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I've been keeping this blog for all of my beekeeping years and I am beginning my 19th year of beekeeping in April 2024. Now there are more than 1300 posts on this blog. Please use the search bar below to search the blog for other posts on a subject in which you are interested. You can also click on the "label" at the end of a post and all posts with that label will show up. At the very bottom of this page is a list of all the labels I've used.

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I began this blog to chronicle my beekeeping experiences. I have read lots of beekeeping books, but nothing takes the place of either hands-on experience with an experienced beekeeper or good pictures of the process. I want people to have a clearer picture of what to expect in their beekeeping so I post pictures and write about my beekeeping saga here.Master Beekeeper Enjoy with me as I learn and grow as a beekeeper.

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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Preparing for the Southeast Organic Beekeepers Conference

On Saturday and Sunday I will be presenting three workshops at the Southeast Organic Beekeepers Conference in West Palm Beach, Florida. I'm very excited to be invited. I am talking about
  1. Preparing honey and wax for competition,
  2. Harvesting honey from bee hive to jar, and
  3. I'm doing a hands-on workshop making lip balm and lotion.
We'll be able to make lip balm in the time allotted for the workshop, but the lotion will just get started. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to cool after it is made before you can put it in the jars. I wanted the participants to get the sense of homemade lotion even though we won't finish ours in the workshop so last night I made hand cream (in the white round-top jars in photos below) and tonight I made lotion bars.

The lotion bars are just luscious. I ordered a mold in November when ordered a number of little things from Brushy Mountain. I've never made a lotion bar, and now that I've done it, I want to make them all the time.


These are made from a recipe I found online: 1/3 cocoa butter, 1/3 beeswax, 1/3 avocado oil and some drops of Vitamin E. Oh, my, what a treat. You pick up the bar and rub it between your hands and the most cocoa-delicious smell, the most soft and smooth feel on your skin, an overall nurturing experience in general occurs.

I made two batches and made the second batch with half cocoa butter/half shea butter in that 1/3 part of the recipe. It doesn't have such a strong cocoa smell and I think I like it better.

It's not cheap with those ingredients. Avocado oil was $9.99 for an 8 oz bottle. Cocoa butter was $4.99 for a one ounce stick. The beeswax was free from my bees. I think it costs about $2 a bar to make without buying wholesale ingredients, but I see lotion bars sold on the Internet for around $10 a bar for a slightly thicker bar than these....of course I am not including a cost for container. So maybe $10 is about a 100% markup over cost.

Here is the poured mold about 10 minutes after pouring.


Here are finished bars packaged in sandwich ziplocs.



Here is the last mold (each recipe I did made three bars - one ounce/one ounce/one ounce of ingredients).



And the beautiful (you should smell them) unwrapped bars with little bees on them. Oh, the limits of the Internet - I wish you could scratch and smell or slide your finger over the screen and sample.

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5 comments:

  1. Valerie Daniel8:23 AM

    Mom, These look great. Have you decided to open a shop yet and sell your treasures? I still have an order for your lotion from Adrienne's friend, Jennifer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good luck on your presentation this weekend! All of these products look great! I would order some if you opened a shop.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Linda - I sure enjoyed your pictures and process of making your lotion bars. I also began making lotion bars during these long winter days from my beeswax. I agree - they are the Best for moisturizing and I would not be without them again. If anyone is interested I have them listed on my deesbeeboutique.com website.

    Thank you Linda for your wealth of information on your blog. I have learned a lot in this past year - beekeeping, using beeswax and honey for products and now starting a blog too! Best of luck to you as you promote the honeybees!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous11:39 PM

    Linda,

    Those lotion bars look wonderful. I wish I could be there with you at the conference.
    Enjoy your new hobby.

    Sincerely
    Annette from Placerville California

    ReplyDelete
  5. These look absolutely yummy. I would attend every one of your sessions if I could but alas, I live in Calif. Beautiful, you have given me a great idea!

    ReplyDelete

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