It’s been mentioned a couple of times but I’m on a quest to reduce my rubbish, I’ve switched to soap but one of the places that I can make a change with is moisturiser and hand cream. I have really dry skin and my use of both things is high.

Sarah at Sustainable Cooks, has a recipe for hard lotion bars, which she swears by and she’s never steered me wrong before! I was prepared to give it a go but I’m not that keen on coconut oil, I’ve used it before but it’s not my favourite. So I used the same basic recipe but subbed in cocoa butter. I’ve also done another replacing the coconut oil with shea butter and both work fine.

The bars work well and I have an old mint tin that I’m using for storing it and it works really well. It’s also worth noting that you don’t need a fancy mould, I had one and thought that it would work really well if I was making them for presents but a silicone muffin cup would work as well (actually I have a silicone madeleine mould which I think would be perfect for hand lotion bars!)

This is a case where I’m reducing not giving up entirely, I still love my Altruist moisturiser, it’s a brilliant all in one cream that works for body, hands and feet, so while I have these bars for body and hands, I will continue to use it for my feet, but it’s using maybe three tubes a year versus more than 24 as I go through about 12 tubes of hand cream a year and about the same of moisturiser. Like I said, I’m not aiming for perfect but in this instance, less is more!