Naturally Soft Skin

I have a vast preference that the things I intend to absorb into my skin should be things that are healthy/belong there (ie natural stuff). 

The bad news is that retailers want to charge you an arm and a leg for "natural" anything. 

The good news is that it's pretty cheap to make it yourself. 

Here is the simplest recipe I know. 

1 1/4 cup hot water
1/4 cup emulsifying wax (Don’t use beeswax)
1/4 cup olive oil (I like to use coconut oil or sunflower oil) 
24-36 drops essential oil

1. combine the olive oil and emusifying wax and microwave for 1 minute until it is all melted. The temperature on this reads about 155 degrees.

2. heat  1 1/4 cup of water for 1 minute or until about 120 degrees

3. While that is heating up  add the essential oil into melted wax/olive oil mixture.

4. Then pour the hot water into the wax/olive oil mixture and watch it turn milky white. At this point the temperature is about 125 degrees

5.  then pour the hot lotion into wide mouth pint size jars and let cool overnight. The next morning you’ll have a fresh jar of homemade natural hand lotion!

My favorite is lotion bars! They make great gifts!!

• 1 part coconut oil
• 1 part shea butter, or mango butter 
• 1 part beeswax (can add an extra ounce or two if you want a thicker consistency, which leaves less lotion on the skin when used)
• optional: Vitamin E oil to preserve. I added 1 tsp vitamin E oil for  this recipe made with 1 cup of each ingredient)

This recipe can be adjusted to make any quantity that you’d like. I made with 1 part=1cup so I used 1 cup of coconut oil, 1 cup beeswax and 1/3 cup each of shea butter, cocoa butter and mango butter (though I could have used 1 cup of any of the individual ones). I also added about 50 drops of lavender essential oil. I set them in silicon baking cups though any mold or shape would work. The recipe I used made exactly 12 lotion bars.

How to Make:

Combine all ingredients (except essential oils if using) in a double boiler, or a glass bowl over a smaller saucepan with 1 inch of water in it.

Turn the burner on and bring water to a boil. Stir ingredients constantly until they are melted and smooth:

Remove from heat and add the essential oils.

Gently stir by hand until essential oils are incorporated)

Carefully pour into molds or whatever you will be allowing the lotion bars to harden in. I used these silicon baking cups, though any mold would work.

Allow the lotion bars to cool completely before attempting to pop out of molds.