Recipe: Hard lotion bars

Last summer, I pinned a recipe for handmade lotion bars on Pinterest. I finally got around to trying them in November, and we loved the bars we made instantly! I found one recipe here and another recipe here. I printed both recipes and I liked having two because they each gave different ideas of what to do and how to make them.

We made them as Christmas gifts, and have heard great things from friends and family members. We have several bars around our house-- in the bathrooms, in the kitchen, in the front room where we sit often. I even have one in my nightstand by my bed!

Here is the basic recipe that we used:
1 part each, by weight:
Cocoa butter or shea butter
Oil (we used coconut oil or olive oil)
Beeswax

We melted the ingredients together in our own homemade double boiler that we use for lotion making too: a pan of water with a jar in it. The jar is what we mixed up the ingredients and stirred them while they heated. When everything was melted, we poured them into molds, let set until hard (at least an hour, or overnight), unmolded them, and put them in fun-colored baggies! They smell good enough to eat, especially with the cocoa butter in them... yum! But since they have beeswax, it's probably not safe to ingest them.

We found molds at Hobby Lobby, and I have a bunch from years ago when I used to make soap, so that is what we used. If you're in the area and want to borrow them, let me know! I also used my mini- muffin pan from our favorite kitchen company... :-D They popped right out of it, and it is nice to have smaller bars too!

The one made earlier... getting smaller... by the kitchen sink.

These bars are a lovely way to combat the winter dry skin! The kids can use them too, and even could have helped making them... but we made them when we were in bed. The shea butter tends to feel a little bit greasy, but they still work great and soak into the skin. You could add scents to them, but I liked the cocoa butter scent, so we didn't add any extra aromas. We ran out of beeswax beads when we made these-- we will have to buy some more! We bought our cocoa butter online through amazon.com, by searching cocoa butter.

Let me know if you make them, I'd love to hear your review!



Psalm 55:21

His talk is smooth as butter, yet war is in his heart; his words are more soothing than oil, yet they are drawn swords.

Ezekiel 37:6

I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

Job 10:9

Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?