As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
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 10-15 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 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˚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.
- 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.
These bars smell so lovely 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 1/3 cup 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.1 part beeswax (melted)
- 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.1 part sweet almond oil, 1 part coconut oil (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
- Vegans can use carnauba wax in lieu of beeswax.
- If you have a coconut allergy you can sub in shea butter.
- 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.
Thanks for the recipe. Just made them as V-Day gifts for teachers in heart shape mold. I think next time I will add some essential oils to make them smell nice. I didn’t have any issues cleaning double boiler, just poured the boiling water I used into the bowl and poured it out along with the little bit of oils and such that were left over in the bowl.
Ok….I have a silly question…..Once you have made these lotion bars, how exactly do you apply them? They are solid, not a cream, right?
Just rub them between your hands like you would a bar of soap. As your hands warm the wax, the bar will “release” a bit of the product. You can then rub it in to your skin.
Hello! Can’t wait to make these for myself and my three daughters!
Can you please address how to store these lotion bars AND how long do they keep? Thanks so very much!
Thank you for teaching me how to make these Sarah! I love them. I just blogged about it on my own blog, of course crediting you and linking to this.
I WAS thinking about adding a pretty scented essential oil to it, but the beeswax itself smells so amazing that I’m not even going to bother!
I made these last night (grapeseed oil instead of almond) & handed them out to my knitting group. Boy was I popular! I made a second batch just for myself & used lanolin instead coconut oil. It’s really nice! I also added extract to a few to experiment. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this recipe!!
Any ideas on how to make this a tinted facial lotion? Excited to try this.
Me, dancing around the house singing “I just made lotion bars, I just made lotion bars.” Total joy
These are amazing!! I make them, but I get the solo condiment cups with lids at the local restaurant supply so you can put the lid on them and throw them back in your purse or pocket!
My cousin is always sending me links to amazing sites, that make homemaking simpler. This is no exception, I love the idea of making my own soaps and lotions. Plus it makes it so much nicer for holidays and birthdays to give handmade gifts! thank you so much for the ideas!
I am going downstairs and make these now. Thanks
I make lip blam using coconut oil, beeswax, grapeseed oil and sweet orange essential oil…. I purchased tubes online but I’ve seen people use the small Altoid containers too. I also use it to rub on cuticles to soften and works great for that too 🙂 sometimes those silicone molds are pricey but always check the day after any holiday as they’re usually at least half price for the holiday related ones if your local thrift store doesn’t have any.
I just made these lotion bars by smacking off a piece of the beeswax from the brick and using that as my guide to measure the other oils. So, 2.8 oz of beeswax, macadamia nut oil and coconut oil. I popped one out after about 30 min and oh baby are they nice.
I have hot hands all the time so I will have to be careful to use them more quickly at one go. Next time I think I may try Argan oil they say it is good for the skin and hair.
Fantastic recipe Sarah, my entire family will want some.
Enjoy! The macadamia nut oil sounds luxurious!!
Could you use orange oil? Does such a thing exist? My bf needs something like this but hates regular lotion. He loves the smell of orange, and this would be perfect!!
Yep, orange oil does exist. I have sweet orange oil in my bathroom closet right now.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0019LPL8A?ie=UTF8&tag=thisb02-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B0019LPL8A
I don’t know if there is such thing as orange oil but can share what I’ve used. Most of the oils I have used have no fragrance, except the coconut oil/waxy stuff kind of has a little. I’ve used safflower, sunflower, almond, sweet almond, apricot [I found at health store as massage oil) and grapeseed. What I have added is an ounce of fragrance or even tried extracts and it does give it a scent. Extracts from grocery store, McCormick has everything – peppermint, orange, strawberry, rootbeer, etc. I just add it with a little bit of sweet almond oil (which I found at ACMoore in a two oz btl) mix it the extract/fragrance with the almond oil and then add it as a last step when it is not on heat. I’ve used this same recipe and gave it as lip balms when using an extract. Today I am trying Duncan Hines frosting creations flavor mix (found in grocery store with frosting). I’m mixing the flavor with a tablespoon of oil and adding in last step. We’ll see how it goes. It is also adding color to the lip balm. I feel like a scientist! LOL! Merry Christmas!
I made these tonight and didn’t have a mold to put them in, but used the aluminum foil baking cups (like used for cupcakes). After they’ve completely set up, I’m going to put cellophane around them and tie at the top with a bow. Then they can be kept in the aluminum foil cup.
I have never posted a comment ever on anything but couldn’t hold back on this… I have been wanting to make “bath bombs” for Christmas presents and have struggled for the past month trying to find one ingredient, came across this on pinterest. I wanted to share my experience because this is SUPER EASY! And materials are SUPER EASY to find. My research for cheapest would be through amazon, but if you want to run out and get this RIGHT now, I found all I needed at Wally Mart. (I think everyone has one nearby in North America anyway…). I used coconut oil, sunflower oil, unscented beeswax candles. I did spice it up by picking up a few other things – fragrance oil from their candle dept (the stuff you put in those burner things), vitamin E oil from the pharamacy area and I also tried soap coloring from craft store (which didn’t work). I’ll have to try the crayons next time. I just popped some in the freezer to see if that would speed up the set up process. I know freezing candles will speed up the process as well as ease the mold extraction. I also wanted to double cheriths comment and thank you for posting this, as well as showing extreme patience by answering the same questions over and over again. You rock! I haven’t had a chance to browse the rest of your blog, but I’m sure I’ll be back again. Thanks so much for sharing this SUPER DUPER EASY GREAT PROJECT/gift idea! You’re a lifesaver!
OK. I just made these and they’re awesome!!! And so easy! Cleanup wasn’t so easy as I let the wax harden on the bowl before getting around to cleaning it, but lesson learned. I used coconut and jojoba oils and wasn’t crazy about the smell of the jojoba. So for round 2 I added some Lavender oil which made them even more awesome! All ladies in my life are getting these in their stockings!! Thanks for the great idea! Caroline
My son has a severe tree nut allergy so the almond oils and coconut oils are a no-no for us! Can these be made with other oils? Both of my boys have eczema and i would love to make them something like this! thanks for any comments/help!
Sure! Jojoba or olive oil would work. I have no idea what kind of plant shea butter comes from, but you might want to try that. Shea butter has to be heated for 20 min at least or it becomes grainy.
I’d up the beeswax a bit if you sub out oils.
I saw someone comment on your shower disc post how beeswax can be bad for your pipes. Would the minimal amount from washing be a problem if you were to make these often?
I’m not a plumber, but I wouldn’t think so. One bar lasts me months, so the amount that is being transferred to your skin is negligible.
Sorry I should have specified. I meant washing the dishes after making them. I used a bowl and transferred to a measuring cup so I could have a spout to pour with.
I’ve been reading all posts & I don’t have silicon molds….want to pour into mini muffin tins….worried about not being able to get them out once hardened. Has anyone used anything like this & did u have success? Please help asap, have to get these xmas gifts going!!!! AHHH 🙂 MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL & HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
anyone try making these in plastic soap molds??
I made some of these tonight, adding clove oil for a festive touch. They’re destined to be little stocking fillers for my family at Christmas time. 🙂