OK, since I enjoyed making hand and body scrub, it seemed that the next thing to try would be lotion. I searched online and found a recipe on the Wellness Mama website. It seemed like an easy recipe and I had all of the ingredients except the beeswax.
I was excited to try and make my very own lotion concoction so I did a quick search on where to find beeswax in the area. In hindsight, I should have taken my time and looked at what the Wellness Mama had suggested on her site. I would have had an idea of what to look for but I am not the kind of person who does things the easy way. For some reason, I seemed to be cursed to always learn things the hard way but I always wind up with good stories so I guess it balances out.
Anyways, I ran up to Michael’s and bought the brick of beeswax in their candle making section. That was the only beeswax I could find. It was pricey but I figured I could get a lot of lotion out of a pound of beeswax. (Again, I should have listened to my gut instinct to continue shopping elsewhere and find a lower price and better product. If only I could go back in time and smack myself).
I got home and couldn’t wait to start making the lotion. I had everything measured out, per the Wellness Mama directions, except the beeswax. Her recipe called for a 1/4 cup of beeswax. I had this 1 pound brick. So logic stepped in…1 cup is 8 ounces so a 1/4 cup would be two ounces. There are 16 ounces in a pound, so I just need to divide it into 8 equal pieces and use one piece. But I was working with solids here, not liquids. And boy was it solid. I could not get a knife through the beeswax. I ran it under hot water to soften it up. It took a while but I finally cut off my 2 ounce piece. (I do have a food scale packed up somewhere…in my storage space).
So I made up my own version of a double boiler with an old pickle jar in another pan with boiling water. I let all the ingredients melt together, per the instructions. The beeswax took the longest to melt but the rest smelled really good. I had added in some honey, vanilla, sweet almond oil along with the coconut oil and olive oil needed in the recipe. I also put in Vitamin E oil (as a natural preservative).
I cleaned up a half pint mason jar and poured the mixture into the jar and let it cool. After about 20 minutes or so, I went to check on it and was surprised at how hard it was on the top. I basically made a candle, not a lotion. I attempted to mix it up but I think in the end, there was too much beeswax. It was a little like the thick night treat that goes with the Mary Kay Satin Hands but too waxy.
No big deal, I just figured I would try again. This time I used half the amount of wax and put in a little more coconut oil. I let it sit and when I went to check on it, there was stick a thick waxy layer on top. I mixed it up as best as I could but again, it was not what I had hoped for. It wound up with the texture of a body butter but on the plus side, it did what it was supposed to do, it moisturized my skin. It didn’t take very much to the job but it did do the job nonetheless.
So in the end, I guess I just wound up making body butter but without the actual butter ingredients. Maybe I did something wrong or maybe this is what it was supposed to be, I don’t know. Overall, trying to make “lotion” was a bit of a pain in the dupa so I think, for now, I am just going to stick with making scrubs.
Define Normal 