Transcripts
1. Introduction / What's a Lotion Bar?: Hi. My name is Elissa on the owner and creator of Downs Earth Alchemy, a plant based natural body care products company. My experience of natural products began in college. Righted research on a central oils plant, chemistry and horticulture. For several years before I knew it, My hobbies, my research and my lifestyle emerged to create a passionate business. Today. I'm gonna walk you through this step by step process of how to make your own small batch of two lotion bars. A lotion bar is a hard lotion compared to your traditional water based liquid lotions. Lotion bars contain no preservatives because they contain no water. Instead, they have a rich plant oil base, so they're extremely moisturizing. And, of course, the healthier alternative to store bought lotions full of artificial ingredients. You're gonna be amazed how easy and fun lotion bars are to make, and hopefully you'll feel inspired to look at the ingredients and your body products and feel empowered, knowing that you can easily make your own
2. Deliverables: the project for this class is to create to lotion bars. You can start out by introducing yourself in the class Project gallery. You can let us know what inspired you to take this class. Some of your favorite natural products are your plans to go all natural with your body care regimen after you introduce yourself. It would be really helpful for the rest of the class if you would take a photo of all of your ingredients and let us know where you were able to find them. And, of course, when you finish, take a photo of your finished product. Let us know which is central oils or herbs you used in which one was your favorite. I would also love to see your progress on Instagram or the down to earth after me Facebook page. Just follow and tag me at down to earth alchemy. And if you have any questions, I'm here to help
3. Naturally Good Ingredients : so I just wanted to give you a little bit more information on why Handmade Lotion bar is a healthier option than store bought lotions, Lotions and body butters work by changing the chemistry of your skin. They worked by penetrating the lipid by layer of your skin, so your protective layer. So what happens is that all of the ingredients and the body butters or lotions are now more readily absorbable into your bloodstream. So that's 20 or so ingredients that you're committing to, which really wouldn't be that big of a problem if the ingredients were fewer or safer. But the truth is that the ingredients in our products are not that strictly regulated. The FDA regulates ingredients in our products, but basically, if people are not having severe reactions to products and they're considered safe, there are no long term studies that track what happens to our hormones. Our risk of cancer. After a lifetime of using these products, products are absorbed into her bloodstream in about eight seconds. So if you care about eating healthy and not putting bad things into your body, you can't disregard what you're slathering all over the largest organ. You have also remember that most of your products are being tested on animals, which is a completely different discussion but still a really good reason. While making your products at home is best. When we're thinking about moisturizing, remember that all you need are oils. But when you look at the first ingredient of lotions as water, followed by alcohols, so think about that for a second. Your skin is not going to stay moisturized from water. And if you know anything about alcohols, they're extremely drying to skin. Lotions also contain water, so they need preservatives. Many, many products contain parabens and the former preservatives. There's a lot of research suggesting a link between breast cancer and parabens, finding high concentrations of parabens and breast cancer tissue. But remember, if your product doesn't contain water, you don't need a preservative. So it's easy. You don't have to worry about parabens because you really don't need Um, it's just one last thing to worry about. So now that you know a little bit about why we might make our own products at home using natural ingredients, let's get started gathering our supplies
4. Gathering Your Materials: So unless you've already been making some of your own D i Y body pucks, gathering your ingredients is gonna be the most difficult part. Depending on where you live, I might just suggest to go ahead and order everything online. I'm going to give you the rundown on where to get everything. Once you've gathered all of your ingredients, go ahead, take a photo, tell us where you got it all and then upload it to the class Project Gallery. Here's what you're gonna need either 1/4 cup of shea butter, mango, butter, cocoa butter or any combination of the three 1/4 cut Bees wax 1/4 cup coconut oil. Essential oils are optional. Herbs are optional. Silicone baking molds, A glass and measuring container or mason jars a 1/4 cup measuring cup. A spoon, a pot for boiling water and paper towels. Honey So pure raw cocoa butter is available at most whole foods or natural grocers in the bath and body section. It sold on hard chunks, either in a bag or in a jar. Please. Before you buy any cocoa butter and a jar, read the ingredients and make sure you're not buying anything that says cocoa butter lotion or cocoa butter cream. The ingredients should simply say pure raw cocoa butter or Cacau Butter. Cocoa butter has a distinct strong chocolate aroma, so if you don't want that, I would suggest using a different butter or using more central oils to cover up the scent. Cocoa butter is also found online and small discs known as wafers. Pure shea butter should also be able to be found at Whole Foods, natural Grocers or other well stocked health food stores that have bath and body sections. Shea Butters Natural consistency is sick like a molding clay. If you want to use mango butter, you're gonna have to order this one online. I personally use mango butter and my lotion bars because some people within that allergies can not use shape. Utter so mango butter is a good alternative for me to have on hand. Coconut oil should be easy to find. Coconut oils become increasingly popular over the past few years. People say it has hundreds of uses, so if you don't already have it in your home, now is a good time. You should be able to find coconut oil in any grocery store and with the cooking oils I personally used under find coconut oil because I enjoy the natural aroma and coconut taste . It's also thought to have more healing properties, but you can also use the refined coconut oil. It just won't have the natural coconut smell or taste. You can use any coconut oil. Even the cheap stuff will work. These lacks is also available in most Whole Foods stores. It's sold in small rectangles that look like gold bars by the outs or in squares or hexagons that are sold by the pound. If you order bees wax online, it's usually sold and small beads called past stills that are really easy for scooping up in measuring. If you order these wags and the brick warm, you'll have to cut it up for greater yourself. You might also go to your farmers market, and if you have a local honey vendor, ask if they have any of these wax. There's a good chance you could find some that way. You can also purchase pure central oils at Whole foods or natural grocers. WalMart even has a small selection of the central oils in the supplement section. You can also get a central oils online on eBay or on herb or vitamin websites. If you purchase a central oils online, please stick to a couple trusted brands of the brain now and or cost CIA are good trusted friends. But you can't buy any essential oils for suspiciously cheap that you find online because there many vendors that sell diluted synthetic oils. So stick with these brands. For now, there are methods of infusing herbs into your lotion bars about actually including any of the herb itself into the lotion. But in this class, I'm just going to suggest topping solution bars off with a little bit of your favorite herb , for sprinkling in a little bit into the lotion itself.
5. Throw It All In!: Creating lotion bars is basically a one step process. Once you've measured out 1/4 cup of your chosen plant butter, coconut oil and beeswax, simply throw it all in your glass container. Then create a double boiler by adding about four inches or so of water to a pot and putting your glass container inside the pot of water. Put the stove on medium and let your ingredients melt that these wax will be the last to melt. Feel free to speed up the process by stirring things up once they start to know. There are different opinions on this, but some people say toe let the mixture continue to sit on the heat after it has melted for 20 minutes. This is because when there's a change in the weather, say when you transition from colder, toe warmer weather. Sometimes shea butter can crystallize, creating little bumps on your lotion. Bar these air harmless and do not mean anything is wrong with your lotion. Just that it won't be a smooth I'm not sure anyone has found a way to completely stop this from happening, but heating the mixture for 20 minutes does seem to help. So if you're ready to customize and finish your lotion bars, go ahead and turn off the stove and I'll see you in the next lesson.
6. Make It Uniquely Yours: Now it's time to add our central oils and herbs. If you prefer an unscented lotion bar, you can skip this step and go ahead and pour your mixture into the silicone baking moulds. If you'll be adding a central oils, the best time to do that is during the cool down phase. So once the stovetop is turned off, allow the mixture to cool just a little, approximately five minutes. You can't wait for too long because the mixture is going to start hardening. If you want the bars to be the same, go ahead and add anywhere from 20 to 30 or more drops of your desire to central oils. Stir while you add so that you can smell the mixture and determine if it is strong enough for you. The Senate will not be quite a strong one. Solution. Bars set up If you want each bar to be different, you'll pour the lotion bars one at a time. You'll pour one mould almost full of mixture and then add 15 or so drops of your essential oil and stir. If you want herbs throughout your bar, you can Sprinkle some it now and Sprinkle some more in five minutes when it starts to harden. If you want herbs just to rest on the top layer, you'll want to Sprinkle those on right before the lotion bars fully hardened. That way, they don't fall off the top. Some suggested essential oil honor blends are lavender essential oil topped or blended with camel for a relaxing de stressing our bedtime lotion bar any combination of sweet orange, Bergama and lemon essential oil topped or blended with a little green tea for an energizing and awakening lotion. Bergama, Frankincense, Lavender for more masculine smelling lotion or balsam fir Stage and cedar for woods. E smelling Lucien Now that you've poured all of your lotion bars, all you've got to do is wait. I recommend letting them sit for at least an hour before moving them. Do not pick them up, Move them while they're hardening
7. Final Thoughts & Thank You!: after lotion bars have sat for an hour, you can remove them gently from the silicone moulds. It's a good idea to put them in a small 10 such as this, to keep them free of any debris. Lotion bars are a great alternative. The store bought lotions that you can feel proud of creating. Now that you know where to get your ingredients and how to make them. You have a great gift giving opportunity for friends and family. Thank you so much for taking this class. I really hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to upload your introduction where you found your ingredients and photos of your final product in the class Project gallery. I would also love to see your photos on Instagram so tagging at down to Earth alchemy so I can check them out. Thanks again and hope you have a great day
Alyssa Barnes, Down to Earth Alchemy
