This silky Hemp & Shea Hand and Body Lotion is another Bee Better project, riffing on and updating the Healing Herbal Hemp & Shea Lotion I shared back in October 2014. This version keeps many of the same ingredients and very much riffs on the same themes of soothing, boosting healing, and moisturizing the skin—things I just can’t get enough of in the winter!
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First things first, this updated version is fully in percentages and weights. 2014’s version used a combination of volume and weight measurements. The weighed-out ingredients total 200g, showing I was kind of thinking about percentages (1% = 2g), but then I went and tacked on a few teaspoons of this and some drops of that, and left the preservative selection up to the individual maker (you can definitely see the fossils of my no-preservatives-past in the comments on the 2014 version). This updated 2020 version is properly percentage’d and preserved, in keeping with everything I’ve learned in the last six years.
One of the biggest things I remember about the original was that it was only pumpable for about the first half of the lotion—after that, it stagnated in the bottle like the last two inches of a Slurpee. I made sure to remedy that with this Bee Better version! The oil phase for this version is quite a lot smaller; 13.5% vs. approximately 25%. With a smaller inner phase, we get a less viscous lotion that is much more pump-bottle compatible.
Ingredients-wise, things in the oil phase haven’t changed much. Deep green unrefined hemp seed oil and rich shea butter star—just less of both, in keeping with the smaller oil phase. Both of these ingredients have their own smells; the hemp seed oil smells a bit “green”, and the shea butter has its characteristic nutty/smokey scent. At such low concentrations, I barely notice the scents in the end product, though they do come through a wee bit, mingling nicely with the hydrosol and essential oil to create a soft, herbal, final scent.
Our emulsifier is Ritamulse SCG; I really fell in love with this emulsifying wax when I first discovered it. I believe it was the third emulsifying wax I tried, after Emulsifying Wax NF and Polawax, and compared to those two emulsifying waxes, Ritamulse SCG creates thicker emulsions with a really neat powdery skin feel. It’s also more substantive and boosts the moisturizing awesomeness of emulsions!
This is my new precision scale—look it up in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia to learn more!
The water phase in the 2014 version featured an herbal infusion of marshmallow, calendula, comfrey, and chamomile. I honestly really liked this; I’ve moved away from in-water tea-style herbal infusions in recent years because some readers reported preservation challenges, but I genuinely never had any issues in that department. In this version, you can get the chamomile element from some chamomile hydrosol (I used sweetgrass instead as I’m out of chamomile hydrosol and love sweetgrass hydrosol, but it’s totally up to you!) and I used calendula extract for the calendula part, but if you want to, feel free to try the herbal infusion route. I’d just recommend using 0.5% Liquid Germall™ Plus (the maximum recommended amount) to ensure it remains stable.
And last but not least, a tiny touch of dark patchouli essential oil. Just 0.1% is enough to softly (but stubbornly!) scent the entire batch. Patchouli doesn’t mess around! If you aren’t a patchouli fan feel free to swap it out—the 2014 version used lavender essential oil, and that was also lovely. Enjoy!
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Hemp & Shea Hand and Body Lotion
Heated water phase
48.9g | 48.9% distilled water
20g | 20% sweet grass hydrosol or chamomile hydrosol
5g | 5% sodium lactate (USA / Canada)
5g | 5% vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
3g | 3% panthenol powder (vitamin B5) (USA / Canada)
2g | 2% colloidal oatmeal (USA / Canada)Heated oil phase
3g | 3% Ritamulse SCG (USA / Canada / UK / AU)
4g | 4% unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada)
5g | 5% hemp seed oil (USA / Canada)
1.5g | 1.5% cetyl alcohol (USA / Canada)Cool down phase
0.3g | 0.3% Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada)
0.3g | 0.3% allantoin (USA / Canada)
1.5g | 1.5% calendula extract
0.3g | 0.3% bisabolol (USA / Canada)
0.1g | 0.1% dark patchouli essential oil
0.1g | 0.1% Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)Prepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.
Weigh the heated water phase into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup or glass beaker. Weigh the entire lot (measuring cup + ingredients) and note that weight for use later. Weigh the heated oil phase into a second heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Place both measuring cups in your prepared water bath to melt everything through.
After about 20–30 minutes the oil part should be completely melted and the water part should be thoroughly dissolved. Remove the water bath from the heat and weigh the water phase. Add enough hot distilled water to the heated water phase to bring the weight back up to what it was before heating, and then pour the water part into the oil part. Stir with a flexible silicone spatula to incorporate.
Grab your immersion blender and begin blending the lotion, starting with short bursts so the still-very-liquid lotion doesn’t whirl up and spray everywhere. Blend for about a minute, leave to cool for ten, blend for another minute or two, and repeat this blend-cool-blend cycle until the outside of the glass measuring cup is barely warm to the touch and the lotion is thick and creamy.
When the lotion is cool it’s time to incorporate our cool down ingredients. Because cool down ingredients are typically present at very low amounts you’ll need to use an accurate scale—preferably one accurate to 0.01g. As these more accurate scales tend to have fairly low (100–200g) maximum weights you won’t be able to put the entire batch of lotion on that scale without blowing it out. So—grab a smaller dish. Add a scoop or two of lotion, and then weigh the cool down ingredients into that, using the more accurate scale. Stir to thoroughly incorporate, and then stir all of that back into the master batch of lotion. Doing it this way minimizes the amount of cool down ingredients lost to the secondary container.
Once the cool down phase has been incorporated, all that’s left to do is package it up! I used a green 100mL (3.3fl oz) pump-top bottle from YellowBee—I thought the green was a great fit for this formulation 😄I would recommend sticking with a pump-top or squeeze tube/tottle for this formulation as it’s a bit runny for a tub or jar.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this lotion contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. Even with a preservative, this project may eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event that you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.
Substitutions
As always, be aware that making substitutions will change the final product. While these swaps won’t break the recipe, you will get a different final product than I did.
- As I’ve provided this recipe in percentages as well as grams you can easily calculate it to any size using a simple spreadsheet as I’ve explained in this post. As written in grams this recipe will make 100g.
- To learn more about the ingredients used in this formulation, including why they’re included and what you can substitute them with, please visit the Humblebee & Me Encyclopedia. It doesn’t have everything in it yet, but there’s lots of good information there! If I have not given a specific substitution suggestion in this list (panthenol, colloidal oatmeal, allantoin, bisabolol) please look up the ingredient in the encyclopedia before asking.
- You can use a different hydrosol, or replace it more distilled water (or aloe vera juice).
- You could use all vegetable glycerin instead of a combination of glycerin and sodium lactate. You could also use propanediol instead of one or either.
- You can use a different complete emulsifyin wax instead of Ritamulse SCG: Polawax, Emulsifying Wax NF, and Olivem 1000 are all good choices.
- If you’re like to use a different preservative, please review this FAQ and this chart.
- If you’d like to incorporate a different essential oil, please read this.
Gifting Disclosure
The 100mL (3.3fl oz) pump-top bottle was gifted by YellowBee. The shea butter was gifted by Baraka Shea Butter. The sweetgrass hydrosol was gifted by Plant’s Power.
Hi Marie! I can’t find panthenol powder! Only gel (water soluble). Is that ok? Thank you for all your hard work
Yup, just check the SDS to see how diluted it is and adjust accordingly 🙂
Hi Marie! I loved the original version. Ill try this one and see what I think. But the Marshamallow root was key in that original recipe. It is an emollient, so it brought a great after application skin feel. Ill try the new one and report! Thanks!
I look forward to hearing what you think!
hemp seed oil is heat sensitive. am afraid we hv destroyed the precious property of this rich oil. it is best used in the cool down phase
~20 minutes at ~70°C really isn’t that much heat—if you ordered the oil in the summer there’s a very good chance it would be exposed to more heat in the delivery truck 🙂 From the research I’ve done into how much heat is required to break down oils, and at temperatures like that you’re looking at tens of hours before much of anything happens, not tens of minutes 🙂 I’d be concerned including it in the cool-down phase might compromise the stability of the emulsion, but you can certainly try it. Happy making!
Hi Marie, I got lucky again I guess. I had all the ingredients except bisabolol and substituted and the result was an awesome lotion. Perfect formulation and silky smooth. Been using it regularly and love it.
Fantastic! Thanks for DIYing with me, and happy making 🙂
My lotion separated! Could it be that I didn’t use emersion blender enough? I’ve had this happen before with Ritamulse SCG. Have you ever had that happen to you??
I haven’t, but I’ve heard from others who have had challenges with it, and not blending enough can be a reason for splitting. Did you make any substitutions?
Thanks for all you do! Is there an advantage to using half glycerin and half sodium lactate over using all glycerin? Also, I noticed you did not suggest substituting all sodium lactate — is that not a good idea in this recipe?
Hey Lyne! I’m trying to get the best of both humectants—learn more about them in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia (https://www.humblebeeandme.com/diy-encyclopedia/) 🙂 You can certainly try all sodium lactate. Happy making!
I made this yesterday with miner alterations and it had a very bad soaping effect. The miner changes that i made are as follows: used 0.75% Optiphen Plus, 3% ECOMulse (which I believe is the same as Ritamulse), 20% chamomile hydrosol and I left it unscented. Any thoughts on why the lotion has suck a soaping effect.
I’m wondering how you can prevent allantoin from crystallising. Every time I’ve used it, this happens.
I calculate the allantoin to be present within its ability to dissolve; it’s only about 0.5% soluble in water, so I will make sure I don’t exceed that for any given formulation for easy incorporation Then, adding it to the cool-down phase is supposed to prevent it from having an opportunity to come out of solution in larger particles as the product cools. Happy making!
This calls my name! I feel like I need couple of light weight body lotions: herbal one (this) and rose’y one (body yogurt). I just ordered more shea butter so that I could make this. I have that affordable HA which I’m planning to use. Hopefully these’ll make my bodycare routine more simple. 😀
Ps. Your honey bee lotion is awesom! xx
This lotion is seriously moisturizing yet relatively light weight. I didn’t have bisabolol or calendula extract though. One of the best I’ve tried. Keeps my skin happy.
HOORAY! ❤️
This lotion is amazing, but I need to ask how to mas the horrible smell I got from it… I used 1% FO and I still smell it (I think the panthenol)… Any thoughts?
Hello Marie. Can I also add a small percentage of both ceramide and niacinamide to this formula for an extra anti-inflammatory and to lock in moisture for extremely dry skin such as eczema? Thank you so much for sharing!
I realize this is about the tenth time I’ve made this…it’s time I write it out into my “keeper book” for days of crappy internet connections! This is my go-to lotion for everyday. Thank you!
I notice the feel of a homemade lotion is often quite different than store-bought. It certainly feels less greasy and appears to absorb more quickly, regardless of the formulation. The after feel is what I notice most, about 10 minutes after rubbing it in. My skin is certainly soft, but I rarely noticed traces of lotion in the same way I would with commercial brands. Am I imagining this? Or is this characteristic of homemade products?
I’m so glad you’re loving this lotion! Given the massive variety of commercial lotions it’s not possible to say precisely what the differences you are noticing are caused by. If you usually use commercial lotions that feature more occlusive ingredients (petrolatum, for example) and your handmade ones feature more readily absorbed lotions, that could be it. I’ve noticed some commercial lotions use lots of cetearyl alcohol, which can feel more waxy/rich than lotions that don’t. There could be a lot of factors at play 🙂
Oh! A more specific question to this formulation… I noticed there are some formulas where you have moved the colloidal oatmeal into the heated oil phase rather than the water phase. I agree with you that this seems to end up with less of a gloppy goo and I like how it blends. If I were to move the colloidal oatmeal into the oil phase of this formula, what I have to change the emulsifier percentage as a result?
Nope, no change required 🙂