Homemade Hand and Body Lotion

I found this recipe and thought....ooooooh, I'd love to make that, but I don't want to have to buy the products.  I wonder if I can use what I have on hand?  I recalled having some aloe vera gel from last summer.  I remember getting it for about $1.99 at the end of the season.  The canola oil, I always have on hand.  What the heck.  I'll make a small batch, then see if I like it.  If so, I'll make more!  Note:  I liked it and I made more, so we're going to pretend the measurements you see are actually what I'm typing, even if they look like less, okay?  Thanks.

Here's what you'll need.

 

Ingredients:

1C Aloe Vera Gel

2T Oil of your choice

Optional: Essential Oils to frangrance

Measure out 1C of Aloe Gel.

Pour into a blender or  mini food processor.

Dump in 2T of your oil.  I used Canola.  

It's what I had on hand and it's cheap.

Put lid on securely and hit the pulse button.

It actually turns lotion-like in seconds!  This is so exciting!

Now, I don't own any essential oils, but since my lotion was green,

I thought....hmmmm, wonder if I could use Mint Extract, LOL!

So, I did.  I added 1 teaspoon to the mix.  Pulse again to combine.

Look how thick and purdy that is!  

 I couldn't find a squeeze type bottle to put this in, so I

put it in this until I can find something more suitable.

Notes:

This lotion is so soft and creamy!  I never would have imagined you could make your own lotion!  And it works great!

I added the mint extract to it because a)It had a smell to it, unlike my other extracts b)it went well with the green color of my lotion, and c) It's made with alcohol, water, and mint oil, so I figured it couldn't hurt me.

I'm very interested to see how long this lasts or stays emulsified.  If it stays together, I'm never buying lotion again!  As long as I can find cheap aloe vera, that is.  No sense paying more for the aloe vera than you would lotion. UPDATE:  here it is almost a year later and it has stayed together beautifully!

This 1 cup batch came to about .81 cents before the mint was added.  After, it was about .97 cents.  Next time, I'll leave it out. Sixteen ounces of this would be $1.62, which is cheaper than the store, of course, but not as cheap as I had envisioned.  I'll keep searching.  Maybe I can make my own gel, ha ha ha ha!

I'd love to get some essential oils, but I think that might take away from the cheapness factor.  I'll look next time I'm somewhere that has them and see if they're cheap.  In all honesty, it really doesn't have to have a scent.  That's just what we're used to, I suppose.  So far, I'm loving this.  If you try it yourself, let me know what you think!
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