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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, December 14, 2011

Making Lotion Bars - A Winter Beekeeper's Joy

Lotion bars are quick to make and a holiday gift that the recipients love to get.  The ingredients are only three:

1/3 oil (avocado or sweet almond oil are best)
1/3 butter (shea butter, cocoa butter - I like a half and half combination)
1/3 melted beeswax.

Equipment needed:

A boiling water bath
A large measuring cup
Chopsticks to use for stirring
Molds for the bars (commercial ones can be purchased or you can use ice cube trays)

One caution:  These smell great because of the cocoa butter.  Once I gave one to someone and she took a bite out of it!  Important that your recipient knows they are lotion (although nothing in the bar would be bad for eating!)

These take a short time and are fun to do.  Here's a slideshow of the process:




9 comments:

  1. Thanks so much for the recipe! We bagan beekeeping this past spring and our bees didn't really produce enough but I just purchased some wax from a local fella to play with. I'm going to try this one.

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  2. I really like your topic about making lotion bars from bees. I think that it would be healthy for the skin. I think that it would be very helpful for us.

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  3. Thanks so much for sharing. We are first year bee keepers. What is the source of the shea and cocoa butters?

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  4. Anonymous7:22 PM

    It was really wonderful to see that you are making cosmetics. I have been making similar lotion bars for several years now and they are one of my biggest sellers at the arts and crafts shows I do.

    Keep up the fun stuff. Have you tried candles yet?? I am getting closer to trying soap

    Take care
    Your Fan
    Annette from Placerville Caifornia

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  5. Anonymous8:33 PM

    I'm guessing you mean a 1/3 cup of each? I wonder if I could do it by weight...
    Anna

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  6. It's proportion - I used 4 oz melted beeswax, 4 oz avocado oil and 2 oz shea butter + 2 oz cocoa butter. You could also do 1/3 cup, 1/3 cup, etc.

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  7. I am unclear as to what a lotion bar is. Is it sort of like a "chapstick" for your skin or more like a soap? I am searching for gifts for the kids' teachers and this looks lie something we could make together. I just want to be clear on what i am making!
    Thanks for all your help throughout the year. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season with your family and the new grandba-bee!

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  8. It's not soap, but looks like soap. It's lotion in a bar. So you rub your hands on it or put it between your two hands as one would a bar of soap but it's lotion so you rub it in rather than wash it off as you would soap.

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  9. Linda, thanks so much for this! I'm a new beekeeper this year and enjoyed making something from the precious scraps of beeswax I collected this year -- mostly brace comb --since I didn't harvest any honey. Love your blog; i enjoy all the tips!

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