Tallow Shower Lotion Bars
My handmade Tallow shower lotion bars are the skincare solution you never knew you needed. These moisture-packed bars work their magic right in the shower, lightly exfoliating and delivering hydration exactly when your skin is most receptive—while it's still damp and warm.
Instead of shivering while applying cold lotion after your warm shower, try a shower lotion bar. They are designed to melt slightly with your body heat, allowing rich, nourishing tallow and to penetrate deeply and lock in moisture before you even reach for a towel.
Psst. These are different than my tallow lotion bars, which are intended to be used on dry skin.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Jump to:
What Is An In Shower Lotion Bar?
This formula is designed to include an emulsifier. The emulsifier enables the oils and fats to dissolve and combine with the water on your skin to form a lotion.
If you were to use a traditional lotion bar in the shower, like my tallow lotion bars that only contains oil, tallow, and beeswax, you'd find it incredibly draggy and sticky on the skin. This shower lotion bar glides smoothly along the skin, with just the right amount of exfoliation. They leave your skin smooth, soft and hydrated.
The Benefits of Tallow for Your Skin
Tallow is a powerhouse of hydration and nourishment, thanks to its unique composition of fatty acids. It closely mimics the natural oils found in human skin, making it an incredibly effective and gentle skin care ingredient.5
Fatty Acids in Tallow and Their Benefits:
Stearic Acid
With its creamy, waxy feel, stearic acid helps to prevent moisture loss by forming a protective barrier on the skin's surface. This barrier not only keeps skin hydrated but also protects it from external irritants.4
Oleic Acid
Acting as an emollient, oleic acid helps to lock in moisture and keep your skin feeling soft and supple. It also supports the skin's natural repair processes, making it especially beneficial for dry or damaged skin.1
Palmitic Acid
Known for its smoothing properties, palmitic acid is both an emollient and a moisturizer. It creates a protective layer on the skin, promoting a soft and even texture while shielding against environmental stressors. 2 3
Ingredients You'll Need!
Tallow: Choose a high quality, grass fed tallow that's been purified for skin care use. This type of tallow is more likely to be scentless. If you're not sure, you can always use my guide to purify the tallow you have!
Cocoa Butter: Cocoa butter is a creamy, fatty wax that is solid at room temperature. It smells faintly of chocolate and has a rich, silky texture. Cocoa butter is a great at helping to protect your skin from moisture loss.6
BTMS-25: BTMS-25 is a fantastic conditioning agent derived from canola. It's great at providing a soft, silky, powdery feel, acting as a conditioning agent for both skin and hair.
Rice Flour: I'm forever using rice flour in my sourdough baking (you can find my favourite recipes on my food blog), and it's the perfect ingredient for this lotion bar. It's fine texture gives a gentle scrub and because rice flour is gluten free, it won't create dough in your pipes!
How To Make In Shower Lotion Bars
Heated Phase:
- In a heat proof double boiler, add 38g tallow, 34g cocoa butter, and 10g BTMS- 25. I use a borosilicate glass measuring cup.
- Melt all ingredients, stirring occasionally with a small silicone spatula, over medium low heat. The water bath barely needs to simmer for these ingredients to melt.
- Once completely melted, remove from heat, stir well to ensure everything is completely combined, then set aside to cool.
Cool Down Phase:
- Using an infrared thermometer, check the temperature of your mixture. Once the mixture drops below 100f or 40c, add 15g rice flour and stir until incorporated. Waiting until the mixture has cooled ensures we aren't inactivating the preservative and helps to prevent the settling of the rice flour while cooling.
- Add 2g fragrance oil and 1g Optiphen Plus, stir with a small silicone spatula until completely combined.
Transfer To Molds:
- Pour the lotion bar base into your prepared molds.
- Allow the shower bars to cool and solidify for 24 hours before removing from the mold. Cure the bars another 24 hours before using.
Package And Label Your Lotion Bars
If you're gifting or storing your lotion bars, transfer them to storage containers and label! I love to label my lotion bars and other handcrafted goodies. I used my Munbyn thermal printer and holographic labels for this project. I created the labels in Canva.
Tips + Tricks
How To Use In Shower Lotion Bars
These are oh so easy to use. Near the end of your shower, just glide the bar across your body and the emulsifying properties of the BTMS will help create a luxurious lotion that you can simply rub into your skin then rinse off before patting your skin dry with a towel.
Formula
Here is the formula for the shower lotion bars, using these percentages you'll be able to scale up or down the batch as required. If you choose to omit the fragrance oil for an unscented bar, increase the tallow by 2% instead.
| Ingredient | Percentage | 100g Batch |
|---|---|---|
| Tallow | 38% | 38g |
| Cocoa Butter | 34% | 34g |
| Rice Flour | 15% | 15g |
| BTMS 50 | 10% | 10g |
| Fragrance Oil | 2% | 2g |
| Optiphen Plus | 1% | 1g |
Measuring By Weight
I use my kitchen scale to weigh the ingredients for this recipe because I’m a firm believer in the accuracy that weighing provides. Cocoa butter often comes in irregular, inconsistent shapes, and tallow can be difficult to measure volume because it's firm.
Measuring them by weight is not only easier but also ensures precision, especially when scaling the recipe for larger or smaller batches.
More Tallow Goodness!
Batch + Storage
Batch:
A 100g batch makes about 2 good sized shower bars. I like working with this quantity because I'm not making these to sell, I just like to have a couple shower lotion bars around - especially in the winter.
That said, if you love the recipe, feel free to scale it up - the results will stay consistent across batch sizes because I have developed this recipe by weights versus volume.
Storage:
I find the shelf life of tallow shower lotion bars to be about a year, so keep that in mind while you're making it - I try to only make up what I can use or gift within a reasonable timeframe.
It's important to store your lotion bar in a self draining dish or a wire shower rack to ensure that the bar is not sitting in standing water, as that will greatly reduce it's life and effectiveness.
Ingredients + Supplies Links
Tallow Shower Lotion Bars
Materials
Heated Phase:
- 38 g tallow
- 34 g cocoa butter unrefined
- 10 g BTMS-25
Cool Down Phase:
- 15 g rice flour
- 2 g fragrance oil
- 1 g optiphen plus
Instructions
Heated Phase:
- In a heat proof double boiler, add 38g tallow, 34g cocoa butter, and 10g BTMS- 25.Melt all ingredients, stirring occasionally with a small silicone spatula, over medium low heat. The water bath barely needs to simmer for these ingredients to melt.
- Once completely melted, remove from heat, stir well to ensure everything is completely combined, then set aside to cool.
Cool Down Phase:
- Using an infrared thermometer, check the temperature of your mixture. Once the mixture drops below 100f or 40c, add 15g rice flour and stir until incorporated. Waiting until the mixture has cooled ensures we aren't inactivating the preservative and helps to prevent the settling of the rice flour while cooling.
- Add 2g fragrance oil and 1g Optiphen Plus, stir with a small silicone spatula until completely combined.
Transfer To Molds:
- Pour the lotion bar base into your prepared molds.
- Allow the shower bars to cool and solidify for 24 hours before removing from the mold.
- Cure the bars another 24 hours before using.
Using Shower Lotion Bars:
- Near the end of your shower, just glide the bar across your body and the emulsifying properties of the BTMS will help create a luxurious lotion that you can simply rub into your skin then rinse off before patting your skin dry with a towel.
Notes
Tips + Tricks
Pin This Guide For Tallow Shower Lotion Bars!
Sources:
1 https://draxe.com/nutrition/oleic-acid/#Benefits
2 https://www.webmd.com/diet/what-is-palmitic-acid
3 https://draxe.com/nutrition/palmitic-acid
4 https://draxe.com/nutrition/what-is-stearic-acid/
Comments
No Comments