Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Oils Pt. 2: Lotion Bars and Chapstick

There are millions of recipes for bars and sticks and salves that you could choose from but I chose to do this, and here is why you should as well. It is only 3 ingredients! I'm all about cheap and the less I have to buy, the better. Especially when it comes to "organic" products - they can be pricey!

Lotion Bars (makes about 5 or 6)

5 oz (or a little over a cup once it is melted) of beeswax
1 Cup Almond Oil
1 Cup Coconut Oil

Melt wax in a double broiler (like I said yesterday, it's just fancy talk for a bowl over hot/boiling water) And add the other oils until they are all liquid and mixed.
Use a cupcake tin as a mold (if you have silicon use that so that they are easily removed) and quickly pour the mixture into the cups. I used a measuring cup to scoop some out at a time because I wanted to reserve some mixture to use for my chapstick.
It will harden quickly so if you are adding essential oils do so now. I recommend healing oils such as melaleuca and lavender, other oils commonly used for the skin or in make-ups are roman chamomile and geranium (one of my favorites).

If you don't use a silicon container - just place the tin over the double broiler for a moment and they should fall right out or slide a butter knife along the side until it lifts out.

Chapstick

You can find chapstick containers online for relatively cheap and on Amazon they are considered an add-on item that will ship for free; so just include them next time you make an order (maybe with your almond oil and beeswax).

Above recipe
I used about 5 cupcakes worth for lotions and saved the rest for chapstick.
Add 1/4 - 1/2 Cup Almond Oil

If you are doing Chapstick alone, this recipe will yield about a dozen

1/3 Cup Almond Oil
1 oz Beeswax
1/3 Cup Coconut Oil

Lotion bars are meant to be hard and warmed in the hand a little before use, but I wanted our chapstick to be softer, hence the added oil.

Do as instructed for the lotion bars, but place in chapstick tubes. I used a baby syringe (it will be ruined so buy an extra if you use this method) to squirt the hot oil into the tubes.
Again it will cool quickly so if you are using essential oils you'll want to prepare them ahead of time and do it quickly. Our favorites are any healing oils mentioned above, peppermint, and orange bliss. Thieves or On Guard would also be great ones to use during flu season to give your immunity a boost.
The oil will shrink up as it cools so save a little to top off the tubes as they harden.

I love lotion bars because my hands dry out and my feet get rough but I don't love the goopey "drying" period that you get with normal lotions after you have rubbed the lotion around your hands.
And Mr. Sam uses chapstick multiple times a day so this was a great way to have plenty around for when they get lost or used up.

Good Luck - I made a mess of my stove top when I dropped my syringe, but they resulting product was worth it!





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