Large Lotion Batch to Scent Later?

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sandman_max

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Considering the vendors sell large quantities of unscented lotion, it seems like I should be able to do that also with my own recipes. But how do you go about adding fragrance? Just measure the lotion, add fragrance, stir well? Or do I need to heat it up again? Would I be better off not trying to store it and just divide it up while it's still warm and add my scents then?

If I can keep and scent it later, any recommendations for what to store it in before it gets scented? I'm not talking gallons, maybe a quart at the most. I've been making it 4-8 oz at a time and not only is it difficult to weigh and mix, but it's time consuming.

If it's just mix & stir, what's the best way to transfer it to a small jar? It seems like a spoon might get messy and the only other thing I could think of was a cake-icing bag (that I got 20 years ago and decided cake decorating wasn't for me). And it's plastic so it's easily washable.
 
I can't answer your first question personally as I have yet to make lotion.

However, I have seen mention of people dividing up a lotion recipe into smaller portions, putting the smaller amount into ziplocks, adding fragrance and smushing around the bag to incorporate it, and then snipping off the corner to transfer it to a container. I haven't done this personally though.

About the pastry bag, I'd use a clean ziploc instead and snip off the corner. Those pastry bags are impossible to get really clean and could cause contamination problems. Or you can buy disposable ones from Wilton.
 
sandman_max said:
If I can keep and scent it later, any recommendations for what to store it in before it gets scented? I'm not talking gallons, maybe a quart at the most. I've been making it 4-8 oz at a time and not only is it difficult to weigh and mix, but it's time consuming.

multi mix containers from home depot.
 
I make lotion in small 8 oz batches, too, and divide it up into 2 oz portions to fill my 2 oz malibu bottles (each with a different scent), and I do it exactly how judymoody posted- with ZipLoc baggies.

If I don't want to scent it as soon as it's made and cooled down, I just store it in a tightly closed heavy-duty, freezer ZipLoc in a cool, dark place until I'm ready.
When I'm ready, I just snip off the corner and weigh however much lotion I want out into a sandwhich-sized ZipLoc along with the FO, close, smoosh around, snip the corner off and squeeze into my waiting bottle.

If I'm not going to scent anymore lotions right then, I seal off the snipped end of baggie holding the rest of my unscented lotion with a clean binder clip and place the baggie inside of another ZipLoc and store in a cool, dark place until I want to scent another lotion.

IrishLass :)
 
<head> Ziplock baggies.... what a marvelous idea. I had visions of trying to spoon it into jars and making a huge mess of it. Y'all are genuises!! Thanks so much!!!
 
I make gallon at a time that's unscented. When I need to scent some, I put the amount of lotion that I need in a ziploc bag, add fragrance, close the bag and mix from the outside. Then I snip off a small corner of the bag and pipe the lotion into bottles. The bag gets thrown away when I'm done.
 

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