The Best Oatmeal Lotion For Dry Hands!
Several years ago I was commissioned to make an herbal product that would heal cracked, split and dry hands. This is when I formulated the Idaho Pine Salve recipe. Pine resin has been known for its healing qualities for hundreds of years, used by the Native Americans to heal all kinds of problems from setting broken bones to healing dry skin. While this products has been amazing and has worked really well especially on those cracked hands I needed to find something that would soak into the skin a little faster and not have that oily feel to it.
Idaho Pine Salve
I went on the hunt again and formulated my Whipped Massage Butter recipe. I worked with a massage therapist for several months until we got the drag, texture and feel just right. I wanted something that would work with the skin, perhaps replace lotion, help actually heal muscles and work on dry skin… this recipe did all of those things, but it still had that heavy feel to it. Not quite like an actual lotion.
Whipped Massage Butters
All this time I was thinking of creating a recipe with sales in mind, because it was customers who’d asked for it. I realized if I could just make up a product without sales in mind and perhaps just make it to trade with or even teach people to make, I might find what I was looking for..
So I started looking into homemade lotions. I’d only ever made one before and let’s just say it did not turn out like lotion. It stayed in liquid form and would not thicken no matter how long we spent stirring it. So I did some more digging and practicing… and here are some of the things I found:
The problem with making homemade lotion is that it mixes oil and water. Yes, I know what you are thinking. Oil and water do not mix. You are partially correct. They cannot be combine without an emulsifier. Enter high quality emulsifying wax. When you mix water into any product you increase the risk of mold growing. Big companies combat this mold issue by adding LOTS of chemical preservatives. The only issue with this is that your skin is like a giant straw. It soaks up whatever you put on it and it still goes into your body. This can cause all kinds of health problems over time. So for all of us who have said, “it’s not like I’m eating it” well, we were wrong.
If you’d like to read more about the specific chemicals found in beauty products, wellness mama wrote an excellent article which you can read here.
After doing all this research I knew a few things I did not want in my lotion and a few things I did.
simple - it needed to be easy to make
No preservatives - not even vitamin E oil (another rabbit hole for another day)
Non- greasy
Safe for anyone in my family
No fragrance
I went back to that original recipe I used before, you know the one that turned out so badly. It turns out the recipe is excellent there was just some user error. hahah. So without further ado here is the recipe by Lovely Greens for Calendula Body Butter .
So I was pretty excited to be able to just include a link for you for this recipe, give the credit where it was due and call it a day. I’d written the recipe down years ago and never looked it up again. While, I love that the website now includes tons of pictures, a video and sooooo much information about this lotion and ingredient options I was sad to see the recipe was different to the one I am actually using. hmmm. Soooo I decided to make a Youtube Video of my own and write the recipe here for you. hahaha.
I will preface this with; I like to keep things as easy and simple as possible. From letting my chickens do my composting, allowing volunteers to pop up in my garden all the way to making this easy version of this lotion recipe. We are busy people who don’t always wanna ready a million things before we get to a good recipe. So here is the tried and true recipe I’ve been making. I hope it works well for you!! I will tell you a few ways we’ve used it at the end.
Calendula, Oats and Honey Lotion (originally by Lovely Greens, I think)
80g oat tea
16g calendula oil (coconut oil, olive oil, almond oil, jojoba oil… all are options, you can even use plain olive oil without the calendula but it won’t be quite as healing. I make my own calendula oil using calendula and almond oil or olive oil) ** See below
8g emulsifying wax (I bought a one pound bag years ago and still have it)
2g honey (you can even leave this out… )
Directions: Add 1 tsp oats to a cup of freshly boiled water and let steep, covered for 5 minuets. Strain. Set aside. Use a kitchen scale to weigh out oil & wax. Place both ingredients in a stainless steel or glass pan. Put on low and heat until melted. Meanwhile weigh out your oat tea, and honey and put in a glass bowl or jar. Once your oil and wax are melted take them off the heat and pour VERY slowly while whisking into your water & honey mix.( Have you ever made hollandaise sauce? This is a very similar method.) The slower you incorporate them the thicker and lovelier your lotion will turn out. That’s all there is to it!
Store lotion in a glass airtight container - I prefer small amber jars, but recently bought these from amazon to try!
There is one catch, and it’s that this will only last 1 week in the refrigerator before it starts to mold. Once you see ANY trace of mold you gotta toss it. (into the compost mine goes)
To help with this I found a friend who also loves this lotion, so I make it and we share. Usually we get pretty close to using it up before it’s time to make a fresh batch. I know this seems like a lot of work for something that goes bad so quickly, but the peace of mind knowing there is nothing bad in this helps me keep making it.
My son’s especially have a problem when the cold weather arrives the backs of their hands get so dry and bleed. They look like little lizard hands. This is the ONLY thing that has helped so far. I love it as an overall body lotion. It soaks in quickly and doesn’t leave me feeling greasy. Since it goes bad quickly I don’t feel bad using as much of it as I can.
Have you made lotions before?? Please leave your tips and favorite recipes below!
If you have any trouble with the recipe please let me know. I’m here to help you learn and grow.
-Esther
** If you would like to learn how to make your own calendula oil please contact us about our in person herb classes! Here is a great recipe by Homesteading Family to get you started.
