I recently moved to a house heated by electric baseboards (yikes!), which means my house is exceptionally dry. When I ran out of my hand cream and the cracks in my knuckles started bleeding where they were cracked (double yikes!), I knew it was time to get on with my plan of making my own. So I started with Minimalist Beauty's DIY Hand and Nail Care recipe, and made a few minor changes.

The recipe calls for equal parts of shea butter, cocoa butter, and grapeseed oil and vanilla absolute oil for the smell.

I did a small bit of research (aka reading reviews of the products from New Directions Aromatics) and decided that I didn't want my hands to smell like cocoa for fear I would constantly be craving it, so decided to substitute aloe butter instead of the cocoa butter. Even though I requested they use as little packaging as necessary, I still felt there was way too much. Especially for a box full of plastic containers!

I also substituted lavender essential oil rather than vanilla, because it was something I already had in my possession, and therefore didn't need to buy. Less waste and less money!

I also went to my local thrift store and got a lovely super thick walled small pot to use. It cost me a whole of $5, and means I don't need to worry about mucking up my cooking pots with these types of experiments.

As per the directions, I put the butters and oil into the pot and put it on the lowest setting to melt.

Butters and oil in the pot

 Once they were melted, I turned off the stove, and let it cool just a bit.

All melted!

I added the lavender, then split up the mixture into small screw top aluminum containers that I got for this purpose. I needed something I could throw in my bag without worrying that the top would come off!

Individual container of liquid hand butter

I then let the containers cool overnight. When I woke up, I had two containers filled with hand and nail butter! No more need to buy hand cream!


After using the hand and nail butter, I decided the formula was too oily for my liking, so I scooped up all of the butter from the containers and put it back into the small pot to melt it down again. I then added another 1.5 oz of each butter and another 10 drops of lavender once the new mixture was cooled.

I am very pleased with the final results, and will continue to make this instead of buying hand cream! It still feels a little bit oily on my skin after putting it on, but it's much better than the first iteration.

Materials to make this cost me $7.37 for 7 oz or approximately 210 mL. Less than half the price of the body butters at the Body Shop, and I have control over the ingredients.

P.S. The containers I got only hold 2 oz each, so I put the remaining 3 oz into a washed out yogurt container. Not as pretty nor transportable, but much better for reducing waste.

Since University I've been a pretty active person, but more with sports like Ultimate Frisbee. My old roommate was an avid gym goer, going nearly every day. I've had a few gym memberships over the years, but they've always ended up being a waste of my money, in my opinion. I always swore that I'd never get one again. I guess there's a reason that people say 'never say never'.

I couldn't pass up this groupon for $22 for 2 months at the Wynn Fitness near my house. Seeing as I slacked big time with my running training, and I'd like to have an option to run on a treadmill when the weather gets to bad to go out. They also have some Yoga and Spin classes that work with my training schedule.

If you're in the GTA, it might be worth checking out!

Coming around the corner at the 3k mark

I was sooo happy to walk for water at the 7.5k mark

Nearly done! Look at that heel strike!