Making hand and body lotion

Ok, this is my first attempt at making lotion.  One of my dear friends gave me some lotion she made last year at about this time of the year and it was wonderful.  My husband always has trouble this time of the year with the skin around his fingers cracking (it gets very painful) and the lotion you buy at the store didn't seem to help that well.  The lotion my friend made, he loved.  In fact, he told me to never run out of this, it's great.  It was a jar about the size of the ones in the picture and it lasted all winter.  It was very soothing and my hands and legs were very soft.  It really helped my dry skin.

Why make your own lotion?  Read the label on the lotion you use and then google the ingredients and find out what you are rubbing into your body.  It will be quite an eye opener.  So making lotion has become another item on my resume. :) 

This is my first batch that I made for my children and me and my hubby.  It's not as smooth as the lotion from my friend.  I haven't got to talk to her yet so I don't know why it's a little grainy but it still does the trick of making our skin very soft.  I even use it as a moisturizer for my face.

These are the ingredients:
Small batch:  2 ounces raw Shea butter, 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Larger batch: 8 ounces of Shea butter, 1/2 cup of coconut oil, 1/4 cup olive oil

This is the basic recipe.  I added to this coco butter , bees wax.  I also added red raspberry seed oil, lavender essential oil and peppermint essential oil.  Red raspberry seed oil is extraordinarily high in Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids and is a superb anti-oxidant.  Research shows that its high level of Vitamin E is known to give it an important role in skin repair and conditioning.   Red raspberry oil is known for its prevention of gingivitis, rashes, eczema and other skin lesions.  It creates a lipid barrier providing protection to the skin and provides moisture retention for the skin. It is also a natural sunblock. I added the lavender and peppermint because lavender is great for skin repair, burns, ecemza, psoriasis and peppermint is also good for ecemza and psoriasis and they both smell wonderful.  There are other essential oils that are wonderful for skin problems, these were the two that I had purchased.

So this was my recipe:
12 ounces Shea butter
1 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup coco butter
2 ounces bees wax
6 teaspoons red raspberry seed oil
10 drops of lavender
10 drops of peppermint oil

I melted the first 5 ingredients and allowed them to cool but not completely and then added the red raspberry seed oil, lavender, and peppermint oil.  As I said early, my lotion is grainy I don't know why but I will keep you informed as I perfect this lotion. It is wonderful for your skin and it makes it feel very soft.

Something else I have started to do, got this idea from my daughter, I take about a tablespoon of coconut oil and put 4 drops of lavender and use this also as a moisturizer at night. This will also keep in a small glass container.  Do not put essential oils in plastic containers the plastic will leach into the essential oil.

If you have babies or toddlers read the ingredients on the Johnson's and Johnson's baby lotion.