This Pine Forest Lotion Bar recipe helps with dry winter skin, chapped hands, flaky elbows and knees.ย You can make them herbally richer by infusing the EVO with pine, fir, cedar, or spruce needles before you make this lotion bar.ย But if you are in a hurry or you need a last minute gift, just proceed with the recipe.
The essential oils add uplifting fragrance.ย Evergreen needles are cleansing, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, analgesic, relaxing, and mood enhancing. Pine, fir, spruce, and cedar are used interchangeably for most skin care applications, although they also have their own specific qualities.
I used Evergreen Dream essential oil from Rocky Mountain Oils in this lotion bar.ย Evergreen dream is a proprietary blend of fir needle and pine essential oils, along with frankincense.ย It is available as a stand alone diffuser blend or in the Christmas Morning Holiday kit that also includes Candy Cane and Warm and Cosy.ย See this recipe for Lip Balm where I used the Candy Cane essential oil blend to its best advantage.
You could also use a combination of pine needle, fir needle, spruce needle, frankincense, and/or cedarwood atlas in these lotion bars to capture the essensential fragrance of a Pine Forest in winter.ย Limit the essential oil addition to 50 drops per 5 ounces (150 ml) of other ingredients for safety.
Print the recipe:
Pine Forest Lotion Bars
Yield: 5 โ 1 ounce lotion bars
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons Cocoa Butter
3 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 tablespoons beeswax
50 drops (2.5 ml) Evergreen Dream essential oil blend (optional)
Directions:
Create a double boiler using a glass measuring cup and a saucepan.
Add the cocoa butter, EVO, and beeswax to the glass measuring cup.ย Simmer gently over medium heat until the beeswax melts.ย Remove from the heat.ย And remove the glass measuring cup from the saucepan.
Stir briefly to combine the beeswax and the oils.ย Add in the essential oils by the drop, stirring to incorporate fully.
Stir while the mixture is cooling just until the mixture becomes opaque.ย Spoon or pour into a silicone lotion bar mold..(This is the mold I used.ย Everyone asks.ย Not an affiliate link.) Allow to cool for several hours or overnight.ย Remove from the mold, and place into 2 ounce salve tins for gifting.
Label.
Grab the free printable labels
Make your DIY lotion bars look sensational for gifting or stocking with these free printable labels.ย ย Bonus, you also get the labels for the Candy Cane Lip Balm.ย Grab that recipe here, too.
Grab the free printable labels.
For the lotion bars, Evergreen Dream is no longer on offer. Rocky Mountain suggests equal drops of Spruce, Cedarwood, and Peppermint. See Rainy Day Diffuser Blends post.
I would use equal drops of cypress and fir needle essential oils. These are the oils of the original blend I used in this recipe. Yes the essential oil blend is seasonal.
Are the measurements for the cocoa butter and beeswax when they are in a solid state, or should I melt them first and then measure? I have cocoa butter wafers so I have no idea how to measure it if not in a liquid state.
Beeswax 12 grams = a tablespoon. I usually weigh beeswax to get the right amount. For cocoa butter I usually grate it on a box grater and then measure it.
Would this recipe work in a push/twist up tube?
Yes, that works too.
Can you use Shay butter in place of the cocoa butter? If so would it be equal amounts or do you have to change the amount used? And by how much?
Thank you for your time ~ jamie
You can use shea butter on a teaspoon for teaspoon basis.