Oh, Burt's Bees, that ubiquitous "eco-friendly" all-natural company that creates type of product that used to trigger all of my must-buy-this-tube-of-expensive-lip-balm or lotion or whatever. I have never been a girly girl and I have never particularly wanted any certain cosmetic. But Burt's Bees was an exception- almost everything they produced, I wanted, price be damned. Six dollars for a tube of lip balm? Sure! Nine dollars for some soap? That is not at all ridiculous!
Except, of course, it is. It's embarrassing for me to realize that I was as hooked on the idea of that if a certain company made a product, then the product was inherently worth whatever the price they were asking. And then I read an article that the NYTimes ran back in January of 2008 that highlighted the fact that Burt's Bees is now owned by Clorox. Now, the jokes about this supposedly green company being bought for 300million dollars by Clorox can write themselves, so I won't harp on that. Frankly, though, I didn't want to continue to buy overpriced cosmetics where the profits would go into a large corporation. It no longer seemed like supporting a local economy, and it no longer felt like I was using a handmade product, or treating myself to a guilt-free indulgence.
So, once I ran out of my last treasured bottle of Burt's Bees Almond Milk Hand Cream, I figured I'd have to find a substitute. And after thinking on that for a minute, I decided that I wanted to make my own, because hey, if what I really liked about Burt's Bees' product was the illusion of using something homemade, than I probably should just go ahead and make my own.
And it was super easy.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 oz of blended oils (I used almond)
1 1/2 oz coconut oil
1/2 oz beeswax
4 oz purified water
30 drops grapefruit seed extract
1/4 tsp borax (to prevent separation of oils)
essential oils for scenting, if desired
I bought the majority of my ingredients from Whole Foods. I procured the beeswax from some beekeepers/honey vendors I met at a craft fair in Ely, Minnesota; they were selling it for five dollars a pound! I would imagine that any local beekeeper would be glad to sell their wax, so it shouldn't be hard to find some. Originally, I had the bright idea of trying to render my own beeswax from actual honeycomb that came with a jar of locally produced New Orleans' honey, but it was sort of a mess and took a long time and I only ended up with 1/8 of an ounce of purified, rendered beeswax so I don't really recommend going that route.
So! To make this quick project, you take the blended oil, the coconut oil, and the beeswax and put them in a stainless steel pot and let them melt together on very low heat, stirring only occaisionally. Once they've melted together, you remove it from the heat and add in the water and borax, and mix it all up with a hand blender. The mixture instantly creams up into a thick, smooth lotion! You then stir in the grapefruit seed extract and any oils you want to use to scent it. I actually didn't use any oils for this batch, though I had some rose extract on hand to use in case I didn't find the scent appealing enough. But I shouldn't've worried- the cream smells so sweetly of honey! I actually far, far prefer both the texture and the scent of this hand cream over Burt's Bees. And this one batch produced two rather large tins of cream! I put one in the fridge to store and have one on my nightstand right now, where I am trying to avoid using it every few hours. 
Next up: Lip balm! Unless I get distracted by another idea.
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