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Recently I decided I wanted to make a "light" lotion. Instead of simply adding more water, I decided to try using up my grapeseed oil. The lotion was .. well .. underwhelming. Here's the ingredients:

water - 74%
honey (humectant) - 2%
grapeseed oil - 8%
meadowfoam oil - 4%
shea butter - 5%
emulsifier - 5%
stearic acid - 2%
trace amounts of beeswax
preservative
essential oils: rosemary, patchouli, juniper, bergamot, benzoin. Focused on EOs that are good for eczema. It's plausible I used too much benzoin, which can sometimes be an irritant.

Now it's possible that it's the combination of essential oils, but I just don't like this hand cream at all (Tabetha, if you're reading this: I've got lots if you want to give it a try). I think it might be better as a summer cream but it's very 'dry' and I seem to need to use it more frequently than the other lotions I've made.

I was so under whelmed (and possibly even unimpressed) that I decided to make another batch of something else almost immediately. This is what I made:

water - 74% **
honey (humectant) - 2%
olive oil (food grade) - 12%
cocoa butter - 5%
emulsifier - 5%
stearic acid - 2%
trace amounts of beeswax
(no preservative)
essential oils: eucalyptus, lemon, vetiver, palmarosa, clary sage.

This second lotion is lovely and thick (probably a bit too thick for what I was originally hoping to make). I continued to use the hand blender as the cream was cooling and it's close to whipped butter in consistency, but not quite. I'm happy using up this batch and I may even make another before winter is out. As we move into spring, I'll try yet another variation and change the oil from just olive oil to include a second medium-to-light oil, such as pumpkinseed oil. (To date my favourite combination is pumpkin seed oil, rice bran oil and jojoba oil -- given as Christmas gifts this year under the label "winter relief".)

** realistically it's less water than this in the final lotion because the water evaporates. I haven't figured out how to get an accurate measurement of water once it's hot (it's seems to be less accurate on the scale).