala and hippocampus in the brain, which control memory and emotion. This is why certain scents trigger vivid memories for people. With all the effort that we put into choosing the very best ingredients for our body butter, here are some benefits of a few key ingredients used:
Ingredient Benefits:
Shea butter is made from the nuts of African Shea trees and serves as a base butter in this recipe. Shea butter has many skin benefits such as: moisturizing skin, reducing skin inflammation, fighting free-radicals in the skin that cause aging, improves skin elasticity, treats acne and blemishes, reduces razor bumps and irritation, reduces stretch marks, treating skin rashes and insect bites, soothes diaper rashes, soothes muscle aches, alleviating swelling and pain related to arthritis, treating and soothing dermatitis, psoriasis and eczema, provides UV protection
Mango butter is made from the inner kernal of the delicious fruit and is primarily made up of vitamins A & C, palmitic acid, arachidic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid and stearic acid. Mango butter is often used for its numerous skincare benefits such as: hydrating skin, clearing up blemishes and hyper pigmentation, preventing wrinkles, healing scars and stretchmarks, soothing bug bites, maintaining skin elasticity, healing rashes, treating eczema and psorisis, soothing sunburn.
Hemp oil has become a popular ingredient in many products recently. This is largely due to the anti aging and wrinkle fighting properties it contains. This oil is great for moisturizing without clogging your pores. Hemp oil has properties that help regulate your skin’s oil production. For example, when your skin is dry, it (over) compensates by overproducing oil. Hemp oil helps restore balance to the skin.
Aloe vera oil is a powerful and multi-faceted ingredient with numerous skin benefits. Aloe oil is known to be anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, anti-bacterial, antioxidant and anti-fungal. Studies have even found aloe vera to be a successful treatment of skin cancer.
Amber essential oil is very special because it is made from the ancient resin of trees. This unique method of formation leads to amber being as expensive as it is stimulating. Amber essential oil is used for a vast number of healing practices including: decreasing stress, reduces pain and inflammation, soothes hearth palpitations (related to cardiovascular diseased and anxiety), strengthens the immune system, increases sex drive and libido, as well as increases blood circulation.
With my first body butter, I wanted to create something that caters to the Divine Feminine. Personally, applying body butter after a shower or bath is a form of self care. Being all oiled up and smelling good is a quick confidence boost during my daily/nightly routine!
I want everyone that uses my body butter to also feel that sense of empowerment, pride and self-love. When deciding on what ingredients to use for my butter, I knew that I wanted something that would be nourishing to the skin and create a long lasting seal of moisture. Furthermore, I wanted the scent to be warm and sensual. All of the ingredients combined create your new favorite moisturizer! This body butter is great to use after you bathe or throughout the day to combat ashy skin.
Reviews from the first batch are in and people are loving the Healing Honey Body Butter!
