Bear with me these first few posts. I haven't done a whole lot of DIY craft posts. I have done plenty of DIY projects all over the map. This all started with a lot story that I won't bore you with. But, basically, I found myself with a pound of cocoa butter and no clue what to do with it. I had read about awesome lotion bars by MadeOn on one of my favorite blogs called Heavenly Homemakers. I looked at them many times, but couldn't bring myself to part with the money. What was the big deal? So, back to where I found myself with 16oz of raw cocoa butter and no use for it. I looked up a recipe and found this one. I made them without vitamin E oil, but then worried they would spoil and so handed them out as gifts. A few months later we were running out and I ended up having so many people wanting them I thought I would post a tutorial.
Hard Lotion is WONDERFUL! I don't really care for lotion and the greasy, slimy feeling. I don't care for the fact that you wash the dishes and you have to reapply the lotion and feel greasy and nasty once again. Hard lotion is NOTHING like that at all! Yes, it is made with primarily moisturizing/oily ingredients. But, I can tolerate it so much better than regular lotions. I had so many people who wanted bars that use them for different reasons. Cracked feet, alligator legs, splitting hands, dry skin, etc. I even use it on my break-out-prone face and for some weird reason I don't break out. Best of all - 3 to 5 ingredients.
Recipe:
8oz cocoa butter
8oz beeswax
1 cup coconut oil
1 tsp other oils - I used vitamin E oil and jojoba.
The vitamin E oil was as a preservative and moisturizer and the jojoba is a wonderful moisturizer.
You can also add some drops of essential oils for fragrance.
I had to break everything in half because my makeshift double boiler can't handle the volume of all of it at once. First I put in the cocoa butter and melted it.
Next I added the beeswax. The wax takes a while to melt down, I will warn you!
Then I added the coconut oil. This is where I ask you to bear with me. See, I have two precious children and the youngest is a baby. So, I forgot to take more photos while I worked because she needed some attention.
I added the 1 tsp of additional oil.
When it was all melted I spooned it into paper muffin/cupcake liners that sat in the muffin tin (otherwise I don't think they would stand up and you'd have a mess on your hands).
I let them set and cool and then peeled away the paper and we were done!
It made 21-24 bars and I filled them all the way to the top of the papers.
And there you have it! Everyone who has them has said great things about them and I may make another batch soon because we only ended up with one bar and it is running out!!!
What I love about this is the beeswax. It is the thing that separates this from all other lotions. The wax holds the lotion on your skin as a protective barrier. It is wonderful stuff! Make it and let me know how it goes! Great for Christmas gifts and actually would make a great Valentine's Day gift since it smells like chocolate on it's own! Calorie-free chocolate! Mmmm.
When it was all melted I spooned it into paper muffin/cupcake liners that sat in the muffin tin (otherwise I don't think they would stand up and you'd have a mess on your hands).
I let them set and cool and then peeled away the paper and we were done!
It made 21-24 bars and I filled them all the way to the top of the papers.
And there you have it! Everyone who has them has said great things about them and I may make another batch soon because we only ended up with one bar and it is running out!!!
What I love about this is the beeswax. It is the thing that separates this from all other lotions. The wax holds the lotion on your skin as a protective barrier. It is wonderful stuff! Make it and let me know how it goes! Great for Christmas gifts and actually would make a great Valentine's Day gift since it smells like chocolate on it's own! Calorie-free chocolate! Mmmm.
