How to make your own lotion bars with UK measurements

I’ve seen quite a few American recipes for lotion bars but not many in UK measurements. I converted this one from American and tried it out so I know it works. I added a bit more essential oils because the amount stated didn’t give me the results I wanted. So here we go, if you’ve ever wanted to know how to make your own lotion bars and you’re in the UK, then this is the right place.

Why make your own lotion bars?

There are so many good reasons to make or buy lotion bars. They are better for the environment because they have no plastic packaging or microplastics and they are made from all natural ingredients. If you buy them from somebody who makes them locally to you there are little ‘food’ miles too so less carbon emissions. Is it only me who thinks about these things? They’re also smaller than a bottle or tube of moisturiser so they easily fit in your bag for the day. Lotion bars will get passed through airport security as they are not a liquid so they can go in your hand luggage.

Now, on to the recipe:

Ingredients

Makes approximately 6 lotion bars depending on the mould you use.

60ml Organic Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
Silicone Mould
60ml Shea Butter
60ml 100% ORGANIC Beeswax
10-20 drops your favourite essential oil
1/4 tsp Vitamin E Oil

You don’t have to use organic ingredients if you don’t want to, it depends if you want to call your product organic or not. As you can see, it’s easy to scale up or down because it’s equal quantities pretty much.

Method

Carefully melt the coconut oil, Shea butter, and beeswax until they are all in a liquid form. You do this by placing your ingredients into a bowl and placing the bowl over hot water in a saucepan. Don’t let the bowl touch the water. It’s also easier if you grate the beeswax before melting.

Once melted, add in the Vitamin E oil and stir well.

Allow to cool ever so slightly and then begin to add in your essential oil(s). I probably use about 15-20 drops. For this batch I used a mixture of Bergamot oil and Sweet orange oil, it smells delicious and really uplifting.

Once everything is mixed, place the mixture into your silicone mould and allow to harden. You can also add in a little colouring before pouring if you want your bars slightly tinted, or some petals, herbs etc. They don’t take too long to harden, but you can speed up the process by putting them in the fridge if you like.

Then it’s easy to turn them out of the silicone mould and they look so pretty, especially if you use a patterned mould as I did with my beehive honeycomb mould.