lotion bar with babassu?

[Guspuppy]

I've been using the babassu/magH deodorant (from the 'de-funk de pits' thread) for quite awhile now and love it. So I was re-thinking my lotion bar recipe from last winter and wondering how babassu oil would be in that. Has anyone tried it? I would use it in place of coconut oil, since they are both hard oils, and I don't really like coconut oil on my skin.

Another question is how much EO to use in a lotion bar to overcome the smoky odor of the beeswax? Is 2% enough? I want to be safe but I also want some scent to my bars. Last year I did small batches with drops of EO, and there ended up being no scent at all.

 

[DeeAnna]

Babassu in lotions -- go for it! I use it. I don't have any particular preference for it over coconut on my skin -- it's just that I have it and want to use it up and I'm not going to use it in soap due to the cost. But it works fine.

As far as smoky beeswax -- Beeswax shouldn't by rights smell smoky especially after its been rendered. The beeswax I harvest from my hives might have a faint smoky odor on the combs as they come out of the hive, but the smoke smell fades quickly in the open air. After rendering, the wax from my hives has a rich warm "beeswax" scent that is very pleasant to my nose. If you're using rendered wax and it smells real smoky, I would be concerned either the beekeeper is heavily smoking the hives when harvesting honey or the beeswax has somehow been slightly burnt during rendering.

Fragrance -- I don't have advice about covering up a smoky scent, except to use fragrance that plays well with that kind of odor. In general, I use 0.5% to 1.5% scent (either EO or FO) by weight of finished product. If I'm making lip balm or other products meant specifically for use on the face, I usually err on less rather than more. Otherwise 1% is usually a good starting point for most fragrances and should be a fairly safe dosage for most EOs for most people to use on the skin.

 

[Guspuppy]

Thank you so much DeeAnna!

 

[cerelife]

I LOVE Babassu in my lotion bars!!