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February 29, 2012

Tutorial: (simple) Natural Hand Lotion



I think I'm having some reaction to the soap at work. From the time I get there my hands are red and cracked. Gross. Top that it with still being cold out and my hands were looking about 10 years older than they are. I don't even want to describe the cracking and peeling between my fingers that was going on...
So I decided to make some lotion. I wanted something easy. Something so natural that it could be eaten. Something with ingredients that I could pronounce and also tell you what they were or where they came from. I also wanted something INTENSIVE. This stuff is intense. Not one of those watery lotions. You can always add some extras to it if you want essential oils in it. I used orange blossom water instead because I wanted something that definitely wouldn't cause a reaction on my skin.
If making lotion sounds intimidating just wait. If you can make a smoothie you can make an awesome hand lotion.









Take a double boiler...


Add some coconut oil and olive oil...


Grate in some beeswax...


Melt it all together...


...until its totally clear...


Add the water to your blender and slowly drizzle in the oil while the blender is going...



Like magic it becomes lotion! Bottle up and enjoy.



Natural Hand Lotion
What you'll need:

1 cup distilled water, orange blossom water, rose water, or even tea (you can find orange blossom water or rose water in many grocery stores in the ethnic isle)
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup olive oil (or jojoba oil)
2 Tablespoons Vitamin E oil (from the vitamin caplets, but you can just use olive oil instead here if you want to!)
1/4 cup grated beeswax, don't pack the cup (it was less than 1/4 of an oz for me)
optional, 3-4 drops essential oil of your choice

A Blender
A double boiler or microwaveable bowl
A jar for your lotion (a mason jar works fine, but glass is the preferable container here.)

If you're going to use a double boiler put about an inch of water into the bottom pan. Put the top pan on top. Add the coconut oil, olive oil, and beeswax. Turn your stove onto high and heat up until the beeswax is completely melted. The mixture will be completely clear when it is ready. Set aside for 3-5 minutes to cool slightly.
(If you're using the microwave put your coconut oil, olive oil and beeswax into a microwave safe bowl. Heat at 30 second intervals until completely melted. Set aside for 3-5 minutes to cool slightly.)
Add your water (and optional essential oils) to the blender. Turn your blender on to a low speed. Take the top cap off your blender lid. Add the vitamin E oil to your cooled oil/beeswax mixture.
Now slowly drizzle the oil into the blender. It will look a bit funky at first and then all of the sudden it will thicken up and look like lotion! When you're done adding the oil put the cap back onto the lid and turn up the blender to high for about 20 seconds.
Pour into a nice clean jar. Let the mixture cool all of the way down now before adding a lid.
Important! Now add some hot water and a couple of drops of dish soap to your blender. Blend for 60 seconds or so and rinse out. Repeat if there is still a lot of goop in there.

Now go enjoy your lotion! (and fix those nasty cracked hands!)
By the way, my hands are way better now.
Oh yeah, this stuff may separate and get gross if you don't use lotion very often. You can half the recipe!

3 comments:

  1. Works great! Love the container in the picture, where did you get it?

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  2. Thanks! I got the lotion container at a local store, Down To Earth.
    http://www.home2garden.com/

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  3. thank you for this! i have super sensitive skin and so does my baby girl. I hate spending a fortune for the organic fancy stuff at boutiques. This will be a lovely treat and weekend activity. glad i stumbled on your blog.

    ReplyDelete