I’m having a hard time deciding what it is I love most about these perfect body butter bars. Is it how they melt perfectly on contact with my skin and absorb quickly? Is it their amazing, delicious scent, which comes entirely from the butters and oils they’re made from? Is it that you just need three ingredients and maybe 10 minutes to make them? Perhaps I’ll never be able to decide, but suffice it to say, there’s something in these bars for everybody to love.
These wonderful bars are made from three of my all time favourite ingredients. #1 is beautiful, raw cocoa butter, with all its delicious chocolatey scent. Yum. It’s brittle at room temperature, but melts at 34°C (just below body temperature), and sinks into the skin quickly, leaving your skin happy and soothed.
Ingredient #2 is virgin coconut oil, a massively popular ingredient with many people these days. Make sure you use the virgin stuff so you get all the delicious, tropical, coconutty scent as well as the moisturizing benefits. Coconut oil is soft at room temperature, melting at 24°C, meaning it liquifies almost immediately upon contact with your skin. Also, have I mentioned it smells divine? Because it does.
Ingredient #3 is some beautiful, all-natural, un-bleached beeswax. I have never understood bleached beeswax. What is the point? Beeswax is such a wonderful thing, why on earth would you bleach the living bejebus out of it? It’s heartbreaking. Now, all-natural beeswax can be expensive if you’re buying it online, so don’t. Go local—bee stuff is something you can buy locally almost anywhere in the world. I bought mine directly from the apiary owner at a great little farmers market in southern Manitoba. It’s very beautiful beeswax—dark, honey-scented, and in two giant bricks. The beekeeper couldn’t believe I wanted both of them—I think they were about 2kg together. Now that’s what I call a souvenir.
Making the bars is simple enough—melt and pour. That’s it. Once they’ve cooled, you’re done. Brilliant!
Perfect Body Butter Bars
20g | 0.71oz cocoa butter
30g | 1.05oz virgin coconut oil
20g | 0.71oz beeswaxCombine the three ingredients together in a small saucepan and melt over medium heat. Pour into small moulds (I like 1/4 or 1/3 cup measuring cups) and let set. You should be able to just tap them out of the mould when they’ve set as the edges of the bar will pull away from the side of the mould. If not, a quick dip of the mould in some hot water should have them out in a jiffy.
As with all recipes where I make a big deal about the individual ingredients (and especially since there are only three), for the love of all things successful and wonderful, do not make any substitutions in this recipe.
So… I know you say no substitutions, but would it be OK to *add* a teeny tiny pinch of pearl mica to make the bars sparkly? I have a sparkle problem at this time of year.
Yes! Good question 🙂 Just be sure to let the bars thicken a wee bit before you pour so it doesn’t settle out 🙂
Thanks! These turned out brilliantly (although I’ll leave out the mica next time, because it didn’t really do anything). They smell so good that my 2 year old thought they were candy.
Wonderful! I was just using mine today as well, and I couldn’t stop sniffing my hands 😛
I wonder if skin safe glitter would work better. Hmm….I have been wanting to make a body shimmer stick.
Ooh! Let me know if you try this 🙂
P.S. BRILLIANT idea to get beeswax from local beekeepers.
Once you’ve hit on this are are truly no alternatives 🙂 I’ve taken to buying honey and beeswax as souvenirs when I travel. The blocks I’m currently working on are from Manitoba and Spillimacheen, BC respectively. Divine!
Hi!! First time I leave a message here 🙂 how do you separate the honey from the beeswax?
I haven’t been lucky enough to try it myself (though I have a Christmastime trip to a beekeeper planned, so here’s hoping!), but I found a great guide with photos here 🙂 Enjoy your home rendered beeswax & colour me jealous!
A little tip on where to buy beeswax is Beemaid online store and choose “cappings wax”. I once was a beekeeper and they usually are current market prices. Nice website/channel by the way!
Thanks!
I’m so grateful for your lotion bar/DIY obsession right now! It’s tough to get the right proportions of ingredients in a lotion bar, and now I won’t have to waste time with repeated trial and error recipes. Thanks Marie 🙂
Aww, thanks so much, Heather 🙂 You should CC your thanks to Calgary’s insanely dry weather these days! Even the men at my office are using this bar to try and save their hands. Enjoy it & have fun!
Please tell me how you are cutting/chopping up your block of beeswax. I chopped some up in an old food processor but had to throw it out since I couldn’t get the beeswax out of it!
Personally, I don’t cut my beeswax much. I usually melt it. Melt it on low heat in a double boiler or makeshift double boiler, then pour it out onto a sheet of parchment paper and let it cool. Once it’s cooled, you can break off pieces of it and it’s SO much easier to weigh out. I have tricks for removing it from utensils, too, if you’re interested. Hope this helps!
This is a great tip, Tammy! For anybody who doesn’t know, the double boiler is super necessary as beeswax can (and will) just burst into flames if overheated. If you’re dealing with a large block of beeswax (I buy mine in 500–1000g blocks) be sure to save an hour or two while you’ll be otherwise puttering around in your kitchen so you can keep an eye on it. And I’d love to hear your utensil removing tips as well 🙂
Here’s my tip for removing beeswax from utensils, measuring cups, whatever.
Grab a cookie sheet (preferably not your best one), and heat the oven to 170-200 degrees. Whatever the lowest temp setting is on your oven.
Line the cookie sheet with a few paper towels. I use a piece of parchment first, then 4 or 5 paper towels. Now go ahead and put your utensils and whatever upside down on the towels and put the whole thing in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Once all the beeswax is melted, carefully remove each piece and while they’re still hot (wear gloves, they help!) wipe them thoroughly with a clean paper towel, and immediately wash with hot, soapy water. That should do it! Repeat if necessary, but as long as you’re dealing with hot utensils and hot soapy water, you should be able to get all the wax off and everything cleaned up nicely. I rarely use anything but chopsticks for stirring anymore, and they just get wiped off and reused a couple times before they get tossed. But this method works great for my glass measuring cups and anything else as long as it’s heat safe. Hope this tip helps, it sure has helped me!
You can also use a mason jar dedicated for melting beeawax. Just set it in a pan of water and boil it while occasionally stirring the wax as it melts. This way you never have to wash it!
Ha, love it! That’s my kind of dishes 😛
Thanks for the tips! I made the stupid decision to use a fat separator to pour salve the other day (all my measuring cups were in the dishwasher!), so I’ve been attempting to clean it with pipecleaners slathered in Dawn… 😉
Ha, I have definitely done this before! I’ve found boiling the container with some soap (or filling it with boiling water) can help re-melt the oils in weird places. From there you can send it through the dishwasher and it usually comes out pretty clean.
I love this tip, Tammy! I will definitely keep it in mind when I inevitably get into candle making (it’s only a matter of time at this point, haha).
Is a double boiler not necessary when making this recipe because the cocoa butter & coconut oil buffer, so to speak, the beeswax so it’s less likely to burst into flames? Thanks!
A water bath is almost never necessary if you’re planning on keeping a very close eye on things—I now use them exclusively as that’s a thing I’m no longer good at doing, haha.
I’ve found that just grating the wax with a cheap grater with the largest holes? Works really well, and they melt even quicker than Shea butter, and you know you don’t have to clue an it when well to use for cooking too, hope this helps x
OOoh, I’ll have to keep an eye out for a box grater at Value Village to add to my stash 🙂
I will melt my beeswax block down into smaller quantities (not the whole block at one time, that’d take forever!). Makes it much easier to work with or even using the 1oz molds would be nice.
That’s a great idea Tammy! How do you store the beeswax after you melt/spread out on parchment paper?
Hi Lisa! We’ve already gathered some good tips here (yay), but here’s what I do: I’ve got a beeswax/soap cutting designated knife that’s nice and sturdy. Full tang, thick, sharp blade—all that good stuff. And, I slowly shave bits off the block with it—that’s how I end up with those little shavings you see in the pictures here. I store the shavings in a 500mL mason jar and refill it as needed. I find I end up needing to flip the block over as I go as you end up trimming away the bottom portion of it as you go. This has worked well for me with my gigantic (1lb+) blocks of beeswax, and gives me pieces that are small enough to both measure and melt easily. It also means the only thing I really need a DIY version of is a knife, and it gets plenty of use with all my projects. Hope that helps!
I use a cheap cheese grater dedicated to beeswax. Mine comes in cakes or sticks, so this works well.
I should try this the next time I see one at Value Village—I’m getting a bit tired of hacking away at mine with a big chopping knife.
I grate up a bunch at a time and keep it in a jar, super convenient!
I definitely do this, too—hack away until I’m tired of it, and then I’m set for a while 😉
So sorry Marie. I do know how wonderful your recipes are…but, I need 8 gifts right away. I have only 50 grams of cocoa but lots of shea. Would this combo work?
Hi Brenda! Unfortunately that won’t work as shea butter is much, much softer than cocoa butter, but has a far higher melting point than coconut oil. What else do you have on hand? I’m sure we can find something you can make!
Thanks for responding.
Not much else on-hand, olive oil, virgin and extra virgin.
Recently used the last of my 48 lip balm tubes making your shea butter lip balm. A huge hit!
Wish I had a local source for cocoa butter, as tomorrow is the only day I’ll have to make something.
Hmmm… if you can get some beeswax locally (which is generally pretty easy), I’d recommend doing my sore nose salve. You can do a quick heat steep of the olive oil if you can get some calendula, or just use some lavender & tea tree EOs instead.
And I’m thrilled to hear the shea butter lip balms are a hit! I sure love them at this time of year 🙂
I have a recipe for lotion bars that uses 1 ounce cocoa butter, 1 ounce shea butter, 2 ounces beeswax, 2 Tbsp jojoba, 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil, and the contents of 4 vitamin E gels. They are divine. I like it because I don’t really like the smell of shea butter, but it gives me a way to use it without having to smell like shea all day long. *shrugs*
These sound just beautiful, Tammy! I too, love shea butter, but I don’t always want to be followed around by its rather strong smokey/shea scent all day long.
Thank you so much for the recipe. My husband gets a rash that no medications will touch. A friend told us that her mother had a similar rash and only Coccoa Butter Body Wash and Body Cream helped. We have have been using over the counter products with pretty good success. I am going to make this for him.
Yipes! Good luck with this, Paula—be sure to let me know if it helps. I’d also recommend a clay mask or two (or more if they seem to help). Masks are great at pulling out infections and increasing blood flow, which really helps with healing.
I got my supplies today, including the kitchen scale, how did I live without it?
I made the Butter Bar. It is beautiful, smells heavenly and feels like silk. I will let you know how it works for Hubby’s rash.
I only made one small bar, in case I goofed it up, but it was super easy!
How exciting! Getting a new order of DIY goodies just might be the most exciting thing ever 😀 I’m so thrilled this bar came together so beautifully for you—enjoy all your new DIY endeavours! I can’t wait to hear how they go 🙂
You would NOT believe how how improved his rash is in just 3 days!
He is making plans for shelves and utensils for my new “hobby”.
Fantastic! This is SO exciting 😀 Yay for natural cures! And for winning over husbands 😉 I’m so thrilled, thanks so much for sharing.
I haven’t gotten an email in a long time. I didn’t even realize until I looked for this recipe and had to google it! I hope this puts me back in the loop.
I checked with my email sender, and you have been sent 62 emails and haven’t opened a single one of them, but they are being sent to you. They must be in a spam box or a newsletters box or something (I know gmail has a special “promotions and newsletters” sort of inbox, I bet that’s where they are). Commenting here won’t change that, you will have to go find those emails in your email service somewher e:)
Hi. How do you feel about adding essential oil(s) for fragrance? I don’t really enjoy the scent of coconut or chocolate unless I’m going to eat it…
You definitely can, but I would really recommend trying it out with the naturally scented ingredients first 🙂 I promise it doesn’t smell like a chocolate macaroon or anything quite so dessert-y. If you’re convinced the cocoa/coconut version isn’t for you, though, I’d recommend buying the deodorized versions of these ingredients so you aren’t competing with their natural scents (which are pretty strong).
Thanks, Marie. Yes, I’ve considered getting deodorized cocoa butter.
Let me know if you find deodorized coconut oil that hasn’t been beaten within an inch of its life—in my experience it’s either extra virgin or refined, bleached, and deodorized.
I recently stumbled upon your website (thanks pintrest!) and I am in LOVE! Thank you so much for sharing your ideas and recipes! I am like a small child on Christmas, I cannot get enough!
For this post specifically, do you have any recommendations for packaging these butter bars, if we were to gift them? Thanks again!
Some time ago I made some little bars using a recipe similar to this one. My bars were ice cube size, so a bit smaller than these. I gave one to my mom and I simply put the bar in plastic disposable container meant for cosmetics (you find them online) and labeled it. another option is to find a pretty glass jar (I spotted some mini jam jars of the perfect size at my local supermarket, but we don’t eat jam), label it and decorate (maybe with a ribbon or something like that).
I would avoid to wrap the bars in plastic, because they might soften a bit if it’s too warm and lose their shape.
I’ve also heard (Marie, correct me if I’m wrong) that also homemade soap needs to breathe and it must never be wrapped in plastic.
I love the jam jar idea!
And yes, I never wrap homemade soap in plastic as I prefer to let it continue to age—which requires air flow/breathability 🙂
Yay, I’m so glad you found your way over to my wee corner of the internet (three cheers for Pinterest!).
You’ve got lots of options for packaging these body butter bars. You can start off by using different things as moulds. Mrs G suggests ice cube trays, and I’ve also had fun with little silicone chocolate moulds. If you used silicone chocolate moulds you could re-purpose a chocolate gift box (and clearly label it, haha). If you go for a larger bar you could package it up in a little gift box with some cotton fluff or tissue, or you could wrap the bar in some tissue and tie it with a ribbon. Something to keep in mind is ambient temperature—that is, if you’re in Australia, these will likely melt on you, so something like a tin is probably a good idea. If you’re in Canada you can get away with much more loosey-goosey packaging ideas 😉
I discovered your web site a few weeks ago and I absolutely love it. Your posts inspire me so much that I bought beewax (locally!) and extra-virgin coconut oil. But now I am facing a technical problem: your measurements are in grams. What tool do you use to measure them?
Thank you so much for creating that web site!
Hi France! I’m so glad you found my wee corner of the internet, and I’m thrilled to hear I’ve inspired you to pick up a few of my fave ingredients—you won’t regret it!
Grams are a unit of measurement for weight, so you’ll need a scale for them. You’ll love working in weights, I promise. No fussing with cleaning up a multitude of cups and tiny spoons, and it’s so much more accurate (especially with decidedly solid things like beeswax and cocoa butter). You can pick up a scale on Amazon for ~$20 and you’ll be using it for everything in no time (baking in weight is amazing).
I’ve also provided a quick 2-part guide to the metric system here and here if you’d like more details 🙂
Thank you for your quick answer. I realise this morning that my question was not specific enough. (This is what happen when I write comments late in the evening…) What I meant to ask is what kind of scale should I buy. Size, price range, brand, technical specifications… Is there a brand I should absolutely avoid? (I live in Canada too.) I am sure all scales are not equal. Thanks again!
Ha, no worries! So many of my readers are American that I always tend to assume questions about grams, etc. are coming from a “what’s the metric system” point of view 😛
When buying a scale, 1g increments are enough for most projects. I always recommend digital for precision and ease of use. I believe my scales top out around 1500/2000g, and that’s great for most things (I’ve only topped them out while making very large batches of soap). I’d also check for how long the auto shut-off time is, and get one that has something on the longer side if you can as there are few things more annoying than being halfway through measuring a slow-to-pour ingredient and having your scale shut off on you.
Since you’re in Canada I feel confident recommending Lee Valley’s digital scales to you ’cause Lee Valley is awesome. If you aren’t already in love with Lee Valley you likely will be soon as they do such a great job of vetting their products. They also price things very fairly and have a fantastic return policy. This mini digital kitchen scale looks perfect. I don’t have their mini digital kitchen scale, but I trust Lee Valley (I have my eye on their precision pocket scale, it’s on my Christmas List). Other than that, I would avoid Starfrit—I had a scale from them that was pretty awful.
Thank you for your generous answer. I sure know Lee Valley: I bought a wonderful picnic backpack from them a few years ago. The mini digital scale you recommend seems great for measuring different products. And you can choose between pounds and grams 😉 I wish you a very merry Christmas. I myself will try a few of your georgous-looking recipes.
Fantastic! Enjoy your new scale & all your new DIY goodies 🙂 Happy Christmas!
For the U.S. North Americans out there who are reading this thread and wondering what scale to get, I have an OXO digital scale, which is fantastic. It does both ounces and grams. http://www.oxo.com/p-501-11-lb-food-scale-with-pull-out-display.aspx
I just looked at the Lee Valley site. Dangerous! Looks like they ship to the United States, too.
Thanks, Annie! I love scales that do both ounces and grams, they make measuring a total breeze and help eliminate irksome conversions. Heck, you don’t even have to know anything about grams when you have one, haha.
And yes, Lee Valley = dangerous/awesome. I tend to do a lot of Christmas shopping there as it’s so awesome. I have a fantastic set of knives I got from them (they’ve since discontinued them, sadly) that were maybe $150 for a full set & carrying case. Full tang, wooden handles, German made. Brilliant!
Marie, first of all, I have been poring over your blog for the past week! I’m so inspired by the things you make, and your writing style and gorgeous photos really add a “quality” touch to the blog. These body butter bars look heavenly, and I think I’m going to try them very soon. I’m also going to have my first experience with soapmaking the day after Christmas! So excited!
Question for you–I’ve looked up how to make homemade bubble bath (natural stuff with no questionable ingredients) and I’m feeling a bit disheartened by what I’ve found. One site claimed there is absolutely no way to make bubble bath without adding sulfates! I thought perhaps if I make liquid castille soap, that might work, but I remember trying to add store-bought liquid castille soap to a bath and it did not provide many bubbles at all… What are your thoughts on the feasibility of homemade bubble bath? Have you tried making it? I would LOVE to hear what you have to say about this, and if you think it’s possible, how you’d go about it.
Thank you for writing such a beautiful and inspiring blog!
Hi Johanna! I’m so thrilled you found my wee little corner of the internet, and I’m thrilled you’ve been enjoying all my posts 🙂 I’m closing in on 500 right now, so there should be plenty to keep you occupied, haha.
Bubble bath is a great question, and something I haven’t tried yet. It’s a weird thing, bubble bath. Almost magically bubbly, really… nothing like the lather you get from a bar of soap, even one with good amounts of castor and coconut oils. The bubbles also last a really long time, which doesn’t happen with natural soaps. From my memories of my mum once using dish detergent as a bubble bath for me as a kid, you definitely don’t want something to be a very strong detergent as that’s really hard on your skin and any, err, below-the-belt bits. I would probably start with coco glucoside, which is the most natural surfactant I’ve found. After that I suppose you’d need a lather/bubble stabilizer, but I really have no idea what that would be. I checked out Lush’s “bubble bars”, and while Lush is pretty much natural in marketing only, their bars are pretty much just baking powder and sodium laureth sulfate (plus artificial frangrances, some token EOs, and FD&C dyes… ugh), perhaps you could experiment with baking soda? Though I imagine that just gives fizz to help activate the surfactant through agitation… hmm. It’ll definitely require some experimentation, but at least you’ll get to take lots of lovely baths while you’re at it 🙂
Thanks for reading & DIYing with me, and have fun with your homemade soap!
Marie, you are amazing. Thank you for your ideas and for suggesting coco glucoside. I just read the product reviews and it sounds like a great place to start! I’ll let you know if i am able to create a decent bubble bath formula.
I look forward to hearing what you come up with 🙂
For a foam stabilizer to go with coco glucoside, I’d try an alkamidopropyl betaine and/or an amine oxide.
Hmm… I’ve never seen either of these ingredients for sale here, I’ll have to keep my eye out 🙂
You’re not going to see them at the grocery or drug store except as ingredients of other products. However, there are some suppliers selling small quantities of surfactants to hobbyists.
“Alkamidopropyl betaine” is not a single ingredient, but a class of them. It pays to learn the lingo. The commonest alkamidopropyl betaine is cocamidopropyl betaine. Less common ones are lauramidopropyl and palmitamidopropyl (a.k.a. cetamidopropyl) betaines. These are all dimethyl glycine betaines.
Amine oxides are also a class. Possibly the most common amine oxide foam stabilizer is lauryl dimethyl amine oxide, a.k.a. dodecyl dimethyl amine oxide or DDAO; other names for the same thing are LDAO and lauramine oxide. However, amidopropyl amine oxides might be milder.
You’re making me wish I’d stuck with organic chemistry—if only somebody had told me I could use it to make my own bubble bath! I will be sure to read up on these classes (and perhaps take some, haha) if/when I tackle bubble bath 🙂 Thank you for all the wonderful information, it is great to hear from someone so knowledgeable!
You can certainly make bubble baths without sulfates, but for most practical purposes, you can’t make one using actual soap soap. You can foam bath water with enough soap, but in even moderately “hard” water, that can be an enormous amount, and a bath that’s soapy enough with actual soap to be sudsy will be rather grease-cutting and fairly irritating.
I’ve linked from my page illustrating my own invented bubble bath that foams densely with little irritation, and it doesn’t contain sulfates but does use sulfosuccinates, which are sulfonates. (Isethionates are sulfonates too. Sultaines are sulfates.) If for some reason you want to skip sulfur compounds entirely, there are still lots of choices, such as the nonionic glucoside mentioned above, but also betaines, ether carboxylates, and amphocarboxyglycinates. You might want to consult Susan Barclay-Swift’s site for DIY suggestions on foamy surfactants. Not all the good ones are easily available in hobby quantities.
Thanks for all this great info, Robert! I haven’t dabbled with bubble bath (yet), but have always been suspicious of recipes that are made from pure soap after some memories of trying that as a kid and the end result being rather unpleasant 😛
Should’ve thought to ask this before, but…by “unpleasant”, do you mean it caused urinary and/or genital irritation? Or just that it made scum in the water and a ring on the bathtub?
Forgive this insertion into the discussion, but Robert’s question definitely caught my attention. I’ve been making my own soap (hot process) for a couple of years now, and I’ve experienced both – genital irritation and more soap scum on the bottom of the tub floor than I remember having from store-bought soaps. Why do both of those things occur from my homemade soap?
Have you gone back & forth between your own and the purchased soap to make sure that’s the difference rather than something else that’s changed? If you have, I can’t even guess at the genital irrit’n. In very general terms, it seems the milder products are less likely to cause it, and the harsher ones more likely. However, the correlation isn’t all that close between skin & genital irritancy when it comes to comparing particular formulas.
As to the “scum on the bottom of the tub floor”, do you mean a tub-shower unit? I can take some guesses there. If your soap is more colored than the others, the scum would be more visible. It’s possible that the amount of superfat you use is too much for the soap to keep in suspension when you rinse. Also, the higher the avg. molecular wt. of your soap, the greater the mass of scum it would turn into, but that difference is going to be small, like less than 50% more. Another possibility is that if your soap dissolves faster or you just like it more, you may be using more, so more scum. One more possibility: If you’re comparing to Dove, Caress, or Olay bar, they have lime soap dispersants that prevent a ring.
Thanks for this, Robert—I’m learning lots 🙂
Not at all! Yay for discussion 🙂
The first one, sadly. Ouch!
Marie, were you able to use non-soap bubble baths without urinary or genital irritation? And were you able to wash your crotch directly with soap lather without such irritation?
I don’t remember if I mentioned upthread my interest in vulvovaginitis & urethritis from surfactant-based products. I linked to a page showing my invention of a foaming formula that seemed completely devoid of such irritancy, based on testing on sensitive individuals. Eventually I did find a man who liked bubble baths and if he used mine daily, he did experience dysuria after the 3rd day, so nothing’s perfect, it seems.
The behavior of these materials w.r.t. skin isn’t easily predicted in detail. One woman told me of how she was able to wash with Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap, but when diluted in a sinkful or tubful, it quickly stung her hand. I’ve seen other indications that at least with soap, dilution, paradoxically, makes it more irritating. So it wouldn’t be a total surprise to me if the same soap whose lather you were able to wash your crotch with without hurting would sting you down there when you got into a bathtub of water made soapy with it. Of course that may also relate to duration of contact.
As to Tammy, could it possibly have been lye-heavy or not fully cured? I’ve had the experience of a kind of electric tingle of skin from soap that hadn’t fully cured. The strong alkali in conjunction with soap probably depolarizes membranes.
Hi Robert, meant to get back to you. To answer previous questions, no – since my fiance and I began making our own soap a few years ago, we never went back to commercial products. I don’t think continued presence of lye is the problem – we are hot process soapers, and I experience the problem even with bars of soap that were made months prior. It doesn’t happen every time, the genital/urinary irritation – it comes and goes. It is worse if, for whatever reason, I wash that area more than once during the same shower. The membrane disruption idea makes sense to me. And/or, my guess is that it is real soap rather than a funky chemical concoction made to imitate soap, so it is effective – real soap gets us squeaky clean, and perhaps that is an occasional problem for our nether regions. Perhaps it has some antibacterial properties, and there are a few bacteria there that are beneficial. At any rate, you and Marie are the first people I’ve known to make any reference to the issue at all, so I felt compelled to jump into the discussion. I’m just glad it isn’t just me, or my soap! And it’s not chronic for me, or even that strong, thankfully – I try to avoid the occurrence by rinsing the soap off as soon as the area is washed, to avoid giving the soap a longer time to produce irritation and/or find its way too far into places it should not go. 🙂 Thanks for being willing to talk about this!
This is an experience I’m not used to: a lady thanking ME for discussing groin-related matters! It’s a subject people get very squeamish about, esp. women w men. It’s almost a sure conversation stopper. Made me very unpopular as I sought more test subjects after my success with the child I invented my bubble mixture for, because I wanted to find subjects with a good, reproducible hx of this problem, preferably with other, related problems excluded.
If you look at what sparse literature exists on this subject, one remarkable thing is that only one published case report (a boy with a sore penis from Ivory Liquid baths, not even a urethritis case but external irritation) ruled out masturbation as contributory, which would seem to be something you’d want to exclude especially with children. Nobody wants to ask.
One consequence of people’s not wanting to look too closely “down there” was said to have been ill design of menstrual pads because they used inanimate models until one person got the bright idea of molding from an actual live human being!
So anyway, you’re saying that if you wash, rinse, then wash again, you’ve a greater chance of getting sore? Yeah, that does seem to indicate something protective is being washed away. But the advice to not leave soap on for long is good; it’s not going to get you that much cleaner (that you’d ever notice, at least), but has a greater chance of irritating. The question remains why you’d have this problem with your own hot process soap any more than with commercial soaps. Hard to believe it’d be the glycerine in kettle-process soap that’d be the problem, and even harder to believe it’d be the unsaponifiables like sterols. But my intuition could easily be wrong.
How unfortunate it is that we end up knowing so little about important parts of our body due to being squeamish!
My operating theory for irritation is basically a combination of the high pH and washing away protective mucous. Soap is also irritating to the eyes, and I doubt the reasons for that irritation are too different from the reasons for irritation in the groin area.
Are you using the bar straight? If so, you might find it helpful to use a loofah to disperse the soap a bit and have a less concentrated application—I’ve found that useful.
Store bought, surfactant based bubble baths were never a problem for me, and neither is general use—it just seems to be relatively concentrated solutions over extended periods of time that’s the problem.
Hi. For your local beeswax, are you purchasing it already rendered? Have you ever tried rendering it yourself?
I’ve never found anywhere to purchase it un-rendered, so mine always comes in big blocks. I’m visiting a beekeeper over Christmas, though, so fingers crossed I’ll get to try my hand at it then 🙂
Hi Marie,
I recently found your blog and I must say, I’m obsessed! I’ve already made several different lip balms and am looking forward to trying your body butters and eczema salve next.
You often have your final products shown in those metal tins. What sz are they? I see they offer many sizes on the New Directions website and wanted to get your reocommendation before I place and order.
Thanks for all the inspiration!
Hi Merleelah! I’m so thrilled you stumbled onto my wee corner of the internet 🙂 Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me!
I use a variety of tins—my favourites are the seamless tins I buy from Saffire Blue. They come in a wide variety of sizes, and I tend to buy them in 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, and 4oz as they are so very useful. I’ve tried the aluminum canisters from NDA, but I wouldn’t recommend them. They are more flimsy, dent more easily, and the lids don’t thread very well. Hope that helps!
Marie, I just love these!!! I whipped up a batch yesterday and I have fallen in love. The cocoa butter fragrance is just amazing. The one application on my daughter seems to be easing her eczema outbreak too. I love following your blog, you keep me inspired. Merry Christmas!
I’m thrilled to hear it, Rachel 😀 You should also be sure to try some shea butter for eczema, it’s worked wonders for my dad & some friends.
Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me 🙂 Merry Christmas!
I use to make this for my mother, she went under chemotherapy and radiotherapy and the result was a big dark spot, the body butter bar I made with cocoa butter removed almost completly the mark! and I live in a very humid and hot country and it hold up its shape perfectly.
Good to know, Malou—I hope your mom is ok!
Hi Marie! I get Humblebee and Me e-mails, but I think these bars are the first thing I have tried to make. I wanted to make a substantial batch, and am more comfortable with American measurements than metric ones, so I decided to convert 20g/30g/20g to 2 parts, 3 parts, 2 parts. I then decided that one part would be 1/2 cup (4 oz), so 1 cup each of cocoa butter and beeswax, 1 1/2 cups coconut oil. I wanted the final shape to be round, so I found a tall round jar to pour it into. It’s cooling right now, and I can hardly wait! I spilled some on the counter, which cooled immediately. So I scraped it up and started rubbing it into my hands and elbows. It smells heavenly! Some lucky family members are getting a bar at Christmas for sure!
Hi Tammy! Your bars sound wonderful 🙂 I’m thrilled be be part of your DIYing! Did your giftees love them?
I have had a couple of happy recipients of these bars. My 18-year-old daughter has been complaining about stretch marks for about a year now, so I gave her one. Cocoa butter is obviously one of the most frequently-prescribed substances for stretch marks, and we all know how good coconut oil is for skin. I made it a point to get the most raw, pure, clean, and organic ingredients – wow, the cocoa butter smells so strongly of chocolate, I wanted to eat it! And my little sister (32) has had some skin problems that even a dermatologist has been unable to explain, so when I gave her one of these bars she said she was hoping I would give her one! (She saw a picture I posted on Facebook of them solidifying.) I have tried the bar on about every square inch of my skin, and I found that it’s best to not put in on the face – at least not on my own face; I think the beeswax couldn’t be absorbed. But it works well just about everywhere else.
Awesome! It sounds like you did a great job matching your gifts and recipients 🙂 I made my dad a bunch of eczema bars and butters for Christmas this year for his stocking. And yeah, beeswax + face has never been something I’ve enjoyed too much beyond small applications.
I do not like shea butter, but I absolutely love coconut and cocoa butters, so this combination with beeswak has just caught my eye. Sometimes it’s difficult to find out a good texture without shea butter (I don’t like the way it crystalizes when heated).
Thank you so much for this recipe. As it happens so often, the simpler, the better.
I haven’t had a problem with shea butter crystalizing, as long as I have been only heating it until it melts. My rule is, heat everything else first, then remove from heat and add the shea and stir just until melted. Add essential oils and quickly pour. It’s worked for me.
This is a great tip, Tammy 🙂 I once overheard a shopkeeper who sold shea butter trying to tell some woman that she needed to heat the shea butter to some precise (and high) temperature, and then keep it there for some precise amount of time, and then pour it and chill it immediately to keep it from crystallizing. Far too complicated for me, and I’m hardly convinced that it would even work!
I love many things about shea butter, but it is usually its scent that keeps it out of my recipes. I’m not a fan of purchasing heavily refined ingredients for skin applications, so I figure I’m either working with it… or leaving it out lol. That said, I don’t generally find shea butter crystallizes on me if you’re careful about overheating it. I have some shea/cocoa body butter I made 2 years ago that’s still beautifully smooth 🙂 Have fun with this recipe & do let me know if you try it!
Hi, I found your site on Sunday and couldn’t stop reading it. You’ve got so many amazing ideas!!!! I’ve just ordered some ingredients and can’t wait to make some body butter and lip balm 😀
This may be a silly question but how do you apply body butter? They seem pretty solid, just like soap to me.
Erin, I’ve made these bars and I … work, spin, lather? … mine in my hands just like it was a bar of soap. I hope that makes sense. Then I put it down and apply what’s on my hands to wherever I want it. That works better for me than rubbing the bar on the designated body part. I’ve also found that it works better on dry skin than damp skin, but maybe that’s just me. I like to put it on my feet especially and put on socks to let it soak in (rather than my bare butter-coated feet picking up every spec of dirt and lint on my floors). I keep mine in a ziplock bag to keep it from getting on other things in my personal care basket.
Great tips, thanks for sharing, Tammy 🙂 The one about storing it in a bag or tin is especially bang-on—I’ve got one that’s looking a wee bit linty, lol.
Thanks, Erin 🙂 I’m glad you found my wee corner of the internet. As for body butter… when it’s a bar, I usually just rub it on the body part in question, as it melts on contact with the skin. For the thicker ones in tins, if they’re properly formulated you should be able to scoop up a wee bit with your finger and transfer it to the body part in question 🙂
thanks for the advises!!! i’ll let you know once i try them 🙂
still waiting for the ingredients by post…… 😐
No worries! Enjoy your ingredients when they arrive 🙂 Waiting is the second most exciting part 😛
I am so in awe of your whole site!!!
You make everything seem so attainable, thanks!
I’m in the middle of moving house but I think I’m going to dive head first into some of this as soon as I unpack (oh joy! unpacking..)
I cannot wait to try some of your recipes… I’M SO EXCITED haha.
Thanks so much, Adele! Good luck with the move & have fun diving into DIY when you get settled 😀 Thanks for reading!
Currently making this! It smells divine! I decided to make it in a ramekin that I can then keep the bar in after, that way I save on making a mess of other dishes and I have a way to store it easily! I’m also doing this over my butter warmer- yes, a butter warmer, that’s a real thing- so far I’ve used it with butter a handful of times but I’ve used it for so many beauty things and melting chocolate. They are actually super useful for slow heating things. That’s it! Thanks so much for your recipes!
OOoh, lovely! What a great, creative way to make it & store it 🙂 It sounds like a butter warmer might just be a great addition to a DIY dorm, or somewhere else without kitchen access. Thanks for reading & DIYing with me!
Oh my! I am just loving your site! I love making my own cosmetics too, and use local beeswax! It’s so much nicer than purified/bleached stuff-another person here who doesn’t understand why they bleach it!
I’m just prepping to make some of these! I’ve run out of the peppermint ones I made 2 Christmases ago.
Thanks so much, Ravyk! Do you also collect beeswax from different locales when you travel? I tend to always come home with a block, haha. Enjoy the body butter bars 🙂
I haven’t to be honest, but I think I will be from now on! I think it’s a brilliant idea.
The bars turned out AMAZING! I take one to work with me now to moisturise my hands [I work with a fair few chemicals and have to wash my hands in very harsh cleansers so they get really dry].
Oooh, fantastic! I have one sitting on my desk as well 🙂
First, love the body butter bars! I had a question though and I didn’t have time to fish through all of the other comments to see if its already been addressed(sorry if its been asked a million times before!) but I have been using the body butter bars on my lips too! So I was wondering if this recipe could be used a a sort of lip butter? Or can this recipe be modified to be a lip butter?
Hi April! You can definitely use these on your lips as well (I definitely have!) 🙂 The only change I’d recommend would be pouring some into a smaller container as I find the bars tend to pick up lint over time.
I made these last night and when I used one it made me all sticky. Could it be because I made them in high humidity do you think? (NE Georgia is not known for their dry days in September…) The beeswax was a little tacky when I cut it up to melt, but having never worked with beeswax I am not sure if that is normal. Any thoughts on how i screwed this up? 🙂
Hi Mary Terese! My best guess is that you did everything right, and you’re just experiencing the bar differently since you’re somewhere that actually has warmth and humidity (unlike Calgary—I have to run a humidifier at full tilt in a small shut room for about 48 hours before it starts to feel humid!). If you can feel that beeswax is tacky at room temperature, I’m not surprised you found the final bar to be a bit tacky as well. You can try melting it down and adding more coconut oil—I find coconut oil does an amazing job of smoothing out the potential tackiness of beeswax 🙂 You might need to put it in a tin, though, if the air around you is actually warm 😉
I want to make these, but I am having trouble with the measurements. Is there any way to get the cup measurements instead of the grams measurements? Thanks in advance if possible 🙂
Hi Kaela! The short answer is no, there’s more info in the FAQ 🙂
Actually, I can help with that … no math or conversion apps needed. Look at the ingredients list: 30 g coconut oil, 20 g cocoa butter and 20 g beeswax. The ratio is 3:2:2 in the order of ingredients that I have listed. You’re likely going to make more than one bar’s worth this way, but … let’s say you want to designate “one part” as 1/4th cup. Since the ratio is 3 parts to 2 parts to 2 parts, the recipe would be 3/4 cup coconut oil, 1/2 cup cocoa butter, 1/2 cup beeswax. Be careful, however, because those would be melted measurements. If you have large pellets, you need to melt them down to get an accurate measured amount.
The melted measurements thing is exactly the reason I prefer to use a scale 😉 Good tip, though!
Love these bars! And all your other creations! I would like to see a picture of your bathroom if you keep all your homemade stuff
Thanks, Michelle! I somehow manage to keep my bathroom in relatively decent condition on the surface, but the drawers are just stuffed with tins and jars of goodies!
Can deodorant containers be used for this instead of molds??
I have now made 3 soaps & the green clay bars – all yours and they have turned out so wonderful. For a beginner like me, your site has been an such inspiration. THANKS!!!
Definitely! Deodorant containers will also cut down on the bars getting dirty 🙂
Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me!
Thank you so much for this recipe. I have made a couple of times and love it so much. I’m getting ready to make some to give as Christmas gifts. For gift giving, I pour it into miniature cup cake pans with festive liners. Once it’s cooled I leave the bar in the liners and put them in a plastic bag and tie the top with ribbon. Merry Christmas to you and thanks again for all your hard work!!!
You’re very welcome, Susan! Thanks for including me in your DIY gift-giving 🙂
hey! I recently found your site and I am in love. I had a question about this recipe. I’ve followed the recipe perfectly, but the bar is coming out too soft. Would it be alright to add more beeswax? Thank you so much in advance!
Hi Alison! Thanks so much for reading and DIYing with me 🙂 If your bars are too soft that must mean you live somewhere much warmer than I do—lucky you! You can definitely increase the amount of beeswax, just be sure to do it a little bit at a time as too much beeswax makes for a sticky final product. Have fun!
My 2nd DIY project, and I went whole hog this time, making 10X the recipe for 16 beautiful bars that filled a 12-cavity silicon mold and 4 muffin cups! The entire house smelled divine.
I wrapped them loosely in unbleached parchment, tied each with a bit of ribbon and am storing them in the freezer in a gallon-size freezer bag.
My friend’s 6-year old boy just loves that he “smells like chocolate.” (He’s already thinking of ways to attract girls.) Family is begging for more–
–I’m suddenly becoming popular (lol)!
Ooooh, lovely! I’m so glad you’re diving in head first and having fun, and I’m thrilled you’re doing it with me 🙂
After making these and loving them for their luscious scent and smooth glide on skin, I thought I’d just go ahead and try another online recipe for body butter bars. This one (“Hard Body Butter Bars”) consists of shea butter, coconut oil, hemp seed oil, and beeswax. I thought they might be worthwhile because shea and hemp are good for eczema. There was, however, more beeswax than any other single ingredient. The resulting bars do not glide but drag and hitch across the skin, and they smell awful. In future, when you say “no substitutions” I’ll take it as gospel!! Why mess with perfection??
Yikes! Those bars certainly sound hard, if nothing else! If you’re looking for a shea and hemp eczema bar, check out this recipe—no skidding, I promise 🙂
Ahhh–much, much better~thank you, Marie!
🙂
Have you ever tried to use tapioca pearls to make your bars a massaging bar? If you like. Get your pearls I use large there easier to handle. Prepair your bar igridients. Pour a thin layer in your mold. Let set slightly and add pearls in the pattern you like such as a swirl or whole bottom. Then you can layer them or do half massage bar half straight butter. I prefer the latter. The pearls take much longer to fall off then you might think. I love this idea. I made my first butter bars about 5 maybe 6 years ago and decided to this my husband loves me pampering him this way ;-)!!!
I haven’t tried tapioca pearls, but I have tried beans before 🙂 It’s sure a neat effect and wonderful for sore muscles!
Yes it sure is. When I first started dabbleing in the EO’s and cosmetic making these bars were among my first things to try. This was back in 2006 ish. I had an issue with getting the right ballence of oils and butter/waxes so the melting point was right. I was using several different types of butters and oils for there different bennifits to the skin. I think I’m gonna give your recipe a try as well. Thank you!
I love playing with different oils and butters to make the most awesomest final product 😀 It’s such a great way to learn as well!
Tanya,
Did you have to soak your pearls before adding them? I am trying to make some bars with the pearls as I want the texture for massage.
Could I make this in a small tin or jar and leave it in the container rather than using it as a bar? I’m a knitter and I’m thinking that would be a good way to just rub a little on my fingertips as I’m working so I don’t snag my yarn.
Of course!
Great! Approximately how much does this recipe yield?
Just add up the amounts of the ingredients for a final yield—in this case 30+20+20=70g. That’ll be ~1/3 cup.
Thank you, Marie, for such wonderful inspiration. I love using pumpkin seed oil and vitamin E in my skin lotions. Do you think they could work in this recipe too?
Hi Jay! You should be able to get away with adding a few drops of vitamin E oil to these bars, but adding a liquid oil to them will really throw off the entire recipe. Learn more here 🙂
Hi Marie,
I think i just found this posting and i thought i had looked at them all. Do you think these bars would be ok in a deodorant stick? ie) not too hard to roll up?
Also, just another random question, I made a thick face cream lotion last night and it separated!!! aahhh, do you have any quick fixes to re-emulsify it? What a waste of ingredients. Sigh…
Thanks again!
Lynette
Hi Lynette! These bars should definitely work in a push up stick 🙂
Unfortunately, broken emulsions are broken and bin fodder 🙁
Ok thanks Marie!
🙂
I just made a batch of 4, plus a heart-shaped ice tray full! My crunchy friends will love these. I’m planning on making a vegan version with hemp seed oil and soy wax 🙂
Awesome! I look forward to hearing how the vegan versions go as well 🙂
Hello Marie,
Thanks so much for such an amazing site, I need more hours in the day as I want to make everything now! I’m wondering what the best options for packaging butter bars are? I’d like to make some for a charity craft sale, so want them to look really attractive!
Do you think I could wrap them in parchment paper first, and then brown paper (probably then decorated with ribbon etc!) I’m open to any suggestions!
Thanks for your inspiring ideas,
Natalie
Hi Natalie! I’ve seen some really cute packaging for body butter bars using decorative cupcake liners 🙂 I’m not much for packaging my products for sale, though… perhaps give Pinterest a look-see for more ideas?
I’d really love to try making these, but I don’t have bees wax. I do however have soy wax. Is there anyway I can substitute? I know soy wax is softer than beeswax. Maybe add more cocoa butter?
I’m afraid I’ve never used soy wax, so I really can’t say. I’d recommend making the recipe with the measurements listed, using soy wax instead of beeswax, and seeing what you think. You can always re-melt and add more wax as needed 🙂
Yes, I love purchasing from a local beekeeper, it’s much cheaper and I get to support them too. Anyway, I live in a tropical country so coconut oil here is not solid at room temperature. Should I add more beeswax? Love the simplicity of this recipe.
Hi Jasmine! Give the recipe a go with the coconut oil—I’ve found recipes that contain beeswax are often still fine in warmer temperatures. I took my lip balms (which are softer than these bars) to Costa Rica and they were still totally solid and almost identical in texture to how they are in Canada 🙂
Thanks for the idea! I’ll try this as a base and see how it goes — adding more beeswax as necessary. 🙂 LOVE your blog!
Have fun and thanks for reading! 😀
I finally tried this. I followed everything except for the carrier oil since I ran out of coconut oil haha! I used a mix of jojoba and grapeseed oil instead. I think I may have to make this more often since my mom also loved it. I molded the bars into cute little hearts. Thanks, Marie! Happy Holidays!
Fantastic! Enjoy 🙂
Hi Marie! I made this again, this time using coconut oil. No substitutions or any changes. They are just as wonderful. I’m glad the bars did not melt considering it’s a lot warmer here. Looking forward to trying out your whipped body butter recipe. 😉 Thanks!
Hurray! Enjoy that beautiful weather of yours 🙂
Hello Marie,
I am trying to figure out a way to make a nice long lasting but not too oily lotion. The content I have on hand are bees wax, jojoba oil, coconut oil, sweet oil, grapeseed oil, lavender oil and glycerin. I know I don’t have to use them all together but any recommendations ?
Hey Charlene! If you want to make a lotion you’re going to need emulsifying wax and a broad spectrum preservative as well; check out this page for loads of links to helpful articles and recipes 🙂
Hi Marie,
Just wondering if adding a couple of drops of essential oil will make a difference to the recipe? I’m thinking cinnamon or sandalwood…let me know what you think:)
Hey Nicola! Go ahead and add some essential oils, just remember that you’ll want them to go nicely with the scent of the raw ingredients 🙂 have fun!
I’m new to is wonderful craft and am keeping it very simple right now, making the lotion bars with cocoa butter, coconut oil and beeswax. I just received my scale which will help with my current dilemma. My bars are too soft, and am wondering if it’s okay to melt them down and add more beeswax. Also, my two ounce heart shaped bars sometimes crack during room temperature cooling. Why would that happen? Thought maybe the melt-down/adding bw might have been why?
Hey Terri! You can re-melt them and add more beeswax… oddly, though, cracking is usually due to a formula being too hard/having too much wax, so those two points conflict. I’d recommend re-making these bars from scratch by weight and see how that goes 🙂
Hi Marie, I just discovered your blog as I was looking into ways to make my own lipstick. I bought your book, but as I’m waiting for it to arrive I started reading the rest of the recipes on here and making lists of things I really want to try.
A solid lotion bar is near the top of that list; unfortunately, I’m quite allergic to cocoa butter. I have a facial moisturizer with some cocoa butter in it, and just the little bit that crept onto my lips overnight made them inflamed and oozy by morning. And the one time I used a cocoa butter lip balm, (sorry this is gross) my lips were all over blisters and took *weeks* to heal.
So you can see why, despite you not recommending substitutions in the recipe, I’m asking anyway. I’d love a solid body butter bar (say that three times fast), but I don’t dare use cocoa butter. Is there anything else I could do?
Hey Lynn! The other brittle butter that is often listed as a viable alternative for cocoa is kokum; perhaps look into that? I haven’t worked with it much (it’s on the list, but that list is so long!), but I have read promising things 🙂 Hope that helps and good luck!
Marie,
I have made several lotion bars and this one is by far my fav!!! it doesn’t feel sticky and no need to add EOs, the natural smell is amazing. as always thank you for all the research you do to post amazing final products. Honestly, this is one of the few sites I really trust. thank you!!!
Yay!!! I’m so glad 😀 I definitely fiddled with this recipe quite a lot to come up with something I love and I’m stoked you love it, too!
Hello beauty ,
I have a question , is it okay to add some coffee grouns to make it like a peeling bar or maybe chia seeds ?
I’ve been dying to try some of these recipes and the day has been come 😀
have a lovely day
Hey! You definitely can add some exfoliants if you like, I just find that it is quite messy as you end up with bits of coffee or seeds everywhere whenever you use the bar. You might consider something like this instead, which you can use in the shower 🙂
Were you going to provide a link to the tins you used?
Here you go! :)
Hi
Can i apply this on face?
And i saw another recipe contains: 20gr almond oil, chocobutter, beeswax. Can I use that one for face mosturizer as well .
Or do you have any advice for simple basic recipe for face mosturizer hihihi.. thank you so muchhh..
I wouldn’t recommend cocoa butter or beeswax on the face, especially in high concentrations, as they can clog pores. I’d recommend something like this instead if you’re looking for something simple 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.I absolutely love these bars. I use this recipe regularly for lip balm as well which my family and friends love.
Yay! I’m so glad you are enjoying them 🙂 Thanks for DIYing with me!
can i use it on my face..looks so easy..although these ingredients are pretty costly here in india i think its worth making these instead of buying chemical lotions from shops..waiting for ur reply thanks
I wouldn’t use this on my face, but there’s no reason one couldn’t—you know your skin far better than I do 🙂
The cocoa butter is highly comedogenic so if your skin is prone to acne you definitely shouldn’t use it on the face.
Hi Marie,
I just tried this recipe and the Homemade Massage Bar that you have and they were really simple and easy to recreate. The problem I faced with both of the bars is that they feel sticky to the skin. They glide relatively ok, but my skin feels very sticky afterward and not really moisturized. Any ideas what went wrong? I was thinking maybe my cocoa butter went bad 🙁
I suspect it’s the beeswax you’re noticing; it gives concoctions a creamy/tacky feel that contributes greatly to adhesion and efficacy, but can be interpreted as stickiness, especially if you use too much. Anyhow, if you really want moisturizing you should be looking at something with water in it. Oils and butters help soften the skin and trap water in, but if there isn’t water there to start with, they can’t add any 🙂
Hi Marie and thank you for the fast reply! Well I never thought it like that. Maybe I should indeed try with a lotion first! Thanks again for the advice and keep on the good work I have found your videos and been watching them for the last week.
No worries, and happy making!
Hi
A month ago I made a couple of these bars and mixed a few drops of juniper essential oil for its healing properties (I’m always getting cuts and scratchs on my hands that often end up infected). I just bought lavender essential oil and wanted to add it for an extra disinfecting and healing boost. Can I just re-melt the bars and add it or I will completely destroy the juniper essential oil with the heat?
Thanks!
I wouldn’t re-melt them as that heat will, as you suspected, damage the pre-existing EO. Just make a new batch 🙂
Hey Marie (or anyone else who may know…)
This is my first recipe I tried (figured start simple and inexpensive since I had all three things laying around.)
My beeswax came from two different sources, one local and one online. I basically used my ‘scraps’.
A really WEIRD thing happened with the local beeswax. It was in bean sized pellets, while the other was in large chunks.
The little beans of local wax never fully melted. Instead they turned into this odd jelly looking ‘sack’ I was able to scoop them out with the whisk, and when I poked them, they popped and the beeswax oozed out. It was like an alien egg or something! I decided to dump the liquid from the popped egg sacks back in and continue on, fingers crossed.
The local wax was rather old. (say three years >.> I know, I know, but I was just trying to make the SCIENCE work before I got new proper ingredients. Not that I don’t have faith in your recipe, just in my skills.) Could that be why it had the funky consistency?
Side note: the bars did turn out! Now I’m going to invest in quality stuff. I’m just curious WHY my local wax was like alien eggs. :\
That is… so dang weird. I’ve never heard of anything like that before! Perhaps ask the apiary they came from? I have beeswax in bricks and pellets that is way older than three years, so I doubt that’s the issue. All of my local stuff has come in bricks, though. Weeeeeeeeeird. I’ll keep my ear to the ground to see if I hear anything that might explain this!
How many 1/3 cup-sized bars does this make?
I’m afraid my memory is not that good! It makes 70g of product.