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After Sun Care Recipes

Filed Under: Lotion

It is summer time. One the best parts about summer is sun and spending time outside. We all know that it’s best to wear sunscreen and a hat when you are outside but sometimes, the best intentions go out the window when the sun appears. If you over indulged a little, I’m going to spend the next 4 days going over practical and effective sunburn aftercare recipes. Please note that these are good for mild sunburns, not the blistering charred kind. If you have that severe of a sunburn, please go see your Doctor to get something stronger.
Day Three: Infusing Oils
Day Four: Soothing Skin Oil

Soothing Sunburn Lotion
Ingredients (by weight):
Tools:
Digital Scale
Stick Blender
one 16 oz. wide-mouth container
one 32 oz. wide-mouth container
Five 4 ounce bottles
You can also buy the Lotion Kit here and substitute the water portion with Aloe Vera (Gel) Water.
Why German Chamomile? German Chamomile has a high azulene content. Azulene helps calm skin inflammation and decrease redness. Lavender is useful for helping to reduce the sting in the burn and the aromatherapy properties may help to provide emotional stability during the painful sunburn recovery period. Aloe Vera Gel (water) is a well known healing and soothing plant for all kinds of common skin issues, from cuts to bruises to sunburns.

Step 1: Disinfect all of your tools and containers by dunking them in 5% bleachwater solution and drying them with fresh, off the roll, paper towels.

Step 2: In the large 32 oz. container, add the Sweet Almond oil, Avocado Oil, Stearic Acid and Emulsifying wax. Make sure this is all weighed out using a handy dandy digital scale (no volume measurements). Put in the microwave on 30 second bursts to melt the E-Wax and Stearic Acid. Despite the scary name, Stearic Acid is derived from Palm Oil and isn’t acidic or scary. It actually adds to the fluffiness factor of the lotion.
Step 3: Add the Shea Butter to the hot mixture and stir to melt.
Step 4: Warm up the Aloe Vera Liquid and add it to your oil mixture. Why do you need to warm it? Because if it is too cold, it will harden the waxes directly upon mixing. Vigorously stir with a spoon by hand to start. Then switch to the hand blender.

Step 5: Once the mixture is fully mixed and emulsified (usually about 2 to 3 minutes), take the temperature and add the preservative and fragrance. For Germaben II, Optiphen and Phenonip preservatives, you want the temperature to be below 140 degrees. Usage rates of all three of these preservatives start at .5% by weight. Fragrance and essential oil usage for lotions is very low (remember, you don’t want to inadvertently make a perfume!) so start small. This recipe literally calls for .2 ounces of essential oil and that is more than enough to make a lovely smelling lotion and get the therapeutic benefits of all the oils. Notice the blue color of the azulene in the powerful German Chamomile? That’s some pure healing goodness.

Step 6: Pour into prepared bottles while the mixture is still warm. If the mixture is too thick to pour, heat it up for 30 seconds in the microwave and stir. Repeat as needed until it’s thin enough to pour. If the temperature during re-heating goes above 140, you’ll need to add an additional .5% preservative.
Step 7: Allow to cool with the lids off. Then put on lids and label and impress your friends and loved ones with your handmade goodness. Remind them to wear sunscreen next time.

Check back tomorrow for after sun care spritzers.

 

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24 Comments

  1. I love these recipes!! In my family we are quite dark as we’re half Danish 😛 But we burn SO easily and we never tan unless we wear sun cream and after sun cream. Its a real pain haha

  3. You can use any liquid oil you want to replace the almond or avocado oil. Just as long as it’s a liquid oil.

    If you don’t want to use the aloe vera liquid you can replace that with distilled water.

    Courtney from Bramble Berry

  4. A local store has “aloe vera oil”. Would you suggest using this to replace the almond and avocado oils OR replacing the aloe vera water OR is there some other option? I just placed at order at Brambleberry and splurged on the German Chamomile, so I’m looking forward to making this for the summer!

  5. AM – How could I adjust the recipe to make this a “Soothing Lotion Spritzer”…not sure how much Aloe water to add to make this spray-able….also guessing that I don’t need that Stearic Acid either.

  7. Hi Angela,

    Polowax *is* Emulsifying Wax NF so that's the same thing as in the recipe above.

    In the recipe above, the stearic acid adds to the lightness and fluffiness of the lotion so you could not use it and your lotion would come out fine – a little bit heavier than without it – but just fine.

    The stearic acid at Bramble Berry is palm-oil derived and should be fairly gentle for you skin and non reactive but I understand wanting to be 100% extra cautious when it comes to your skin.

    Keep it out of the recipe and you will still have a wonderful and successful recipe =)

    Keep me posted on how it goes.

  8. Hi, I love this recipe because it has all the ingredients I need for a rosacea/eczema lotion that I want to make. 🙂 However because of these conditions I can't use stearic acid. I purchased Polowax..I was wondering if you heard of it and have any advice to using it. The directions say I don't need any other emulsifiers with it. So would i then replace the weight for both the E-wax and they Stearic Acid or just the E-wax? Thank you so much for posting this. It's so nice to find such a helpful website. There aren't that many out there. You are awsome! 🙂

  10. Hi Anne-Marie,

    I can't wait to try these! Can I substitute another oil for the Avocado, such as Jojoba?
    Thanks,
    Wendy

  11. The German Chamomile is the queen of redness reduction and skin soothing. When I was getting facials, the facial gal always put it on afterwards so I didn't look like a horrific red mess.

    Maureen, great news – even if German Chamomile is a little out of reach right now, you could just do Lavender & Egyptian Geranium. They are both excellent with burns and skin soothing relief.

    The Chamomile Extract is made with Roman Chamomile and is also skin soothing but does not have the magic azulene to help reduction of redness.

    Rebecca, You can get pure aloe vera juice water in a health food store (it's got great medicinal properties when taken internally) or Bramble Berry has it if you can't find it locally. It's $6.10 in the most expensive 1 pound size and pricing goes down per pound from there.

    https://www.brambleberry.com/Aloe-Vera-Liquid-P3704.aspx

    • umm how do u know that the sun burn is mild do you peel or what i have a friend who has a sun burn and wants somthing to sooth it i told her i could look and now here i am so if you could reply back that would be great 😉

  12. Maureen, how about the Chamomile extract?

    Anne-Marie, thank you for the tutorial, it looks great! I know that the aloe vera stores/drugstores sell are not the ones that are used in lotion-making since they usually include other ingredients, but can I get pure aloe vera juice/water from local health stores/organic stores?

  13. Is there anything that can replace the German Chamomile? It's pricey enough that I'm not sure I'd be willing to buy it just yet. Thanks.

  15. O M GOsh!
    I am visiting your store right now….how did you get the heavenly music!

    I am getting chill bumps on top of chill bumps!!!!

  16. Great tutorial! I will definitely try!

    I am so excited. Got my first
    Etsy sale.

    I changed my name and opened a new
    "store" yesterday and then i broke out $7 to actually showcase one product and it….SOLD!!!!!

    wonder of wonders. I am so excited! Yippee.

    OK, gotta go package it up!

    Toodles! Thanks again!

  20. I'll need to bookmark these tutorials! Jim always gets sunburns.

    It's amazing how green that Chamomile is – I thought it was a colorant!

  21. I have a few kids that despite sunscreen get a little reddish :o) must be the red and blond hair deal we got going on. Will give this a try!