DIY Simple and Nourishing Lotion Bars
DIY lotion bars are simple to make and are a great gift for friends, teachers, or mothers. I am also giving you pretty labels in case you make your own!
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Do Lotion Bars Work?
With coconut oil, shea butter and bees wax, your hands will feel soft, smooth and nourished every time you use one!
Three Ingredients for Lotion Bars
These lotion bars only require three ingredients. I keep these on hand at all times. With Organic Virgin Coconut Oil, Organic Shea Butter, and Organic Beeswax Pastilles, you can make a multitude of natural products. Here at The Everyday Farmhouse, I have recipes for Lip Balm, Udder Balm, Salve, and now, Lotion Bars. All of these items make wonderful handmade gifts for your friends and family!
The upfront cost of buying all of the ingredients may seem like a lot, but you will be able to make many lotion bars or any other thing you want to make with these three main ingredients! The tins are so handy for storage and gift-giving too! I wish I was a math person because then I would wow you with how much each lotion bar actually costs, but alas…I am not that organized or mathematical!
Make Your Lotion Bars Special with Molds
If you are wanting to give these as a gift, I suggest getting some silicone molds to make them extra pretty. I just bought these bee molds and they are so lovely. I also got a box of these little tins to put them in, and I made the labels for putting on top. The tins are 2 oz. The honeycomb molds are quite a bit bigger than I thought. They are adorable, but you would need a bigger 4oz tin to put those in, or you could just put them in a zipper baggie.
How to Make DIY Lotion Bars
This is really the simplest thing to make! I like to use a little crockpot for melting my wax and oils. I only use it for this purpose, so I never have to clean out the residue. You could also use a double boiler and designate a cheap pot or bowl for this purpose. The beeswax is not impossible to clean out, but it is rather difficult.
When I make a batch of this I like to weigh the ingredients, if you don’t have a scale, just know that it is equal parts of each. It’s that simple. I use 2 oz of each ingredient. However, you could do 1 cup or 1/2 cup of each. WIth 2 oz of each ingredient, I was able to make 6 of the smaller bars and 4 of the big ones.
I just cover this and leave it to melt while I do other things. When I find that it has all melted, I spoon it into the molds. If you would like fragrance in your lotion bars, put about 30 drops of whatever essential oil you like. I made some without any fragrance and some with. I love lavender, so that is my first choice. However, the ones without fragrance actually smell so nice with just the slightest fragrance from the oils and the beeswax. It’s just lightly sweet-smelling.
Once the Lotion Bar is Cooled
Just pop the bars out of the silicone mold once they are cooled. It really is so very simple!
Handmade Lotion Bars
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Coconut Oil
- 1 Cup Shea Butter
- 1 Cup Beeswax Pastilles
- 25-30 Drops Essential Oils
Instructions
- Melt the oil, butter and beeswax in a double boiler or a small crockpot. Add the essential oils after melted. Spoon or pour into molds. Let cool until solid and pop them out! That's it!
Lotion Bar and Salve Labels
I put these labels along with some updated labels for Handmade Salve in my Resource Library. Anything in my library is free for my subscribers. If you aren’t already a subscriber you can fix that right here!
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These are lovely, but, to be clear, did you buy the larger tins for them?
I bought the 2oz tins, but you would need the 4oz tins for the larger bars. The labels fit 2oz. nicely, but could work on 4 oz tins as well. There are two different sizes with the molds. The hive ones are significantly bigger.
Love a good lotions bar! Thanks for posting this.
I’m glad you like it!
Thank you! Beautiful. Can the gorgeous label be resized to fit a 2 inch label? I just love it.
Hi Sherry, I just don’t know. I made them that size to fit the tins that I used. You could adjust your printer settings and attempt to print them half letter size and see if that makes them the size you want. I always just print on plain-label paper and then cut my labels out. Then we don’t have to find specifically sized labels. I hope you can make them work for you!
Can’t wait to make these!
They are so handy! I hope you love them!
Looking forward to making these, ordered some large molds on Amazon today. Do you think if I grate some Beeswax that would be OK? Thanks for sharing this post.🙂
You are welcome! I think you’ll like them a lot! Grating the beeswax would definitely help it to melt faster, or even if you can chop it up some!
Can you use any scent of essential oil?
Any oil that you like and that doesn’t irritate your skin should work! I’m partial to lavender!
makes my skin feel awesome. only question/ concern. I found the coconut oil kept separating quickly as I filled the molds. any suggestions to prevent this?
Goodness, no I don’t know. The temperature would be the first thing that comes to mind, perhaps it wasn’t warm enough overall for all the oils to incorporate? I’m sorry!
Mine is too greasy and soft. What do you think I did wrong?!
Hi Jill, it’s very hard for me to guess what went wrong without seeing what you did or what ingredients you used. I have never had it come out soft or greasy. Maybe double-check the ingredient and the amounts?
I just made my first batch of lotion bars and was very disappointed. I don’t know what molds you use but my bumblebee came out looking like a one wing creature and they are real small. I also used 1/3 cup of each beeswax, shea butter and jojoba oil. They are so soft you can hardly handle them. I spent a lot of money on the supplies and do not want to give up. what should I do?
Hi there, well, the recipe does not call for jojoba oil, that is a much softer oil than coconut oil, coconut oil hardens up when it cools. To salvage it you may be able to melt it all down again and add more beeswax to see if it will harden up more.
I made this tonight and they came out perfect. I placed them in the fridge after they cooled and they came out great. I totally love them. Thanks for posting!
I am so happy about that!
Hello, how long are the shelf life of these? If I were to make these to give as gifts, how long will they be good for before they potentially mold?
Beeswax is a natural preservative. Molding shouldn’t be a problem at all as there isn’t really any water in these. I have kept them for a year. I do stick them in the fridge if I want to keep them longer but that isn’t necessary for short term. I carry one in my purse and they last for months and months. If anything the oils could start to go ransid and you might notice that smell but honestly I haven’t had that happen!
Could you use something other than coconut oil if you have a sensitivity to coconut? I really want to try these!
You would want to switch out the coconut with something that is also fairly solid at room temperature. I haven’t tried any of these, so I cannot guarantee how well it would turn out but you could try tallow, lard or mango butter.
Is the equal part 1 cup recipe above the one that you got 6 small bars out of? I am trying to judge the output based off of the recipe. Thanks for putting this out there
Six smaller bars and four large ones from this recipe