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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
Is the Almond Oil in solid or liquid form? Thanks! Love your blog!
jane
Liquid!
Oh I am going to have to try this!!!!! I was thinking as I read all the comments that empty glue sticks, especially the bigger ones would be a great container for on the go!
Funny! Actually, I only have about 3,826 hours worth of dishes every week! (Again, I’m guesstimating!)
Hi I was wondering where you normally buy the bees wax and if the stuff for making candles would be o.k. for this
Thank you
We love a local bee shop in this neck of the woods, and I get it there. If you click on the “beeswax” up in my original post, there is a hyperlink that will take you to Amazon to buy stuff I’ve used in the past.
For full disclosure, I’m an Amazon Affiliate which means I earn a small percentage if you order through this site. I only recommend things that I myself use.
couldn’t wait to try these! we just harvested our first honey from our bees, so I got to use some of our beeswax! I had some great olive oil from a ranch about 5 miles from my place and a local store brand organic coconut oil. I put in a couple of drops tea tree oil and a little bit of calendula oil. did a small batch in a coffee cup placed in a small saucepan of water because i didn’t want to scape wax out of mt dbl boiler. i’ll just use that same cup each time. getting lazy in my old age. thanks for sharing, love these!
How cool that you get to use wax from your own bees!!!
I’ve tried olive oil in another batch of these, and it works great, but does make the bars a little bit more oily.
So I came across your blog today via pintrest (the vick shower discs) and I am utterly in love! You just crack me up and I love all the neat things you do! I am so glad I found you!! Lol. Ok, creepy stalker talk over!
Creepy stalkers are my favorite! ;-D Glad you found me, and I hope you stick around!
So perfect ! I’m going, if you permit me, to translate your receipe, and share it with the french public ! Of course I will give your link and talk about you… let me know if you agree… MJ
That would be fine! Thanks
I’ve seen them wrapped in waxed paper ( cut with pinking shears) and then in a metal tin in stores. I’m so glad I know how to make these now, Thanks for sharing!
That sounds lovely!
Just made a batch of these and poured them into sea creature shaped cookie cutters for my sister-in-law’s baby shower. I made them as the favor gifts for those who attend. Turned out so darn cute!! I used avacado oil because it was on sale (cheap). And, to give me better control over pouring, I poured the mix into a glass measuring cup. Microwaved the near empty cup to make sure I was able to make use of ALL the mix. Seemed to work great.
Those sound super cute! I hope everyone liked them as favors.
Oh, and I almost forgot, a good container for lotion bars is a metal tin. This is how I see them sold most often.
try ab altoids tin!