Thank you for visiting Little House in the Suburbs. Please subscribe and you'll get great simple living tips and how-to articles delivered to your inbox, for free!
What is a lotion bar? It is a soap-hard manifestation of moisturizer you can make yourself that doesn’t go bad and doesn’t contain:
. . . and stuff like that.
And lotion bars are child’s play to create. So easy. The only somewhat exotic ingredient is beeswax, and that really isn’t exotic at all. Ask your local beekeeper or find some online or in some craft stores. Vegans can substitute candelilla wax for beeswax.
I have a Cadillac lotion bar recipe, but I will lead with the, um, shall we say Ford Escort of lotion bars.
EVERYMAN’S LOTION BAR RECIPE
1 part vegetable shortening
1 part vegetable oil
1 part beeswax
Melt the shortening and beeswax a double boiler or a little pan in a bigger pan of simmering water. Stir in the vegetable oil. Pour into cups/molds and let cool. Pop out of “mold” and it’s ready to use. The beeswax will fragrance the bars with a nice, light honey smell, or you can stir in a little essential oil before you pour it into the molds.
To use: Let the warmth of your hand melt a little of the bar and rub into dry skin–hands, feet, elbows, etc.
Yes, it’s oily at first. It’s REAL. And it does absorb in.
Here’s the Cadillac version:
LUXURY LOTION BARS
1 part shea butter
1 part avocado oil
1 part beeswax
1200 IU vitamin E (1 lg. capsule) per every 6-8 oz. other oils
essential oil (optional)
Melt shea butter and beeswax in a double boiler or small pan in larger pan of water on the low heat setting of the stove. Stir in avocado oil and vitamin E and essential oil (optional). Pour into mold(s) and allow to cool. Pop out of mold if desired or leave it in a dish and scrape off a little as needed.
Note: Shea butter can occasionally become grainy. To avoid this, use just enough heat to get your ingredients to melt. Once your ingredients are blended, cool your mixture quickly by pouring into shallow container(s) in a cool room or popping it into the fridge to cool (not the freezer).
P.S.: A little light reading about that stuff in lotions and other bath and body care products:
- phthalates
- parabens
- formaldehyde
- PABA
- ethanolamines
- petroleum
- chemical sensitivity/allergies
- bisphenol A
- animal testing
{ 205 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
I recently made a bar lotion using beeswax, shea butter and Vit E. The recipe I used didn’t use equal amounts and the bars are REALLY hard! Do you think if I did it again with equal amount of beeswax and shea butter it would be a little softer? Also, I did it in the crock pot with a crock pot liner – no mess!
Brenda–That proportion always works for me. Did the recipe you used have a larger proportion of beeswax? That’s what makes it harder.
Yes, it did. Thanks!
I’ve been wanting to make these so badly and now have Mother’s Day as an excuse (you know, with an “experiment” bar to keep for myself of course). To make them more convenient to carry around, I was thinking of pouring the mixture into a low, wide tub with a lid on it instead of a mold. Is the solidified bar soft enough to be warmed up by rubbing your fingers on it? Or would you recommend I adjust the proportions somehow?
Rachel–I think it would work. I often sort of carve off a bit with my nail anyway and you could use it like that if it were in a tin. If you did want it softer, just reduce the proportion of beeswax a little and that will do it.
← Previous Comments
{ 19 trackbacks }