Make Your Own: Lotion Bars {lavender + peppermint}

I like Cetaphil and coconut oil as much as the next person. But, I don’t like chemicals in my hand cream, I dislike buying non-recyclable plastic tubes, and toting coconut oil around town when it goes from solid to liquid with a warm breeze is flirting with disaster. So, lotion bars seemed like a no-brainer to add to my ever-growing inventory of homemade beauty products.

I chose lavender as my primary scent, classic and soothing, something perfect for slathering on before bed. And, I made peppermint bars for my husband, he’s a Dr. Bronner’s guy, so minty scents are right up his alley. He only got two bars though as he’s an infrequent lotion user.

Next time, I plan on making a couple bars with tea tree oil, both for the clean smell and its antiseptic qualities.

Gathering ingredients wasn’t tough, because I already had everything except for the beeswax from making deodorant.

For 12 little bars, it’s 1 cup of shea butter, 1 cup of beeswax and 1/2 cup of coconut oil.

Then, make quick use of an impromptu double boiler.

Around 10 minutes later, after pretty consistent stirring, you end up with a yellowish clear liquid. At this point, if you’re making a batch with just one scent, you can add your essential oils. I just added a few drops to individual bars to test scent strength and make the peppermint bars.

It doesn’t seem to make a difference between five drops and 10 when it comes to how strong the lavender scent is at first use or how long the scent stays on your skin.

I let them sit for an hour and they were totally firmed up. I found a little metal container to hold my cupcake sized lotion bar, but I’m looking for something more convenient, like a large twisting lip balm/lipstick container.

It takes about a month for me to get through one of these bars and my extras are stored safely in my freezer for later use. For the next batch, I’ll go a little lighter on the shea butter, because right now it’s a very thick hand cream. I’ll report back with lighter lotion recipes.