A Lotion Alternative from the KitchenWith winter comes dry and sometimes cracked skin–very, very painful for many people. Like with cooking, I read labels now. Read the label on the back of your favorite lotion. They all contain oils…and many other ingredients you can’t pronounce. We don’t need all of those ingredients. In one product, they’re stripping everything out of our skin and adding it back in another product. It’s a marketing ploy I tell you!
I wanted to make a lotion that would not just be a liquid oil, though. AND I didn’t want to buy a separate emulsifier that would make it look like the lotion I’m used to. I don’t need that. After a couple years of reading labels and researching, I’m beyond thinking things have to be what “they” say products should look like. Many of our grandmothers didn’t enjoy pretty smelling lotions that were white and creamy, but they had beautiful skin. They used oils from the kitchen, probably lard actually.
So I chose a couple different oils and combined them. Coconut oil is nice on the skin and is solid at room temperature. Olive oil is wonderful for your skin–it has the same PH factor as your skin. I did a 2:1 ratio of coconut oil and olive oil.
2/3 cup melted coconut oil
1/3 cup olive oil
I used my stick blender to really mix them together so I didn’t have layers of hard oil or liquid oil.
While you don’t need to add fragrance, you can add a few drops of essential oil which will also give you the benefits of those oils. This summer, I will be making a bug repellent lotion with Lemon Grass essential oil. You can also use skin-safe fragrance oils. I used my favorite Cedarwood Amber Fragrance Oil from Wellington Fragrance. It is a premium fragrance oil, so it is safe for the skin–I use it for soaps, candles and now lotion!
Pour the oil into a recycled jar. Let it harden and enjoy! This is more like a balm consistency than a lotion.
After sitting overnight, the coconut oil hardened up with no layers of olive oil. Yay, it worked!
Just a dab is all you need for your hands. Coconut oil melts at 76 degrees, so it melts soon after touching.
This jar of lotion (which is 1 cup of oils found in the kitchen) will last quite a while. For a softer lotion, try 1/2 coconut oil, 1/2 olive oil. If you don’t use fragrance oils, this would make a great lip balm as well–an all-in-one moisturizing balm.
Here's the full recipe and printable!
- Time:
- Yield:
Good tip! What do you do if the Coconut oil gets above its melting point, just re-blend it? I think that coconut oil liqufies at aroung 76 defrees F…
Ok, we may have to revisit this when the weather is warm enough for the lotion to melt!!! It will continue to stay blended together even if melted. I wouldn’t hesitate to keep it in the fridge.
Oh, what a GREAT tip! I am especially interested in the bug repellent part: both Ronin and I are mosquito magnets, and it is quickly approaching the buggy-time of year. I am VERY allergic to pesticides, so he and I tend to rely on Skin-so-Soft.
We also both get super-dry skin—right now the high-activity parts of his toddler skin feels a bit like the bottom of my heels (ick)
SO: Since this is going to be one of my projects this weekend–did you have any other suggestions for bug repellent?
Lemon Grass Essential Oil!!! That’s it…add it into your lotion!
I tried your recipe today and it turned out great! I added just 3 drops of lavendar eo and it smells and feels great! DH tried it and thought it felt good. Its a winner! Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome, glad you enjoyed it!
This sounds like what I’v been looking for. I am trying to get away from products with ingredients that I can’t pronounce.
The lemongrass sounds like a winner for the summer. Thank you for printing this recipe. Keep up the good work!
Just made this – it’s still warm! Am considering adding a drop of Vit E to it, just to help heal these winter chapped hands. (The blender is still in the stuff so now would be the time. Of course, how else would you properly clean the blender but to rub it off – onto hands, elbows, knees.) (Maybe unplug it first…)
This is still staying solid
Hate to be the only naysayer out here, but must report that my results were not quite as great as everyone elses’ have been. However, that is more a function of my winter hands simply being more than nearly anything can improve than this product itself.
Had to place it into the refridge to solidify – after three days it was still sort of a gel. But, since it finally did stiffen up, it has remained that way sitting out on the counter.
It feels great! But it didn’t do anything for the cracks or improve the dry scales. a condition with these hands that is not improving with age!
The wonderful thing about using wholesome ingredients like this is that even though this isn’t going to solve my dry skin situation, it is still useable for cooking! Win-win-win all around!!
Thanks for posting this because it seems like others are enjoying another great idea. Keep them coming, Cindy!
Does it go rancid? I know that a lot of different kinds of oils have a very short shelf life.
It hasn’t went rancid, but the house is in the upper 70′s now, and it has melted. I just stuck it in the fridge. I’ll be experimenting again! But this worked wonderfully for me this winter.
I know this is a pretty late comment, but I make my own moisturizers and I fixed this problem for myself, so I thought I’d share it. Coconut oil is my favorite moisturizer but I live in FL and even with the air on, the house is never cool enough to keep the coconut oil from being in its liquid state. Usually that doesn’t matter, but I wanted to make something that would stay solid so I could put some in a small tin and take it with me (plus I have gardener’s hands and I needed something really intensive to remedy it. It works, btw).
I used raw, organic shea butter and coco butter. They’re still totally natural, but since they’re hard, when I melted them over low heat over a double-boiler and mixed in my coconut oil, evening primrose seed oil and vit. E (and EO blend of mostly lavender), then whipped it with a hand mixer until it doubled in volume, I poured it into little tins and jars and let the mixture set up. This was last year and I still have six 4oz tins left after gift-giving, selling a lot and using it almost every day.
The ratio of liquid fats to the hard shea/coco butter will determine how firm your ‘lotion’ will be. I wanted something solid for my purposes, so I kept the ratio of shea fairly high. Something with more coconut oil will result in a softer product, but if too high, it’ll end up separating.
It sounds like a lot of work but it really wasn’t that difficult, I was just careful to keep the temp very low: just enough to soften the shea/coco butter without damaging the enzymes bc I was using raw product. It’s still fresh and had no refrigeration, plus it smells amazing even now and I love using it. If anyone gives it a try, let me know how it worked! I hope this helps
Adding a little stevia could stiffen it up some.
Thanks so much for sharing this-I’m going to give it a try-a great experiment since it’s winter time here