Shea Butter Balm with Castor Oil

Could this shea butter balm be the holy grail of skin care??? Possibly!  

Ok, perhaps I am exaggerating a little bit, but this balm is truly phenomenal. I am confident it will appeal to the pickiest of skin types, and it will cover all of your skin care needs: moisturizing, healing, anti-aging, brightening, mildly exfoliating. The star ingredient here is castor oil. The only downside to castor oil is that I did not start using it sooner. In fact, it has only been 10 months since I first put it on my skin and it has already risen to the top of my oil-archy. Wow! 

Jump to:

• Ingredient Breakdown and Benefits Of Each Oil
• The Process of Making Shea Butter Balm
• How To Use It
• Substitutions and Variations
• How to Store
• Where To Buy Oils And Butters
• Additional Information
• Shea Butter Balm with Castor Oil Recipe

What it will do for your skin: 

• Clear 
• Brighter 
• Healthy glow 
• Softer 
• Able to retain more moisture 
• skin slugging

Ingredients you'll need:

• Shea butter  
• Grass fed tallow  
• castor oil
• tamanu oil
• rosehip seed oil
• black seed oil
• essential oils

Ingredient Breakdown and Benefits Of Each Oil

Castor Oil 

As a skin oil connoisseur, I do not understand how castor oil kept slipping under my radar for years! I would hear about it in skin care blogs and forums, but it was mostly in relation to hair and lash growth, so I never attempted to incorporate it into my formulas. Thinking it was just a weird looking oil that didn't have much to offer, I was clearly wrong! I now believe that people are just not aware of its full potential.

A couple of months ago I stumbled upon this podcast with Doctor Marisol Teijeiro, ND. She is highly knowledgeable of castor oil and its many uses starting with liver packs for detox, to thyroid and pelvic packs; abdominal massages, etc... and last but not least, skin care.

Research shows that castor oil penetrates the skin to the deepest layers. As it makes its way into lymph nodes and blood vessels, it causes their dilation and increases nitric oxide production. This brings more blood and nutrients to the skin cells. Nitric oxide production is essential for skin cells to retain moisture, rebuild collagen, and stay youthful.

It also lowers inflammation, and it is very healing for skin rashes, pimples, breakouts, cuts, etc. I can attest to this as it heals everything quicker than anything else I have put on my skin. It also lowers substance P which is involved in conditions that cause pain such as eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis.  

Have you ever gone to the beach and stayed in the scorching sun far too long? And then noticed your skin had turned beet red? Well, I did this past summer. Oops! After showering at home and slathering myself with the balm, the redness started to fade away within hours. Next day it was almost gone. There was no pain or discomfort on my skin at all. No peeling after the burn either.

Never had I experienced such quick healing before! Things like aloe vera, shea butter, cucumber seed oil do work wonders, but not like castor oil! I think this substance should have a temple of worship built ASAP!  

When buying castor oil, always look for cold pressed, hexane free, extra virgin. It should always be in an amber GLASS bottle. Due to its detoxifying nature, it will pull out the chemicals leaching from plastic bottles. So never buy castor oil that is sold in plastic bottles.

I am also not a fan of the Jamaican black castor oil because it has been burned and it is not cold pressed, losing this way many of its benefits.  

Shea Butter 

As I mentioned above, I have had an immense interest in natural oils for many years, since my early twenties. I used to have very dry skin due to jumping on the low-fat diet bandwagon (this will be a topic for whole ‘nother blog). I started my skin care journey with raw shea butter.

Shea will always be my first love, and rightfully so because it is utterly amazing. It does make skin visibly smoother and helps it to retain more moisture. Furthermore, it possesses some skin lightening effects due to the cinnamic acid content. It also has some modest SPF properties.

These are only some of its properties – there is much more to shea butter. You need to try it for yourself on a cold, dry winter day and see how it will cocoon your skin in a thick layer of moisture retaining goo. Always look for raw and unrefined shea.  

Tamanu Oil 

Along with the shea, I started to experiment with different carrier oils such as jojoba, avocado, grapeseed, etc. You name it, chances are I have 100% tried it. Some of these oils did not live up to the hype in my experience, meanwhile other not so famous oils like tamanu, got me completely blown away with the results.

Tamanu oil is exceptionally potent in its skin lightening/brightening ability, especially if you have scars from injuries or acne. It also helps with fading surgery scars (please do not apply on a super fresh surgery scar and always consult your doctor) and keloids. It can be drying if used on its own at full potency (meaning without mixing it with other carrier oils), but when combined with other oils and butters, it does not cause any dryness at all.

Having said that, I did use it on its own for months and months, because I absolutely adored the way it brightened my skin, gently exfoliated, and lightened my scars. I was so thrilled that I did not want to dilute or mix it with anything else at the time!  

Rosehip Seed Oil 

When I began experimenting with rose hip seed oil, I loved it so, so much! Just as much as tamanu. Rosehip seed oil also has lightening/brightening and scar fading properties but without the drying effects of tamanu (Although I find tamanu to offer quicker and more dramatic brightening results). It is also supposed to boost collagen production due to natural carotenoids which the skin then converts into Vitamin A.  

Grass Fed Tallow 

Grass fed tallow seems to have become immensely popular lately. And of course, I had to try it. It is said to have vitamins A, D, E, K in very bioavailable forms. So, it is quite easy for our skin to just suck them in and use them up without having to convert them to more digestible forms first. I found the tallow to be very soothing, healing, and anti-inflammatory.  

Black Seed Oil 

Black seed oil is another oil I love and use internally and externally due to its miraculous properties. It is very anti-inflammatory and will help calm down the angriest of skin types. Super beneficial if acne prone. 

Essential Oils 

I have incorporated some essential oils in this formula, but you are free to use your essential oils of choice. If acne prone, I recommend you keep the tea tree oil even though it is not the greatest smelling thing out there.  Lavender and frankincense essential oils have very anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties. You can always swap for geranium, helichrysum (beneficial for scars/stretch marks and skin regeneration), ylang-ylang, turmeric (brightening), etc.  

The Process of Making Shea Butter Balm

How To Use It

Apply liberally as many times as you wish to face, body, cracked heels, cuticles, ends of hair, stretch marks, wounds, scars, minor burns. For best results apply at least twice per day.

Substitutions and Variations

You can always omit some ingredients and/or add your own. Just play with it and make your own mixture through trial and error. For example, you can use beeswax or mango butter instead of shea or tallow (even though I highly recommend you keep this one). Or cacao butter (make sure you’re not prone to break outs first). Or murumuru butter! Choices are endless! Have fun with it. Use what works best for your skin.  

How to Store

I usually split the recipe into two 2 oz each containers. I store one in the fridge for later use so it can stay fresher longer. Store the one at hand in a dry place away from light.

Where To Buy Oils And Butters

There are a couple of trustworthy sites where you can purchase high quality ingredients. I buy my oils and essential oils from Mountain Rose Herbs. Make sure you get the raw and unrefined ones.

Other sources for essential oils would be dōTERRA(very high quality but expensive),REVIVE, now, aura cacia, etc.

I buy my shea butter through different retailers but first and foremost always make sure that it is raw shea.

For castor oil, the gold standard is this one (Queen Of The Thrones). Heritage Store is good too. Pick the one that comes into glass bottle.

Tallow - make sure you get grass fed.

Additional Information

Although there are plenty of decent natural products on the market nowadays, I feel like most worry more about what the product is going to look and smell like rather than potency. They combine the ingredients, especially essential oils, in such a way that the smell is harmonious and attractive. While this is lovely and there is nothing wrong with it, it is not going to necessarily give you the most potent concoction. If you want to get serious with the results and get them quickly, you need to get smelly!!! LOL!

This balm will have an earthy and natural smell that I find intoxicating, but I understand that might not be the case for everyone (IT IS ONLY SMELLY IF YOU USE TEA TREE ESSENTIAL OIL, otherwise it smells mildly earthy and pleasant, even fragrant in my opinion). Smell should dissipate quickly once you put it on and the skin absorbs it. I use it twice per day – morning and evening. Never had any issues with it. No one has ever mentioned the smell. If it bothers you, you can use it only at night-time.

Additionally, there was a study done just very recently where healthy women without breast cancer avoided parabens and pthalates (which are endocrine disruptors) in their beauty and cleaning products for just 28 days. The results showed that 78% of their cancer expression genes shifted back to normal! So, avoiding these endocrine disruptors which are found in so many skin care products could prevent breast cancer. Another reason to make your own skin care at home.  

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