Olive oil moisturizing lotion

[awi]

I found a recipe online for making a moisturizer out of olive oil, water and emulsifying wax. Sounds easy to me, but I would like to know if I can modify it and use beeswax instead of the emulsifying wax and what type of preservative could I add that would be VERY natural. I don't want to add a bunch of unnecessary ingredients. I would like to use this on my face. The original recipe is:

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup emulsifying wax
1 1/4 cup water

Could I sub out the water for aloe vera juice (or is this an unnecessary item)
and could I divide up the olive oil and maybe add some coconut or other oils which would be good for sensitive skin? And as far as preservative, can I use vitamin e or it something more necessary...if so, what preservative is out there that is free of parabens and added junk?

Thank everyone!

 

[Lindy]

You can definately use the Aloe Juice instead of water. You do need a preservative no matter which you use though....

 

[IrishLass]

I love olive oil lotion. My favorite recipe is made with mostly olive oil.

If I remember right, I believe that beeswax is not a good 1:1 sub for emulsifying wax in lotion. Hopefully someone with more beeswax lotion knowledge will chime in, but I think you have to use it in conjunction with borax to get it to work, and even then it can be tricky to keep your lotion from separating out. If you are new to lotions I personally would stick to using emulsifying wax for now. My favorite one to use is Polawax. I've never had a separation issue with it.

Yes, you'll definitely need a preservative. Vitamin E won't cut it. It's good for retarding rancidity of oils, but it does nothing to keep yeasts, molds and nasty bacteria at bay. I myself use phenonip in conjunction with disodium EDTA for my lotions, but there are more natural ones out there that have been coming on the market lately. I don't know how well they work since I've never used them, but a couple of good places to on the net to look for one are either LotionCrafters or the Herbarie.

HTH!
IrishLass