homemade belly butter

One of my symptoms in my second and third trimesters — third trimester especially — has been an itchy belly! With baby girl growing quickly, my belly has been expanding rapidly. And with much skin stretching comes much itching from dry skin!

I’ve found that lotion never quite seems to do the trick. It will alleviate the itch for an hour or so, but this homemade belly butter does the trick for hours and hours! I can even usually get by just putting it on at night before bed. But I do try to apply it twice a day just to try to prevent stretch marks all the more.

Also, I’ve had this crazy burning patch of skin on the upper part of my belly that my doctor says is from the nerve endings of my stretching skin. It’s super painful, but keeping it hydrated with this stuff has helped so much! I’ve even been known to bring it with my in my purse so that I can apply as needed for quick relief.

This recipe is adapted from Mama Natural’s “Natural Stretch Mark Cream” from this post. She gets all the credit! I am simply adding how I tweaked it.

here’s what you need:

• 1/2 cup virgin organic coconut oil (we get ours at Costco!)
• 1/4 cup raw cocoa butter (I actually use shea butter because I already had this tub, and it works great.)
• 1 tsp vitamin E oil (I got mine at Trader Joe’s!)
• 2 TB rosehip oil (got mine here on Amazon)
• 2 TB almond oil (link here from Amazon)
• 7 drops each Geranium, Lavender and Frankincense essential oil (Young Living of course!)

here’s how to make it:

1. In a double burner, melt your coconut oil and cocoa/shea butter. (If you don’t have a double burner — which I don’t — you can simply boil about an inch of water in a pot, and then place the coconut oil and shea butter in a glass bowl that fits on top of the pot. Just make sure the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the glass bowl. Stir oils together until they turn to liquid as they melt.)
2. Pour into glass container. (You can use a little mason jar with a lid, or you can even just use a small glass tupperware jar.)
3. Let cool so that it’s skin temperature.
4. Add in your other oils and blend with immersion blender. (I don’t have an immersion blender so I literally just stirred it with a spoon. It’s all liquid anyway at this point.)
5. Seal lid and store in cool, dark place. (At first it will be a liquid consistency, then it will harden slightly over time creating more of a creamy texture.)
6. Apply 2-3 times per day directly on stretch marks.

Voila! There you have it. Homemade belly butter for your gorgeous growing belly!

Wishing you a healthy and happy pregnancy, mama!

photo: Apple Rose Photography