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["Before starting, make sure your work station is as clean as possible. Have clean utensils and pots -- the tubes you are putting your product in have been cleaned. You want to keep your finished product to stay as sterile as possible. Carrier and exotic oils have a shelf life -- smell them to make sure they are still fresh.", "Combine all the ingredients and heat until just melted, roughly 3 - 4 minutes. Do not let the mixture come to a boil. Pour into 2 deodoant containers. (put whatever butter you have left in a clean container).", "If you are going to add essential oils, let the oils cool down somewhat. Essential oils are heat sensitive, so add them when the lotion is just warm to the touch. If you are wanting something with healing properties and are not sure what to use, contact me and I will be glad to help.", "Let stand, undisturbed until the butters and oils solidify. When the lotion has solidified, there will be a ""well"" in the middle of the tube. Take a knife and smooth the edges down for a nicer look.", "This recipe could be cut into half. Calculate how much product your container can handle, then roughly estimate how much oils you are going to to fill your container, keeping in mind the beeswax/oil ratio. The beeswax is what basically is holding the butter together, but you also want the oils for their healing benefits.", "Vitamin E has it's own healing properties, but in this case, it is used as a preservative, so do include this. With any home products, there is a shelf life of roughly 2 years. I date my sticks -- but I have usually used it up by then!", "Caution: These butters do not have the heavy preservatives and fixatives that the commercial products have. With any home product that is ""applied"" to the skin, keep in mind about how clean your skin is and who is going to use it. Beware that if you pass your lotion around you could possible contaminate your stick. The cleaner the enviroment it is going to be used in the longer the shelf life it is going to have. If you are going to share your lotion, use a knife to ""skim"" some lotion off. Just some ""food for thought""!"]
