Lavender and Mint Lotion

Lavender and Mint Lotion, homemade goodness for your skin!

Lotion should feel luxurious. It should be creamy, smooth, smell amazing (unless you don't do scent) and not be greasy. You skin should soak it up and feel great. Lotion is something for you, to make you feel great- so why do we so often purchase something that isn't great for us? Lotion has a L-O-N-G list of ingredients, most of which us regular folk can't even pronounce, let alone know what they are.

Lotions contain skin drying ingredients. Is this a clever ploy from the beauty industry? Make your skin dry so you need more lotion, so you buy more lotion and the cycle continues on.

I, for one, have had enough of that nonsense.

Lotion should be creamy, not greasy. 

This lotion is everything you want and need. It's got 4 simple ingredients. Once you have acquired the items needed to make the recipe, you can make many, many batches of lotion in any scent you desire for so much less than a quality lotion costs. There is only 1 (!!!!) specialized ingredient and it's inexpensive.

The thing you need to remember when making homemade beauty products is this: cleanliness is everything. Everything must be spotlessly clean or you can run the risk of introducing unwanted bacteria or germs into your products. Not good!

All natural lotion is a beautiful thing

Here's what you are going to need:

Oil- You can use olive oil, coconut oil (I find this to be greasy though, so beware), grape seed oil or even shea butter- or a combination of these to equal the measurement required.

Water- Filtered, distilled or well water here folks. Have city water? It's best to invest in some distilled water for your beauty products. Those bacteria we were talking about earlier? They can be found in city water and will cause your lotion to go bad.

Essential oils- completely optional, but lovely if you choose to use it. You can custom blend a scent, or use one oil alone, it's up to you! Essential oils can have soothing, calming, energizing or relaxing qualities and that may be something you're interested in using.

Emulsifying wax- this allows the water and oil to blend into a creamy, silky substance. Can be found online and is relatively cheap. The bag I got last year is still half full and I make lotion regularly.

The recipe I have adapted was found at A Sonoma Garden and it's the recipe I come back to again and again. I've tried a lot of lotion recipes out there and this one is simple, effective and trustworthy.

Lavender and Mint Lotion

• 1/8 cup cocoa butter (you can opt out of this and use all olive oil)
• 1/8 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup emulsifying wax
• 1 1/4 cup hot water
• 15 drops spearmint essential oil
• 15 drops lavender essential oil

In a measuring cup, melt together the cocoa butter, olive oil and wax either in a pan of water on the stove, or in the microwave. Remove from heat and add in the oils. Pour the water into the hot oils/wax and watch it turn a creamy white. Pour the hot lotion into your chosen container and place into the fridge overnight. Mine always firms up sooner than that, but it may take up to 18 hours to cure. 

So silky smooth and not drying on the skin. Dreamy!

Keep the lotion in the fridge and it will last a few weeks. In the winter, it can be kept in a cool room at room temperature, but in the summer it will go bad. There are no preservatives in this, so be cautious. I use this amount fast enough that I don't worry- but if you think you may not be ale to get through it and don't want to keep it in the fridge you can make half the recipe just fine. 

Let your skin feel lovely this year and treat it to some truly luxurious pampering, DIY style!!