This recipe was published as Summer Passions Pumpable Body Lotion by Barb Misiuda on her site Scrub Me Down. I made it on New Year’s Day (in England) so it wasn’t exactly Summer. I followed the recipe without making substitutions. I don’t use artificial fragrances, so I used a combination of Rose and Clove Bud essential oils to produce a scent reminiscent of carnations.
The list of ingredients for this lotion is longer than that used in most of my concoctions. It introduced me to a couple of ingredients that I hadn’t used before.
Oil Phase
- 12 g Avocado Oil
- 12 g Emulsifying Wax (Olive Derived)
- 9 g Mango Butter
- 6 g Sweet Almond Oil
- 6 g Passion Fruit Oil
- 3 g Beeswax
Water Phase
- 207 ml Distilled Water
- 30 g Aloe Vera Gel
- 3 g Vegetable Glycerine
- 3 g Silk Peptides
Cool Down
- 3 g Vitamin E Oil
- 6 g Panthenol
- 1.5 g Plantaserve E
- 12 drops Rose absolute (Turkish)
- 4 drops Clove Bud Essential Oil
- 0.1g Gold Mica
Equipment
To make this you will need:
- 2 glass containers large enough to hold all the ingredients with a bit of room to spare. I use half litre Pyrex jugs, but wide-mouthed jars such as Mason Jars also work well. At least one of the containers needs to be large enough for all the ingredients and a stick blender.
- 1 smaller glass container. A shot glass works well for this.
- A stick blender
- Small spatulas (wooden coffee stirrers scrounged from coffee shops work well)
- 1 or more pump bottles with a total capacity of slightly more than 250ml
- A funnel
- A kitchen hob and a shallow pan, or an oven capable of being set to a temperature of 70-80C.
Method
Measure out the oil phase ingredients into one glass container, and the water phase ingredients into another. If you aren’t in a hurry, cover the containers and let them stand for a while. This allows the waxes to start to soften in the oils, and allows the silk peptides and aloe gel to start to disperse in the water.
If you have access to an electric oven, set the temperature to 70-80C and put the 2 containers of ingredients in the oven.
If you are going to make this on a gas or electric ring, put the containers in the shallow pan, add some water (perhaps to a depth of 3-5 cm) and bring the water to the boil. Turn down the heat when the water boils so the water is just simmering.
Put the cool-down ingredients in another (ideally smaller) container –
- Panthenol is a very viscous gel that I found difficult to weigh accurately or to scrape off a spatula. Another time I may add some to water to make a less viscous solution, keeping any excess in the fridge until the next time I need some.
- I didn’t weigh the mica. I would consider it an optional ingredient anyway. I added enough to cover about 6mm of the type of stick that coffee shops provide for stirring coffee. I might double the amount next time, but too much glitter would be, well, too much.
Emulsifying wax doesn’t seem to melt into the other oil phase ingredients. When the other oil phase ingredients are all liquid, take the oil phase and the water phase containers to your work surface and turn off the heat. As there’s more of the water phase ingredients to heat up, they may not be as warm as the oil phase. That’s not a problem.
It’s a good idea to put your stick blender into a separate pot and leave it to stand in hot water to warm it up a bit.
If you have a thermometer, watch the oil phase until the temperature drops to about 42C. If you aren’t using a thermometer you can judge the temperature by feeling the outside of the container with your hand. When it still feels warm but you can hold it comfortably, it’s time to start mixing.
I add the water phase to the oil phase, but it’s not critical which you add to which. I just find pouring the water phase avoids oils and waxes solidifying on the rim of a container as you pour them. Barely touch the control button on your stick blender as you mix the 2 phases – it’s important not to over-blend this lotion. Only blitz the mixture until it’s just mixed.
Add the cool-down phase ingredients and blitz again, very briefly.
Decant the mixture into your pump bottles. Briefly shake them as the lotion cools completely and thickens.
I keep all my cosmetics in a fridge until they are to be used.
Reflections
I’ve wanted to make a pumpable lotion for maybe a year. Some attempts at formulating my own recipes produced rather nice and usable lotions, but they were too thick to be used in a pump bottle. This recipe proved highly successful, and the lotion it produced is disappearing fast in this and other households. in short – it’s a winner.
I’m sure I won’t resist the temptation to tinker with the recipe over the coming months, but the changes won’t be substantial. I may subsitutute oil for oil, butter for butter, and maybe hydrosol for distilled water.