Warm Toes Lotion Bars for Cold Feet
If you tend to have cold feet, especially in the winter, then this lotion bar was created just for you!
Coconut oil is first infused with two kitchen spices – ginger and cayenne powder – that promote warmth and circulation, plus calendula flowers are added for their skin-soothing properties.
The infused oil is then mixed with shea butter and beeswax to form a solid bar that can be rubbed over cold feet. The heat from your skin will melt the surface of the bar just enough to leave a balm-like layer behind on your skin. Follow with a pair of socks to keep your feet toasty warm.
This lotion bar might also be helpful on arthritic joints, but be sure to keep away from sensitive areas and don’t rub in your eyes as it will sting. If you have neuropathy or diabetes, check with your health care provider before use.
Ingredients
- 1⁄4 cup (52 g) melted coconut oil
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cayenne powder
- 5 to 6 dried calendula flowers (optional)
- 1⁄4 cup (55 g) shea or mango butter
- 1⁄4 cup (29 g) packed beeswax pastilles
- 35 drops sweet orange essential oil (optional)
- 6 drops cinnamon leaf essential oil (optional)
Yield: 3 (1.5 oz) lotion bars
Directions to Make
Pour the coconut oil into a small half-pint (250-ml) canning jar. Add the
ground ginger, cayenne, and calendula, if using. Stir well.
To infuse the oil, set the jar down into a saucepan containing a few inches of water and warm it over low heat for an hour or two.
Strain the finished oil through a fine mesh sieve into a new jar, leaving behind the layer of oily powder behind in the jar. You may have to strain a second or third time, to get most of the herb speckles strained out of the oil.
Add the shea butter and beeswax to the infused coconut oil and return the jar to the water-filled saucepan that was used to infuse the oil. Heat over a
medium-low burner until the beeswax melts, 30 to 40 minutes.
Remove the melted mixture from the heat and cool for 10 minutes. Stir
in the essential oils, if using, and pour into molds.
Place the molds in the refrigerator for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the bars can easily be removed.
Store in tins or jars. Shelf life is at least 6 to 9 months, if stored in a
cool location, out of direct sunlight.
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Thank you so much for including grams in your measurements. So much easier to measure. I love your emails and look forward to them.
Hi Trish, Thanks for the feedback & I’m so happy to hear that you’re enjoying the emails! ?
can tese recipes be printed on only one page ???
Hi Reitz, Thank you so much for alerting me that the print friendly version wasn’t working correctly!
It must have switched over in an update & I never noticed.
I just changed the settings back, so now you should be able to either:
1. Click on the print button under the article
or
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the content and look for a green Print Friendly button.
Once you click that, it will show the article, but you’re able to click on the parts you don’t want to print, such as photos, etc.
That should be able to help the recipe fit more neatly on a page.
Let me know if that doesn’t work, and thanks again for the heads-up so I could fix it! :)
I love your new book, so many great inspirations.
Thank you Michelle! I appreciate the kind words & so happy you like the book! :)
Thank you so much for sharing your joy and knowledge, Jan. I have one of your soapmaking books and I love your blog :). I was hoping I could ask about infusing dried flowers. I have read from one source that says they need to be rehydrated first in alcohol. Is this truly necessary to get the herbal benefits from infusing dried botanicals in oil? Thank you so much for your help!
Hi Laura, Thanks for the kind words! So happy you enjoy the blog & book! :)
A small number of herbalists like to add a bit of alcohol to their herbs before infusing, but it’s definitely not required.
I tried it a few times in the past & found that I prefer the old-fashioned flowers in oil method, but you could try both ways & see which one you like best! ?
Hi Jan
My son always gets cold feet during sleep and I was looking for a remedy when I found your article. One problem though…I do not have any butters available. Can we substitute with stearic acid, vegetable shortening or palm oil? Should we use the same quantity to substitute?
Hi Samar! Do you have the beeswax part available? If so, I would just turn this into a salve instead of a lotion bar and it will work in a similar way.
First, infuse the oil as the recipe says, then combine 3.5 oz of the infused oil with 0.5 ounces of beeswax.
That will make a soft spreadable salve texture. I hope it helps! ❤
I have made a large batch of the receipe and am at the straining part. Since the mixture becomes so orange from the cayenne how can I get the creamy color back? This is my second try the first was so orange I was afraid it was going to stain your skin. Any advise?
Hi Audra! Is it still bright orange once it’s mixed with the shea butter and beeswax?
The infused oil itself should be a nice bright strong orange, but once you add the butter and beeswax, and the lotion bars become solid, it should turn a softer color.
If not, then it sounds like it’s a little heavy on the cayenne. You could try using half as much cayenne.
I’ve not ran into cayenne staining my skin yet though, so I would go ahead and mix up what you have and see how it turns out once completely cooled and finished as bars.
In the unlikely scenario that they do stain or are too dark, you can just melt them again with a second batch made with plain oil.
(So put a too-dark Batch 1 in a container, and add 1/4 cup plain uninfused oil, 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup beeswax, and melt everything all together. Then the final batch will be lightened by half compared to the original Batch 1.) Let me know how it turns out! :)
Thank you so much! I will be working on it tomorrow and hopefully will have it ready for presents!