I have a new obsession: homemade beauty, cleaning and other personal care products. I can’t help myself, they are easy to make, way cheeper and also I personal think that they work way better than most of what you can buy in the store too.
Today I am sharing with you my recipe for lotion bars. They are extremely versatile. You can keep them in your purse, around the house and they also make great gifts. I made mine in a silicone mold, but you can use any shape of silicone mold. You also can pour them into plastic twist up cosmetic tube, which does make them easier to carry around and makes them a little bit more user friendly.
I used Essential Oils to fragrance the lotion bars. The sky is truly the limit for what scents you want to add to you lotion bars. My favorite go-to is Lavender. You can’t go wrong with Lavender (in my opinion). For these bars I used Rosemary and Peppermint. I love the scent of rosemary mint and love using it as a fragrance to my Whipped Body Butter also.
Ingredients
2 ounces shea butter
2 ounces beeswax
2 ounces coconut oil
30 drops Essential Oil or oil blend (I used 2o drops of Rosemary and 10 drops of peppermint)
Directions
- Melt the shea butter, beeswax and coconut oil in a double boiler. You make a double boiler by lightly boiling about an inch of water in a saucepan and cover it with a sinless steel or heat proof glass bowl. It is very important to note that you will want to use a metal or glass bowl that you will mostly likely throw away after making the lotion bars. The beeswax sticks or adheres to the bowl. You may be able to clean it, but I ended up throwing the spoon I used to stir the bars, but also was able to clean out the glass bowl I used. Moral of the story, don’t use anything nice when making the lotion bars.
- Stir the shea butter, beeswax and coconut oil until fully melted and take off of the heat
- Cool for 15 minutes and stir in the essential oils
- Pour into molds and let solidify at room temperature (it will take at least an hour)
- Pop out of the molds and you have lotion bars. I store mine in an airtight sandwich bag
Need to Get Started with Essential Oils?
Here’s what you get with the Starter Kit:
- Ten 5ml bottles of essential oils: Lavender, Peppermint, Lemon, Frankincense, PanAway, R.C., Thieves, Purification, DiGize, and Copiaba. Plus a bonus bottle of the Stress Away blend.
- A Diffuser (you get to choose)
- Aroma Glide roller fitment (you can make any essential oil bottle a roll on)
- 10 Essential Oil Sample Bottles (great to share)
- Sample packets each of Lavender, Peppermint, Peace & Calming, Lemon, and Thieves (two of each)
- Two NingXia Red 2oz samples (Young Living’s antioxidant drink, great for daily wellness)
Total value: Over $300, You purchase it all for $160
Ready to get started? Click here to begin or contact me if you have any questions!
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Katie says
Hello Meghan,
What exactly do you DO with the lotion bars?? Do you just rub them on your skin dry, use them in the shower, wash your hands with them… just trying to figure it out. Threw out all my beauty products this past weekend and made a few concoctions but still need lotion! Thanks so much.
Meghan Birt says
It’s really a dry skin cream type of lotion. They stay in their shape/ molded as you use them because the beeswax stays formed (it’s a really hard substance). I don’t think they would work too well in the shower. I use it for a light lotion, especially in the winter with the cold weather and washing my hands so much. I have also heard it works great with eczema! Hope this helps. You may also like my whipped body butter recipe (http://meghanbirt.com/2013/12/whipped-body-butter/). This is more of a lotion. It’s super nourishing to your skin! It’s pretty oily with the coconut oil, almond oil and shea butter.
Katie says
Thanks so much for the help!
Rachel says
Thank you for this recipe :-) I am newly discovering essential oils and look forward to trying this! Your blog is a sweet encouragement to our health journey, thank you so much!
Meghan Birt says
Hi Rachel! Thanks so much for your kind words about my blog. I appreciate it. I’m glad you found this recipe. Enjoy!!