This story isn’t interesting news to anyone who knows me, but to those of you who don’t know it, let me tell it. A while back I became crazy-obsessed with making lotion bars. Washing my hands at school a hundred times a day makes them chapped and awful. Our cook let me try her lotion bar and it was so nice! It’s basically a chapstick for your hands. I tried to find one at the tree-hugger store in Lincoln but couldn’t, so I made my own.
There are hundred of different ways to make them, but you really just need beeswax and oil. I add shea butter to mine because I bought a gigantic mountain of it when this whole obsession began. I’m down to my last two chunks of it. So here’s the recipe:
Using a scale, you need:
One part beeswax (I use 45 grams for a ‘part’. I see no reason why you couldn’t use a candle or a whole beehive.)
One part oil (I use light olive oil)
One part shea butter (I actually use less shea butter and make up the rest with oil. Does that make sense? It’s like this ‘part’ is 1/2 butter and 1/2 oil)
Nuke it for a few minutes then whisk. Use an impossibly cute tiny whisk, if possible. Burn yourself on the lava-hot glass. Add a dash or two of cornstarch. That helps it feel a bit less greasy (but not much – this is all basically grease, y’know).
Pour into a mold. You can use anything you like, but I use a candleholder because it makes such nice straight sides, plus it was free.
For this batch I left a little in the measuring cup, added a tablespoon or so more oil, then whipped it when it cooled down to make my fake vaseline. (It’s in the jar.)
After putting the mold in the freezer for an hour or so, I then twhack it mightily with a wooden spoon to try and get the little pucks out. After Lloyd yells, “Good grief – what are you doing in there?” I remember that it works better to pour some warm water over the back to loosen them. Viola! Enough oily goodness to last me until spring!