Make Your Own Natural Lotion Bars with This Recipe
Make these beautiful DIY natural lotion bars for yourself and for friends! These bars are made with healthy ingredients like coconut oil, shea butter, beeswax, and essential oils. It is super hydrating for your skin and they make for lovely gifts!
DIY Natural Lotion Bars
Hydrating and nourishing DIY natural lotion bars recipe, made with simple ingredients like coconut oil, shea butter, beeswax and essential oils, with the option of adding flower petals for decoration and scent.
Ingredients
- 1⁄2 cup melted coconut oil
- 2½ cups Shea Butter, chopped into small pieces or grated
- ½ cup beeswax pellets
- up to 25 drops essential oils of choice (see ideas below)
- 1⁄2 teaspoon Vitamin E oil (optional)
- Soap or lotion silicone molds
- 2 tbsp. flower petals (optional) – I chose rose and lavender
Instructions
Put coconut oil, shea butter and beeswax in double boiler (one small pot inside of a larger one, with about 1/2 cup of water in the larger one). Melt on medium to low heat, stirring frequently. Once all of the ingredients have melted, remove the pot from the heat and let cool for about 20 minutes, being careful that it doesn't start to harden. If your house is cold, it will harden more quickly than on a warm day.
Once it has gotten cooler, add the essential oils. If using flower petals, put a pinchful in each lotion mold. Then, pour the lotion liquid into the soap molds. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours until they harden completely.
TO USE: just rub the lotion bar on the skin and it softens almost immediately. Take care to keep the bars out of the sun and heat as they could easily melt.
Notes
The essential oil scent does evaporate, so store them in a sealed container to retain as much of the scent as possible. I have found the flower petals to retain their scent.
The flower petals add a pretty and luxurious touch. Makes your homemade gifts look really special!
DIY Natural Lotion Bars Ingredients
Learn about the healthy and hydrating ingredients in these DIY natural lotion bars.
Shea Butter
I love using shea butter for my hair and skin (here's the hair cream with shea butter that I use). Shea butter is a nut butter and is extracted from the nuts of West African shea trees. It is my favorite ingredient in these DIY natural lotion bars!
Shea butter is naturally rich in vitamins A and E. It provides the skin with essential fatty acids and the nutrients necessary for collagen production. It also contains oleic, stearic, palmitic, and linolenic acids that protect and nourish the skin the prevent drying. This scientific study shows that shea butter also has anti-inflammatory and healing properties.
Shea butter is very thick and solid at room temperature and has a buttery, creamy consistency, making it ideal to use in lotions, lip balms, and eye creams.
Coconut Oil
Coconut oil is excellent for dry and aging skin as it contains incredible moisturizing and antioxidant properties. It also has antibiotic properties, which help it fight odor in homemade deodorant recipes. Many use it in skin lotions and hair creams, especially when whipped with shea butter. I suggest using coconut oil sparingly for the hair as it can be very heavy and greasy.
Coconut oil contains a magical ingredient I’ve written about before called lauric acid, a medium-chain saturated fatty acid (MCFA) that is converted in the body into a compound called monolaurin, an antiviral and antibacterial that destroys a wide variety of disease-causing organisms. So, coconut oil does more than sesame or olive oils by killing germs while at the same time, drawing them out of the body.
Beeswax
Beeswax thickens the consistency of lotions and creams. You'll find it in candles, lip balms. It provides a protective barrier to the skin to trap moisture. Unlike petroleum, which is a common, cheap skin barrier ingredient, beeswax doesn't clog up the pores and suffocate the skin.
Vitamin E Oil
Vitamin E oil contains not a single vitamin, but rather a group of fat-soluble vitamins with antioxidant effects. It is derived from vitamin E and can be applied directly to the skin, or added to lotions, gels, and creams. It may also be an antioxidant, which will help fight many diseases. Vitamin E oil is extremely hydrating and nourishing, especially to dry and aging skin. It is anti-aging and healing, so it's a wonderful addition to the face, like in the oil cleansing method.
Essential Oils
Essential oils are wonderful to use in homemade bath, body, and beauty products. They not only make your products smell like they were created in a spa, but they also have many therapeutic and health benefits! My favorite essential oils company is Young Living. Young Living makes getting started with essential oils easy as they offer some of the most beautiful and convenient starter kits on the market. Learn more about their starter kits here. I use them all of the time to keep me and my family healthy and well.
Here are some essential oils and combinations I recommend to use in these DIY natural lotion bars:
- Lemon and Eucalyptus – a refreshing, awakening blend – better to use on the body and might be too strong for the face
- Peppermint and Cedarwood – uplifting and woodsy
- Lavender (good for all skin types, aids in healing)
- Frankincense (great for aging and mature skin, helps to smooth and lighten)
- Jasmine (light, feminine scent that’s therapeutic for the skin)
- Geranium (excellent for acne-prone skin)
- Joy blend (lovely, feminine scent that includes rose and several oils that are excellent for hair and skin)
- Rose (super luxurious and healing for the skin)
- Rosemary (excellent for acne-prone skin)
- Lady Sclareol (lovely, feminine scent that includes rose and several oils that are excellent for hair and skin)
- Tea Tree (excellent for acne-prone skin)
Similar Recipes On My Blog
I hope you enjoyed this DIY natural lotion bars recipe! Check out my other recipes using some of the same ingredients:
What a great recipe! These lotion bars would make a great gift! Where did you get the molds? I love the design.
Hi Elaine! I have the molds linked in the recipe here in the post for ya. And yes, won’t they make such beautiful gifts?