Thought I'd share my 2 cents worth as my thank-you to
@Zing for all the good info and kind advice they have shared so freely with us.
I had two goals for my lotion bar project -- (1) to use only liquid fats and beeswax since I don't keep nut butters on hand and (2) to include a modest amount of lanolin in the recipe to soothe dry itchy skin. Here is the formulation I came up with --
Meadowfoam 30.8% (alternative: high oleic sunflower)
Jojoba 30.8%
Lanolin 4.4% (if you don't want to use lanolin, add 2.2% to each of the liquid fats)
Beeswax 33.0%
Fragrance 1.0%
The rule of thumb for salves and balms is the 1/3 beeswax, 1/3 butter, 1/3 liquid oil recipe. I know these proportions work pretty well. But the implication is a solid butter is ~required~ for a salve or balm and that isn't strictly true. I've been making lip balms for years with just two liquid fats and beeswax -- no butters -- and I became curious to see if a lotion bar could also be made this way.
I tried a version with 31.5% beeswax which is the amount I use for my lip balm recipe. While this works fine for lip balm, it was too soft and greasy for my taste when used as a lotion bar.
I upped the beeswax to about 32.3% and that was better but still not quite right.
Third try was beeswax 33.0% and this turned out juuuussst right. I think this % of beeswax is good for wintertime use -- soft enough to glide fairly well on the skin, but not particularly gooey or greasy.
So we're back to a recipe based (roughly) on one-third proportions -- 1/3 beeswax and 2/3 liquid fats.