Why Not Skin Care Too

Back to Basics and living simple have always meant spending more time at home with family and friends and also within my community. It incorporates eating locally and in my case keeping backyard chickens. Once those became a part of my everyday life, I also became interested in natural skin care products. I have always been a lover of the brand Burt’s Bees. I love their lip balms and lotions. The wheels started to turn in my head... why couldn't I make my own skin products. Just last week, at a craft show in my small village, I purchased some shea butter bars. These were awesome for softening skin and seemed simple enough to try and recreate. Thank you vendor...You were my Muse and inspiration this weekend.

Ingredients

Normally, I like to order my essential oils and all things herbs and natural products from Mountain Rose Herb…at http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/ They have a long line of products and I have never had a bad one or poor service yet. Love them! Alas, in my spur of the moment decision to make my own lotions, I had to find another option. I grabbed my mother and headed out to find a natural whole foods type store that carried what I needed. As luck would have it we found Beeswax, Coco Butter, Coconut Oil, Essential Oil (Sweet Orange scent) and also Vitamin E oil.  I am almost positive my mother thought my grocery list was a tad bit crazy but she is always a good sport and supports my ideas.

Once home, I assembled my ingredients and just kind of winged it recipe wise. I did not measure anything other than to keep everything in equal parts. In a double boiler, I added my beeswax. After that had melted I added equal amounts of Coconut Oil and Coco Butter. All three ingredients in equal parts.  As they melted and incorporated I turned off the heat to the double boilers. When the oils began to cool, I added in a few drops of vitamin E oil and the essential oil to scent my lotion bars.  Then to set the bars, I poured then into silicone muffin baking “pans” molds, whatever they are technically called and left my lotions to cool and set up. 

The beeswax, coco butter and coconut oil are all naturally hard materials and so they re-harden nicely. To use the lotion bars, the heat from your body will be enough to soften them and distribute the natural goodness to your skin. You can rub the bar directly onto your skin if you would like or as I do, rub it between your hands to heat and then apply wherever you would like. 

One thing to note about my experiment. Get your essential oils from a good source. The ones I bought were ok enough but their scent was not as good of a quality as the ones I am used to getting from Mountain Rose Herb. The coco butter naturally smells like chocolate so my lotions bars still smelled nice as well as felt silk smooth, but overall, I like the products I am able to make from ingredients from my usual source better than those I obtained from the grocery store. 

Finished Product

My next attempt is to make a softer version of this lotion that could be placed in a pump. I think to do this I would need to add in more liquid oil such as olive oil and lessen the amount of beeswax. Ahhh, we shall see. That experiment is for another weekend/another day.  If you decide to try this out, I would love to hear about your experience, please share. You can find me on both Twitter and Facebook. On twitter, follow me @VillageGirlBlog and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Countrygirlinthevillageblogspotcom

As always,

Enjoy

:  )