Herbal Apothecary: SPF Lotion
Now that the sun is out, it's time to add some sunscreen to my homemade lotion . To do this, I ordered some zinc oxide from soapgoods.com : This could well be a lifetime supply — I have a pound, and I only used 1/4 cup. (This in a lotion batch that usually takes me about three months to get through.) The 1/4 cup amount of zinc oxide is to get to roughly a 30 SPF. This obviously isn't lab tested, but there's a chart that gives amounts to help approximate. I went with 20 percent of the total added in, which is 1/4 cup. I made the lotion as before (you can check out details in the first link above), but when I measured out the aloe gel, I added 1/4 cup of zinc oxide and stirred it up to make a paste: This is way easier than trying to get the powder mixed evenly with what ends up being a cup of water, once you add it to the gel. Hold off on the water until the last minute, stirring it into the aloe and zinc paste right before you are about to emulsif...