My skin gets so dry in the Montana winters thanks to our wood stove that seems to really dry out the air in the house. I’ve been using our homemade body butter to moisturize and soften my skin but it is so thick and nourishing that sometimes I just want something lighter. Like a quick, soft lotion to rub into my dry hands that get so dried out after doing chores on the homestead. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE our homemade body butter. It does amazing things to deeply nourish my skin, especially on the dry, calloused skin on my feet. Once I figured out how to make lotion, I tweaked a couple recipes and came up with a simple, easy recipe I love. This homemade lotion is moisturizing and nourishing to my skin, but not as thick as the body butter.
The main ingredient in our homemade body butter is shea butter. This isn’t something I can grow or harvest here on the the homestead or in the mountains around us. Instead I always have to buy it since it is imported to the US. The shea butter I buy is a great deal but I also wanted to make a nourishing skin moisturizer that had ingredients we could source more locally. Like beeswax! We have a couple pounds of beeswax I rendered from our bee hives that I love to use when crafting and creating on the homestead. That’s what I really love about this homemade lotion, the fact that it has just three ingredients and two of them come from our homestead: the water and beeswax! The only product I have to buy is the oil, but even that is infused with herbs we grew or wild harvested in the mountains around us.
How to make lotion:
This recipe makes about 1 pint of lotion. The lotion does not have added preservatives so it will not last as long as store bought lotion. This lotion is best if used in less than a couple months. During the dry winter months, our family can use up a batch of this lotion before it goes bad. If you don’t think you can use a pint of lotion that fast then I suggest cutting the recipe in half.
*For a thinner lotion that will flow nicely through a soap pump (like these mason jar soap and lotion dispensers we sell in our Etsy shop!), use only 1 ounce of beeswax. For a slightly thicker lotion, use up to 1.5 ounces of beeswax. I prefer to keep our lotion in a glass canning jar that Little A can easily scoop out of so tend to use a little extra beeswax.
Ingredients:
-1- 1.5 ounces beeswax* (before I rendered our own beeswax, I bought this beeswax since it was a great price and they’re easy to shred)
-3/4 cup herb infused olive oil (here’s our tutorial on how to make your own herb infused oil)
-3/4 cup warm water
Directions for how to make lotion:
- Grate or chop the beeswax into small pieces. Place the beeswax and oil in a glass jar or measuring cup. Place the glass in a metal pot and fill the pot about half full of water to make a double boiler. Heat the pot on low/medium heat until the beeswax has all melted into the oil.
- When the beeswax is all melted, turn the heat off on the pot. Pour the 3/4 cup warm water into a tall glass jar (I use a wide mouth quart size canning jar that my immersion blender easily fits down inside).
- With one hand, hold the immersion blender (this is the one we’ve had for several years and love it!) in the water in the jar and turn it on high. With your other hand, veeerrrryyyy slowly pour the oil/beeswax mixture into the water. The oil, wax and water will start to emulsify and form a creamy lotion. Blend until all the ingredients are emulsified and the lotion is mixed well.
- Your lotion is now finished! Scoop the lotion out of the glass jar into a smaller pint size jar. Once the lotion cools off it will firm up a bit more but still be soft and smooth to rub in. To store it, place a lid on it and keep it at room temperature out of direct sunlight or heat.
Now that you learned how to make lotion, you can start experimenting with different herbal infused oils to create lotions with specific medicinal properties. Next up on my list to make is a calendula infused lotion to use on our baby homesteader’s sensitive baby skin.
What types of herb infused lotion do you plan to make?
I am just starting to follow your great posts. I am a Washington tree farmer. Desiring to live more off the land. Exploring living smaller, healthier and self reliant….
Want to use fresh herbs, garden. Maybe even bees! Nice to meet you!
Welcome! That’s wonderful you are wanting to live more off the land. It can be a challenging yet very rewarding adventure- best of luck to you!
I just made this tonight (with plain olive oil) and it’s absolutely amazing. I have sensitive skin that’s always dry and I’ve been looking for a home made lotion. I’ve been just using straight coconut oil but this is so much better! Thanks so much for this post!
Yay, I’m so glad to hear you made some and it works well for you!!
I had some of my very own lemon balm infused olive oil that I used. This is my first time making lotion. It was simple and seems awesome so far! Thank you!
hi, I’ve just made this and it’s lovely. thank you for posting it. I used a mix of olive and almond oil, because I was nearly out of the olive oil, and added some rose water to the normal water also as it’s great for my skin.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe! Adding rose water sounds like a lovely idea, I might have to try that next time I make a batch of lotion!
Thanks so much for this recipe!!!
I have just made this with Macadamia nut oil as I didn’t have any olive oil.
It was my first time to make anything like this and I am so impressed it was so easy.
And to top it off the cream is wonderful. Not only is it a lovely hand-cream but I have diabetes and it’s proven its self to be fantastic for my feet which are often painfully hot and bothered.
THANKS!!!!
I’m glad I came across this on Pinterest today! I’m HIGHLY allergic to Coconut in any form so it’s hard to find any beauty/hygiene products without it, but it seems even most of the DIY recipes call for it.
Since you are using water you need a preservative or don’t make more than you can use in a week. Distilled water would be a little better. Even if you don’t see signs of bacterial growth or mold, it can still be growing.
I’m so glad you said this! As I was reading through this recipe, I realized the safety factor was ignored from adding water. Water, even distilled water, ALWAYS introduces bacteria to a mix like this! Bacterial growth that isn’t apparent to the naked eye. Your advice is spot-on – only make a small batch and keep it in the frig. There are many good natural preservatives that could be used here, giving this nice lotion shelf life. Do the research folks, as DavetteB is absolutely correct!!
I halved the lotion recipe and keep it in a cool dark spot in my drawer. I did not use preservative and it’s doing great still. I too have hesitated to use water in my many lotion makings because of bacteria concerns. BUT I am glad I did now. I used a rose water in place of the water. The recipe is holding up and is just wonderful. I highly recommend halfing it and since I use it everyday will use most of it up in the recommended time of 4 to 7 weeks. Great lotion recipe. I really appreciate it being shared.
Do u have to add a preseveritive?…..also what the self life?
Vitamin E, and/or grapefruit seed extract are both preservatives, not sure how much to add to this recipe though.
Vit E and grapefruit seed extract are NOT preservatives! They may extend the life of your oil but do nothing to,prevent mold and bacteria. These natives will be present in your product long before you can see them. Please research preservatives and use anytime you introduce water to a product.
That should have been NASTIES
I must be missing something! You mention that Shea butter is the main ingredient, then show the recipe with beeswax, water, and herb infused olive oil. Where does the Shea butter come in? I would like to try the lotion, but I’m not sure how to proceed.
Thanks
Please reply on that question regarding shea butter, because i too was confused as to where it came into play as Marlene
Is shea butter used in this recipe?
if you read the thread she says that she usually uses shea butter but made this recipe with items she has on hands. It only uses 3 ingredients: water, beeswax and olive oil.
I’ve made this using colloidal silver as the water and it turned out great. I would think that would help with bacterial growth. Just my thoughts.