I initially made only about a 1/4 pint of deodorant and it just ran out, even with both of us using it daily - very economical. Since I was making another batch, I decided to try my hand at lotion. This winter my skin has been drier than years past, and I could use some of the same ingredients that went into the deodorant. After looking around the internet for a while, I didn't see any recipes that came close to what I wanted so I decided to just wing it. Lotion is just oil + water + emulsifier + anything else you want to add. I mixed almond oil, emulsifying wax, shea butter, mango butter and kokum butter and melted them together. I heated up some water separately, mixed 'em together, added the essential oils I wanted, and then poured it into a container to cool.
My biggest concern was texture - I didn't measure anything, and was worried that it could come out too thin or too solid. When I used it the next day, it had the perfect lotion texture and I felt like a genius. But by day 2, it had thickened up quite a bit and wasn't pumping very easily. I thought this could've been due to the low temperature of the house so I brought it into the bathroom while I took a shower. Turns out my lotion is more like a body butter than lotion. It's creamy and rich but really easy to rub into the skin. It leaves my skin a bit shiny in spots that aren't extremely dry, but absorbs completely and without leaving any residue in the driest areas.
Overall, I would call this experiment a moderate success - it definitely fills a need for my extremely dry skin. On the other hand, my goal was to create a really basic hand/body lotion that can be more widely applied, so I'll just have to try it again when this batch runs out.
