Grapefruit Lotion from Scratch

My first lotion experiment went well, but I wanted to make a slightly thicker product. I modified the original recipe by adding shea butter to thicken and replacing half of the almond oil with apricot oil just to mix it up.

My second lotion recipe:
5 cups of Water1/4 cup Sweet Almond Oil1/4 cup Apricot Oil
1/2 cup Emulsifying Wax1/4 cup Stearic Acid
1 Tbsp Raw Shea Butter1 Tbsp Citric Acid1 Tbsp Potassium Sorbate1/2 teaspoon Vitamin E Oil1 teaspoon Grapefruit Essential OilRed Cosmetic Grade Colorant(yields 48 oz of lotion)

Pot one: emulsifying wax, almond oil, apricot oil, stearic acid and shea butter

Pot two: water and potassium sorbate

Both pots are heated. Pot one removed from heat as soon as wax has melted completely. Pot two is removed from heat right before boiling and citric acid is added. Pot two is slowly added to pot one while stirring. 

I stirred for 5 minutes and then let my lotion cool, stirring again every 20 minutes. After an hour had passed, I added vitamin E oil, grapefruit essential oil and red colorant to achieve the color and scent I desired. The lotion had to cool for another 2-3 hours before I could bottle it. 

While I waited for my lotion to cool, I created an ingredient label and a picture label for my lotion bottles:

Grapefruit Lotion
Handmade with Love by Audrey
Use within a year

Ingredients:

Water, Emulsifying Wax, Almond Oil, Apricot Oil, Stearic Acid, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Vitamin E Oil, Grapefruit Essential Oil and Cosmetic Grade Red Colorant

Homemade Lavender Lotion

I became interested in making my own lotion from scratch after making it in a lab for the organic chemistry course I was taking. We used lanolin (sheep fat) which is pretty common in commercial lotions. In the lab, we experimented with different ingredients to see how they impacted the final lotion product.

  

        I enjoyed the lab but wanted to make a vegan lotion, using plant based fats. I wanted to add scent and possibly color. I started googling recipes for diy lotion and quickly became frustrated. Many diy recipes for products like lotion and soap are just wrong. Lotions are emulsions, meaning there is a liquid portion blending with a fat/oil/wax portion. In order for this to occur, an emulsifying agent must be used. Far too many of the diy recipes I found were just blending fats together (won't moisturize skin and dosent really qualify as lotion) or missing the emulsifying agent (meaning the final product will separate when left standing)! I lost some faith in the internet diy community that day.
        I started by looking at ingredient labels of lotions from my favorite natural body care brands, including Lush, Honest Co and the Body Shop. I looked at what ingredients overlapped, what was found in all the lotions. I researched the ingredients that stood out and started developing a recipe with them, following the model we used in the chemistry lab. While the chemicals in lotion making are fairly harmless, I strongly believe that a background knowledge of some chemistry basics is necessary to make a proper lotion from scratch.

        The first recipe I concocted was:
5 cups of Water
1/2 cup Sweet Almond Oil
1/2 cup Emulsifying Wax
1/4 cup Stearic Acid
1 Tbsp Citric Acid
1 Tbsp Potassium Sorbate
1/2 teaspoon Vitamin E Oil
1 teaspoon Lavender Essential Oil
Blue & Red Cosmetic Grade Colorant
(yields 48 oz of lotion)

Pot one: emulsifying wax, almond oil and stearic acid

Pot two: water, potassium sorbate

Both pots are heated. Pot one is removed from heat as soon as wax has melted.

Pot two is removed from heat right before boiling and citric acid is added. At this point, I took the temperature of both pots to make sure they were close to each other.

Pot two is slowly added to pot one while stirring.

Stirring really helps the emulsifying agent do its job and keeps the oils and liquids from separating. I stirred for a solid 5 minutes and then let it sit, stirring every 20-30 minutes for the next 3 hours.

After the lotion had cooled for one hour, I added the lavender essential oil, vitamin E oil and cosmetic grade colorants. I didn't really measure these, just slowly added and stirred until I got the color and smell I was looking for. (I went for a light purple which was hard to capture in pictures)

Once the lotion had almost cooled completely (about 3 hours) I used a funnel to bottle my lotions. I'm really happy with the way the lotion turned out. I had fun labeling the containers too.

I used 8oz and 4oz containers for my lotion. This recipe yielded 48 oz of lotion. The consistency was somewhat liquidy making it ideal for a pump style container. It has a nice lavender scent and moisturizes the skin without leaving any greasy residue.

4 Ingredient Home Made Deodorant (Coconut Scent)

I originally tried natural deodorant when I got one in a monthly subscription box from VeganCuts. I had not put much thought into my deodorant choices in the past, I'd been using men's Old Spice for years. I was hesitant to try this new five-ingredient deodorant. I wasn't sure if it would actually work and the consistency was different than traditional deodorant. I have been using the natural deodorant for about six months now. It last longer than old spice ever did for me. The scent is more subtle but it truly does the job. My first natural deodorant was from North Coast Organics. I have since discovered a similar 6 ingredient deodorant from The Fanciful Fox.

 

I really liked this deodorant. As it started to near the end of the tube, I read the ingredient list and realized I could easily make this. I went online to compare recipes and ended up with this based on what I had in my apartment. Other recipes use different types of waxes or oils. I like coconut oil for the tropical smell. Coconut oil has a pretty low melting point (76F) which makes it easy to work with and it wont be hard to apply because it wont get too solid. I live in New York. If you live in a warmer climate I would definitely suggest using a more solid base for your deodorant. My first batch with just 4 basic ingredients came out looking like this:

Recipe for DIY Coconut Deodorant:

4 Tablespoons Virgin Coconut Oil

1 Tablespoon Shea Butter

3 Tablespoons Baking Soda

2 Tablespoons Cornstarch

*optional 5-10 drops oil for scent

- Makes 100mL

- Store at above 77F to keep it solid

DIY Lip Scrub

I first saw this at LUSH. They had testers so I tried it. Its a little messy but you can literally eat it after and from what I hear, most people do just lick it off. The scrub exfoliates your lips which is something I know my lips don't normally get. It leaves them really soft. Usually these lip scrubs are sugar based but there's a wide range of recipes out there now. I saw recipes that used coffee beans, salt, or brown sugar instead of sugar.
With the cold weather we've been having in New York this year, my lips have gotten really chapped. I thought a lip scrub would probably help. I found recipes that used honey, olive oil, pumpkin, peppermint, vanilla or ginger. I used what I already had in my apartment, some regular white sugar, some blue sugar candy I ground up, a tiny bit of coconut oil and a few drops of grapefruit oil. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

For more recipe ideas:
Checkout this article with step-by-step pictures