Homemade lotion

I already did my 'review' of the homemade baby shampoo/soap I made, and now it's time to spotlight the baby lotion I made. I was really excited about this because guess what - I use it too! It was easy, cheap, and we love using it on Ian - he smells DELICIOUS afterwards. As if we don't want to eat him up enough already!

Here's the recipe, taken from Frugal Farm Wife:

1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup aloe vera gel
Essential oil – several drops (optional)

Gently heat coconut oil until just melted – but not hot. Pout into a blender or food processer (or use a cup and stick blender for easy clean up!) with aloe vera gel and essential oil, and blend until creamy and well emulsified. 

Scrape into a container with a tight fitting lid, and store either at room temperature, or in the refrigerator – whichever you prefer.

I didn't spend enough time blending mine together, so there are some chunks of coconut oil in our containers, but they melt almost immediately upon application to Ian's skin, so it's not a huge deal to me. We store ours under the bathroom sink, but like the recipe said you can keep it in the fridge. We just figure that Ian would prefer room temperature lotion to freezing lotion. Here's a picture (it's not very pretty):

The containers are rather small and we haven't even finished one yet - a little goes a long way!

I'm sort of coo-coo for this homemade lotion because I have dry skin, and we live in Idaho, which doesn't help anyone's dry skin case! What I love about non-store bought lotion is that there's NO WATER. If you look on your lotion bottles, one of if not the first ingredients is water, which will only temporarily hydrate your skin, but it quenches your skin leaving you just as dry, so then you have to apply more, and then you're hooked on lotion and they get the big bucks. When your skin is dry, it needs a replenishing of your skin's oils, not water. (Although staying hydrated will definitely help your skin cause) That's why the coconut oil and aloe vera gel are so great, they really hydrate your skin with what your body needs. The lavender smells heavenly, and even though I'm not a huge fan of coconut, I really love the smell of this lotion!

I don't know if Ian has naturally great skin or if it's because of the homemade products that we use, but he has had no "baby acne", and his dry skin, which every baby experiences, went away very quickly, even in this dry winter weather. Maybe it's just coincidence, but I'm a believer.

If you try it out, let me know how it goes!