The Beginning...

My mum had been sick and I wanted to get her a nice body butter than was beneficial to her skin.

I looked at many products but they were filled with so many ingredients and I couldn't understand how something labelled "natural" could not only have so many un-natural sounding ingredients but how strange some of them sounded.


I started to search around the net for some products and I stumbled across Go Native that had a huge range of products and some amazing, easy to follow recipes with the minimum amount of products.  Before I tried something too complicated I decided to try some basics... Lip Balm and some ready made products.  The Lip Balm was very easy and the product turned out wonderfully so decided I was ready to make a Body Butter all on my own.

I spent hours on the website pouring over the recipes trying to decide what I should try first.  I went back to my original thought which was I wanted something good for mum and finally decided on Go Native NZ Manuka Body Butter (click on the link to check on the recipe for yourself!) It is filled with fantastic ingredients and the recipe was very easy to follow.

I made two batches, my first I over mixed a little but the second turned out perfect!  It had a lovely pale green colour, smelled great and ended up with just over four glass pots.  By the time I have finished making it I had assigned each pot to someone but knew I had better try it myself.  I did a quick test on my hands and arms and the first thing I noticed was how lovely it was on my skin, the second and this was the one that pleasantly surprised me, the pain I have in my wrists had disappeared.  The anti-inflamitory ingredients in this recipe really did work.  I gave the pots away to two of the most skeptical people I knew as I figured they would be the hardest to convince without trying it themselves.  Both of them not only loved the product they where raving about how much the butter actually alleviated the pain they had been experiencing.  One even takes a little jar of it in her handbag wherever she goes to help with a sore knee and anything else that is feeling a little sore!

I made some Lip Balm and added in some of Manuka Essential Oil which feels so lovely on the lips.  Next up I worked on how to pretty up the jars.  I found duct tape, I found pretty duct tape!  I hand wrote out the labels but have since upgraded and bought myself a cheap little printer.

The next post I'll cover What On Earth Should I Do For Christmas Presents!