Which Body Butter Are You?

*disclaimer: product provided for review

Enjoying the cold months saves me electricity and garners me the effortless fresh look instead of looking like I'm about to melt with the sweat and my hair mushrooms up due to the humidity. The downside of the cold months too, though is the dry skin and pain of my skin and heels cracking. Not a pretty site really. While exfoliation gets rid of the dry flakes (I use good ol' exfoliating gloves or loofah to do the trick), I need to replenish the moisture lost and keep the new skin cells healthy. Lotion does the trick during the day when I go out. For stay-in cooler days though or on times where I'm exposed to nothing but cold recycled air, I rely on body butters to butter me good for baby-smooth skin.

Why body butters? They're less greasy too and they don't leave a shiny sheen, which the matte girl in me doesn't like. The oils I prefer to layer on my damp skin then towel it off. Body butters are really lush and feel like, well, butter on the skin and they get absorbed well so they sink right to our dehydrated skin rather than stick to the clothes.

The Body Shop was where I've heard first about body butters, my first body butter I remember was the mango variety (it would be weird to say flavor though, but come to think of it, they do smell yummy!), and I remember it being tad too heavy for me to wear when I go out all over my body so I save it only on my feet and hands, the parts which get dry a lot. Another yummy-scented body butter I had from The Body Shop was coconut, which literally took me to the beach during the dry seasons. The formula of body butters are so much lighter now, richer than conventional lotion but it was okay enough for me to slather some on my tummy during the day without the need for me to wipe it off after.

There are various scents to choose from, inspired from yummy fruits and luxury scents. My favorite two though, do not come from an orchard yet smell as yummy.

Moringa and Olive both have lush formulas suitable for normal to dry skin. The scents are just as divine and I like how both of them smell fresh and clean and sort of mysterious. The olive one reminds me of a clean scent that you'd be drawn to but you can't seem to know if it's fruity or floral. It's a familiar scent (probably if you're familiar with olive oil) but you don't know where it's from. I don't really know if olives smell like that really but it's one of the scents I find so comforting, fresh, clean, and well, expensive. I jokingly call it an "amoy-mayaman" scent.

Moringa is actually english for our very own malunggay. The scent of moringa is actually an acquired one, this scent is more floral and powdery. The scent is very clean but kinda exotic. It's a very sexy scent actually, kinda like a Middle Eastern princess like feel. It's a very clean, sexy, and sensual scent at the same time, it's not a nostril overkill scent. And that scent I don't smell in my tinola.

Of course, there are other old favorites should olive and moringa be too unusual for others. Another favorite of mine is strawberry, which is lighter in formulation with a sweet, fruity scent that makes you smell as sweet as fresh strawberries. Strawberries always have that pleasing taste anywhere and they smell just as terrific. Satsuma and Pink Grapefruit are citrusy and yummy scents which give an uplifting feel. I reserve the sweet scent of Mango for very cold days when I need a tropical scent boost with a body butter made for very dry skin.

Super dry skins would benefit from Shea body butter or Cocoa body butter, with a warm yummy scent of chocolate and vanilla that's comforting to the senses as it is to the skin. The good thing too with the variants for dry and extra dry skin are that their scents are not as overpowering so it doesn't overwhelm us just like that so that it stays just there in our vanities rather than being used.

Of course, I can't recommend and insist what body butter to use, since it will really depend on the person. Olive and Moringa are my personal choices. Of course, I'd love to have all but that would overwhelm my senses, pocket, and husband since I'm taking over already half of his vanity. Maybe I could alternate and switch as I finish each tub. I could switcharoo to Pink Grapefruit during the summer or Cocoa Butter should my skin start cracking again. Since it's pretty dry now, it's pretty okay to use this all over the skin, especially at night. For summer, the heat and humidity could cook the skin and senses with an intense moisturizer so I leave this on trouble spots or when sleeping at night in a cold airconditioned room.