Home Made Lotion Bars

Spring break officially starts today for us! We have day trips, a movie, a youth group sleep over, egg-dying and visiting friends on this week's agenda. I thought you might have some free time, as well, and I wanted to encourage you to make your own lotion bars. These make great gifts for Mother's Day, Teacher Appreciation Week, silent auctions, and spring parties. 

You guys, these are SO easy to make. Rest assured that if I made them, you certainly can, too. 

Okay, first the lotion bars. I didn't even know lotion bars existed or what they even were until I saw them at the Market in Charleston, SC. It's basically a solid bar that you rub on your skin and when the coconut oil makes contact with your skin, your hotness heats up the bar and lotion is released and your skin smells and feels great! I immediately thought, "I can make that!" Except, this time, I really did!

Lotion Bars:
1 cup coconut oil
1 cup beeswax
10 drops (at least) essential oil

Melt the beeswax and coconut oil over a double broiler. When the mixture becomes a liquid, take it off the heat for a couple minutes to cool. Then add essential oil and stir. Pour immediately into molds. Let cool and pop them out!

Notes:
Make sure that you are using pure, unrefined, cold-pressed, organic, extra virgin coconut oil. It won't be as hard as you think to find it. I purchased this mammoth amount at Costco. 

It's also easier to melt the beeswax if it's in pellet form, or at least shaved. You can see I was too lazy to use either! I found this block of beeswax at Hobby Lobby, but you can order pellets of beeswax from Amazon. 

I recommend using a citrus, orange, lemon or lime scented oil. The smell is so fresh and juicy!

I used regular sized and mini muffin tins for my molds, but you could use soap molds just as well. Store them in a glass or plastic container and then gift them as you wish! Feel free to email me at tricia@jfw96.net with any questions you may have about these lotion bars or the other gifts you see here. I'd love to hear how your bars turned out!