Lotion (take 1) -- Or should I say body butter!

Having finally undertaken my first attempts at soap making after 10 years of longing, I decided why not also try homemade lotion.  I'm a huge fan of kitchen concoctions for my skin, and will run almost anything through my coffee grinder to make a mask -- but have wanted to make something that would have a little shelf life and that I could apply and leave on.  For my first run at lotion, I wanted something that looked fairly simple and didn't have too many exotic ingredients.  Here's what I went with...

80 grams cocoa butter
64 grams olive oil

1000 IU’s vitamin E oil
24 grams beeswax pearls
248 grams distilled water
16 grams liquid glycerin

For weighing ingredients I use a digital scale that I purchased for baking. 

The cocoa butter and beeswax both needed to be melted, so I combined the olive oil, cocoa butter, and beeswax into a 16 oz canning jar and set the jar into boiling water.  I find this is easier than a double boiler, and seems to work the same (?). I also weighed out the distilled water and glycerin, put it into a Pyrex measuring cup and set it into the boiling water. Once the solids are fully melted and the water and oils are close in temperature (say 100 degrees or so), pour the water and glycerin into the oils and start mixing.  I used the stick blender I purchased for soap making, which seemed to work very well. 

After mixing for 5 minutes or so, the lotion started getting a very nice 'whipped' texture.  When it seemed to settle out in consistency, I transferred into 2 - 8 oz canning jars -- one of which went into the refrigerator for later use.

I immediately tried the new lotion, and was overall really happy with the consistency.  Although I noted that it was more cream like than lotion.  After a day or so, however, the cream started getting a grainy texture.  After doing a good deal of research, I'm still not really sure why this happened.  Some sites point toward the cocoa butter either not melting fully or cooling too quickly, some point to beeswax being problematic and finicky.  In any case, the grainy texture goes away after a bit of warming on the skin, and overall the body butter -- not calling a lotion any more! -- is pretty nice. 

Here is the original recipe:

http://foodsofourlives.com/2011/01/homemade-lotion/

Night Cream (take 1)

Tonight I tried my first night cream, using a recipe from livestrong.com.  After searching the web for over an hour looking for a recipe that might work for the ingredients I had on hand, I settled for this one because the photo on the page looked nice and creamy (not grainy, like the lotion I made last week) and I had most of the gear -- adjusting slightly to substitute avocado oil for wheat germ oil.  Here is the recipe I used:

• 2 tbsp. vegetable glycerin
• 2 tbsp. witch hazel extract (mine was a thayers rose petal witch hazel  with aloe vera)
• 3 tbsp. honey -- which seemed like too much, but I went with it!
• 3 tbsp. avocado oil
• 1 tbsp. distilled water (recipe called for rose water, but I didn't have it)
• 3 - 400 iu vitamin E capsules (for good measure, and additional preservation)
• 7 drops lavender essential oil

The ingredients basically get mixed in the listed order, whisking with the addition of each new ingredient.  Having recently purchased a stick blender for soap making, I opted to use this rather than hand whisk.  Not sure really if this helped or hurt, as my 'cream' never got creamy -- but rather remained a nicely emulsified salad dressing consistency.  I'm learning that getting the right thickness and texture is a bit tricky.  Giving up on creamy, I poured the mixture into a 8 oz canning jar and plopped into the refrigerator.  I figure I'll see how it sets up when cold.

I had a little extra, so ended up using some on my face and throat.  1st impression was the the lotion, not cream, had a good texture and applied smoothly.  2nd impression though, was that it also has an overall stickiness from the honey.  I should have gone with instinct and reduced. 

In the end, I'll see how this thickens up and behaves over time, but suspect that I'll use it in the evening and wash off before bed.  Sticking to the pillow -- not so good!  I may also try adding bees wax or emulsifying wax at some point to try to get a thicker texture. 

The original recipe can be found here:   http://www.livestrong.com/article/197328-how-to-make-nighttime-face-cream/#ixzz1ktqOB1yn