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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 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.
Hi! I made some of these the other day using beeswax, sweet almond oil and coconut oil but have noticed that they’re a bit greasy and don’t seem to absorb well. I also added a bit of shea butter to the last bit of my melted wax-concoction, but had the same problem. Any suggestions on how to fix that? And thanks for the simple recipe!
I made some before Christmas and had the same problem. I re-melted them and added more beeswax. Firmed the right up! The shea butter is essentially adding more oil to them, which would only increase the grease factor.
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Sarah, getting ready to try this. When you say, “One Part” of each of the ingredients, does that mean by weight or by liquid measure? The beeswax, 1/5 of a pound — does that mean 1/5 pound of each oil?
I honestly just eyeball it. It’s not a perfect science for me. Start with a small batch if you’re unsure of your “eyeballing” skills!
This is wonderful ! I am making these for my aunts. Gonna add some sprinkles to it to!
Just wanted to start off saying I LOVE your blog–I found the Vicks shower discs on Pinterest (like so many others!) and then couldn’t stop reading. I’ve been meaning to try some of your “hippy shit” for a while now, and finally got the motivation to work on some homemade Christmas gifts. The shower discs turned out wonderfully and were so easy! 🙂 But I need a little help with these lotion bars!! Mine smell like wax… 🙁 maybe they’re supposed to, or maybe I used too much wax and not enough oils? Any suggestions?? I was expecting it to smell more coconut-y and more almond-y.
Oh well, thank you!
First question, where did you get your wax? My lotion bars smell like honey because of the wax…not a strong waxy smell.
I got all my supplies at Whole Foods, so I thought they would be safe! I think I’m going to try melting them down again and maybe adding a little essential oil. I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Hello! I hope this comment doesn’t get lost in the world of cyber space. Our daughter has really bad peanut allergy and we need to avoid all nuts. What can I use instead of almond oil? Thanks!
I’d look for an avocado or shea oil. You’d need a moisturizing oil.
Put some lavender essential oil in your mixture after taking it off the heat, let it solidify, and you’ve got a deodorant too! Mmmmmmm.
This is awesome! Can’t wait to try this, off to find some beeswax!
Question…if you were gifting these how would YOU package it…I’m thinking this and your lip balm would be a great present for my peeps. BTW, just found your site…LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!! You are one funny chick!!
I am the worst wrapper in the world, so I’d probably put them in a ziploc or a mason jar with a ribbon. Seriously, wrapping is my least favorite thing in the whole world!
In fact, I hate wrapping so much that I made cloth gift bags for Christmas last year, just so that I could shove presents in a bag:
Pls forgive if this was already answered i didnt have time to read thru all the comments. Im wondering how much of, approx, of each ingredient ( i get u used a 1:1 ratio of all three ingredients) to make the 24 bars shown? if these are approx 1 oz bars then you would have had to use abt a cup of each ingredient, right? I just cant tell from the pic the size of the bars! Ty! Ty! Ty!
Hi! lovely recipe. any tips on how this bar can be saved between uses – (in a pretty container or something)? and also what is the best way to store a batch of bars?
I’m so excited to try these as gifts for the teachers. What do you recommend for coloring the lotion bars?
I have never colored them, so whatever you use, make sure it is skin-safe! Perhaps a little shaving from some soy crayons?
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!
I store them in an airtight container, and they last for months!!
This recipe is awesome! I’ve made it several times using the same silicon tray from Joann’s that I already had, and am now getting ready to use some apple shaped silicon ice cube trays I found in the Target dollar section. I have really dry skin that is constantly cracking and splitting and have never found anything that works as well as this lotion, love it!
I found this through Pinterest and I was really excited to make these! Me and my sister suffer sverely dry skin so these were great. I used olive oil instead of almond oil, just because i already had it on hand. Beeswax was a bit tricky to find- when I finally found it, the 1lb block was $20, but the candles were $5. So i bought a candle and melted it down (the string was easy to remove). They cooled very fast, but I left them for about 5 minutes (Fast, right?!). They’re great- thanks for the recipe!
I just made my first batch of these… I added 20 drops of lavendar oil for a light scent. Can’t wait until morning when I can pop them out and check out the final product! I think I’ll try some rose essential oil next time!
For us vegans, beeswax is a no-no. Any ideas for substitutes?
I have a really dumb question. What do you use a ‘lotion’ bar for? Can it be used in the shower, or is it just to apply lotion like you would deodorant?
I wouldn’t use it in the shower.
You simply rub it on your (dry) skin like you would a bar of soap. The heat from your skin warms the bar and a little bit of the lotion will be transferred to your skin. You can rub it in after that.
Hi Sarah. I found a 2 pound block of beeswax for$10.50 at the local farmer’s market. I made the bars with the beeswax, coconut oil and olive oil. Wow! They are awesome! My hands are so soft! My daughter also uses them as chapstick. For my lips I just melted coconut oil into tiny containers but I believe I will be making your recipe for chapstick too. Thank you for a lovely natural skin treat!
That is a great deal on beeswax!!!
So sorry if this is a repeat question. Somewhere around here I have a block of paraffin wax.I’ve had it for years as I used to have a warmer to dip py hands in.do you think I could use use that was instead of beeswax?
I honestly don’t know if it is the same, but since you aren’t using the wax now, and haven’t for a while, give it a shot and see what happens! ;-D