Tropical LotionI’ve began naming my lotions and making little cards listing the name and the ingredients (I don’t think labels look anywhere as good). The names will help me differentiate them in the future, when I go back and look at the recipes, in case I want to repeat one. But I’ve noticed that I don’t actually want to do that – just like with food, what I want is to create something different each time. Though, I must say, lotions don’t differ from each other anywhere as much as dishes.
I got this recipe from Snowdrift Farm, an online merchant of cosmetic-making products. I haven’t bought from then yet – and who knows when I’ll get bored of this hobby. I was looking for a cocoa butter recipe, so that I could use some of the cocoa butter I bought, and this fit the bill perfectly as I had almost all the other ingredients (I substituted the recommended preservative for the one I have at home).
I’m quite happy with the results. The lotion is creamy and silky, perhaps a little too oily, but I seem to say that about all the lotions I make. I like it quite a bit. My only complaint is that the fragrance I added cannot hide the smell of the cocoa butter (they sell deodorized cocoa butter if you want to avoid this problem). It’s not a major issue, though, I just smell somewhat chocolaty šŸ™‚ Indeed, I named the lotion Tropical Sun because it has cocoa and coconut oil (we’ll forget about the jojoba for now).
Here is the recipe: all the measures, except for those specified as ml, are in weights.
Tropical Sun Body Lotion

  • 3 oz cocoa butter
  • 2 oz jojoba oil
  • 1.5 oz emulsifying wax
  • 1 oz coconut oil
  • 16 oz distilled water
  • 1 oz glycerin
  • 5 ml fragrance (optional)
  • 5 ml phenonip
    Put the cocoa butter, jojoba oil, emulsifying wax and coconut oil in a small bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Mix and continue microwaving, for 30 seconds at the time, until the mixture is completely melted. Set aside
    Put the water and glycerin in a medium size bowl. Mix and microwave for 1’30”.
    Mix the water solution with your stick blender and very slowly start pouring in the oils into the water. Continue blending. Add the fragrance oil and the phenonip and blend for 3 minutes, until well emulsified.
    Pour the lotion into bottles while still warm and liquid – it will thicken as it cools down.