Lotion bars

I'm taking a break for the trip and posting a quick post about lotion bars. It's extremely cold here on the 'homestead' so our heat has been running non-stop. It's great to be warm, but my skin starts to crack when the warmth makes the air so dry. Enter lotion bars :)

I used to slather every kind of body butter on my hands several times a day. It would work for a while and then they would be dry again. More body butter. More drying. It was a never ending until spring cycle. Then I was given a lotion bar as a gift. Where has this been my whole life? Seriously! Where? How did I miss this? Well, being the cheap, er, I mean, resourceful person I am I looked them up on Pinterest and found a boat load of recipes for making them myself. Yay! A new recipe to try out! I'll share mine with you, but please know that this was taken from the 10+ recipes I read through. Not one in particular, but I'm not the inventor of the lotion bar ;)

Ingredients:

*Coconut Oil (I buy organic, but you can use whatever floats you boat. It's easily found in the cooking oil of my grocery store or Amazon.)

*Bees Wax (Try to buy local. It can also be found at Michael but the quality isn't good or Amazon, but local is best.)

*Almond oil (Found in my specialty grocery store. I'm sure Whole foods has it too.)

*Shea Butter (I found this at my sisters Whole Foods. If you can't find it just add more Almond Oil.)

*Essential Oil (You can use wherever scent you like. These can be found at Whole Foods, some grocery stores and Amazon.) This isn't necessary, but it's nice to give it a smell. Plus, they're very beneficial :)

Things needed:

*Double boiler

*Spatula

*Muffin Tin

*Muffin Tin Cups

Now for the recipe!

Add water to the bottom pan of the double boiler. Turn it on Medium heat.

Put muffin tin cups in the muffin tins. This will make approximately 5 lotion bars.

Put 1/4 cup beeswax in the top pan. The Beeswax will start to melt. Add 1/4 cup coconut oil, 1/8 cup almond oil and 1/8 cup Shea butter to the pan. All of them will turn to a liquid. Stir gently with your spatula. Remove from heat and add in 5 drops of essential oil. If you're combining more than one scent just try to keep the drops to 5. More will make it more potent and less will obviously make it less potent. Skip this step if you don't want a scent.

Working quickly pour liquid into muffin cups filling them half full.  Let them sit for a few hours so that they can become solid. Pop one out the the cup and rub onto your warm skin. After the shower is best. Vola! Lotion bars!

Notes: More beeswax makes it more solid, less makes it softer. If you aren't quick enough when filling your muffin cups (children are yelling about someone hanging from something, baby's on your hip because she woke up after a 15 minute nap, you hear your dog making puking noises, etc.) just reheat it to a liquid and then pour.

Now, if I missed something or need more instructions please leave me a comment. My sweet daughter was 'helping' me write this :)