First lotion bars!

[spenny92]

I'm way too excited about this, but aren't we all! My boyfriend works outside and it's the middle of winter here in NZ, so his poor hands are chapped and sore. He adores this hand cream from The Body Shop, but it's expensive here and I thought I could try and make something even better for him.

I had a quick scroll through the threads about lotion bars and thought I'd just go and whip some up! The whole house smells SO good. I have a friend from Sweden staying with us, and he excitedly came through to the kitchen to ask when the cookies were ready! :razz:

I had a hard block of yellow beeswax so had to grate that and almost broke my grater in the process, so I used a little less than I think I should have. 100g beeswax, 150g cocoa butter and 150g SAO. Scented with chocolate FO, and the honey smell from the beeswax comes through really nicely too! I can't wait for them to set and try them out on an unsuspecting boyfriend!

 

[IrishLass]

Sounds lovely! Let us know how he likes it!

As an aside, I make a recipe that is a dupe of the Body Shop's Body Butter Bliss. Is that the one your BF uses? I got the recipe from LotionCrafter's formulary here (just in case you ever get a bee in your bonnet and want to try your hand at it): http://www.lotioncrafter.com/formulary/Body_Butter_Bliss.pdf

Anyway, I've never used the real thing to compare, but the LotionCrafter recipe is awesome. I use it as my go-to thick and rich lotion recipe.

I make my own body butter from scratch, too, but it has a totally different feel to it than the above recipe because it has no water or emulsifiers in it- and a lot less other ingredients as well- just a couple of butters and a little oil is all. Sometimes, it's the simple things, as they say.


IrishLass

 

[spenny92]

Sounds lovely! Let us know how he likes it!

As an aside, I make a recipe that is a dupe of the Body Shop's Body Butter Bliss. Is that the one your BF uses? I got the recipe from LotionCrafter's formulary here (just in case you ever get a bee in your bonnet and want to try your hand at it): http://www.lotioncrafter.com/formulary/Body_Butter_Bliss.pdf

Anyway, I've never used the real thing to compare, but the LotionCrafter recipe is awesome. I use it as my go-to thick and rich lotion recipe.

I make my own body butter from scratch, too, but it has a totally different feel to it than the above recipe because it has no water or emulsifiers in it- and a lot less other ingredients as well- just a couple of butters and a little oil is all. Sometimes, it's the simple things, as they say.


IrishLass

Ooh thank you, I'll take a look. The hand cream he likes is the hemp one, but I actually find it way too thick and greasy for a leave-on hand product. I'm the weirdo that has to wash my hands once I use hand or body lotion, I just hate the feeling of creams on my hands.

The lotion bars set so fast, and they smell heavenly. I used to work for LUSH, and they remind me of their solid massage bars when you warm them up in your hand and they go beautifully melty and silky.

 

[not_ally]

Spenny, I've heard good things about IL's BB Bliss. I think we should both try it!

 

[spenny92]

Spenny, I've heard good things about IL's BB Bliss. I think we should both try it!

I'd love to try it, but I'm stumped at where to even begin searching for the ingredients. NZ is a little behind the times with shopping online (most large stores do, but shipping is expensive!), and I live rurally so difficult for me to get to a city where they might have any of them.

Why don't you try it, post photos and rave about how awesome it is and I'll watch! :mrgreen:

 

[not_ally]

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't think of that. But I bet you can make something much, much better than the Body Shop cream for your bf. I have really dry hands, and even the experimental lotion bars I have made have been better than store bought creams for them ...

ETA, I don't sell so don't worry about packaging, I just make teeny bars, stick them in a ziploc baggie and put them in my bag so I can carry them around everywhere. I bet your bf would love to have them on hand for when he needs them, he could even put one in his pocket, since it is cold there now it will not melt ...

 

[spenny92]

Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't think of that. But I bet you can make something much, much better than the Body Shop cream for your bf. I have really dry hands, and even the experimental lotion bars I have made have been better than store bought creams for them ...

ETA, I don't sell so don't worry about packaging, I just make teeny bars, stick them in a ziploc baggie and put them in my bag so I can carry them around everywhere. I bet your bf would love to have them on hand for when he needs them, he could even put one in his pocket, since it is cold there now it will not melt ...

It's crazy how many things you realise you can make yourself once you start soaping. I've been paying way over the odds for LUSH's tea tree water as I was convinced it was keeping my angry, hormonal skin at bay. Now that I've delved into soap-making, I'm thinking hmm, I reckon I could make a pretty good dupe, or even better version, of that, and know exactly what I'm putting on my face... It's funny because when I worked for LUSH, I was a self-confessed lushie. I owned pretty much one of everything, and I swore by them. They have really clever marketing.

The zip-lock bag is such a great idea, I wouldn't have thought of that! I'm excited for him to get home tonight so I can force my lotion bar upon him hah! He loves the scent of the chocolate ale soap I made recently, so I figured I'd double up the chocolate factor for him with the lotion bar to match.

 

[not_ally]

It is amazing how much you can make, I never buy any body products now. I think ours can pretty much always be better than anything store-bought b/c we can tailor them to exactly what we need, use really good stuff, plus not stuff them full of preservatives (I am not a natural-only person, but still think less is better than more there.

Lush does have great marketing. It is amazing how well that works when it is good.

 

[spenny92]

An update on the lotion bars... They were nice, but I felt like there was too much drag on the skin and they weren't "melt-y" enough for me. So I melted the bars down, added some coconut oil and poured them back into moulds. They're now beautifully silky and melt just the right amount when they come into contact with the skin. Mmm, I want to eat them!

 

[lenarenee]

Your initial recipe had a lot of beeswax in it, I was wondering how they would work out. Glad you like them now.

 

[spenny92]

Your initial recipe had a lot of beeswax in it, I was wondering how they would work out. Glad you like them now.

That's what I thought, but from what I had read online, most of the recipes I came across actually used more beeswax! Most of them said 1/3 beeswax, 1/3 hard oil, 1/3 soft oil as a general guide. My arms ached from grating the wax, so I stopped at 100g luckily!

Thanks!

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

My bars have no wax, just Shea and cocoa butters. A little slippery in hot summers, though, so it's a trade off

 

[spenny92]

My bars have no wax, just Shea and cocoa butters. A little slippery in hot summers, though, so it's a trade off

That's interesting. I'm guessing it's a much higher ratio of cocoa butter compared to the shea? It does get very hot here in summer with the strong NZ sun (we're in the midst of winter at the moment, but when the sun comes out to play, it's bloody warm still!) so I'll have to see how they hold up in that weather.