My All-Time Favorite Lotion Recipe

October 16th, 2008

Mountain Rose Herbs. A herbs, health and harmony c

When I make lotion for our family, I definitely use the weight method (as opposed to volume). I also use coconut oil. It makes a wonderful moisturizer and also has many other health benefits besides in skin care. I usually buy a gallon tub from Mountain Rose Herbs and although it has a shelf life of 2 years, I still manage to use it all (for cooking as well as skin care). As our commenter Diana mentioned, coconut oil has anti-fungal properties and can be used instead of olive oil in the diaper rash cream recipe. And when a friend of mine was pregnant, she used to add a dollup of coconut oil to her shakes for that extra boost of healthy saturated fats.

For the water base in many of my recipes, I like to use glycerin. Glycerin is a humectant that draws in moisture, leaving your skin soft and hydrated. In this recipe, the water base is made up of 2 parts water to 1 part glycerin.

Mountain Rose Herbs is one of only a handful of online shops where I like to purchase my ingredients. I simply like the company and their commitment to organic agriculture and sustainable practices. And they have a friendly staff ready to answer all my annoying questions. You can purchase all the ingredients for this lotion at Mountain Rose Herbs.

Shopping list for at least 2 years worth of lotion for our family of four plus friends and relatives: ~$70

1 gal coconut oil (2 yrs shelf life) $22 (refined) or $41 (unrefined) – split it amongst your friends or keep up with my blog for future posts with ideas on how to use up this wonderful stuff. We never reach the shelf life!
Two 1 lb bag of emulsifying wax (2 yrs max shelf life) $11.80
1 gal glycerin (2-3 yrs shelf life) $33. Glycerin also has many uses and we never reach its shelf life either.

Ingredients for a 30 oz batch:

4.5 oz coconut oil
1.5 oz emulsifying wax
16 oz water (boiled)
8 oz glycerin

Follow the instructions here.

Comments

Comment from CoconutOilGuy
Time October 21, 2008 at 1:07 am

Hello. “Coconut oil has antifungal properties.” You can say that again!

Indeed, coconut oil has anifungal, ANTIBACTERIAL, ANTIVIRAL and ANTIPARASITIC properties as well. Truly, a potent ANTIMICROBIAL.

Cheers,
Frederick
http://www.coconut-oil-central.com
Your Drugstore in a Bottle

Comment from Nature Mamma
Time November 12, 2008 at 1:14 am

Hi there, I’m wondering if the coconut oil that you use in your recipes is the fractionated liquid coconut oil, or the regular thick coconut oil.

Comment from Wabi Sabi Baby
Time November 12, 2008 at 8:33 pm

I use both the refined and unrefined coconut oil from Mountain Rose Herbs. My understanding is that their refined coconut oil is not fractionated.

Comment from Howard
Time January 2, 2009 at 6:15 pm

I dont understand your measuring system as shown. When you weigh the measuring cup for the oil and zero out and then add the oil the weight is 4.50, but then when you add the emulsifier to the oil the weight goes to 1.50 I know nothing about this so what am I missing? Thank You.

Comment from Wabi Sabi Baby
Time January 3, 2009 at 12:00 am

If you zero out every time after you add an ingredient, then your scale will just show the weight of each ingredient.

Comment from Monica
Time February 6, 2009 at 3:29 pm

Anybody knows if coconut oil has anti-lice properties ??? My kids got lices at school and I can’t get rid of them with any pharmaceutical product.

Comment from Sandy
Time August 13, 2009 at 11:16 pm

I like the fact that this is a natural product. Can you tell me how to make a very small batch say for an 8 oz. bottle instead of a huge amount? I want to try this but not in a large scale in case I don’t care for it. Also, is the Coconut Oil that is in the cooking section of Walmart, the same thing as the Coconut oil in this recipe?

Comment from Wabi Sabi Baby
Time August 14, 2009 at 8:16 am

-Sandy
Yes, just scale back proportionally: i.e. for oil: (8oz/30oz)*4.5.
You can use any cooking oil.

Comment from Hemp Oil Taylor
Time September 7, 2009 at 10:38 pm

Most beauty products have Coconut Oil as the main ingredient because of it’s healing effects. It is used in skin treatment as a moisturizer and also for the hair as a treatment for dandruff and lice.

Comment from Usman Akhtar
Time January 16, 2010 at 10:35 am

I just made this lotion and its pretty nice. I substituted about 1/10th of an ounce of the e-wax with stearic acid.

However, I found my final product kind of greasy. Do you have any suggestions to get it to feel nice and quick absorbing, without any greasiness. It feels more like a cream than a lotion.

I hope I don’t sound picky, I really appreciate this recipe, I just want the greasiness factor gone.

Thanks so much.

Comment from Louie
Time February 5, 2010 at 11:20 pm

I followed the instructions almost to the t. I used 1/2 coconut , 1/2 mango butter.I made some mistakes. I did not heat/melt the oil/emulsifier mixture. I added everything in one bowl. I used the heat from the boiling water to melt/mix everything. I ended up with a greasy liquidy mixture. I tried whipping it and it helped a little bit. It ended up frothing into a semi-liquid state.

Help!!! How do/can I de-grease this mixture. Should I add Borax? I prefer a mixture that is more cream than lotion and not greasy.

Thank you,

Louie

Comment from Kristen
Time February 9, 2010 at 6:04 am

Hi, I really like your blog and look forward to trying this lotion recipe. How do I access your other lotion/cream recipes? Thank you.

Kristen

Comment from Kathy
Time April 11, 2010 at 2:15 pm

Hello! My husband had planned to make biodeisel with used cooking oil, but never did. Now, we have many containers of it & I’d like to put it to use somehow. I assume, though, that it cannot be made into skin care products – correct? Is there anything I could use it for? Much appreciated!!!

Comment from Wabi Sabi Baby
Time April 12, 2010 at 8:17 am

@Kathy – Used oil is not for skin care but believe it or not, it is great for cleaning greasy, sticky residue, i.e. caked on grease and dust around the kitchen, peeled stickers/labels, oil-based Crayola marks, etc . Oil dissolves oil. Follow with a detergent solution. More details on Soil and Stain Removal Basics post.

Comment from Jennifer Cote
Time July 20, 2010 at 10:27 am

Hey, guys, Has anyone ever experienced coconut oil turning “bad”? Even newly purchased, the coconut oil I got from Tropical Traditions had a bad, soapy taste to it. Couldn’t cook with it. I love that company’s “Coconut Cream Concentrate”, which I use to cook with all the time. But their oil was so strong, I had to give it to my soap friend, who makes soap out of bacon grease. I told her, soap out of this coconut oil can’t turn out any funkier than from bacon grease!