Lotion bars

[Neve]

Nearly out of supplies and can't afford to buy more, but I was itching to make something. My previous bars used cocoa butter meant for cooking and the cocoa smell was bothering me, so I made some with BW, CO, SB and AO.

Scented with juniper and lemongrass. Much nicer.




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[lsg]

Nice!

 

[Neve]

They seem stickier than the cocoa butter ones, but since it's almost winter that's probably not a bad thing. I'll be able to judge them better when my hands are actually feeling dry - I got shea butter all over me when I was making them!

I took a little sample out of the pot to test two new lip balm fragrances. Coming to the conclusion that Voyageur flavours are nowhere near as strong/nice as the Bulk Apothecary ones. Pity, because they are much cheaper to have shipped.

 

[evelovesowls]

Can you give me the recipe for this please x


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[Neve]

Lotion bars are 1/3 beeswax, 1/3 hard oil, 1/3 soft oil, or so I read. I did that for my last one, using cocoa butter (and I can't remember what soft oil I used) and it was great.

Because I didn't have any deodorised cocoa butter like I wanted, I changed it up for this. I used shea butter and coconut oil instead. It actually has a little extra coconut oil, and a dash of avocado oil. I was hoping that might compensate for the shea butter. It's pretty sticky though. On the plus side, it doesn't wash off the minute you wash your hands! I shouldn't need to use it quite so much.

 

[CaraBou]

These look great and super easy! I'm gonna have to try it!

So is cocoa butter your absolute favorite to use in a lotion bar? Just curious because I am debating whether to buy any more cocoa butter for my cp soaps or just stick with shea. I'm about to make a bulk purchase of shea, meaning it will be expensive, meaning maybe I should just stick with that one butter for everything until it is gone. I don't expect I'll make many lotion bars but I am curious what other people see as tradeoffs between the two. I like shea better b/c supposedly it doesn't clog pores like cocoa does. I suspect cocoa makes a harder bar, which would be nice, though I haven't looked at the values that closely.

 

[Neve]

I though it was pretty sticky with the Shea. So I rebatched it yesterday and added a lot more coconut oil and also olive oil. I didn't add more BW (too lazy to cut it and I was in a rush) so it's a bit softer but I like it a lot better now. No more stickiness.

I'm only using on my hands so I'm not worried about my pores. I need it super moisturising for my hands and I think Shea is better for that.

Now it has pretty lemongrass sprinkles through all of them! I gave two away. I didn't need six of them


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[cmzaha]

Adding some IPM will help with the greasy feeling. I like kokum or iilipe butter in lotion bars. The Kokum does need to be tempered or will become grainy and actually grow (mushroom), but it is a really nice hard butter. PKO, sunflower wax, rice wax or any of the hydrogenated oil waxes work well in lotion bars to add hardness

 

[freesia792]

I bought a lotion bar this past summer and use it at work. The lady I bought it from wanted a review if I came back to the same farmers market. I gave her one. No one at work liked it because it was to sticky, and the fragrance wasn't very nice. Must have been the womans first attempt as she only had one fragrance for sale. Maybe more hard oils, less wax? It did not seep into the skin well.