Mosquito Repellent Body Butter Recipe With Essential Oils

With incidents of Lyme disease becoming more common, protection against ticks in wooded and rural areas where ticks prosper is super important. The Lyme disease bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, is spread through the bite of infected deer ticks, also known as blacklegged ticks, causing the spread of the disease in the northeastern, mid-Atlantic, and north-central United States. The western blacklegged tick spreads the disease on the Pacific Coast. ( Find more information on the CDC website here.)

Natural Mosquito and Tick Repellent Body Butter

Lemon eucalyptus essential oil has been shown to be effective in preventing mosquito bites and is a common ingredient in some commercial mosquito repellents. According to WebMD, when applying a specific 30% lemon eucalyptus oil extract called Citriodiol three times daily you can also significantly decrease the number of tick attachments if you live in tick-infested area. ( Learn what Citriodiol is here.) This extract is used in commercial products such as Mosi-guard and Repel Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus.

For my mosquito repellent body butter recipe, I use lemon eucalyptus essential oil at just under 5% – the maximum for a skin safe application. This ingredient works great at naturally repelling biting insects. It is then blended with additional essential oils know to repel mosquitoes and other biting insects into a smooth and creamy body butter for easy application. In addition, this homemade insect repellent also doubles as a natural body moisturizer.

Mosquito Repellent Body Butter Recipe

Ingredients:

These are the ingredients you need to make a natural tick and mosquito repellent for your natural skin care routine:

• .25 oz. emulsifying wax
• 2 oz. babassu oil
• 1 oz. refined shea butter
• .25 oz. cocoa butter
• .25 oz. camellia (tea seed) oil
• .1 oz. neem oil
• .1 oz. fractionated coconut oil
• .15 oz. lemon eucalyptus essential oil
• 6 drops peppermint essential oil
• 6 drops lavender essential oil
• 6 drops tea tree essential oil

How to Make Insect Repellent Body Butter for Mosquitoes and Ticks

Here is how to make an insect repellent body butter with essential oils for repelling mosquitoes and ticks:

1. You will need a digital scale to weigh the ingredients for my mosquito repellent body butter recipe. Additionally, substitutions can be made for this recipe. While I have not tested substitutions for this formula, these are my closest approximations that I believe would work.
2. Babassu oil and camellia oil were chosen not only for their benefits to skin, but also because they don’t feel oily or greasy when used in cosmetic applications. Babassu oil has a slightly higher melt point than regular coconut oil, however refined coconut oil can be substituted if desired. You will need to increase the amount of wax used, however, to compensate for the difference in the melt point. Fractionated coconut oil also can be used in place of the camellia oil.
3. In addition, the shea butter can be subbed with sal butter or mango butter and the cocoa butter with another hard butter like kokum butter. The fractionated coconut oil can be substituted with Cyclomethicone. Both of these products keep the end product from feeling greasy. Alternately, it can be omitted entirely.
4. This is a soft butter and may not remain in solid form in hot areas or outside of a temperature controlled environment. In this case I recommend increasing the emulsifying wax as needed – I chose to use emulsifying wax as it also keeps the insect repellent body butter from feeling greasy on skin as well – or substitute it with beeswax for an end product closer to a salve. You can also try 1/2 the amount of wax called for in the recipe with carnauba wax, which is vegan. In addition you can also keep my insect repellent body butter recipe as is and try adding .05 oz. of arrowroot powder.
5. To make this mosquito repellent body butter, begin by weighing out the emulsifying wax, babassu oil, shea butter and cocoa butter. Heat in the microwave at 40-50% power until melted or melt in a double boiler.
6. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Weigh out the carrier oils and stir into the melted wax and butters.
7. Next weigh out the fractionated coconut oil and stir into the mosquito repellent body butter mixture.
8. Now weigh out the lemon eucalyptus essential oil and mix into your melted product. Using a dropper, follow with the remaining essential oils. Mix well.
9. Evenly pour the body butter into two 2.3 oz. clear glass thick wall cosmetic jars with black lined caps. (I got my jars from SKS Bottle & Packaging here.)
10. Allow to cool completely, then screw on the lids. You can place your mosquito repellent body butter in the fridge to speed up the cooling process. As this recipe yields a soft, velvety butter it may take 24-48 hours to fully solidify and reach its final consistency.

Alternate Bug Repelling Essential Oils

If you don’t want to invest in multiple essential oils all at once, Mountain Rose Herbs also sells a great bug blend essential oil that you can use in lieu of the peppermint, tea tree and lavender. This bug repelling essential oil blend is made using the following essential oils:

• Virginia cedarwood essential oil
• Lemongrass essential oil
• Rosemary essential oil
• Geranium essential oil
• Spearmint essential oil
• Thyme essential oil

Simply substitute the drops of lavender, tea tree and peppermint essential oils with 18 drops of the bug blend. Keep the lemon eucalyptus essential oil as indicated.

How to use Mosquito Repellent Body Butter

To use apply the DIY mosquito repellent body butter to exposed areas of skin and massage in. This body butter smells really strong at first, but the scent will mellow after about 5-10 minutes. Reapply every few hours as needed to aid in repelling mosquitoes and other biting insects.

Where to Buy Mosquito Repellent with Essential Oils

There are a number of places you can buy mosquito repellent with essential oils. Here are some of my favorite places to shop for insect repellent:

• Mountain Rose Herbs also sells essential oil insect repellents. They offer both a Don’t Bug Me! Bug Repellent Spray as well as a Don’t Bug Me! Bug Off Stick. Or check out the book, Naturally Bug Free, for ways to use essential oils and other natural ingredients to protect yourself, your children, your pets and your home from bugs without using harsh or toxic chemicals.
• Grove sells a lemon eucalyptus oil insect repellent. Part of Murphy’s Naturals Defense Line, this product contains 30% oil of lemon eucalyptus and works to repel mosquitoes and ticks for up to 6 hours. Or explore the other natural insect repellents they offer that are safe to use around both kids and pets.
• If you’re looking to buy a natural insect repellent you may like the organic lemongrass citronella insect repellent spray from Pure Palette. This natural insect and mosquito repellent spray contains a blend of lemongrass, lavender, cedarwood, eucalyptus, citronella, patchouli and catnip essential oils. It is 100% natural, hand blended in a small batches, DEET Free and has a wonderful fresh, clean scent. It repels mosquitoes and many other bugs including No See Um.
• Pure Palette also sells hand poured citronella outdoor candles to help deter mosquitoes and other biting insects when you’re enjoying time outdoors on your patio or deck. I just bought three of these for an upcoming cookout I’m hosting in May.
• You may also be interested in the organic insect repellent stick with lemon eucalyptus essential oil from SunnyBrae Buzz. It’s formulated with essential oils that are known to repel mosquitoes, ticks, gnats, and flies and also comes in three formulations – for babies 6 months to 23 months, for kids 2 years to 15 years and for ages 16 to adult.
• Additionally, Turtle Moon Health also sells a non-greasy, natural mosquito repellent spray with lemon eucalyptus essential oil called Nature’s Cloak Mosquito & Tick Repellent. It’s non-staining and kid friendly!

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