Making a massage bar in memory of my Dad

[JazzKitten]

Hi everyone
I'm new here and a complete beginner to making beauty products.
Sadly my dear dad passed away on Sunday 17th January. I am going to make and sell heart shaped massage/moisturising bars and donate the proceeds to Alzheimer's Society and the British Heart foundation.
I have used 50% Cocoa butter (unrefined) and 50% Mango Butter with an addition of essential oils and some pearlescent mica to add a bit of bling.
The idea is that it's a relaxing bar you can use for massage or just as a kind of hand moisturiser.

The problem is that I think they won't be able to be stored at room temp. The bars seem very melty. I have a bar from Lush which they no longer make, entitled the Shimmy Shimmy Bar, and I followed a YouTube tutorial for a bar supposedly based on this. The Shimmy Shimmy is much harder than my trial batch.
I'm really pleased with the appearance of my bars, and the scent, but I think they will probably have to be stored in the fridge, they are so melty.

Does anyone have any advice? Do I need more cocoa butter in the ratio, as it is hard at room temperature, or is there a possibility I've added too much essential oil?

I'm looking forward to any sage advice! I am a complete beginner to making anything like this.

Thanks in advance to anyone who has any help.

Wendy

 

[ilonaliss]

Welcome to the forum

Adding beeswax will firm them up. This is my recipe and I store the bars at room temperature, even in the summer (I live in London where summer temps rarely exceed 27 C):

25 g raw cocoa butter
15 g beeswax
30 g babassu oil (you could experiment with subbing mango butter here)
few squirts of vit E oil
7 drops of favourite essential oil

Hope this helps.

 

[JazzKitten]

Hi Ilona
that's wonderful, thank you - I will add it to my shopping list! Feel very inspired and like I need to get this right, as we are going to sell them to people in Dad's memory.
Thank you so much for your help - I'll try it and let you know how I get on
Wendy

 

[ilonaliss]

You're welcome. I am sure your bars will be a hit! All it takes is a bit of experimentation- make small batches until you get the proportions right. If the bars are too greasy for your liking, you can try adding a bit of arrowroot or cornstarch to the next batch. While adding starch to lotion bars is in no way necessary, you might like the silky skin feel.

Out of curiosity, how are you scenting the bars? I find that EOs that compliment the smell of chocolate work best in my recipe, e.g. rose geranium, peppermint, or orange.

 

[AliOop]

You can remelt the bars you made with some added beeswax to firm them up to your liking.

Too much wax makes the bars sticky and draggy, even if you add cornstarch or arrowroot. So start with a small amount and work your way up.

 

[LilyJo]

Don't forget you will need to get a CPSR and insurance before you can sell.

 

[Becky1024]

Making them in memory of your father is a wonderful idea! Good for you!

 

[Zing]

My lotion bar recipe is 1/3 each of beeswax, coconut oil, shea butter. My friends in tropical Hawaii love them and store at room temperature. The neat thing about refining a lotion bar recipe is that you can test it soon after pouring, and re-melt as needed. Some of my other recipes replace the coconut oil with sweet almond oil or apricot kernel oil or meadowfoam seed oil (which is heavenly). I use essential oils at 1 to 3% of oil weight and you can double check amounts at Find Free Essential Oil Blends - Modern Soapmaking .
Welcome to the forum. Keep us posted.
I am sorry for your loss.

 

[Zany_in_CO]

@JazzKitten Welcome to the forum, Wendy! I am very sorry for your loss. I feel tears welling up because I miss my dad to this day although he died many years ago.

At that same time, I applaud you for making this final gift to your father. I have no doubt that he would be very proud of you.

Don't forget you will need to get a CPSR and insurance before you can sell.

Since she is not in the business of selling bath & body products, surely Wendy can give them away FREE for a donation to the Alzheimer's Society and the British Heart foundation in lieu of sending flowers or whatever. Yes?

Just curious (scratching head).

 

[JazzKitten]

You're welcome. I am sure your bars will be a hit! All it takes is a bit of experimentation- make small batches until you get the proportions right. If the bars are too greasy for your liking, you can try adding a bit of arrowroot or cornstarch to the next batch. While adding starch to lotion bars is in no way necessary, you might like the silky skin feel.

Out of curiosity, how are you scenting the bars? I find that EOs that compliment the smell of chocolate work best in my recipe, e.g. rose geranium, peppermint, or orange.

Hi there! Sorry for the delay in responding to everyone. I have been using rose geranium and lavender with a bit of clary sage. I think this works nicely but I've been warned off clary sage by a friend who told me it's not suitable for pregnant women, so batch no. 2 will omit it.
I've decided to make 2 versions of the bar and entitle it Bob's Balms, Heart and Mind.
Heart will be relaxing, in the shape of a heart, pink with a bit of sparkle. Sold in aid of British Heart Foundation. Lavender/Vanilla?/rose geranium
Mind will be invigorating, in the shape of a forget-me-not and blue with a bit of sparkle or pearlescence. Sold in aid of Alzheimer's Society. Rosemary/citrus possibly bergamot and/or tangerine. Hopefully to aid concentration - "Rosemary for Remembrance".
I've taken delivery of compostable cellophane bags today and red raffia, plus some heart shaped printable labels. I'll mock up one of the bars (all my original heart batch have gone to testers in my family and friends too, who have made suggestions on how to improve) and post a picture very soon.

More soon!!!
Thanks again
Wendy

 

[JazzKitten]

@JazzKitten Welcome to the forum, Wendy! I am very sorry for your loss. I feel tears welling up because I miss my dad to this day although he died many years ago.

View attachment 53482
At that same time, I applaud you for making this final gift to your father. I have no doubt that he would be very proud of you.

Since she is not in the business of selling bath & body products, surely Wendy can give them away FREE for a donation to the Alzheimer's Society and the British Heart foundation in lieu of sending flowers or whatever. Yes?

Just curious (scratching head).

thank you for this lovely comment. I'm not sure I do need

@JazzKitten Welcome to the forum, Wendy! I am very sorry for your loss. I feel tears welling up because I miss my dad to this day although he died many years ago.

View attachment 53482
At that same time, I applaud you for making this final gift to your father. I have no doubt that he would be very proud of you.

Since she is not in the business of selling bath & body products, surely Wendy can give them away FREE for a donation to the Alzheimer's Society and the British Heart foundation in lieu of sending flowers or whatever. Yes?

Just curious (scratching head).

thank you for the lovely message - I will investigate the CPSR right away. I could always do as you suggest and give them away for free for a donation. I'll investigate both angles!

 

[JazzKitten]

My lotion bar recipe is 1/3 each of beeswax, coconut oil, shea butter. My friends in tropical Hawaii love them and store at room temperature. The neat thing about refining a lotion bar recipe is that you can test it soon after pouring, and re-melt as needed. Some of my other recipes replace the coconut oil with sweet almond oil or apricot kernel oil or meadowfoam seed oil (which is heavenly). I use essential oils at 1 to 3% of oil weight and you can double check amounts at Find Free Essential Oil Blends - Modern Soapmaking .
Welcome to the forum. Keep us posted.
I am sorry for your loss.

thank you so much! Always great to get advice from experienced makers, as I'm finding my feet. I received delivery of more materials today so I'm off to make batch no. 2!
Byeeee
Wendy

 

[JazzKitten]

Making them in memory of your father is a wonderful idea! Good for you!

thank you - I just want to make something good come out of this whole situation.
Cheerio
W

 

[JazzKitten]

You can remelt the bars you made with some added beeswax to firm them up to your liking.

Too much wax makes the bars sticky and draggy, even if you add cornstarch or arrowroot. So start with a small amount and work your way up.

Thanks for this - that would be a fab idea if I hadn't given away the original bars to friends and family testers!!!! Still, I'm on the case with batch no. 2 and if they don't turn out right with the proportions suggested I will definitely try this.
Cheerio
W

 

[JazzKitten]

Don't forget you will need to get a CPSR and insurance before you can sell.

thank you for this - I can find out how to get CPSR but what type of insurance would I need if I were to sell commercially? I might just do the freebie for donation offer, but just in case, I'd like to weigh up both options.
Thanks again for your help!
Wendy

 

[JazzKitten]

Here is Bob's Balms - "Heart" in its packaging, unlabelled as of yet, and with more attention to detail needed on the raffia tying!!!!
Any tips on that would be gratefully received. I'm planning on making a label with my label punch and attaching it to the raffia with info about my Dad and the purpose of the bar, and then a small heart shaped sticky label on the front of the packaging with the name of the bar.
Thoughts?
W

 

[JazzKitten]

Hi lovely folks.
I made a test moulding of my Mind bar last night. I don't have the forget me not mould yet so I used a bee mould I had just for testing purposes.
I added some gold mica and gold bio-glitter, and I'm not sure I like the effect of the glitter. It didn't seem to mix and has sunk, so I think I will leave it out of the next batch. I also learned that blue food colouring does not mix with oil! This is me being impatient because I haven't taken delivery of the blue mica yet. Lessons learned.
What I really want is an effect like the Lush Shimmy Shimmy bar (pictured to the right) but I can't seem to find anything like that type of glitter. Mica is giving me a nice pearlescent finish but not like this. I've tried to show in this vid
Does anyone know what ingredient I would need to get this sort of iridescent finish?

 

[ilonaliss]

Thanks for reporting back! It looks like the bars are coming along nicely I love your ideas for Heart and Mind bars- very creative.

LUSH put calcium sodium borosilicate and tin oxide (colour 77861) in Shimmy Shimmy. I found this pigment, which has both: Gold Dust
It might be worth a try?

 

[JazzKitten]

Thanks for reporting back! It looks like the bars are coming along nicely I love your ideas for Heart and Mind bars- very creative.

LUSH put calcium sodium borosilicate and tin oxide (colour 77861) in Shimmy Shimmy. I found this pigment, which has both: Gold Dust
It might be worth a try?

Ooh thanks Ilona! I'll have a look at that now.
I found a website here Mineral Makeup Ingredients which do a sparklier mica than the ones I have which is more pearly...I'm going to experiment!
I remelted the Mind bars and added some extra essential oils and I'm now happy with the scent.
Just can't wait for my blue pigments and forget me not moulds....but at least the formulation is getting there.
Thanks again for your help, I'll report back soon!
W

 

[ilonaliss]

Oooh, I just realised that the site I linked is US-based (the prices are showing in pounds which made me think they were in the UK), so there might be steep shipping charges. The micas on MMI could work for your purposes! Excited to see how you get on