Making Lotion From Scratch
This is an introduction of the ingredients, basic process and concepts of making lotion from scratch. Making lotion is actually really easy with 4 simple ingredients: water, oil, emulsifier and preservative. Before you make a lotion, you will want to understand what these ingredients are and why we use them.
Servings: 9 ounces
Cost: $5
Equipment
- Scale
Ingredients
- 6.71 ounce | 74.5% Distilled Water
- 1.17 ounce | 13% Sunflower Oil
- 0.27 ounce | 3% Kokum Butter
- 0.45 ounce | 5% Olivum 1000
- 0.27 ounce | 3% Cetyl Alcohol
- 0.09 ounce | 1% White Tea and Pear Fragrance Oil
- 0.05% | 0.5% Germall Plus
Instructions
Clean
- You want to always start out by disinfecting your work area and equipment that you will be using.
Weigh Ingredients
- I see a lot of formulas that use cups for measurements. Which is great when you are cooking food and the measurements do not have to be precise, but it doesn't work when you are making your own lotions. You need to be using a scale to get an accurate weight. I would recommend one the goes to 0.01 ounce.I like to weigh each ingredient into a separate container and then mix the phases together. If you prefer, you can put all of one phase ingredient (oil phase) into one container. Just be sure to press the 'tare' button in between each ingredient.
Heat Ingredients
- In a double boiler, heat both the water phase and the oil phase. You are going to heat them both until the oil phase has melted fully.
Combining Phases
- Once you have removed both phases from the double boiler, you are going to combine them together immediately. In order to get a stable emulsion, you will want to mix them with an immersion blender. While the ingredients are still warm they may want to separate (which is completely normal). To prevent this just mix periodically with the immersion blender.
Cool Down
- Once your lotion has cooled down to 90° F, you can add your heat sensitive ingredients. After you add them, mix well with the immersion blender.
Packaging
- Pour your lotion into your container. If it is too thick to pour, you can always put it in to a baggie and cut one of the corners to make it easier and less messy. You are going to want to wait until it is cooled down to room temperature before you put the cap on it. If you put the cap on while it is still warm it could cause condensation that would pool on the top of the lotion and grow mold.