Homemade Body Lotion

I am soooo excited, I just finished making my first homemade body product: lotion!!

I ran out a while ago, and have refused to buy anymore store bought stuff because it is expensive and I haven't found a brand I like.

After dropping the husband off at work, I headed over to Natural Grocers to pick up the supplies I needed to make the lotion.  After searching around on the website I chose to follow someone else's recipe to start with and I chose this one from  Frugally Sustainable because it looked easy, I liked the ingredients that were used, and everyone claimed it is non-greasy. 

The recipe calls for:
-1 cup aloe vera gel  (I used just under 1 cup)
-1 teaspoon vitamin E oil
-3/4 ounce beeswax, grated or broken into small pieces
-1/2 cup almond oil
-1 tablespoon cocoa butter
-10 drops essential oils of choice (I opted not to use essential oil because I liked the smell of cocoa butter)

First I put the vitamin E oil, almond oil, cocoa butter and grated beeswax into a large measuring cup. 

 I put the measuring cup into a pot of rolling water to create a double boiler that would melt all the ingredients together.

After all were combined, I transferred it to a blender where I let the oil cool and harden. 

When it was hardened (about 20 minutes), I slowly added the aloe vera until I came to the consistency that I wanted (that is why it is just under 1 cup).  I because it is thick, I had to constantly keep scraping the sides.

I transferred my lotion to a sanitized jar and put it in the fridge to store it (per the website, that way it will keep for up to 6 weeks.  The website recommends taking out small amounts at a time into another jar to use in the bathroom after a shower).  This batch made about one and a half cups of lotion. I couldn't wait to try it, so I put some on, and first off it smells AMAZING, is a consistency between a lotion and body butter, and is not very greasy; be warned a little bit goes a long way!  For me it is a little greasy, so I would just have to wait a while to put my clothes on.  I am wondering if refrigerating it will help with the greasyness, but truly, it's not that greasy. 

Looking at the cost breakdown below I want to see if I can find a cheaper source for Aloe Vera to keep the cost even lower.  Looks like if I buy it online I can get 32oz for about $5.10, which would bring the total for batch down to $5.16; that seems more reasonable.  Perhaps someday I will have my own aloe plant that I can take from.

Cost Breakdown:                  Cost of Product              Portion of Product Used

Beeswax (1oz bottle)                      $0.99                                   $0.75
Almond Oil (16oz. bottle)              $9.55                                   $2.38
Aloe Vera (8oz. bottle)                   $4.85                                   $4.00
Cocoa Butter (7oz bottle)               $6.75                                   $0.48
Vitamin E (4oz bottle)                    $6.85                                   $0.28
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Total for Batch                                                                           $7.89