Spring Body Lotion

I recently ran out of body lotion and was so desperate to get some moisture into my skin that I used my face cream all over my body the other night! While I’m sure the rest of me enjoyed that very much, you need considerably more cream for your entire body than you do for your face, so it’s not the most economical. It was high time I made myself a new body lotion, and I'm enjoying this one a lot, so I thought I’d share the recipe with you as well.

I would usually reserve the expensive broccoli seed oil for hair conditioners, but it's rather lovely to condition your skin as well, so give it a try! Or stick to the cheaper oils, your choice.

I added some conditioning panthenol, a hydrolyzed protein, as well as Vitamin E to give your skin an extra boost. A little added inulin keeps the skin’s microbiome happy too. 

Essential oils like geranium, or lemon tea tree evoke a sense of Spring, and you could even add some colour and shimmer with mica powder if you like! Feel free to play around with different scents and colours.

This recipe has specifically been designed for use with the emulsifier glyceryl stearate & PEG 100 stearate. You will not be able to substitute it for another emulsifier without needing to tweak the formula quite a bit.

Spring Body Lotion

Let your skin glow with this lovely body lotion, designed to nourish and bring your skin back to life after the winter.

Heated water phase

71% water/hydrosol

0.5%  panthenol

2%  propanediol

Heated oil phase

3%  glyceryl stearate & PEG 100 stearate

10% lightweight oil such as  safflower,  sunflower,  jojoba,  almond,  grapeseed or squalane OR if you wanted to make this ultra conditioning and luxurious you could use  broccoli seed oil

3%  avocado,  mango or  shea butter

4%  cetyl alcohol 

0.5%  Vitamin E

Cool down phase

2%  hydrolyzed protein of choice

2% heated water

1%  inulin

1%  Geogard 221

2 beakers + 1 small beaker

Spatula

Soup blender

Scale

Pump bottle

Optional:

Essential oils such as:  orange,  mint,  rose,  geranium,  lemon tea tree,  lemon, etc

Add a touch of glow: try adding in some mica powder for shimmer and colour!

Weigh out the water phase ingredients and the oil phase ingredients into two respective beakers. Melt all the oil phase ingredients together thoroughly, then bring the water phase up to a similar temperature (usually 70-80C). Once both phases are heated, add the oil phase into the water phase and blend for a minute until it has emulsified into a lotion. Stir the lotion until it is cool. In a smaller beaker, mix the heated water and inulin together until dissolved. Add that to the lotion, along with the hydrolyzed protein and the preservative, stirring thoroughly to incorporate. Add any essential oils and mica if using. Then decant into a pump bottle and enjoy!