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Basic Lotion and Crème' Making Recipe Copyright Deborah R. Dolen This is a very important article for those who
cannot find fragrance free lotion. These
simple instructions give you a Bath and Body Works type lotion. Mastering lotion making is probably the most
rewarding in all of the toiletry products. One
reason it is, beyond soap, one of the most used. Making lotion has also been one
of the few areas I consistently failed at until I read a simple article one night. I did not believe it could be that easy
and was about to trash the instructions. I
just saw no complicated ingredients. Then
decided to give making lotion one more chance.
I have always like the Bath and Body works sweet almond oil based products,
but they can be $10 a tube. You can
make your own for under $2 including a nice reusable bottle. Other sources seem to sell inferior
non-oil based lotion, or worse, with mineral oil and alcohol! Making Lotion and Crème' is basically as easy as making oil and water mix. Using a microwave, hand mixer or blender, you can have your own high quality lotion or crèmes within minutes. Making your own lotions and crèmes allows you total control over using your own high quality oils and additives. After you make the base, we recommend letting it rest a few hours in a plastic bowl, so it thickens near its final state of consistency, before you add fragrance oils and other fancy additives. You do not want pricey additives to evaporate with the heat. Then again, you do not want your lotion so thick it will not pour easily into your containers. It will thicken by the next day. When you have whipped in your additives, then pour your mixture into pump bottles or crème containers. For this you may need several sizes of funnels. Ready to make 42 ounces of the best lotion and/or crème' on the planet for under $5? This Recipe Makes 42 Ounces of Lotion or Crème'! Tools Needed:
Ingredients:
Directions: 1. Heat the water, along with the Borax, if being used, in a Pyrex glass in the microwave, until boiling. 2. Remove with mittens, and pour the water mixture into a glass blender. Cover blender to keep heat in. Plastic blenders will cloud permanent, FYI. 2. Place the oil with the Emulsifying Wax in the Microwave, in a big glass measuring cup designed to take heat. We use Anchor Hocking glass. 3. Heat the oil mixture until very hot, just before boiling, but making sure all ingredients are melted. 4. Carefully remove the hot oil mixture from the microwave with mittens. 5. Pour the hot oil mixture SLOWLY into the blender with the water, standing back to avoid any initial splash. Hold the cover down with a mitten, (in case it does splash at the start of blending.) (Never do the reverse and add hot water to hot oil, or it can explode. Add only hot oil slowly to hot water.) 6. Blend for at least two minutes. 6. After a few minutes you will have lotion consistency and crème' when you scrap the product from the sides of the blender glass. The preparation will thicken three times its consistency overnight as it all cools. Adding Fragrance Oil and Other Enhancers After your base cools for a few hours, but before it is too thick, should be the time you can add a little fragrance oil, preservatives, vitamin e, food safe color, and so on. You do not want these expensive items to evaporate with the heat of newly made lotion or crème. Remember, a few drops will usually be enough when it comes to color and fragrance. Preservatives such as Germaben II and Liquid Par Optima usually require 2-3% of the total mixture. We do not use them unless we are aiming for months of storage or use. Vitamin E is a natural preservative, and if you need a simple oil high in vitamin E you can buy Safflower Oil right at the grocery store. Using our One Step Emulsifying Wax we tend to skip any Borax or steric acid in recipes altogether. This is known as EmulSoy! Click here to buy EmulSoy. Making Crème’s To make crème with EmulSoy, simply use a whole four ounce brick of EmulSoy in the oil part of the recipe above. The 18 ounces of water and 18 ounces of oils of choice can stay the same. With crèmes you can make lemon kitchen scrubs, rose hand crème, peppermint foot crème and many other variations. Crème is basically 18 ounces of oil of choice, such as coconut and 18 ounces of water of choice, including rain water or green tea, for example. A few teaspoons of beeswax can be added in the oil part, if desired, but can be pricey. Here you want to heat the beeswax in a glass-measuring cup until melted and then take out to add the oil you prefer to use. After adding the remaining ingredients, heat again for 30 seconds or so until melted. Making Cleansing Milks and Cleansing Crèmes Night creams nor cleansing creams seem much different than simple lotion. It appears to be all in the marketing. I looked at what I consider my favorite creamy cleansing cream for years, Almay, and found it is basically water and mineral oil. Yuk. After noticing that, I think I could do better, by far. Even though I have oily skin, I understand the purpose of adding more oil to your skin is to lift any dirt up and out, thus I use cleansing creams and not soaps. Using cleansing creams instead of soaps has always worked for me. I have always known that it helps to have your face as warm as possible when using a cleansing cream, to really open up the pores and clean them. My idea cleansing crème or "milks" would include if possible: Olive or castor oil, rose water, calendula and/or comfrey teas (for the water portions,) and a few drops of essential oils such as lemon grass, clary sage. geranium, sweet birch tree oil, bergamot, and/or lavender, as well as a few drops of vitamin e oil. For dry ingredients I may want to add golden seal root and/or mug wart. So combinations may be Olive/Rose or Castor/Calendula and other additives that compliment those essences. I would probably add a lot of vitamin e to my cleansing cream to avoid the need for a preservative, and make my cleansing cream in small batches for that reason. No matter what few ingredients I use to make my cleansing cream, based on the lotion recipe above, anything is better than the water and mineral oil I have been using until now. -end-
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