Homemade Lotion Bars and Altoid Tins

     Last Friday night the youth went bowling, and John Lee and I, as assistant youth leaders, went along. I don't really enjoy bowling so I took a couple Hamish Macbeth books along to read. The bowling alley was so cold (or maybe it was just my inactivity) that my hands and legs started chapping. By the time we got home, my hands were red and hurt like crazy. I bore it well all day Saturday, until that evening when it was time to make supper. Instead, I made some lotion bars! I found the recipe on Pinterest, and since I have never liked normal lotion (it makes my hands greasy), decided to give it a shot.

      Here is the link to the recipe I used. Coconut Oil Lotion Bars
 Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter, Beeswax, Vitamin E, Essential Oils

     I was in a hurry, my kitchen was a wreck, and Honey Bunch was in the bath-tub (bad idea), but since I love making my own stuff, it was a blast. I like to partially fill a small saucepan with water and set my 2 cup glass measuring cup in it to mix/melt everything.

      I had originally planned to pour my mixture into a travel soap container, then thought, "Hey, I have gobs of Altoids tins that I don't know what to do with. They're perfect." I cut small squares of wax paper to put in the tins, but ended up only putting it in one tin. Next time I'm going to use it in all of them.

     Since I was in a hurry, I hadn't read how much EO to add, and used way to little. I split the melted concoction into 2 parts and made one Lavender/Spearmint, and the other Lemon/Spearmint. You can hardly smell it. I think I used about 5 drops of each in the separate mixtures.

     All this time, Honey Bunch was taking a bath, and I would check in on her, and Alice would run around the bath tub yelping. I was so caught up in my lotion making that I didn't notice any silence. That's a bad sign right? When I ran into the bathroom to get my EO's, I discovered that I really should've been paying more attention. Adeline had gotten Alice into the tub and was pouring water over her. Alice is a very good dog. She simply stood there shivering and not yelping, biting or anything. She did have a very long-suffering look on her little puppy face.

     After I poured the mixture into my tins, I stuck them in the fridge to cool down. The wax paper I had used in one of them meant that I could pull it out of the tin, the others, not so much. Obviously didn't think that through. The bar looks just like soap, and I really like. It doesn't make my skin feel greasy.

Things I will do differently next time:

1: use Shea Butter. Cocoa Butter has to strong of a smell for me.

2. use more EO

3. put wax paper in each tin, as it helps to remove them later

4. not have Adeline take a bath while I am making these.

     Do you have any ideas to put Altoids tins to good use? Please share them.

     On a completely different subject, does anyone besides me think it's hilarious that Veggie Tales' Larry Boy so closely resembles a bumbling Batman?