Body Butter, Oil, Lotion, or Serum? How to Build a Thoughtful Body Care Routine
I had an esthetician premonition the other day! Body care is soon going to take center stage and have just as much importance as our facial care does. This month, my scrub-me-secrets blog articles will have a body care theme, so perfect for summer, don’t you agree?
Whether you're team body butter, body oil, lotion, or serum (or all four!), here’s how to understand their benefits and build a routine that treats your body skin with the same love as your face.
Body Butter -
Intensive moisture for dry, dehydrated, sensitive, or damaged skin
Body butters are commonly made from shea butter, cocoa butter, or mango butter: these are fats that have been harvested from the seeds or pods of a plant. Shea comes from a shea tree, cocoa butter comes from a cocoa pod, and mango butter is extracted from pods of mangos.
These natural fats contain skin-moisturizing properties. They are also rich in nutrients, such as omega-3s and antioxidants, which are beneficial for our skin health. These plant fats can be whipped in a mixer to change their texture, resulting in a lighter, fluffier consistency that’s more pleasant to apply compared to raw shea, cocoa, or mango butter.
Body butters can be made using a singular ingredient (such as shea), or you can make a body butter by mixing these plant fat ingredients with other oils and/or essential oils. The consistency of a body butter ranges from a light, fluffy whip to a more solid texture.
scrub me whipped shea butter is basically the only body moisturizer I use! It’s made using raw shea and a small amount of coconut oil to make it light and fluffy. I make an unscented, Bulgarian lavender body butter and a citrus essential oil blend. It feels like a cloud when you scoop it out of the jar and then emulsifies into a moisturizing oil texture. This immediately smoothes your skin and locks in moisture so it stays soft.
scrub me secret: There is a difference between moisturizing your skin and hydrating your skin. Hydration speaks to adding water-based products to your skin and ingredients that help your skin retain proper water content. Moisturizing your skin means replenishing it with oils that help make your skin cells strong and help lock in hydration. So, without moisturizer, we can’t lock in our hydration.
Body Oil -
Improves your skin’s overall radiance
Body oils are skincare items made from oils, more often than not extracted from plants. Typically, a body oil product contains a blend of different oils chosen for their skincare benefits. Certain oils are known to cause clogged pores and breakouts, while other oils work better with our skin and nourish it without causing breakouts. We obviously want to choose oils to make body care items that do not clog pores.
Popular oils are grapeseed oil, jojoba oil, extra virgin olive oil, hemp seed oil, and argan oil. There are SO many more amazing oils to choose from. Body oils are used to keep skin soft, even skin complexion, and give it a radiant glow. Many of the oils I listed above have healing and antioxidant properties that help heal any little abrasions or marks that make our skin look uneven. These antioxidants also help our skin stay firm.
Another great thing about a body oil is that it instantly makes your skin look glimmering and luminous! Perfect for a warm, summer night. My two favorite body oils are the True Botanicals Pure Radiance body oil and the scrub me Endless Summer body oil.
scrub me secret: Have you ever heard of body gua sha? Wildling Beauty, the company that makes my favorite gua sha stones for facial massage, makes a gua sha stone for body massage! The Aura Stone has different edges and curves that are used to enhance circulation and oxygen flow in the body, plus stimulate tissues to firm skin and reduce cellulite. I need one ASAP! This stone is great to use with a body oil.
Body Lotion -
Locks in necessary hydration for all skin types
A body lotion is a water-based hydrating product for your body skin. Unlike a body butter, which is made with fats and oils, body lotion is lightweight and absorbs more quickly. This type of product is great for all skin types and is necessary for helping our skin retain its proper water content.
Since lotion is formulated using water, it must contain a preservative ingredient so bacteria do not breed in the water in the product. There are also ingredients needed to help everything in the product bind and work cohesively. Therefore, body lotions will have a longer ingredient list vs. body oil or body butters. This does raise the chances you will come across ingredients in body lotions that are harmful chemicals or irritants, BUT that doesn’t mean you can’t find lotions with really great ingredients. You can search my blog posts for skin-loving lotion recommendations or use the EWG Skin Deep database.
I’m obsessed with the Herbivore Botanicals Body Cream because it’s a thicker lotion that feels great on my dry skin. Osea Body Lotion is a perfect light-weight hydrating lotion.
scrub me secret: I choose to stick to making body butters, body oils, and soaps because I don’t want to get into the world of making skincare with preservatives, etc. I want to keep my small batch skincare items super minimal, and we will leave the water-based products to the true scientists 😉.
Body Serum -
A treatment product that delivers specific ingredients deeply into your skin
Just like facial serums, body serums are formulated using ingredients with smaller molecules that can penetrate more deeply into the skin vs. lotions, creams, and oils. This is so they can deliver treatment ingredients like hyaluronic acid, salicylic acid, retinol, and benzyl peroxide, etc, so they can have their best effect.
Body serums with hyaluronic acid add extra layers of hydration to dry/dehydrated skin. Body serums with retinol help to smooth and firm skin, and ones with salicylic acid or benzyl peroxide treat breakouts.
A body serum would be used after cleansing, before using your lotion or body butter. I suggest using your body serum in the evening, before bed, so it can work its best, and also because some ingredients for acne, as well as retinol, can make your skin more susceptible to sun damage. So, using it after sundown is best.
scrub me secret: of course I’m not going to let a body care blog post pass by without mentioning exfoliation! Our body skin really benefits from physical exfoliation a couple times a week. Not only does it remove dead skin cells but it stimulates your healthy ones and boosts oxygen flow to your skin cells. I love the Herbivore Botanicals Coconut Sugar scrub for the summer.
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