TheHippyHomemaker

With the cold winter days starting to kick in, my hands are really starting to feel the season change. I don’t know about you guys, but my hand hands tend to get VERY dry and in need of extra moisture this time of year. That means this is the PERFECT time to break out the Shea butter and make some lotion bars! One of the thing I love about lotion bars, is that they are the only thing (besides hydrocortisone cream which has TONS of stuff I don’t want to put on my skin) that cures the eczema that I get on my hands during the winter months.

These lotion bars are made with coconut oil, so they are very nourishing and healing to the skin. The beeswax and Shea butter are both humectants and very moisturizing to the skin. You can use other butters, such as cocoa butter, which has a strong cocoa smell, or mango butter which is actually the butter with the least pungent smell. This lotion does feel a little bit oily when you first put it on but it absorbs into the skin fairly fast. It works best on REALLY dry chapped skin but I simply love to use these just after I get out of the shower or right after I shave. It locks in the moisture and helps keep the itch down after shaving.

I was originally going to make lemon rosemary lotion bars, but it turns out, lemon and rosemary together, smell a lot like cleaning supplies. Even my mom agreed, lemon pledge isn’t really appetizing on your body. I dropped by Whole Foods Market and bought some Tangerine oil and whipped up a new batch of lotion bars scented with Tangerine and Lavender! They smell heavenly! According to my aromatherapy books, tangerine is a calming scent and even is linked to stress relief and helping with sleep. After reading that, I just KNEW that a relaxing and uplifting lotion was exactly what I was looking for!

I molded the lotion bars in two different ways to give you guys an idea of what you can do with this recipe. I used a chocolate mold to make some actual cute shaped lotion bars and a 2 inch diameter round tin with a see through lid. After making both, I am in favor of the round tin with a lid. I can take my lotion with me in my purse that way, and I know every woman likes having portable beauty products!

INGREDIENTS

1 cup beeswax pellets (or grated)
1 cup coconut oil (or almond oil, jajoba oil, etc.)
1/2 cup Shea butter (or mango butter, cocoa butter, etc. You can even use a combination of all three)
60 drops of essential oil combination of your choice (I used 40 tangerine and 20 lavender)
1 tsp. vitamin e oil (optional, it’s used as a natural preservative)

DIRECTIONS

1)In a double boiler (or the microwave) slowly melt the beeswax, coconut oil, and Shea butter together, stirring very frequently. Make sure you do not let the mixture boil or bubble as that will destroy the healing properties of the ingredients.
2)When all of the ingredients are melted together, mix in the essential oils of your choice (I used a chopstick to do my stirring).
3)Pour the liquid lotion into molds or tins, depending on what you have chosen to do with these, and let them cool completely. To get them out of molds without breaking them, try putting them in the freezer for 30 minutes before putting a piece of cardboard on top of the mold and turning it upside down.

NOTEIf you would like a softer lotion (more like a butter) use less beeswax and more butters and oils. If you want a harder bar, use more beeswax and less oils and butters.