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How to make handmade hand lotion

All-natural hand lotion in less that five minutes with only four ingredients for less than a dollar a jar?

I had always been a little intimidated with the idea of making handmade toiletries, such as lotions, lip balms and the such. First of all, I thought I’d need all sorts of expensive ingredients. I thought it would take a lot of time, that I’d need all sorts of special pots to melt things in. Maybe I’d need to remember back to my high school chemisty class, which I just barely passed. I thought maybe I’d need to check out a book on Alchemy at the library and maybe even wear a flowing gypsy skirt and over-sized rings just for good measure. I just thought making lotions and potions was just much too involved for all that I already had going on in my life.

However I was getting really fed up with the store bought lotion. My youngest son has eczema which means that we have to lube him up with lotion on a regular basis (Need help with eczema? Try this new whipped shea butter recipe I figured out.) Have you noticed on most of the store bought lotion that they have a poison warning on the back? Yes, if ingested, call poison control. Besides the fact that my kid puts everything in his mouth already, I really didn’t like the idea that what I was putting on his skin everyday was worthy of calling poison control. If your skin is your largest organ, shouldn’t we worried about this? The all-natural store bought lotion was too expensive to buy for how much we go through, so I had to find an alternative.

Enter this hand lotion recipe (below) and you know what? It’s easy. Ridiciously easy. Would you believe me if I said that I now make my own all natural hand lotion in less that five minutes with only four ingredients for less than a dollar a jar? And that it works maybe even better than anything I’ve bought? Seriously. This recipe is amazing. Now that I’ve given a jar to almost every single person I’ve come in contact with, I feel safe to share the recipe with you. And now you can go make some for yourself and everyone you know.



How to Make Homemade Hand Lotion 1 1/4 cup hot water 1/4 cup emulsifying wax (NOT beeswax, trust me) 1/4 cup olive oil 24-36 drops essential oil

For about $6 you should get enough emulsifying wax to make, oh, about 15 or more batches of homemade hand lotion. In a pyrex measuring glass I combine the olive oil and emusifying wax and microwave for 1 minute until it is all melted. The temperature on this reads about 155 degrees.



I have found that our coffee mugs hold almost exactly 1 1/4 cup of water, so I fill is up and microwave that for 1 minute or until about 120 degrees. While that is heating up, I add the essential oil into my melted wax/olive oil mixture.



Then pour the hot water into the wax/olive oil mixture and watch it turn milky white. At this point the temperature is about 125 degrees. I then pour the hot lotion into wide mouth pint size jars and let cool overnight. The next morning you’ll have a fresh jar of homemade natural hand lotion!



Oh and of course, you’ll need decorative labels to put on your jars, which you can download here.

Enjoy your new soft skin!

Scott and Kendra Spencer are a husband and wife team who maintain a modest little third of an acre in Sonoma. With farmers as ancestors and a passion for edibles, they make the most out of what they have. They’ve read countless books, magazines, research documents and articles on organic gardening, but when it comes down to it they are experimenting and finding what works along with the rest of us. Read more at A Sonoma Garden.