As many of you already know, I used to be a professional massage therapist. I don’t massage professionally anymore, but I do still have an interest in bodywork, skin and natural oils. My home is full of various kinds of natural oils and butters. I make my own moisturizers and creams. This article will include a recipe for a body butter that I use daily. It’s a great natural formula for fading stretch marks.

There are a lot of people out there who are interested in fading stretch marks. They’re quite common and you can get them in a lot of different ways. These marks happen when the skin stretches too quickly. The rapid stretching of the skin can occur because of pregnancy, weight gain, rapid muscle gain or even a growth spurt.  The top layer of the skin tear resulting in scarring. These scars can be whitish, slightly darker than your skin color, reddish or bluish. They appear in a series of parrell stripes.

There are a ton of creams you can smear on yourself to try to get rid of stretch marks. Many of them are wildly expensive. You can also use natural ingredients to diminish them. It’s not that difficult and it works for a lot of people, including me.

Shea Butter

Shea butter is made from the fruit of the shea tree. It is used in West Africa for skin and hair care and even cooking. Here is a video about how it is made.

The vitamin E and A in shea butter gives it its healing properties. Shea butter is used in cosmetics, but the shea butter in these products is refined. When going through the refining process it loses some of it’s potency so it’s best to use natural unrefined shea butter.

Grape Seed Oil

Grape seed oil is another oil known for it’s healing properties. Grape seed oil is what I’ve been using to give massages for years now. I used to use massage lotion, but as time passed I became more and more interested in using natural products that were as close to its original state as possible.

Grape seed oil is also used in many cosmetic products. It helps skin regenerate.

Cocoa Butter

Cocoa butter is made from the cacao bean. It is a vegetable fat that is full of antioxidants. It’s used in the making of skin products and chocolate. It’s often used to treat stretch marks, but some people don’t find success using it. I think it smells great.

Click here to learn about coconut oil.

I make my own natural moisturizer using these ingredients. It’s easy to make. Use it daily to fade stretch marks or just as a great body lotion that leaves your skin feeling silky and smooth.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Raw Unrefined Shea Butter
• ¼ Raw Cocoa Butter
• 1/3 cup Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
• 1/3 cup Grape Seed Oil (Cold Pressed)
  l

Cut up your cocoa butter and shea butter into small pieces. Use a double boiler to melt your cocoa butter slowly. Once your cocoa butter is completely melted remove it from the heat and add your shea butter. You remove it from the heat before adding the shea butter because if shea butter gets too hot it gets a grainy texture. Stir this mixture around letting the shea butter melt. The smaller your pieces of shea butter the more easily they will melt. Once your shea butter is melted add your extra virgin coconut oil and continue to stir until that’s completely melted. Then add 1/3 cup of grape seed oil and mix well. I like that consistency of grape seed oil but you can use olive oil, jojoba oil or sweet almond oil also. You can find out about the healing properties of these other oils here. Experiment and see what you like best.

Let the mixture cool for a few minutes before putting it into large mouthed jar. When it’s completely cool it will be a solid. If  the body butter this recipe makes is too hard of you, you can adjust it by adding more grape seed oil. I like the rich chocolaty smell the cocoa butter and coconut oil make together, but you can always add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to change the smell.

Use this body butter daily, stay well hydrated and exfoliate to start fading stretch marks.

Photo by L*u*z*

---

---

Tweet This   Stumble This  

Related Posts

• TMJ No More — A Book Review
• My Food Philosophy
• Exercise Tips — How to Start an Exercise Routine
• Hypothyroidism — The Natural Thyroid Diet Book Review