Luxurious DIY Lotion Recipe

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DIY lotion
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If you’re still using store-bought lotion there are super easy natural alternatives that are fun to make! This DIY lotion recipe has three basic ingredients and only takes ten minutes to whip together.

The basic recipe is an ultra-moisturizing water-free version that lasts for years without preservatives. While lotion is technically a formulation of water and oil-based skincare ingredients, this one is oil-based. It feels more like a body butter and is great for dry skin.

Homemade Lotion

I discovered years ago that I could use natural ingredients to make my own skincare products and I haven’t looked back since! From homemade lip balm to whipped body butter I love making my own. Lotion bars were one of the first things I made and I’ve branched out to other kinds of lotion too. This version uses unrefined coconut oil, almond oil, and shea butter to nourish skin deeply.

Most lotions use emulsifying wax to blend distilled water and carrier oils together. It can be tricky to do at home. Plus it requires preservatives to keep it from going bad! This DIY lotion skips that problem by eliminating the water. You can further extend the shelf life by using vitamin E. This antioxidant helps oils not go rancid as quickly.

Choosing a Carrier Oil

I use sweet almond oil for the carrier oil since it’s a middle of the road oil. It’s not as heavy as coconut oil, but it’s more moisturizing than something like grapeseed oil. You could replace it with whatever liquid carrier oil you prefer. Jojoba, olive oil, or avocado oil are also good options.

This lotion is ultra-moisturizing and more oily than water-based lotions so you won’t need to use as much. It also has a longer shelf life than some homemade lotion recipes. All the ingredients are already shelf stable and no water is added.

Custom Lotion Making

Once you master the base recipe, have fun customizing your lotion to your skin type, skin conditions, and desired scent!

There are endless variations, but some of my favorites are:

  • Baby Lotion – Infuse the oil with dried calendula and chamomile before making the lotion.
  • Cooling Muscle Rub – Add peppermint, wintergreen, and ginger for sore muscles.
  • Anti-aging Face Lotion – Use argan oil and add lavender and patchouli essential oils.
  • Lavender and Vanilla Lotion – Add a few drops of lavender and a little natural vanilla extract.

Essential Oil Safety

So how many drops of essential oils should you add to your DIY lotion? It depends on the essential oil and your preference. If you add the optional shea butter, 45 drops of essential oil will be a 1% dilution. A 2% dilution is generally considered safe for skincare products like lotion.

If you like a really strong scent you could double the amount (to 2%). Or if you prefer a lighter scent or have more sensitive skin, you could cut the amount in half (or even less!). I avoid using essential oils on little ones, especially babies.

Certain oils like wintergreen, cinnamon, and lemongrass are harsher and need to be used in smaller amounts. Others, like grapefruit and lime, are phototoxic. Some of my favorite skin-friendly essential oils to use include:

Don’t Want to Make It?

If you want healthy lotion but don’t want to make it or don’t have the ingredients there are some good store-bought options. These lotions have clean ingredients and help hydrate thirsty skin:

DIY lotion
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4.08 from 764 votes

Homemade DIY Lotion Recipe

Make smooth, luxurious lotion at home with almond oil, coconut oil, beeswax, and optional essential oils.
Prep Time20 minutes
Yield: 9 ounces
Author: Katie Wells

Materials

Instructions

  • Combine the almond oil, coconut oil, beeswax, and shea or cocoa butter, in a double boiler. Or use a glass bowl on top of a simmering pan of water.
  • Stir occasionally as the ingredients melt.
  • Once the ingredients are completely melted, add the vitamin E oil and any essential oils or vanilla.
  • Pour into a glass jar or tin for storage and cool to room temperature. Small mason jars work perfectly for this. This will not pump well in a lotion pump!

Notes

  • A little goes a long way! This lotion is incredibly nourishing and great for diaper rash, eczema, and for preventing stretch marks.
  • Store in a cool, dry place for up to 1-2 years.

Other Homemade Lotion Recipe Variations

There are lots of ways you can make your own lotion at home. Here are some more lotion tutorials to try:

Ever made DIY lotion before? How did it go? Let me know below!

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Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

1,338 responses to “Luxurious DIY Lotion Recipe”

  1. Alyssa Avatar

    Have you ever used cooking powders like cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, coco powder, etc. for scents? I am looking for a recipe that is all natural (edible safe) and don’t think you should ingest essential oils. (thinking about children that put there hands in mouth)

  2. Hope Avatar

    First off , Thank you Wellness Mama for sharing with all of us. It is so refreshing to see that people still care out there for others.

    My daughter and I are beginners in making our own lotions and are excited. We tried our first batch but we were confused with the amount of beeswax. We have it in a pound bar and shredded it. Also the shea butter in different recipes. We weren’t sure if you had to melt it , then measure or measure the shredded beeswax. ? The first batch came out hard and we cant get it to spread???? Too much beeswax??? What to do??. Thank you for any help you could give us.

      1. Hope Avatar

        Thank you so much for taking the time to answer.  Will try.
        Have a great day
        Hope

  3. Sonja Norton Avatar
    Sonja Norton

    Thanks this is a great post! I recently made my first salve of coconut oil, cayenne pepper and turmeric for my sore joints. The turmeric acts like topical aspirin while the oil and turmeric help reduce inflammation. The only down-side, turmeric can stain. But super fun to make 🙂

  4. Shay Lane Avatar
    Shay Lane

    Hello Wellness Mama, I have two questions:#1. How long would you say the shelf life for the above lotion recipe would be before I should discard the remaining? #2 For the lotion bars, what is the best suggestion for storage and will they melt if wrapped in saran wrapping? Thank you.

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar
      Wellness Mama

      Both will last indefinitely if kept in a cool, dry place and saran wrap is fine, as long as they are not stored above 75 degrees…

  5. alma Avatar

    i’m interested in using the almond oil & rose water combo. but, since there is no water in the recipe, what is the rosewater replacing or how much do i use?

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar
      Wellness Mama

      Sorry for that…. that was the old recipe and the liquid was removed when I updated the recipe. You could use it, but would need to emulsify by adding the oil to the warm rose water slowly…

  6. Cortny Avatar

    Hi! I’ve now tried all three of your lotion recipies and this one is definitely my favorite! However, mine turned out mostly solid. It melts in my hand and I’m able to ‘scrape’ some out of the jar with my fingertips easily enough, but I was expecting it to be a bit thinner. Any suggestions? Should I add more oil? I did have the lid off the jar quite a bit as I was melting it (trying to do a few too many things at once 😉 ). Would that make a difference? Thanks for your help!

  7. Kirsten Cleigh Avatar
    Kirsten Cleigh

    I used the recipe here and used grapeseed oil infused with vanilla beans I had leftover from making vanilla extract. It was greasy and did not absorb well (not terribly surprising as it’s nothing but oil) I went to the craft store to try and find emulsifying wax, even though it’s not natural (something I wasn’t very happy about, but what else could I do?) and the employee I talked to just so happened to make her own lotions. She said to get the water and oil mixture both to about 100-110 degrees, and use an emmersion blender while slowly drizzling the water into the oil mixture. I used a candy thermometer to get the temps right, and about 1.5 cups of distilled water for the recipe listed above. She also suggested using a little cornstarch or arrowroot powder (I used about 2 teaspoons) to help the lotion absorb into the skin better and not leave a greasy feeling.
    When I got home, I tried it, and it turned out perfectly. It looks and absorbs like storbought lotions and smells lightly light toasted vanilla and coconut without any of the harsh perfume scent.

  8. Ross Rogers Avatar
    Ross Rogers

    HELP!!! My lotion are much too liquid-y. The top is super hard and then under that layer its liquid-y. I’ve done this recipe before and not had an issue, figures its when I want to give them to people they mess up. How can I salvage them? Should I refrigerate them? Should I boil them again and stir better? Should I boil them again and add more beeswax?

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar
      Wellness Mama

      What amounts of each ingredient did you use? You should be able to just remelt and stir well to fix it.. perhaps add more of the butters or beeswax if the proportions were off

  9. Jennifer Marquis Avatar
    Jennifer Marquis

    Just made it and it’s cooling on the counter! It certianly looks wonderful, though I am wondering about the greasiness…

  10. Jenna Wehder Sproul Avatar
    Jenna Wehder Sproul

    Thank you so much for this recipe. I’m very excited to try it. I’m confused after reading a few posts. I ordered the 1 oz. bars of beeswax from Mountain Rose Herbs as suggested. Do I need to first melt the beeswax and measure the liquid form for the 1/4 cup in your recipe? I can’t simply use 2 of the 1 oz bars – correct? I need to melt it first? Thank you so much.

  11. Jennifer Avatar

    I just made my first batch, but it seems a bit too greasy for my liking. Texture is great, not too hard. Any suggestions to cut down the greasy feel? Could i add arrowroot powder or something else, or decrease the amount of oil?

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar
      Wellness Mama

      Just decreasing the amount of oil will make it slightly less oily, though you definitely won’t need as much of this as you would regular lotion…

  12. Caitlin Cuesta Avatar
    Caitlin Cuesta

    Hi, I was wondering, can you use regular vanilla extract that you would use for cooking into the lotion bars? I’ve just ordered everything I need off amazon but I don’t know if I need a special type of vanilla extract.thanks!

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar
      Wellness Mama

      You can, you just may have some issues with it mixing in all the way, but it should still work…

  13. Sarah Sandoval Avatar
    Sarah Sandoval

    Great recipe! I made it exactly as instructed and it came out quite hard. I scooped it into my mixer and beat it for a few minutes- now its like body butter. Perfect!

    1. Rose M. Avatar

      You should add about one to two tsp. Sometimes it varies because it depends on how strong you want the scent to be. First try one tsp. and if you think you’d like it stronger, add a little more.

  14. Erica Peters Avatar
    Erica Peters

    Oh, I forgot to mention before, that I used this as chapstick today, and it was great for that, too!

    1. Rose M. Avatar

      I’ve used it as lip balm too and it works great for those chapped lips of mine!

  15. Erica Peters Avatar
    Erica Peters

    Do you think it’s possible to make this less greasy by adding more beeswax?

    1. Erica Peters Avatar
      Erica Peters

      Hm, I think it felt so greasy because it was still a little warm – I let it cool off some more and used a tiny dab of it on my hands and wrists, and it hydrated my skin quite nicely (I get really, really dry skin, and it cracks very easily and painfully), and left my skin soft and smooth. Still a bit greasier than I’d like, but I now see why adding more beeswax probably wouldn’t help 🙂
      My lotion was Lavender-thyme scented, because I happened to have a bottle of lavender oil and thyme-infused olive oil from when I made salad dressing.

    2. Wellness Mama Avatar
      Wellness Mama

      Yes, though this is a naturally very moisturizing recipe, so only a little is needed and it will feel oily if more is used…

    3. vilisha watchman Avatar
      vilisha watchman

      I made the lotion for the first time and found it fun and easy. I do have a quesiton though, My lotion that i made was very thick and very heavy like wax and the color was almost yellow, did i do it wrong or is it suppose to look like that? When i use it, it is very nice and feels like body butter.

  16. Jess Avatar

    If I use this lotion for diaper cream will it effect the absorbency of cloth diapers?

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar
      Wellness Mama

      It might…I just stick with pure coconut oil based recipes for diaper cream with cloth diapers… you can just add some zinc oxide powder to coconut oil for a good diaper cream.

  17. Britni Avatar

    Tried it out Sunday. Love it!!! Came out a bit liquidity, was a little worried about it being too oily but after 5 mins the lotions had completely soaked it 🙂 I would like to try to get it thicker next time…wondering if adding more beeswax would work….

  18. Emily Colvin Avatar
    Emily Colvin

    I have been looking (with no luck) for soap and lotion products that do not contain any coconut (I’m allergic to it and trying to eliminate any exposure to see if there’s an effect on chronic health problems). Is there another type of oil that would be a functional substitute for the coconut oil in your recipe? I know coconut oil is evidently the greatest thing ever for lotion and soap, since every recipe and product has it…Thanks!

    1. Wellness Mama Avatar
      Wellness Mama

      You could just leave it out and add 1/2 and 1/2 each of shea butter and a liquid oil like almond oil to make up the difference and it should work…

      1. Emily Colvin Avatar
        Emily Colvin

        Thanks! I’ll try that. Doing it that way actually means I’ll be able to get everything I need really easily – my ex-fiance/roommate/good friend is a bee keeper, so this will be my first try at using the beeswax for something, once I get it strained/clean enough. 🙂 Do you have any recipes for just a regular bar of soap? I saw the household cleaning recipes, but nothing for the body. And thanks again; I have the feeling I’ll be trying out several of your recipes in the future.

      2. Yael Scutaru Avatar
        Yael Scutaru

        Hi! I have the beeswax pastilles. How much is 1/4 cup in grams or ounces?? Thanks!

        1. Wellness Mama Avatar
          Wellness Mama

          I don’t know… it is on my list to measure by weight next time. If you have it, the pastilles can be measured with a 1/4 cup measuring cup…

          1. Yael Scutaru Avatar
            Yael Scutaru

            I have just a piece of beeswax and it is so hard to handle it when it is liquid. But I will try to make the recipe anyway. Thanks!

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