Homemade Lotion Bars

I LOVE lotion bars! They are the best thing ever! I have dry hands from frequent washing, and nothing seemed to help until I tried my first lotion bar (great for chapped lips too!). 

I first discovered these little beauties at the honey booth at the state fair a few years ago. I fell for the Love's Delight bar from Randol Farms. It smells a-maz-ing! I've ordered a few bars from their site since then, but the shipping can make these little things a bit pricey, so I decided to try making my own. 

There are several recipes out there, but most of them call for equal parts oil (usually olive or coconut) and "butter"...by this, I mean shea butter or cocoa butter. Then just a little bit more beeswax. Some recipes will also include a little bit of vitamin E oil (typically 1 tsp if you are using a 4:4:4.5 oz ratio of the other ingredients). Then, of course, the essential oil of your choice. I decided to follow the recipe on One Good Thing by Jillee, and add my own flare.

I had some leftover cocoa butter and shea butter, so I decided to use both of these up, making two different recipes. First I used up the cocoa butter (I had 4.2 oz left, so I felt I was pretty close to the recipe and could wing it). So I weighed all of my ingredients to ensure I had equal amounts.

Chocolate Oranges Lotion Bar
4.2 oz cocoa butter
4.2 oz coconut oil
4.8 oz beeswax
2 tsp honey  ***Update*** I'll omit this in the future. It left a gooey messy in a few of the bars.
a couple splashes orange essential oil

Next, I combined all the ingredients in a double boiler, allowed everything to melt (it melts faster if you don't leave your cocoa butter in big chunks but I was being lazy), and made sure to stir it well so everything was combined.

When everything melted completely, I removed it from the burner and added the honey and essential oil
.

Finally, I used a ladle to fill my molds. Being my first time using these molds, I over filled a couple, which meant I ended up with 9 and 3/4 bars. 

Allow the bars to cool completely (preferably overnight) before popping out of the mold.

Rub the bar on your skin to soften the bar and rub into your skin. Perfect for dry feet, elbows, knees, and hands!

The other batch I made to use up my shea butter was:

Black Cherry Lotion Bars
4.1 oz shea butter
4.1 oz olive oil
4.7 oz beeswax
1 tsp vitamin E oil
black cherry essential oil

My hands are feeling great! I'll probably still pick up a few Love's Delight lotion bars at the next state fair just because I love the scent, but I'll definitely be making more of these in whatever scent I feel like.