Bug bites are the worst, no matter you do! Itchy bumps are unavoidable and unpleasant every summer even if you use repellent products- you still get bitten. For all these, I adjusted an older formula and I poured it into a tube so I can carry my balm with me, wherever I am.
This time I tried cupuacu butter in order to replace cocoa butter. Cupuacu butter has a more complex range of fatty acids and is softer than cocoa butter. The fact that it is a softer butter allows it to penetrate deep into the skin due to the shorter chain fatty acids, transferring moisture and hydration deeper into the cells than the harder butters.
My bug bite butter also contains St. John’s wort oil, the famous Spartan medicine which was used to heal their wounds from the battles, pure beeswax for its skin-softening and anti-inflammatory properties, and calendula oil which helps the skin to heal faster from wasp, bee and mosquito bites.
I also added vitamin E for its antioxidant action and lecithin to enhance the penetration of the final product into the inner layers of the skin. Mango butter gives an exotic touch to the recipe but I mainly used it to help me get the texture I wanted while the synergy of essential oils provides antibacterial and antiseptic action.
After Bite Healing Butter
recipe for ~50 g | 1.7 oz
10 g | 0.35 oz beeswax
10 g | 0.35 oz cupuacu butter
14 g | 0.49 oz calendula oil
8 g | 0.28 oz St. John's wort oil
5 g | 0.18 oz mango butter
2 g | 0.07 oz lecithin
0,5 g | 0.02 oz
6 drops lavender essential oil
3 drops tea tree essential oil
2 drops lemon essential oil
tools
- a beaker
- a saucepan
- measuring spoons
- stainless steel whisk
- high accuracy digital scale
- lip balm tubes tins or jars
Firstly, you must sterilize tools, equipment and work surface and wear your gloves.
Prepare a water bath, by filling a heat- proof saucepan 1/3 full of water and place it to low heat. Weigh all the ingredients. Add the butters and the wax into the beaker. Place it in your prepared water bath to melt everything through. Now, add the oils and the lecithin and mix well.
Remove the beaker from the water bath and dry it off with a towel. Stir with a stainless steel whisk to incorporate. Add vitamin E and stir thoroughly. Pour now the essential oils and stir again.
Pour the butter into tubes or tins (this formula will fill 10 balm tubes) and leave it to solidify before capping.
Enjoy!
Stella Crown©
