How to Make Homemade Lotion Bars

My skin can be so dry. So dry that it is absolutely ridiculous. In the summer I basically live in flip flops and that means my heels get even dryer than usual. So dry, in fact, that they split and crack. It is terrible looking and ridiculously painful when a crack gets so deep that it starts to bleed.

It makes walking quite painful actually. But I’m not about to wear much other than flip-flops most of the time if the temperature is over 80 degrees. That’s just not how I roll.

And since I’ve started making some of my own beauty items and toiletries I figured why not make lotion bars. I mean, there is a big fuss about them these days and I wasn’t sure why until I went ahead and made my own. Now, these bars go on a bit greasy (which is why they hydrate so well!). They are actually greasy to the point where my paper bags were all sorts of oily just minutes after having the lotion put inside of them. BUT it soaks in pretty dang fast if your skin is dry.

If you have oily skin I’m not going to lie to you, these are probably not the best idea unless you have super dry hands or feet. And then, by all means, get after it!

For this project you will need:

• Lotion/soap/candy/cupcake mold
• Beeswax
• Coconut oil
• Cocoa/Shea/Mango Butter
• Essential oil of your choice

First up gather your supplies. Some things, like mango butter, can be difficult to come by. I highly suggest checking out Amazon for good deals and tons of options. You can use shea, cocoa, or mango butter to make your lotion and I have a recent aversion to the smell of shea butter so I’ve been rocking the cocoa butter. In all honesty with my super sensitive nose, I should have gone with mango butter as it has the least natural scent.

I also accidentally bought yellow instead of white beeswax. As far as I’ve experienced this only changes the color and not the quality. I do tend to prefer the more white lotions, though.

Measure out even amounts of beeswax, coconut oil, and butter of your choice. I used 1/4 cup of each but you can use half a cup or 2 full cups. Heck, you can even use the same little handheld bowl to measure each of the 3 out without even knowing what size it is. Just as long as you have all 3 as the same you’re golden.

In a microwave melt your beeswax for about a minute, stirring every 30 seconds. Keep heating for 30-second increments until the wax is about halfway melted. Add in your butter and heat in 30-second increments until everything is melted. Add your coconut oil and mix well to melt.

This stuff is SUPER HOT so be very careful!

Allow to cool just a bit and add in your essential oil.

I forgot to show adding the essential oil bit in the bowl so I improvised after pouring the melted concoction into a mold. This is actually the same mold I got from a cupcake soap kit. Use what you have or grab something cheap. It really doesn’t need to be anything terribly fancy as it won’t hold a perfect shape, like a flower or seashell for too long.

I went with jasmine oil because the smell is so amazingly beautiful. I also considered tea tree oil because it is used topically to treat bacterial infections. With skin that cracks a little preemptive strike with something that kills bacteria isn’t a bad thing at all!

Allow for the bars to cool. You can pop them out within hours but mine made a trip 7 hours southwest to where I was finally able to bag them!

Bagging them is pretty easy and you can totally customize them to your preference. I grabbed some little chalkboard sign clothes pins from Michael’s and some twine and colored chalk from Target to fix up my business. I also purchased glassine bags from the jewelry section at Michael’s… it’s kind of like wax paper.

In the end, I decided not to use the twine but I really wanted to!

Pop your lotion bars out of the mold. Now on my 7 hours, very hot travel, my lotion bars got really soft and when I grabbed them I accidentally jabbed one with my finger making a big rut. This is not normally going to happen so no worries for prettier bars than mine!

Now as it turns out glassine is not nearly as waxy as was paper, though it is quite similar. To prevent the grease from coming through the bag I wound up sealing each bar up in Press and Seal.

Get a piece a bit bigger than your bar and fold it over itself. Push the plastic to itself to make a nifty little pouch. Use scissors to trim to a more pleasing shape!

As I am currently digging all things hand-drawn, I took my bags and rocked out different doodled lines across each bag. The end result is kind of boho and fun!

If using chalkboard tags first cover the entire thing with white chalk and then wipe it all away.

Doodle, draw, and write what you need to. Here I borrowed my canine craft assistant for this project’s name… Miss Lucy.

Fold the bag over and continue to doodle on the flap. Close up with your clothespin tag. You can also use baker’s twine to tie the bags up all cute-like and add a different kind of a tag or maybe just incorporate the lucky person’s name into the doodles of the bag itself.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t use my snack plate as an inspiration for the design of my doodled bags because I did. Underneath my new Lance’s Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Crackers (for real all my GF friends!) I kept admiring the design of my new plate. I couldn’t NOT copy some of the patterns for my bag, they were just too perfect!

And if you’re wondering, though my father doesn’t believe it, I also decorated that mug up there, too 🙂

All in all, this is a super easy project that you can do that makes a fantastic gift. When done making these, you can use your supplies for scrubs and other lotions and all sorts of lovely things. The best thing about this is that you know exactly what you’re rubbing into the skin of your body. And after you’ve done that a few times I think you’ll see just how fabulous making your own toiletries is for the feel of it and the peace of mind!