Whether you’re just starting out or you run a large-scale soap and candle business, it is a good idea to expand your product offerings after you’ve perfected your special, novelty item. It’s fun to dabble and experiment with different products. Many begin making bath salts and bath bombs. Lotion is also a high-demand product that allows one to be creative when it comes to scents. You may be wondering how you can transition from melting and solidifying wax to producing a lotion which has a more liquid consistency. Well, this dilemma is solved with lotion bars.
What Are Lotion Bars
Unlike traditional lotions that have a paste-like consistency and come in a tube, lotion bars are solid pieces of lotion that are in similar size and shape as a bar of soap. Lotion bars are easy to make as they typically require only three ingredients: beeswax a type of oil (coconut oil is a popular choice) and a type of “butter” such as shea butter or coconut butter. These are the base ingredients to achieve the hardened bar consistency. To truly make it your own, you simply add any kind of combination of scents and essential oils to give the lotion a great smell.
You may have noticed that water wasn’t mentioned as an ingredient. That’s one of the benefits of lotion bars. None of the time-consuming water emulsification process is needed. In fact, these bars aren’t made with any water.
The Benefits of Lotion Bars
Lotion bars have not only become more popular to make, but they are in high demand among consumers, especially during the harsh, winter months. Below are some of the many benefits of lotion bars:
They work great on severely dry, cracked skin. The combination of the oil, beeswax and butter provides superior healing and rejuvenation of dry, damaged skin. They also provide a natural barrier so excess air and germs don’t penetrate broken skin and it stays on the skin longer than traditional lotion.
They are easy to make. As mentioned before, they require few ingredients, which are also easily accessible. If you make candles and solid soaps, you can use the same machinery and equipment you already have. Their easy to make nature gives professionals like you the easy and quick ability to make mass quantities with shortened turnaround times.
They make for nice, unique, thoughtful gifts. Like candles and bar soaps, you can get as creative with the scents and health elements as you want. They can easily be customized to match the needs and scent preferences of the recipient.
They are all-natural. Probably one of the biggest perks of lotion bars is that artificial scents, chemicals and other ingredients are absent. Only natural ingredients are used, which provides the best nourishment and healing of delicate skin.
They have a long shelf-life. While traditional lotion can last awhile, if it isn’t regularly used, the lotion ingredients can separate making them look unappealing. Lotion bars typically last between one to one and a half years. Because they are in a solid state, they maintain their shape and consistency and hardness (unless they are kept in an overly warm place).
They are quick and easy to apply. With lotion you must thoroughly rub the lotion into the skin. After you’re done, you may have lotion spots on your hand which need to either be rubbed in or wiped off. With soap bars, all one has to do is rub the bar on their elbows, knees, heels and other areas where dry, cracked skin to be found and that’s it. No messy hands.
How to Make Lotion Bars
Anyone can make lotion bars thanks to an easy process and the use of few ingredients. Regardless of whether you’re a small outfit or a large one, Joanna Couch, also called the Soap Lady walks you through a simple lotion bar recipe that her company uses. Her process, however is more geared to the mass production of lotion bars instead of the small batch making for one to hand out to family and friends. You can watch her lotion bar tutorial and get the fundamentals in creating your own lotion bars.
Coogar Products Mixing Pumpers
In the video, Joanna refers to her Coogar Products Mixing Pumper as her “unicorn” as it quickly and easily blends and melts the lotion bar ingredients together to the perfect temperature to achieve the proper consistency. Coogar Products have been manufacturing wax melting equipment for 70 years. Our Mixing Pumpers and other equipment are true workhorses, enabling you to produce the exact amount you need. With a Coogar Mixing Pumper, you can quickly, easily and efficiently produce big or small batches of lotion bars, while also saving your business money by reducing waste and increasing production efficiency.
If you’re looking for inspiration to take your business to the next level, The Soap Lady has many interesting and informative “how to” videos. Coogar Products can give you the powerful, efficient, easy-to-use equipment to make your dream product a reality. Whether you’re just opening up a business or you’ve been in business for a while and need to upgrade your equipment, contact us at Coogar Products today to learn more about our Mixing Pumpers and other products and how they can make your business more successful.
Get Started
If you’re ready to get started making lotion bars, you’ll need the right equipment. Head over to the machine page to read about what these machines can do for you.