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This three-ingredient Lotion Bar Recipe makes incredible and moisturizing DIY lotion bars. They are so easy to make and can be prepared in only 10 minutes!
These homemade lotion bars will make you feel like you’re at a fancy spa. But instead of spending tons of money, you can make them in your own kitchen in about 15 minutes.
What Are Hard Lotion Bars?
Ohhh, my friend, you haven’t lived until you have used a hard lotion bar. It looks like a bar of soap but contains ingredients that are nourishing and moisturizing to your skin.
It is not soap so you wouldn’t bring it into the shower or bath, but you can put it on right after showering.
How Do You Use a Hard Lotion Bar?
The best part is how easy they are to use and store! You simply rub the lotion bar on your skin until the heat from your skin warms the bar up and releases the moisturizer.
How Do You Store Them?
Anything air-tight will work. Old mint tins, squat mason jars, or even a ziploc bag will work. Coconut oil is liquid at 76 degrees F or above, so keep them out of direct sunlight and in a cool dry place for best results. You can also gift it to someone in a pretty homemade DIY fabric gift bag.
How Long Do Lotion Bars Last?
If stored properly (see above) they should last for five-plus years. The lotion bar may develop a harder coating from the wax but they are still perfectly safe to use.
Helpful Lotion Bar Recipe Supply List
- Coconut oil
- Double-boiler
- Sweet Almond Oil
- Cosmetics-grade beeswax
- Silicone baking mold
- Or a cutesy soap mold like thisor this.
- An old spoon that you can dedicate to just use with beeswax
Many of these same ingredients and supplies can be used in our Homemade Chapstick recipe and Natural Homemade Deodorant.
How to Make This Lotion Bar Recipe – Step by Step
- Place 2 cups of water in a medium-sized pan fitted with a double boiler. Place beeswax in the double boiler and allow it to fully melt.
- Add the coconut oil and sweet almond oil, and stir gently until the coconut oil is melted.
- Using an oven mitt, remove the double boiler from the pan and wipe the water off of the bottom of the boiler. Pour the melted mixture into your molds, and allow it to set for a few hours, or overnight.
Pro Tips/Recipe Notes
- Having a double-boiled dedicated to just wax crafts means you don’t have to spend a ton of time cleaning it in-between recipes. You could also use a mason jar in a pot of simmering water.
- Vegans can use carnauba wax in lieu of beeswax.
- If you have a coconut allergy you can sub in shea butter.
- If you have a nut allergy you can sub in olive or avocado oil for the sweet almond.
- Using an empty deodorant tube makes it super easy to apply this lotion bar recipe and makes it kid-friendly for them to apply themselves.
Variations
Want a scented lotion bar? Add 10-15 drops of your favorite essential oils in step 2 with the sweet almond oil. Please note, I don’t sell essential oils or anything but I do use them myself around the house.
- Lavender is a calming scent that many people love, but not great for males to use long-term.
- Bergamot is great for when you want to chill out.
- A mixture of peppermint and eucalyptus smells clean and can be very energizing.
- You could even add a sleepy blend of oils (this is the one I use) for a night-time lotion bar recipe.
- Want something that smells like the holidays? Try a holiday seasonal blend.
These bars smell so clean and natural even without essential oils, and they work amazingly well. They have become one of my most requested handmade holiday gifts from friends and family.
Lotion Bar Recipe {Homemade Hard Lotion Bar}
Ingredients
- 1 part beeswax (melted)
- 1 part sweet almond oil
- 1 part coconut oil (melted)
Instructions
- Note: by "equal parts" for the ingredients, it would mean you use the same measurements of all the ingredients. Let's say you want to use 1/3 cup of beeswax, you'd then want to use 1/3 cup of the almond oil and the coconut oil. This allows you to use scale the recipe up to your preferred amount for your molds.
- Place 2 cups of water in a medium-sized pan fitted with a double boiler. Place beeswax in the double boiler and allow it to fully melt.
- Add the coconut oil and sweet almond oil, and stir gently (with a spoon dedicated solely to beeswax crafts) until the coconut oil is melted.
- Using an oven mitt, remove the double boiler from the pan and wipe the water off of the bottom of the boiler. Pour the melted mixture into your molds, and allow to set for a few hours, or overnight.
Notes
I like your bee mold!
I’ve been looking for activities to do with my Guide troop, this is now on my list. Just need to work out what to put the lotion in for them to take home while it’s still liquid.
If you have access to a fridge, pop them in for 20-30 minutes! The lotion bars. Not the kids. 🙂
No fridge unfortunately but the hallway outside the room we meet in is pretty cold, they could put them out there while they [watch me] tidy up.
If you’re doing a basic silicone mold like the one I linked in the post, that would work just fine. Anything more intricate (like the bee one in my pictures) would need to be fully cooled before removing.
Is this suitable for daily facial use or is it too heavy/will it clog pores?
I’ve never used it daily, so I would say try it every other day and work your way up to every day and see how it goes!
My fiance is allergic to beeswax. Is there any alternative I can use.
There is soy wax available, but I’ll be honest in that I have never used it.
For my hands, I have been using the Beeswax Butter Balm (from Made from Earth). I absolutely LOVE this stuff! Everything I’ve ever tried from Made from Earth is amazing. Its a balm, and works really well on my extremely dry hands, winters are bad here in Michigan and this does the trick.
All of their products use high quality ingredients and real essential oils, and I have been using the Beeswax Butter Balm both on my hands and on my lips. So addicted
Could I substitute an oil I have on hand, such as grapeseed or olive, for the almond?
The almond is a really soft nourishing oil, so yes you can substitute it, but I’d maybe go a little “lighter” on it in terms of amount.
I have been making these for years, and love them. Basically the rule is 1:1:1 beeswax, hard oil, soft oil.
But my real reason for commenting is re: cleanup.
After I scrape everything out of the pot I give it a quick swipe with a paper towel to remove the residual oils and wax then wash as usual.
I have not tried using baking powder but I might try it for fun–and because I would use the baking powder/oil mix in my next shower and use it as a body scrub.
Just wondering – why limit yourself to what you can find in stores? Especially in small town/stores things cost more (less bulk-buying abilities by small businesses) – you can get anything you’re looking for on the internet, and you can comparison shop for the best deals right from your couch. If being frugal is that important….
I know this is a stupid question, but is candle wax you buy in blocks the same as beeswax. I have some left over from making candles and would like to use it up. Or there is a different grade/quality for making lotion bars?
You would want to find cosmetic grade beeswax, so I don’t believe that is the same as stuff for candles.
Ok, call me stupid, but, these are basically blocks of lotion…do you just rub the “block” over the areas you want moisturized?? like a bar of soap??
That’s exactly correct stupid (sorry, you told me to!). It’s a hard lotion bar and the heat from your skin will release a bit of the lotion where needed.