Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Lotion attempt #1

Work was, hilariously, delayed yesterday. We opened late and left early. Why? Because it was cold. Pretty cold. Not even very cold. In the 20's cold.

Living in Texas is unique for so many reasons.

Well, I made body moisturizer per my previous intentions.
Here are my handwritten instructions. My internet at home is spotty at best, and I felt it was safer to have the instructions readily available.

Bethel found my bee's wax, which had been stored on the top of Jen's fridge for the last almost year. Apparently Kris rescued it for me when we all moved out of stillwater farms, and that is where it ended up. A giant block of bee's wax
I am so grateful for all the free things I get in my life. If you stop and think about it, so many things are just gifts. Like the jar's salsa comes in. I know, technically, that isn't free because you are paying for it, but really, all I wanted was salsa and what I got was this awesome jar.
Also, this blender was a gift from my sister, who is in Asia.

I added my oatmeal powder to the water. I know it looks kind of gross, but it seemed to work fine and was completely dissolved.

I chose to use coconut oil for this experiment because a) I had it and b) it is super good for your skin.
I think this may have been a mistake.

I don't have any pictures of the finished product because I haven't quite finished it. I stupidly, didn't think about the fact that coconut oil is solid at room temperature and only oily at warmer temperatures. The body lotion that I ended up with has the consistency of a crayon unless I sit it in front of the space heater for a few minutes. Then it is pretty much just coconut oil again.

Oops. I will try again.
Things I learned:
  • Wax is hard to get off of dishes and dangerous to put down the sink. This was stressful for me.
  • My blender, though wonderfully free, isn't that great. Varying speeds preferred.
  • add extra wax to be on the safe side. It will never ever thicken into anything resembling lotion if you don't put in enough wax.
So. A little bit of research into substitute oils will be done and another try will be had. After all, I have five pounds of bee's wax to use up.




7 comments:

Unknown said...

i loved your experiment! maybe try jojoba oil...it is closest to the natural oils that the skin secretes. there's also this oil that i love that is a combo oil called "maranayan". it's a really really old recipe, natural, healing, and warms up as you apply it.

Unknown said...

i misspelled the oil. majanarayan i think is the correct spelling.

Heidi said...

i read this blog http://anaustinhomestead.blogspot.com
and she has several body care product posts including lotion.

Eleanor said...

Awesome. Wonderful advice. I love having massage therapist friends.

Heidi, her recipe looks much more legit (i.e. complicated) than the one I tried. I will maybe try hers next.

Donnell said...

Were these photos taken with your new camera?

I would like to be a guinea pig for your lotions. Please?

Anonymous said...

I love this attempt and I want to try, too.
This is just the sort of thing we would try together. Like our butter-making day. Makes me miss you even more.

Haley

Unknown said...

JUST remembered as i was putting mine on this morning...apricot oil is REALLY good for dry, irritated, cracked skin OR anyone suffering from skin allergies such as eczema or psoriasis!