How to Make Lotion

Making lotion at home is simpler than most people think and can be a great alternative to buying it. At its most basic, lotion is a mix of oil and water brought together with the help of an emulsifier. This basic formula gives you the chance to adjust the recipe to match your skin and your favorite scents. By combining basic ingredients and a few extras like preservatives or fragrances, you can mix up a creamy, moisturizing lotion. With some patience and a few essential tools, homemade lotion is not just fulfilling to make but also lets you have more control over your skin routine.

Trying out DIY lotion allows you to know every ingredient you put on your skin, which is helpful compared to guessing what’s in store-bought bottles. This approach can save you money over time and helps cut down on plastic waste. Whether you’re after a light moisturizer or a heavier cream, the basic method stays the same, making this an easy and accessible craft for anyone wanting simple, natural skin care. Once you see how nice homemade lotion feels, you might not want to go back to the store-bought kind.

Why Make Your Own Lotion?

Making lotion yourself is more than just a project-it lets you know exactly what you’re putting on your skin. In stores, many lotions have ingredient lists that are hard to understand. With homemade lotion, you’re in control, picking ingredients you trust and skipping anything you don’t want, such as harsh chemicals or possible allergens.

You also get to make a product that fits your skin and your preferences. From the oils you choose to the scents you add, it all comes down to what suits you best. Many people also find making lotion by hand is relaxing and adds something special to their daily routine.

Benefits of Homemade Lotion

• Control over ingredients: You decide what goes in-no unwanted chemicals or fragrances, which is good for those with sensitive skin or allergies.
• Cost savings: While you might need to buy a few supplies at first, homemade lotion costs a lot less per bottle compared to natural store brands. For example, a 16-ounce batch can cost as little as $1.50 to make, compared to $20 or more for a similar store option. Buying ingredients in bigger amounts saves you even more.
• Better for the environment: Making your own lotion helps reduce plastic use. You can use refillable glass jars or bottles.
• Customize to your needs: Choose how thick or thin you want your lotion, pick your favorite scents, and even add ingredients that benefit your skin type. Many people with tattoos also like homemade lotion for keeping their skin looking good.

Possible Downsides and What to Watch Out For

• Shorter shelf life: Homemade lotions, especially those with water, can spoil easily. Preservatives are important to keep bacteria and mold away. Don’t skip this step.
• Getting the right texture can take practice: Mixing oil and water can be tricky. Measuring with a digital scale helps. You might need a few tries to get it just right.
• Finding the right ingredients: While it’s easy to shop online, make sure you’re buying skin-safe and high-quality items.

What Ingredients Do You Need?

To make lotion from scratch, you’ll use a basic set of ingredients. Each one affects how the lotion feels and how long it lasts. Think of it like following a recipe for baking: every part matters for the end result. Lotion is all about blending oil and water, using an emulsifier to hold them together. Other ingredients add scent, help preserve the lotion, or give extra skin benefits.

Water and Other Liquids

• Use only distilled water. Regular tap or filtered water may have minerals or germs that mess with the lotion and make it spoil faster.
• If you use hydrosols or aloe, make sure they’re pure and have some sort of preservative, as they can spoil quickly too.
• Don’t use teas, milk, or anything fresh-they’ll go bad, even with a preservative.

Oils, Butters, and Fats

• Light oils: Jojoba, sweet almond, grapeseed, sunflower. These make lotion soak in quicker and feel less greasy.
• Richer butters: Shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter. These make a heavier, more moisturizing lotion, especially good for dry skin.
• Coconut oil: Good balance-not too heavy, not too light.
• Weigh your oils and butters with a scale for best results.

Emulsifiers

• Emulsifying Wax NF: Easiest option for beginners, does the job well without feeling waxy.
• Other emulsifiers: Polawax, BTMS-50 are also used but may be better for more advanced recipes or specific needs.
• Note: Beeswax or other regular waxes won’t do the job-they don’t fully mix oil and water.

• Co-emulsifiers: Stearic acid, cetearyl alcohol, cetyl alcohol-these help thicken the lotion and keep it from separating.

Preservatives

• If your recipe has water, you must use a broad-spectrum preservative to keep germs and mold away. This is non-optional for safety.
• Good beginner preservatives: Optiphen, Liquid Germall Plus, Phenonip. Only a tiny amount (0.5-1% of total batch by weight) is needed.
• Vitamin E, grapefruit seed extract, and essential oils are not real preservatives for lotions that contain water.

Fragrances and Add-Ins

• Essential oils: For adding scent and sometimes extra skin benefits (like calming lavender or fresh orange). A small amount goes a long way. Be sure they’re safe for skin.
• Fragrance oils: Cosmetic-grade only-these give more scent options but check they’re approved for leave-on products.
• Other add-ins: Glycerin (draws moisture to skin), Vitamin E (protects oils from going rancid), plant extracts (for calming or soothing), and sometimes hyaluronic acid for extra hydration.

Tools and Equipment

You don’t need fancy lab equipment-just some basic kitchen tools that are clean and used only for your DIY projects.

Essential Tools

• Digital scale: Most important for measuring all ingredients accurately.
• Double boiler: Gently melts oils and waxes. You can use a bowl over a pot of simmering water.
• Heat-safe containers: For heating and mixing the different parts.
• Immersion (stick) blender: Best for blending the lotion. A standing blender can work but is messier for small amounts. Small milk frothers are fine for tiny batches.
• Thermometer: Helps you keep track of temperatures for mixing.
• Spatulas and measuring spoons: For stirring, scraping, and adding small ingredients.
• Storage containers: Dark glass pump bottles are best-they keep out sunlight and cut down on bacteria from your hands.

Sanitizing and Safety

• Clean all tools: Wash in hot, soapy water; rinse with boiling water or run through a dishwasher on a hot cycle if needed.
• Keep your workspace tidy. Clean hands when handling ingredients.
• Control temperatures: Don’t overheat ingredients, and add preservatives when the lotion is cool enough (below 160°F/71°C).
• Store finished lotion safely: Keep in air-tight containers, away from direct sunlight or heat.
• Label your lotion: Write the date and main ingredients on every batch.

Step-by-Step How to Make Lotion

Mixing up lotion at home is easy if you follow these clear steps:

Getting Ready

1. Weigh ingredients: Use your digital scale to get exact amounts for water, oils, emulsifying wax, and any butters or co-emulsifiers.
2. Prepare the water phase: Pour the measured distilled water (and anything else water-based, like hydrosols) into a heat-safe bowl or jar.
3. Prepare the oil phase: In another bowl, add your oils, wax, butters, and co-emulsifiers.
4. Set up the double boiler: Fill a pot with a couple inches of water and bring to a simmer. Place your bowls on top.

Heating the Mixtures

1. Melt oil phase: Sit the bowl of oils, waxes, and butters over the simmering water until everything’s melted and clear.
2. Heat water phase: Heat the water-based bowl at the same time (either in the same water bath or a separate one) to keep both phases close to 130-160°F (54-71°C).

Having both parts at roughly the same temperature helps them blend well and prevents separating.

Blending the Lotion

1. When both are at temperature, pour the hot water phase into the hot oil phase.
2. Blend right away using an immersion blender for about 30-60 seconds. You’ll see it turn creamy white.
3. Let it sit for about 15 minutes, then stir. Do this a couple of times as it begins to cool.
4. Blend again now and then over the next hour until it thickens fully.

The lotion will thicken up as it cools. Keep blending to make it smooth.

Adding Preservatives and Scent

1. Let the lotion cool down to about 80-85°F (27-29°C) before adding your preservative and any heat-sensitive extras.
2. Stir in the preservative following the maker’s instructions (usually 0.5-1% of the total weight), and add things like glycerin, Vitamin E, or hyaluronic acid.
3. Add scent: Stir in essential oils or fragrance oils if you like. Mix well so everything is blended in.

Packaging and Storage

1. Pour the warm lotion into clean glass bottles or jars.
2. Let it cool completely and thicken-this can take a few hours.
3. Seal your bottles or jars, and store them somewhere cool and dark. Dark glass helps preserve the lotion.
4. Label each bottle with the date and main ingredients.

A well-made, preserved lotion can last 3-6 months, sometimes longer. Always check and discard if the smell, color, or texture changes.

How To Personalize Your Lotion

A big part of the fun in making lotion is that you can make it fit your needs exactly. Whether it’s the scent, texture, or what your skin needs, you can change it up!

Herbal and Scented Choices

• Try infusing your carrier oils with dry herbs (like calendula, chamomile, or rose) before using them-this adds gentle scent and extra skin benefits.
• Use essential oils like lavender (relaxing), orange (energizing), or blend your favorites. Only use oils that are safe for skin, and be careful-some oils can cause irritation if used too much.
• Cosmetic fragrance oils give you more options, including sweet or exotic scents, but always double-check they’re safe.

Adjusting the Texture

• For thick lotions: Use more butters and wax, and less water. Whip the cooled mixture with a mixer to make it fluffy. These thick lotions may not need a preservative if you don’t add water.
• For lightweight lotions: Use more water and choose light oils. If it feels too greasy, dial back the oil next time or mix in a pinch of tapioca starch.
• Fine-tuning: Too watery? Add a bit more emulsifying wax to future batches. Too thick? Add a little more water. Change only a little at a time to find your favorite consistency.

Making Lotion for Sensitive Skin

• Gentle oils: Use jojoba, squalane, or sweet almond oil, which rarely cause problems.
• Skip scents: Fragrance is a common skin irritant. For ultra-sensitive skin, leave out all fragrance and essential oils.
• Gentle additives: Glycerin or Vitamin E are usually safe, but always check.
• Preservatives: Some skin types are sensitive to certain preservatives. Research your options and always patch test the lotion first.
• Simple is best: Start with a basic recipe, then add extras one by one to see if any cause problems.
• Patch test: Try your lotion on a small area of skin and wait a day or two before using it everywhere.

Keeping Your Lotion Safe and Lasting

Homemade lotion can go bad if not made and stored properly, especially if water is one of the ingredients. Mold, bacteria, and yeast thrive in water-based mixes. Using a real preservative and keeping your tools clean are musts for safe and lasting lotion.

Why Preservatives Matter

• Any lotion made with water needs a broad-spectrum preservative. It only takes a tiny bit, but it keeps your lotion from becoming unsafe.
• Homemade lotions can’t rely on so-called “natural” preservatives like Vitamin E or herbal extracts-they aren’t enough. Always use a real cosmetic preservative like Germall Plus, Optiphen, or Phenonip, and add it at the right temperature.

Storing Lotion the Right Way

• Use dark glass bottles with pumps if you can. The dark glass protects from light, and the pump keeps out bacteria from your hands.
• Keep your lotion in a cool, dry spot, away from sunlight. Bathrooms are fine as long as it stays dry.
• If your lotion does not have water, like a pure butter or oil whip, it can be stored in jars. Water-based lotions last longer and stay safer in pumps.

Spotting Spoilage

• Bad smell: If your lotion smells sour, moldy, or just “off”, throw it out.
• Odd color or spots: Changes in color or any spots mean it may be moldy.
• Texture changes: If it gets really lumpy, separates, or feels slimy, don’t use it.
• Bubbles or swelling: If your bottle swells up or you see unexpected bubbles, bacteria might be active-better to toss it.

When in doubt, throw it out. Don’t risk a skin infection or rash.

Tips for Smoother Lotion-Making

Making lotion gets easier with practice, but a few tips will help you avoid the most common mistakes.

Common Problems and Fixes

• Too watery: Check that you used enough emulsifying wax, that you measured accurately by weight, and that your phases were warmed equally. Sometimes a runny lotion just needs a few more hours to thicken.
• Too greasy: Blend longer when mixing, try less oil or lighter oils next time, or add a pinch of tapioca starch if needed.
• Lotion separates: Make sure both phases were the same temperature before blending, and blend thoroughly. Try reheating and re-blending if needed.
• Lumpy or grainy: Make sure all wax and butters are fully melted, and blend well as it cools.

Getting the Thickness You Want

• Increase the emulsifying wax or add more butters for a thicker lotion.
• More water and light oils make for a thinner, fast-absorbing lotion.
• The lotion will thicken as it cools. Be patient.

How to Make Every Batch a Success

• Weigh every ingredient; don’t rely on cups or spoons.
• Clean everything before starting.
• Check both oil and water phases are the same temperature when mixing.
• Blend thoroughly, especially at the beginning and then again as it cools.
• Use a proper preservative every time you have water in the recipe.
• Take notes about each batch to remember what worked and what didn’t.
• Be patient-good lotion needs time to set.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is making lotion at home expensive?

The first time, you might need to buy some equipment and basic ingredients. After that, the cost per bottle is very low-about $1.50 for a 16-ounce batch. Store-bought lotions with similar ingredients can be $20 or more. Buying in bulk saves more money.

What water should I use?

• Always use distilled water. It’s free of minerals, chemicals, or germs that can spoil lotions or cause skin dryness. It helps your lotion last longer and blend smoothly.

Where do I find the ingredients?

• Online shops: Specialty skincare and soap-making websites sell everything you need, often at the best prices, especially for larger sizes.
• Local crafts or health stores: Some sell basic oils, waxes, or essential oils-convenient but sometimes a little more expensive.
• Amazon: Has many choices, but always check that products are made for skin care and be careful about quality.

Choose suppliers with good reviews, and look for “pure,” “natural,” and “cosmetic grade” labels on oils and waxes.