Berkshire Mountain Mamas' Wicked Body Butter

I first came across Berkshire Mountain Mamas’ wonderful Wicked Body Butters in the gift shop of the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  My mom bought a jar and I kept nicking fistfuls of it while I was at the Kripalu Yoga R&R retreat one weekend back in January.  This stuff is great!  I wrote to the lovely ladies over at Mountain Mamas’ and they sent me 4 different scents to try out – Egyptian Goddess,  Patchouli, Wild Flower, and October Girl.  You know when something is homemade (in this case by Candice – owner, scent designer, and head butter churner) because no 2 pots are the same.  All have a slightly different consistency.  Some are more fluffy, some are more dense, some require a little rolling around between your fingers to warm them up so that you can spread them nicely more than others. 

Here’s what I thought of the different scents:

Egyptian Goddess – light and musky, this is the first one that I tried.  I was drawn in by the name and found the scent delightful.  I think Cleopatra would have approved!

Patchouli – full disclosure: I hate patchouli, I absolutely hate it.  However surprisingly I liked the scent of this product.  I think that the creamy smell of the Shea butter helps balance out the raw patchouli smell because the end result is a subtle unisex fragrance.  (I made my fiancé try it to get a man’s opinion and he liked it so that’s two happy customers!)

Wild Flower – a blend of daffodil, dandelion, lily of the valley and a touch of green grass this butter smells like a nature walk on a warm summer’s day.  This was probably my least favorite scent only because I’m not a big floral fan.  The jar accidently got crushed in my luggage when I took it on a trip so do be careful to wrap the jar carefully in your clothes when you travel!

October Girl – I love, love, loved this scent.  My favorite by far!  I have no idea what an October Girl is, I just know that I want to be one, probably even more than I want to be an Egyptian Goddess!  The scent is comprised of lavender, litsea cubela, peppermint and witches brew (seriously?)  For me I think it’s the peppermint that makes this scent.  It plays and contrasts wonderfully with the flowers.

Ingredient list is a natural beautee dream: Shea butter, cocoa butter, olive oil, grapeseed oil, sweet almond oil, apricot oil, walnut oil, hazelnut oil, vitamin E, essential oil/scent.  There are no preservatives or sunscreen in the product.  The cynic in me is a little uncomfortable with the last ingredient “scent” as it’s not clear what this is exactly but since it’s the last ingredient you can be assured that it is the least prevalent ingredient.   Plus with all of the amazing butters and oils that are listed before “scent” you know there are way more benefits than drawbacks.

My favorite ways to use the Wicked Body Butters:

Smear the butter all over your body and then get into a hot bath.  Ahhhhhh.  I am a big bath person.  I normally mix a 10 ml blend of carrier and essential oils and put it into the bath every night.  This is my relax time.  I find that by putting the oils in the bath when I get out I don’t need to use any moisturizer.  So I decided that I would apply the butter first, soak, and then see the results.  They were the same as putting the oils directly in the bath plus the extra benefit of the Mountain Mamas’ wonderful scents.  Brilliant!

Smear the butter on your feet before bed sleep in cotton socks.  You’ll find some very soft feet when you wake up!

Rub a teeny-tiny amount between your fingers and apply to the ends of frizzy hair.  I found that this helped with my dodgy ends and gave my hair a nice fragrance in between washes!

You’ll notice from the prevalence of the “!”s in this post that I was really enthusiastic about these body butters.  That’s because I am!

Side note – “wicked” in New England is commonly used as an adjective e.g. “How do you like that lobster (pronounced “lobsta”) roll?” “It’s wicked good!” you might hear as a response.