Last month, hard lotion bars were given a try in the DIY Skattebo kitchen.
I was AMAZED at the fragrance that the cocoa butter gave the lotion bars!! So amazed that I've decided to simply NOT add scent when using cocoa butter anymore. Ever! Shea butter will be used when I know I want to add fragrance ;)
Simple recipe for a lotion bar (using cocoa butter):
Equal parts by weight: Cocoa butter, Olive oil, Beeswax
For 1 ounce parts, I added 1/2 tsp Vitamin E.
I found this recipe makes for quite a hard bar; perfect for hands, elbows, knees and the like, but it wasn't easy to use on the larger body parts (arms, legs...). The bar didn't glide nicely.
Fast forward a week:
Trial #2
Equal parts by weight: Cocoa butter, Olive oil
Beeswax part was cut in half
ie: 1 ounce each Cocoa butter and Olive oil, 1/2 ounce beeswax.
Now, the bars were too soft.
{{This was kinda taking on a Goldilocks feel}}
So, I melted the bars back down, and added some more beeswax.
When I need to make up more bars, I will try a 1:1:.75 ratio of cocoa butter, olive oil and beeswax.
(ie: 1 ounce each of cocoa butter, olive oil, and 3/4 ounce beeswax.
Simple recipe for a lotion bar (using Shea butter)
Since Shea butter is a bit softer at room temperature than Cocoa butter, I kept this trial's recipe following the ideal of equal parts (by weight) Shea butter, Olive oil and beeswax.
Although, as I've been researching more on oils and butters for soaps, I elected to play a little bit with the liquid oils.
Recipe:
30g Shea butter (30g is just a smidgen more than an ounce)
15g Olive oil
15g Sunflower oil
30g Beeswax
1/2 tsp Vitamin E
1/2 tsp fragrance/essential oil
Outcome: The jury is still out. A couple bars were shared with Karen, a reader of the blog. (HI KAREN!!!!) She and I arranged a lil' swap (lotions for mini greenhouses), so I asked her if she'd be willing to share feedback with me once she's had the opportunity to try out the bars. I'm HOPING the bars glide a little bit better than the equal-part cocoa butter bars did.
This truly has been a summer of DIY beauty products in the Skattebo kitchen!
Homemade soaps -- more evaluations to come on all of those now that they've cured long enough.
Lip balm -- loving it!
Liquid soaps -- nothing blogged on that yet. Eh -- not sold on any recipe I've tried yet, though.
Sugar scrubs -- nothing blogged yet. But----OMGOODNESS!!!! I made a Spiced Pumpkin sugar scrub last week. Heaven!!!!!
Today, I've added the newest product to the family: whipped lotion/body butter
Simple recipe for whipped lotion
120g (~1/2 cup) coconut oil
120g (~1/2 cup) Shea butter
4g beeswax
1/2 tsp Vitamin E
Melt oil, butter and beeswax together. Mix, add vitamin E, and then chill in fridge for ~30 minutes
Whip to desired consistency...
I then divided the batch into 5 baby food jars, allowing the girls to have personalized lotions using a fragrance each of them selected.
Fragrance: 1mL fragrance added to each jar
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| being silly, she joked about licking the mixing spoon! |
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| couldn't stop smelling her hands once the fragrance was added |
I am finally happy I have homemade lotion available that is partially liquid, without having to rely only on the lotion bars. I'm HOOKED!
As for cost effectiveness.... I haven't performed any analysis. The coconut oil cost ~$7.50 for the entire jar (I only used 1/2 cup). The Shea butter was also ~&7.50 for the pound (we used 120g). Vitamin E...ummm; I think it was $2-3; I can't remember anymore, but we barely made a dent in it. Each fragrance ran about $4-6 for 60mL, but again, we barely made a dent, using only 1mL. The beeswax came from our hives.
Yeah, I'm thinking the cost effectiveness is there.
So, it's been awhile since I've posted. Yah. Sorry about that. I've been busy though, as I'm sure you all can well imagine.
Gardening, harvesting, and lots of crocheting, a little bit of quilting, and a decent amount of soaping. The summer is not-so-slowly dwindling into its final weeks before the start of the new school year hits on September 1.
Happy Sunday everyone!
