After Bath Oils are the easiest and quickest way to moisturize your skin. I am a newby to making and using after bath oils. Prior to this, I would use bath type oils in the tub - then after my tub soak I would moisturize with a lotion. The first after bath oil I made was a very basic mixture of olive oil scented with Bulgarian Lavender essential oil. Added to that was a touch of vetiver and nutmeg EO's to ground and sweeten the fresh herbal lavender notes. Needless to say, I am totally hooked on making bath oils; they offer infinite variety in oil and EO combinations, are cheap to make and are good for your skin.


So, when I am pressed for time I use bath oils instead of lotion or creme. Bath oils take no more than 5-10 minutes to apply to hair, face, lips, body and anywhere else that needs moisturizing. Just remember that after showering or bathing, do not dry off, instead smoothe 1-2 tablespoons after bath oil onto your body from head to toe (even on the face; avoid mucus membranes), then blot off with a towel. After drying off there is enough oil left on the skin to keep you moisturized but not greasy, all day.


Bath oils are also one of the easiest moisturizing products to make. Every kitchen has the ingredients to make a basic after bath oil. The main components are:


Some kind of oil - Many cooking oils can successfully be used on the skin e.g. olive oil and olive oil blends, coconut oil and cream, corn and sesame seed oil.
Essential oil or fragrance oil - I prefer to use essential oils because they do not have the chemicals found in manufactured fragrances. However, fragrance oils are important in some blends especially to substitute for expensive essential oils, concretes and absolutes. See below for essential oil blends for bath oils.


After these two ingredients - oil and essential oil, there are many other ingredients you can add to give your bath oil luxurious and nutritive propertives.


For example, adding Dimethicone - gives a silky "slip" to the oil. This means that it goes on with a smooth glide. Cyclomethicone is another ingredient used to make the oil less oily and can be found in familiar products such as dry oil perfume sprays and linen sprays.


Antioxidants are other additives that maybe used to prolong the shelf life of oils in the after bath oil. Some well known ones are Vitamin E Acetate (tocopherol) and Rosemary Oleoresin (ROE). Both vitamin E and ROE will stop the oils from going rancid. ROE is used in amounts of 1-10% of the formulation while Vitamin E is to be used in amounts of 1-5%.


Here is a sample formulation. The main oil in this blend is coconut creme. Coconut creme has the distinction of having the most heavenly coconut scent ever. Used as a base it adds a heavenly tropical scent to the base oil blend. Coconut oil is one of my favorite oils. Used as a base note for the bath oil, it gives a luxurious note to essential oils or fragrance oils in the blend. Experiment first before adding a variety of essential oil scents to coconut oil to make sure it is to your liking.


Feel free to change the base oil blend as well as the ratios:

Virgin coconut cream-------8 ounces (or substitute with any other luxurious oil)
Sweet almond oil-----------4 ounces
Dimethicone----------------4 ounces
--------------------------------------
Makes -------------------- 16 ounces



Essential oils blends


Metro Man

20 ----drops Bulgarian lavender EO
10 ----drops oakmoss EO
5 -----drops nutmeg EO


Queen Makeda's blend

5 -----drops ylang ylang EO
20 ----drops frankincense EO
10 ----drops myrrh EO
5 -----drops sandalwood EO


Edwardian Rose

20 -----drops rose EO (or rose fragrance oil)
10 -----drops patchouli EO
10 -----drops Bulgarian lavender EO
2 ------drops black pepper EO

Combine base oils with essential oil blend and mix thoroughly. If coconut cream is cloudy or has solidified, melt it in a pot under low heat and cool a bit, then combine with all the other ingredients. Store in pretty glass bottles decorated with dried herbs and complementary dried chemical free flowers.


Sources for Supplies

Liberty Natural
Extensive product inventory. Bulk essential oils- attars, extracts, concretes, CO2 Extracts, SCO2 Extracts, fixed oils, packaging supplies, bath care bases and herbs. Located in Blodgett, Oregon. Fast Shipping and great customer service.

A Garden Eastward
Excellent quality essential oils, fragrance oils and herbs. Located in Ludowici, Georgia. Run by husband and wife team who have been in business since 1997. All orders are shipped out promptly. Although they do not have a customer service number, yet emails send to them are answered promptly and if requested they will call back via phone ASAP.