Some days... I'm a scientist

I always loved science... it was the math that kept me away from being a scientist. I loved the process, the making of things for something else, the discovery... but math... well it seemed to live in a world of absolutes. There is no creativity in math, unless you run a company and are trying to meet Wall Street expectation. But that is not really creativity in math, it's a bit more like creative writing and story telling.

However, I do love an experiment, which is really what cooking, art and design are based on. However, it is also what beauty products are based on. All start with raw ingredients, a plan and offer an assumed outcome. Sometimes they yeild a happy accident! This weeks experiment was Lotion Bars. I received one as a Christmas gift and the thought of making them spoke to the little girl in me that liked to mix lotion and baby powder together and call them beauty cream... I was a very pretty little girl based on all of my beauty creams concotions.

I searched the Internet for recipes and then improvised with what I had at hand and who I wanted to be my testers. With my Shea butter (latex)-allergic sister coming into town. Shea butter was out. I was afraid to venture too far with Miss Sensitive as a tester, because what is an experiment without testing!



Here's my recipe-

3 ounces beeswax
3 ounces coconut oil
3 ounces cocoa butter
3 ounces almond oil
(all of these are equal parts and for that reason you can use any measurement unit or device you like as long as it is the same one for the entire recipe section.)

15 drops of lavender essential oil (because that is my fave scent)
10 drops of Vitamin E oil (it acts as a preservative)

tools- double boiler or chocolate melter, soap molds or silicone molds, spoon


The Wilton Chocolate Pro has a removable
 vessel for easy mold pouring!

Heat first 4 ingredients together in a double boiler or a chocolate melter on high. I have a Wilton chocolate melter for this express purpose- this is not my first beauty product experiment rodeo!

Once the wax, oils, and butters are melted remove from heat and add essential oil and vitamin E oil, then pour into molds.

Because I like an extra experiment, I added 10 drops of carnation scented oil (not for internal use) to one of the bars. This was going to be my bar, so I want not as worried about sensitivity.

The house is rather cold; so the bars set up in about 20 minutes and were firm in an hour!

The mold I used was one I purchased years ago when it seemed like silicone bakeware was brilliant. wrong. But, I kept it thinking there was something I could do with it. I was right!

To use the lotion bars, simply rub the bar on your skin, then rub the lotion in. Easy and much less "drying" time than standard lotions.