I don’t know about you but in the winter my hands suffer with the dry air, I am constantly looking for a decent hand lotion. After the good results I had making a lip balm I decided to try making a hand lotion. With three basic ingredient plus water I made a really nice lotion.
Ingredients for making a hand lotion.
It’s too thick to use as a body lotion but works perfectly for my hands. When you first put it on your hands it seems a little greasy but it soaks in in no time. I used lavender as my essential oil but you could use whatever you want. I had the olive oil on hand and purchased the emulsifying wax from Mountain Rose Herbs. Next time I’ll have to find a recipe for making a homemade beeswax lotion as we have our own beeswax. I poured lotion into a wide mouth pint jar, which I now keep by the sink.
Here’s the recipe:
1 ¼ cup hot water
¼ cup emulsifying wax
¼ cup olive oil
15-36 drops of essential oil (depends on your taste)
In a Pyrex measuring cup I combined the olive oil and emulsifying wax and microwaved it on high for 1 minute or until the wax is melted. The temperature is about 155 degrees.
Emulsifying wax and olive oil
I then removed the wax – olive oil mixture from the microwave and heated up the water in another Pyrex measuring cup for one minute. While the water was heating up I added the essential oil into my melted wax-olive oil mixture. I only used 15 drops of lavender essential oil.
Melted wax and olive oil.
Then pour the hot water slowly into the wax-olive oil mixture and watch it turn milky white. At this point the temperature is about 125 degrees. I then poured the hot lotion into my wide mouth pint jar and let it cool over night.
Lotion poured into pint jar.
I was a bit skeptical that it would thicken, however the next morning the lotion was a nice thick consistency.
Hand lotion thickened overnight.
I could have used more essential oil but I really like the gentle fragrance of the lavender, it is not overpowering at all.
