Making Hard Lotion

First of all I have to admit that I didn't set out to make a hard lotion yesterday.  I have been wanting to, but I have also been making an ointment for our itchy eczema sufferers and was trying to adjust my recipe for that.  I have been mixing coconut oil with vitamin E oil, lavender oil and tea tree oil.  Now that the weather is warming up the coconut is too and it was getting runny.  I thought I would add some beeswax and that would help out.  Boy did it ever!!  Now I have the hard lotion that I have been wanting to make!

First up was gathering my materials:  slow cooker, one pound of beeswax, about two pounds of coconut oil, four ounces of vitamin E oil (not pictured) and about 20 drops of tea tree and lavender essential oils. I also needed some half-pint jelly jars, a spatula to stir and a baster to put the melted oils into the jars. I have been using the expensive oil from Tropical Traditions, but it. is. expensive. and I need it to cook with!  If you make this with the same materials I did, you will not be able to use your baster for cooking. I lot of the lotion remained in the bulb and I was able to squeeze it out, but it is still waxy feeling.

 Step one is to melt the beeswax.  Next time I will use the pellets instead of the block.  It took a while to melt.  After it had melted I put in all the coconut oil and let it melt down completely.  Then I added in the vitamin E oil and the essential oils.  The essential oils go in last because the heat will make them dissipate.  After they were all mixed up, I used the baster to put the oil into the jars.  I probably should have heated the jars a little as the oil was slightly warm, but I didn't have any jars to crack.

The lotion hardened very quickly and made 8 half-pints.  I had already taken one out to use before this picture was taken.  I have purchased hard lotions in deodorant type containers and in large lip balm type containers.  I have also seen them made in soap molds.  

This is hard!  You will need to scrap some out with your fingers and rub it in your hands to soften enough to put on your body, but I can already tell a difference in my hands.  Several of us are having a bad bout of eczema right now and this is not helping it.  We are using a prescription steroid ointment right now, but I am hoping that when we clear up that this will be good for us as an everyday moisturizer to replace the petroleum based products that our doctors recommend.

In addition to using this in our skin care routine I have also been using the ointment and now the hard lotion as a deodorant!  You know how shaving can irritate, so this is so good for the tender underarm skin and the tea tree oil is anti-bacterial and anti--everything, so it should definitely fight odor.  As the temperatures start to climb in the next few weeks we'll see how it stands up to that test.

This post is linked to Simple Lives Thursday at http://gnowfglins.com.  Find more interesting posts there!