Not that anyone has an apothecary anymore, but every once in a while its nice to be able to pamper ourselves with some homemade goodies!
On my awesome Pinterest page, I've been looking for all kinds of simple homemade products that you can make yourself with at least half of the ingredients already in your pantry. I've really surprised myself at how easy some of them are--like homemade Febreeze? Or homemade deodorant? I'll give anything a try!
What I found myself most interested in was making chapstick, but I couldn't order the essential oils in time for this experiment. "Why", you ask? Well, because this was yet another snow day that I was bored out of my skull and wanted to be crafty and learn yet another life skill because I'm crazy like that.What I had ordered a week before this was a jar of shea butter, coco butter, and beeswax pellets from the Essential Depot via Amazon. The reviews online were a bit iffy on the beeswax and although they all have their own unique aromas, I personally did not find them offensive. The company sent them very quickly and I am very impressed with their quality.
So onto the research! In the many recipes I found, I knew I wanted to make at least one hand lotion and one hard lotion bar. My hands get horribly dry between dishes, yard chores and ceramics at work and there's only so much money in the grocery budget for Nivea Soft (which until now has been my lotion of choice). The recipes are very clear and leave tons of flexibility to experiment with scents.
Whipped Body Butter
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| 1 cup shea butter |
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| 1 cup coconut oil |
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| Melt everything in a double boiler |
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| Put your mixer bowl in snow or ice water to bring the temperature down |
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| Mix well until it is the consistency of Neosporin |
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| Whip the mixture on high speed and remember to scrape the bowl about every 3-4 minutes to prevent lumps |
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| About halfway there... |
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| This is when I added my EO drops, but you can do it at any point after it is chilled a bit. I continued whipping the ingredients about 3 minutes past this point, when it was no longer soupy, but held its shape firmly in the bowl. |
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| This recipe gave me three and a half half-pints! |
Whipped Body Butter Recipe
- 1 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup shea butter
- essential oils (to preferred scent)
After adding the lotion into jars, they started to firm up rather quickly. My house is somewhere around 65 degrees F, so if your house is warmer it might take longer. Of course when its hot outside, you're going to want to keep these in a cooler area. I've opted to store my extra jars in the cellar room in the basement where it only gets up to the high 60's in the summer.
*credit for the original inspiration for this recipe goes to Hens and Honey (who also has a stellar blog, so check her out!!).
All Natural Hand Lotion
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| Add 1/3 cup corn starch |
This next recipe also calls for 1 cup coconut oil and 1 cup shea butter, but it calls for an additional 1/3 cup of corn starch. The reasoning is that the starch takes away some of the "greasy" feeling most people complain about with natural products like this, but I'll be straight with you, I've not noticed any difference. If you take a common sense moment to think about it, you're rubbing plant oils all over your body, so of course there will be a bit of a greasy feeling. The "greasy" feeling doesn't bother me at all and its only really noticeable when I'm slathering it on after a shower at the gym when I'm rushing out the door in a barely-clean sweaty mess. And even better, even if I've put too much on accidentally (you need barely the size of a dime for just your hands) it never shows up on my clothes. I've been using this stuff regularly for two months now and I've yet to see a grease mark on anything!
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| My recipe made 3 3/4 pints! |
All Natural Hand Lotion
- 1 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup shea butter
- 1/3 cup corn starch
- essential oils (to preferred scent), I used tea tree, eucalyptus, and cucumber
Using the directions above, I really cannot stress enough that when you are chilling the mixture you must stir constantly. If not, it will become lumpy and you will have to spend extra time at your double boiler remelting the mixture. Then you just whip it, whip it, whip it! With my mixer it takes maybe 5 minutes or so, and I really don't know how long it would take to mix by hand, but by golly you'd have the best arms for miles!
**credit for the original inspiration for this recipe goes to Dena at Back to the Book Nutrition (she's got literally tons of other great recipes on her page too).
All Natural Hard Lotion Bars
This is the recipe that I'm dying to tell everyone and their mother about--hard lotion bars! I hate to whine and mope about having cracked hands, but it becomes torture for me and I have been known to get quite grumpy about it. So here is to all the other folks out there who love soft, nourished hands, this one is for you!
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| 1 cup coconut oil |
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| 1 cup shea butter and a tiny bit of coco butter for kicks |
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| 1 cup beeswax pellets (I added more later) |
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| Put all ingredients in a double boiler (the block is additional beeswax) |
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| Add EO's, mix quickly and pour solution into molds |
All Natural Hard Lotion Bars
- 1 cup coconut oil
- 1 cup shea butter
- 1 cup beeswax pellets
- 1 Tbsp coco butter (optional)
- essential oils (to preferred scent) I used lavender and vanilla
**credit for this recipe goes to Laurie at Common Sense Homesteading.
So thanks for hanging in with me everyone, I know this was a super long post. I'm really beginning to fall in love with the idea of making my own products at home, not just because I know what's in everything, but it also eliminates the middle man and I can custom make my own line of whatever I like. Any questions or problems with the recipes, send me a message!
Keep it real!
Love,
Betty
XOXOXOXO
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