Ingredients
Recipe in development
- Beeswax 0.3oz
- Lanolin 0.24oz
- Coconut Oil 0.58oz
Procedure
Melt components together in a double boiler.
A plastic spoon makes a good tester container, holding just enough to get a feel for how it will set up.
Add:
- Coconut Oil to soften
- Beeswax to harden
- Lanolin to moisturize better
Sources
- Beeswax - Lots of people these days raise bees. Also, hardware stores sell it in bulk.
- Coconut Oil - Whole Foods, I guess.
- Lanolin - Apparently farm stores or co-ops? I bought mine at Whole Foods. It is commonly used as a nipple moisturizer for nursing mothers, And/or cattle? So perhaps in that part of a store…? Whole foods actually had no idea what I was talking about, but I just happened to find some in the “hard core hand moisturizer” section.
Update 2014-12-24
I recently made another batch of samples. I started by melting the remnants of the previous batch, of which 0.635oz remained.
To this, I added 0.695oz of rather mid-grade olive oil. This time I used a spoon to partially fill a half a dozen tubes and handed them out to employees that sit near me.
The result was more pleasing, but still not finished. I used olive oil because the last batch needed to be hardened softened quite a bit. The lower melting point of olive oil felt like it would be the right answer. It did indeed soften the resultant mixture quite a bit. It applies much easier than before. However, it doesn’t last as long.
The first batch would last me almost an entire day before I felt I needed to reapply. Through at least 2 meals and endless hours of sitting at my desk drinking teas. This batch seems to need reapplication at about the 120min mark.
Reviews from coworkers are overwhelmingly positive.
Update 2015-01-06
Correction: previous update had stated that the first batch needed to be hardened when in fact it needed the opposite. Corrected.
Formatting: <pre>, it turns out, isn’t a very helpful markup when you’re writing paragraphs. I’ve replaced it with something that seems more readable.
He now considers the implications of doing some sort of markdown processor.