Like all lotions, this rose cardamom body lotion is an emulsion of an oil part and a water part. Our oil part is made of [oils go here]—relatively light, low scent oils. Our emulsifier is also included in the oil part. This lotion, like most of the ones I make, is emulsified using emulsifying wax. There are a few kinds of emulsifying wax available, just be sure you’re getting a complete one, not an incomplete one. I like Emulsimulse/Ritamulse because it thickens up straight away, and brings a lovely, almost powdery feel to the final product.
The water part is a blend of rose water and plain water, with a bit of glycerin (or honey) and some hydrating, healing silk. Silk is one of my favourite things to include in lotions, especially in the winter. It’s a natural moisture manager, so in dry climates it helps attract and hold moisture to your skin. Our oil part is a blend of soft, hydrating mango butter (USA / Canada), omega rich sunflower seed oil (USA / Canada / UK / NZ), and fragrant rose wax.
The rose scent comes from two places; the rose water and some rose wax. Both are fairly inexpensive and impart a fantastic rose scent without the need to spend $100 on a 5mL bottle of essential oil. I bought my rose water in the Lebanese grocery section of Superstore and it was about $3. Score!
I added a wee bit of carmine to get the pretty pink tint you see. You could use red iron oxide instead, though the colour will be a bit browner. While something like beetroot powder or rosehip powder will also work, the colour from any pink botanicals will oxidize and shift to a murky brown over time, so consider yourself warned 😉 You can also leave the colour out entirely; I just like it for a wee touch of added Valentine spirit!
Last but not least, the essential oil blend. I love it. Deep, sweet benzoin and classic rose are brightened up with some unexpected cardamom, while a subtle note of coffee tones down the sweetness with a hint of something familiar that you can’t quite place. It’s fantastic. You’ll mostly notice rose and bright spice, and it’ll mellow out to something deep and sweet. Mmmm.
Rose Cardamom Body Lotion
7g | 0.25oz emusimulse/ritamulse (or other complete emulsifying wax—not beeswax!)
7g | 0.25oz mango butter (USA / Canada)
10g | 0.35oz sunflower seed oil (USA / Canada / UK / NZ)
1g | 0.03oz rose wax30g | 1.06oz rose hydrosol
43g | 1.52oz distilled water
2g | 0.07oz raw honey (or vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada))
1 dash | 1/8 tsp silk (I use these tiny measuring spoons for such small amounts)3 blobs benzoin
1 drop coffee essential oil
4 drops cardamom essential oil1 nip | 1/64 tsp carmine (work up to this amount; you may find you prefer less)
Broad spectrum preservative of choice (why?)
Combine the emulsifying wax with the mango butter (USA / Canada), sunflower seed oil (USA / Canada / UK / NZ), and rose wax in a small saucepan and melt over medium heat.
While the emulsifying wax mixture is melting, combine the rose water, water, honey (or glycerin), and silk in a small measuring cup and gently warm.
Once the emulsifying wax mixture has melted, add the water mixture. Heat through to ensure everything is melted before removing the pan from the heat.
Whisk the mixture as it cools—it will thicken into a nice white cream (the thickening may take a few days if you are using a different emulsifying wax than emulsimulse/ritamulse).
Whisk in the essential oils and carmine. Add your preservative (though do check the instructions for your specific preservative—some have special instructions for adding to concoctions) and decant the mixture to a pump-top bottle or wide-mouthed jar. Enjoy!
If you don’t have sunflower seed oil (USA / Canada / UK / NZ) you can use safflower oil, grapeseed oil, or apricot kernel oil instead. If you don’t have mango butter (USA / Canada), unrefined shea butter (USA / Canada) and capuacu butter are both great alternatives. For more information on substitutions, read this. If you don’t have rose wax, you can use another gram of mango butter (USA / Canada) and add three or four drops of rose absolute or essential oil.
New to lotion making? Watch my basic lotion how to video!
This looks amazing!! I can almost smell it and feel it from your description…
I am so in love with it! Make some, you’ll love it 😉
What is the amount of preservative in this recipe, I’m u certain as to what and how much I should add, I’ll be using phenonip. Tysm
I’ve got a preservative calculator here 🙂
This sounds heavenly. Where is rose wax available? When I look online, I find rose colored waxes designed for hair removal. Also, what is carmine and where is it available? Again, I keep finding carmine colored things (like mica) but not carmine itself.
Check out my giant “Where to Buy Ingredients” resource list 🙂 I got both from Saffire Blue, but they are in Canada, so if you’re not you would likely prefer a US vendor to avoid the border 🙂
Now you have two subscribers!
Can’t wait for the release of your audiovisual endeavours.
Best wishes from a fellow apothecary/polymath (apothecarymath??)
Sally B.
Thank you! I likely won’t dive into it too hard until my book is done, but I’m having a lot of fun figuring out the sorts of things I’d like to film and looking at the equipment ($$$ YIKES) I’ll need haha.
This is such a lovely and feminine lotion. And the jar! Clicking into this page today reminded me of my days pouring over a magazine called Victoria.
You took me back to a kinder, gentler and totally womanly era.
You’re the best!
Thanks, Cristie! 🙂
I just made this. Just now!
I must have gotten lucky and bought the American version of your emulsimulse because it set right up, with just my little whisk.
My preservative is called jeecide CAP-5. You’re pushing preservatives now and your link to LisaLise was very informative. So I bought my mold slayer and that’s that.
Didn’t have rosewater, so I used bourbon geranium. Yum. I smell feminine. My skin is soft.
And it’s my first lotion!
Great recipe, Marie.
Congrats and welcome to the world of DIY lotion! It’s addictive over here 😉 Is your emulsifier called Ritamulse? Apparently that’s the more common name for it—only Saffire Blue calls it Emulsimulse.
Enjoy that lotion!
There’s really no name. I bought it from Camden Grey. It’s the only emulsifier they sell.
I think they just call it e wax.
I just finished making a batch of this and it is absolutely my favorite!!! I substituted camellia seed oil for the sunflower oil and used rose absolute in place of rose wax. I only used 2 drops of rose absolute and it seems like a perfect amount. The texture of this lotion is so light and creamy I want to take a bath in it! Beautiful!! Thanks!!
Wow, speedy! I’m so glad you’re loving it 🙂 Camellia seed oil is a fantastic oil for a super feather light lotion, lovely!
Hi,
Your lotions sound wonderful, but I am wondering if you sell them.
I live in Australia. If not, from where do you buy the ingredients.
Hi Patricia! I don’t sell anything yet, hoping to get into that soon, though there’s no guarantee this particular recipe would be one of the things I’d sell 🙂 Check out my giant “Where to Buy Ingredients” resource list 🙂
Where do you buy rose wax??
Check out my giant “Where to Buy Ingredients” resource list 🙂 Mine is from Saffire Blue.
Lotion sounds lovely. Was wondering if one could substitute a pinch of Red Reef Clay for the pink tint instead of the carmine….
It should work, though the colour obviously won’t be the same 🙂
Oh Joy!!!
I’ve been cardamom binging for several weeks now…its unique scent reminds me of Swedish pastries (YUM!)
So of course I had to try this ASAP.
I just finished it and now I’m reminded of Turkish Coffee (coffee & cardamom EO’s) and Baklava (rose & benzoin). More Joy!!!
Thanks for a lovely break in my day 🙂
Wonderful! I love your description—and now I want Baklava! Thanks so much for reading & DIYing with me 🙂
I’m so excited to make this! Could cocoa butter replace the mango butter?
I’ve got an article on carrier oil substitutions here that will answer your question 🙂
Am looking to try this very soon!! Could you substitute silk amino acid un place of silk? Or could you use collagen? Instead of carmine could you use rose clay?
Hey Jeanette! Read this re: silk. And you can use clay, though the colour will obviously not be the same 🙂
I have some silk amino acids from Lotion Crafter. It is a liquid, but could it be used as a substitute for the powder?
Yup! Read this 🙂
What do you think about using soy lecithin as emulsifier and potassium sorbat + citric acid as preservative?
Btw, LOVE your blog! So glad I found it.
Hi Andrea! Soy lecithin is not a complete emulsifier, so it will not work here. From my reading about potassium sorbate + citric acid, it’s not a great preservative, either (citric acid is not a preservative in any way). Thanks for reading!
I so enjoy reading your posts! I’ve recently discovered your blog and since it’s very user friendly, I’ve been comparing recipes to other sample ones online about formulating your own products. Well, I took the plunge and made my own lotion for the first time today! I found lotion crafter’s version of emulsimulse, which is Ecomulse! I live in the US. It made such a wonderful lotion! I got brave and used a blend of pumpkin seed oil, jojoba oil, grapeseed oil, rice bran oil, mango butter, vitamin E and Rosewood EO (and of course distilled water). I made a very small batch this first time and plan to use it up before it goes bad (next time I’ll try a preservative. I wanted to use neodefend, but read that it makes the ph drift when used with ecomulse, so i have another on the way!). Thanks for being inspiring and breaking things down so they’re not so complicated!
Thanks so much, Laura, and congratulations on your lovely sounding lotion! Happy DIYing, and never stop experimenting (and taking notes) 😉
Looks so nice 🙂 Could you use beetroot powder instead of carmine? Also, what would you recommend instead of coffee EO?
Hi Brenda! You can use beetroot powder instead, but keep in mind that it will oxidize and the colour will shift form pretty pink to significantly less appealing green/brown. That might happen overnight, it might take a couple days or weeks, but it will happen. Something that won’t oxidize, like red iron oxide, would be a better alternative 🙂
Instead of coffee EO you can make your own coffee infused oil like I did here!
Hi Marie,
I have been making all of your body lotion recipes lately as I have to use lotion everyday or else I am a scary flakefest! I make 8oz batches and they are gone in 2 weeks!
My one question is how would I make the lotion a bit runnier? I have to put it on all the time so having it slightly runnier would help. The last two inches in my pump bottles always get stuck because its still a little thick.
I’m thinking an increase of water or oil but would that mess up the emulsion? I use the same emulsifying wax you do.
Any tips on how to get it a bit runnier but still be completely emulsified?
Hey Carrie! There’s a few ways to make a runnier lotion; use softer oils, or use less emulsifying wax (within reason [keep it to ~20% of the oils], you can break the emulsion). You could also take a look at my conditioner recipes for runnier lotions that use more water and less oils; they’re definitely pretty runny.
I love your blog
Always waiting for your emails
Could you suggest a recipe for a very emollient cream or lotion with floral scent?
This one would be a good one.
Hi Marie! I’ve just made this for the third time! Obviously, I am a fan.
I use olive oil instead of sunflower oil, Shea butter instead of mango, and I’ve eliminated carmine altogether. I also add a ton more glycerin (my skin feels dry without it, even with the thickest lotion). It’s otherwise the same ;).
I appreciate your recipes and your encouragement to make them our own! Thank you!
I’m so glad you’re loving your descendant lotion 😉 I’m so happy to inspired people to experiment and make things their own!
Marie — I see several references to ‘carmine’ and where to get it but it’s not listed as an ingredient in this lotion? Can you clarify?
Also, I’m new to lotion-making and am buying ingredients now to make the Lady London Fog lotion and this lotion. I was hoping to be able to buy the broad spectrum preservative on New Directions (so everything could come together), but they don’t sell them. If I’m strictly looking at these two types of lotion, can you recommend just one to use? You noted one that would be your choice, but it’s not clear which that is. Would the NeoDefend work for these? I’d rather just buy what you know would work best.
Thank you!
Hey Jeannie! Good catch on the carmine—oops! I’ve edited the recipe to include it 🙂
For lotions (any lotions) either NeoDefend or Geogard should be great choices (the FAQ I wrote on this should give more guidance, there are three in there that I’d generally recommend). I haven’t tried them myself, but from all my reading they should be great. I am currently using some Germall I bought to test out YEARS ago and even though I only bought about 30mL I still have a ton left.
Thanks Marie. I emailed you with other questions, but if I could ask one quick question here. Have you heard of Optiphen? I found it on Nature’s Gift Aromatherapy website, where I also found the rose wax (only place I found that ingredient!). Can you advise if you think Optiphen might work also? Thanks!!
I’ve heard of it, but never worked with it. I have had readers report that it curdles their lotions, while others have chimed in and said it has never curdled their lotions. It is a very common broad spectrum preservative and should definitely do the preserving bit, but it sounds like it can be tricky to work with. I’d also recommend you do your own research into its safety on SkinDeep.
Honestly, if you are going to such efforts to get rose wax I’d look for a workaround; rose water will contribute a nice rose scent in a rosey lotion and you can just use an extra gram or two of mango butter to replace the rose wax. With all the extra money you’d spend on shipping from a secondary supplier you might also look at getting a wee amount of the absolute if it’s affordable 🙂
I think there’s only two little things from your email I haven’t answered in comments yet, so I’ll just answer them here:
– Palmarosa EO will work (as any EO would, really), but it smells nothing like roses—more like sweet tea 🙂
– Always determine the amount of preservative to use based on the total weight of the finished product, and calculate your percentage from there. I’ve walked through the math at the end of this FAQ.
Hi Marie – thanks for replying to both of my inquiries. I am going to forgo the rose wax and the optiphen. I’m going to purchase NeoDefend on Lotioncrafters website. One last question though. What do you know about the fragrant oils on NDA site? Each of the rose oils they offer sound like a good substitute for rose wax and cheaper than buying rose EO or absolute (which is still very very expensive). I’ll add another gram of the mango butter and can add the fragrant oil instead? Thoughts?
Hi Marie — I just found the Liquid Germall Plus on the NDA site! I cannot believe it! I typed preservative into the search box last week and nothing came up! I could have just added it to my order, oh well, lesson learned. I guess NDA does sell everything you need! My order should deliver Thursday, I cannot wait to try making these fantastic sounding lotions. I’ll keep you posted.
Woohoo! I guess you should be getting your goodies today… enjoy your DIY Christmas morning 😉 Happy making!
You definitely can use fragrance oil instead if you’re ok with using fragrance oils—they work pretty much identically in everything but soap (some FOs can cause accelerated trace in soap). I’d just recommending doing some research into their safety as that’s the reason most people avoid ’em. That said, I definitely have rose FO and use it in soap 😛
Thank you!
Yes I had the same thing in mind
Could we use fragrance oils instead of essential oils
And what would be the difference in terms of the smell and feel of the final product?
Hey Nina! You definitely can if you are ok with using fragrance oils; many of my readers are not due to safety concerns. There won’t be any noticeable difference in the final product other than the rose scent being much stronger and longer lasting.
I am confused by the term “Emulsimulse”, is it a brand name? I’ve heard of Polawax and I’ve used BTMS-50, not even sure if that’s the same thing but I can’t find ’emulsimulse’ online either. Any suggestions? Thank you and I do love your blog and look forward to seeing Humblebee in my inbox 🙂
Hey Irene! Emulsimulse goes by a lot of different names, but it’ INCI is Glyceryl stearate (and) cetearyl alcohol (and) sodium stearoyl lactylate, so that’s generally the most reliable way to identify it 🙂
Marie — my daughter and I made this lotion yesterday. A few questions: I didn’t have the rose wax so I subbed an extra gram of mango oil. I didn’t have a rose EO (could only find blended locally), I guess I could have used rose water as the full water ingredient (and taken out the regular water). It is lacking in rose smell :(. The cardamom is mostly what comes through, wondering if you had any suggestions? Stick to the recipe is what I’m guessing you’ll say.
I have another question about Neodefend (BS preservative I have). It says the use ranges from .75%-1.5%, up to 2%. I figured in 1.5% into this recipe, figured in 2% for another recipe (lavender cleansing milk). Do you think those are ok? What’s the purpose of the range? Should we always go to the higher end?
Thanks!
Hey Marie I was wondering if plantaserve E would be possible to use as a preservative..?
It looks like a good choice to me from what I’ve read about it, but I’ve never tried it myself.
Hey Jeannie! With the swaps you made you eliminated the two main sources of the rose scent, so it’s not surprising you didn’t get much rose smell. If you do happen to find some rose EO you could stir in a drop or two of that, but the ship has sailed on adding more rose water or rose wax at this point. At least cardamom also smells lovely!
When making things at home it’s best to go with the higher end of the recommended preservative range since we aren’t working in sterile laboratory environments 🙂
Thanks Marie. It was very difficult for me to find the rose wax so as the recipe recommends, sub with the extra gram of mango oil. I only found locally rose blends, not full rose that’s why I didn’t use it. I have a pending order and will add a rose EO to that. Thanks!
I found some rose wax on Amazon! Maybe that will help 🙂 It’s frustrating how expensive it can be to get a rose scent without resorting to fragrance oil.
Awesome Marie, thanks so much for the info/link. I will definitely add this to my amazon shopping list. 😀
😀
I made this about a month ago and it is lovely. At first, I thought it too scented, but I’ve grown used to the delightful rose with undertones of cardamom, coffee, and chocolate (I didn’t have mango butter, so I used cocoa butter). I missed the benzoin when ordering my ingredients, so I used an actual vanilla bean. It really wasn’t necessary because of the cocoa, but it looks pretty. With a preservative, it’s doing just fine. Thanks for the recipe!
My next foray (I used a lot of body lotion) will be into the herbal scents. I used to love Gardener’s Hand Therapy by Crabtree and Evelyn, but it’s ridiculously expensive. I’m hoping one day you’ll do a redo of it: http://www.crabtree-evelyn.com/hand-care/hand-creams/ultra-moisturising-hand-therapy/Gar-Hand-Therapy.html?cgid=hand-care-hand-creams#start=1
Hey Kathy! I’m so glad you are loving this lotion 😀 I am a total rose junkie, just in case you hadn’t noticed 😉
I’m really intrigued by that Crabtree Evelyn lotion, but there’s no ingredient list on their site 😐 Hmm.
oh, yes! Lets make that one! It used to be my favourite too…I wonder if there is an ingredient list on the tube? I have one here, I will check 🙂
Where is the best place to send the ingredient list if you want it? I have one for the ultra moisturizing hand therapy and the hand recovery crème.
Here!
Yum! A strawberry cinnamon smoothie my guys say 🙂 The only change I made was capuacu butter and a smidge of labdanum instead of coffee. I sure didn’t need the whole amount of carmine and its a strawberry pink. MMMM mothers day gifts done:D
Oooh, how interesting! I am having a really hard time imagining how anybody is smelling strawberry with that scent blend… so you probably just mean the colour lol. I’m glad you’re enjoying it! 😀
No, its the scent 🙂 I went back over my fragrances and the rose wax is really rose like, etc, but the combo is a heavenly, not flowery light, hint of spice scent my kids call strawberry cinnamon. It is a lovely feminine light fragrance but I can’t smell the rose. Funny, eh? Or my nose is broken…
Funny indeed! Scent blends really do surprise and amaze sometimes 🙂 They can be so much more than the sum of their parts!
I’ve started making your lotions (3x) and just love them. My question or query
is while blending up the lotion, its nice and thick then when I add my preservative it becomes very runny. I’ve been using optiphen. Then it takes forever of blending to get it thickened up, but not a thick as before the preservative. Is this just the optiphen? Should I switch to a different preservative? I use 1% of the total volume of ingredients including the water.
It’s very likely the Optiphen, likely compounded by the fact that you’re using the incorrect amount of it as you’re doing it by volume—you need to be working by weight! You can read more about Optiphen here—it’s known for de-stabilizing emulsions and generally not being a great preservative (the plus version is better).
So I just made this (after delaying buying the mango butter for 3 months – it just came today), following the directions, and somehow I ended up with only a little more than 3 oz. The only thing I did differently that I could think that might have possibly made a difference is that I put both the water part and the oil part into the water bath at the same time – could almost 1 oz of water have evaporated off during the time it took for the wax and butter to melt? The stove was set to medium.
I used the mango butter/rose absolute sub for the rose wax (oddly enough, had the two of them, but not the rose wax), and lavender and pine for cardamom and coffee, and maybe I’m just not used to a very light scent, but I ended up doubling or tripling the amount of essential oil until I could actually smell something.
Also, if I were to make this to have a scent that didn’t include rose, what would be a good substitute for the rose hydrosol? More water? Something else?
Thanks.
You should end up with 100g of lotion, which is ~3.3oz, so it sounds like you did everything right 🙂
I’d use more water or perhaps aloe vera juice for a non-rose alternative!
Thank you for your invaluable information! after using optiphen for tons of lotions that I made, (yikes) I’m switching to liquid germall plus. I just found one of my rose lotions with mold!! I made many mistakes, including using 100% of my water as rose water. I also have to get a more sensitive scale. Would it not work to add preservative after the lotion is finished?
You should always add the preservative after the lotion is finished, but not by very much—as soon as it’s cool enough to add, and it’ll likely be your last ingredient to be added 🙂
Hi Marie, I just made this recipe for the Rose Cardamom Lotion! Amazing!
When I got to the part to add Carmine, I didn’t have any. So, I used Rasberry Mica Powder (2 nips). It said it was for use in cosmetics. I also added Christmas Red (1 nip) and Snow White (1 nip) Luster Dust or Edible Dust used in cake decorating to add shimmer. I used this when I made lip balms last year. It seemed to work! I hope this was ok! I also thought about Hibiscus Powder. But, since it’s a botanical, I’m not sure wether it would degrade.
I used the Germall Plus for the preservative. I noticed that Germall Plus contains Propylene Glycol, and Iodioproplyn Butalcarbamate. I recently found out that I’m allergic to these constituents. Are there other preservatives that don’t contain these ingredients? Or am I just going to run into these ingredients in all the preservatives? I’m only using 1 gram of this preservative. But, I have really tried to stay away from these constituents. It’s been quit challenging in finding medication creams, eye drops, etc. That’s why I’ve turned to making my lotions, soaps, laundry detergents, and toothpaste, etc. I’m also allergic to Cinnamon, Clove, Vanilla, and Fragrances. I never have been able to walk through a Perfume Department without holding my breath! My husband thinks I’ve gone off the Deep End of the pool with all this concoction stuff!
I’m so glad I’ve run across your website! You are so informative! And this is down right fun! Thanks! Harriet
Hey Harriet;
For the preservatives you are in luck! There are many newerish preservatives on the market some being EcoCert, some organic, and some tried tested and true. Just be sure to check out your INCI names of each and go from there! Don’t forget to use a broad spectrum preservative. My advice would be to make sure you pick up the smallest amount possible and do some experimenting!
Happy making!
Barb