Care · All year

Lotion Bars

Coconut oil, shea, and beeswax, poured into a mold. You rub the bar on dry skin. It is a salve that keeps its shape.

This is how our household cooks, washes, and thinks. It is not medical advice, and it is not a substitute for a midwife or a doctor.

20 minutes, plus cooling · 3 or 4 bars

“The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the LORD.”
Psalm 24:1

Ingredients

1
Melt the coconut oil, shea, and beeswax together over the lowest heat, or in a bowl set over simmering water. When the wax is gone, take it off the heat.
2
Let it cool until it is warm, not steaming. Stir in the 15 drops of lavender. Pour into a silicone mold or into greased tins. Do not use a plastic cup that will melt.
3
Leave the bars until they are hard, about an hour on the counter, or faster in the refrigerator. Pop them out. Keep them in a tin so they do not soften in a hot room.
4
Rub a bar between dry hands, or over elbows, heels, and shins. The warmth of skin melts a little fat. It is not a bar of soap, and it does not go in the bath water.

Adult skin only. Not in pregnancy, not for children, and not on the face.
If you want a bar the whole family can use, leave the lavender out. An unscented bar is the same fat and wax.
More beeswax makes a harder bar. If yours is too soft in the hand, remelt it with another 10 grams of wax.

Kept on this device, beside the recipe, for the next time you cook it.

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Rendered beef tallow, whipped and nothing else. This is the fat for faces and for children. No scent.

20 minutes, plus rendering if the tallow is not already clean

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The softer body butter. Tallow loosened with olive oil, still unscented, for arms, legs, and winter shins.

20 minutes

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The same whipped tallow and olive oil, with a small amount of lavender essential oil. An adult jar. Not the family one.

20 minutes