Body Lotion Recipe: How To Make 3 Great Recipes

Learn how to make a simple body lotion at home and try one of these three lotion recipes presented in this post: one simple rose water lotion recipe for all skin types, one lavender-scented body lotion recipe and one oat body lotion recipe for sensitive skin.

Table of Contents

Did you know that body lotions are made of 60%-80% water and 40%-20% oil? Well, at least roughly because most store.bought body lotions contain a huge list of ingredients to provide a strong aroma, stable color, stable texture, a long shelf-life… Still, it’s surprising to know that when you are buying a body lotion, you are giving 10€ for a bottle of… 80% of water.

Did you also know that, as long as you two magical ingredients, you cam make lotions at home? Yes, it’s so simple it hurts! This was one of the things that really surprise me when I was learning to make natural skincare products.

A body lotion doesn’t need to be expensive. Or have 20 ingredients in its list. Or be so complex you believe you need and industrial fridge, and an industrial mixer and…

Well, continue to read and see how you can make body lotions at home! They can become as cheap as 3$ (or 2€), provided you arranje for a recipient you can use more than once. And isn’t that the basis of “zero-waste”? Recover your grandma’s glass jar, a cute tin can, or simply buy a good empty airless pump bottle you can wash and reuse.

How Do You Make Your Own Body Lotion?

Lotions are emulsions made of 75%-80% of water and 25%-20% of oils. Emulsions are homogeneous products made from the mixing of oil with water and an emulsifying agent, usually an emulsifying wax. Creams are not much different, they simply differ in the oil:water ratio (using more oil and less water).

Emulsifying Wax

As water and oil don’t naturally mix, an emulsifying ingredient in required. This ingredient is usually an emulsifying wax, like emulsifying wax NF, or BTMS. Beeswax is not an emulsifiying wax.

I have to be honest here, I didn’t have time to test a lot of emulsifying waxes. I’ve used Polawax NF with good results and didn’t bother to change it, as I am satisfied with it. I’ve also gave a try at BTMS on my hair conditioner with good results. More about emulsifying waxes below.

Some recipes show a mechanical way to emulsify the oil and water. Mix both with a immersion blender and you will get a cream. The problem is that, after some hours, they separate, because they are not truly emulsified. I never had oil-water separation when using an emulsifying wax, when using the right oil-water-emulsifying wax quantities.

Preservative

Water is a good environmental medium for bacteria and fungus growth. Especially if we use an herbal infused water, rich in nutrients as it is the case of many natural lotions. Therefore, a broad spectrum preservative is required. This is mandatory to make your natural face lotion safe.

Please read this article and avoid recipes with water/aloe vera content without any broad spectrum preservative. As a side note, vitamin E oil, grapefruit seed extract or rosemary oleorresin extract are all anti-oxidants and not broad spectrum preservatives.

Additional ingredients are also used in lotions such as plant extracts, vitamin E oil (working as an anti-oxidant for the oils), and essential oils, as natural aroma fragrances. We will go in detail through some of them in the next chapters.

Read everything in detail about this and more in How To Make An Emulsion For Skincare.

Pro Tips

As long as you respect the quantities of oil, water, essential oils and emulsifying wax, you can customize this recipe according to your needs:

  • Replace the oils in the recipe by another oil or oils, but I’d advise to not use any solid oils
  • Use herbal-infused oils: check out how to make them in How to Make Infused Oil With Dried Herbs.
  • Use herbal water infusions: chamomille, green tea, rose water
  • Apply just one essential oil, or an entirely different blend, but make sure to run a skin test or that the blend is known to you. Some essential oils are skin irritants. You can also skip them entirely

An exception to respecting quantities: the amount of emulsifying wax you use. The amount in the recipes below is defined to be a bit thick for lotion, it will look more like a cream. I am on the “safe” side because I don’t want your first lotion to be a dissapointment, with water or oil separation. However, the perfect consistency requires a bit of trial and error; and it might be different for me and for you.

If you wish to make any of these lotions more regularly, you can decrease or increase the emulsifying wax 1g and see if you prefer the new texture – more fluid or thicker. Be informed that below 4%, the lotion might have some of the water separating. Make notes of your own experiments, noting the quantities and how the lotion changed – and if you like it or not.

And if it separates? The looks might not be good, but you don’t need to throw all away. Remove the excess of liquid and use it as is.

How Do You Make 3 Ingredient Lotion?

Unfortunately, only lotion bars, balms or salves can be made with 3 ingredients: oil, wax and a anti-oxidant. These are all oil-based products and if you are not a fan of oily-greasy moisturizers, this is not your best option.

The creamy white light lotions we are used to can only be made with as little as 4 ingredients: water, oil, an emulsifying wax and a cosmetic preservative. All these are basic ingredients. Steer away from 3-ingredient lotions made with water, aloe vera or other water-content ingredient and NO cosmetic preservative. An addition, as it was said before, water and oil without an emulsifying wax do not truly mix.

What Is The Main Ingredient In Body Lotion?

It’s the emulsifying wax, definitely. You will be surprised with how smooth, velvety and professional-looking your homemade lotion will become with the emulsifying wax, even if you use kitchen ingredients like sunflower oil and distilled water! It’s a truly magical ingredient.

There are several types of emulsifiers to make emulsions: anionic, cationic, non-ionic (yes, pretty much like surfactants as these names reffer to ionic molecular connections), polymer. If you are curious and want to read more, please find this article about emulsifiers,.

The most common ones are the non-ionic emulsifiers due to being flexible and having a low potential for chemical interaction. Our emulsyfing wax NF is one of them: it’s actually cetearyl alchool + a polysorbate. They are good to be used if your lotion is filled with addictives and more prone to chemical reactions. So, they are perfect for your face lotions or eye creams, where we tend to use more anti-aging, regenerative and moisturizing addictives.

BTMS, another emulsifier I also use in my recipes, is a cationic one. It has very good anti-static properties, making it a good emulsifier for hair products. On the minus side, it doesn’t do so well with several addictive, so it’s a good idea to keep the hair conditioner with few ingredients – just as I like my handmade skin care products.

What Makes a Good Lotion?

A good lotion is one that keeps your skin moisturized, soft, elastic and with a healthy glow. The most adequate for yous skin type. The recipes below will do that to your body, especially if you costumize iany of them for your skin needs.

If you use a body lotion from any of these recipes with any handmade soap, you will feel your skin moisturized for a longer amount of time. You might even feel that you no longer need a body lotion every single day. You will definitely notice the difference comparing with store-bought products.

All these body lotion recipes are good for most skin types. Oatmeal and aloe vera are good for sensitive skin, or to help alleviate skin problems like eczema or psoriasis – unless of course you are allergic to any of these ingredients.

Dry skin might need some more powerful moisturizers. But I would advise to increase first the oil content against water content, up to 40%, and then use richer oils – sunflower oil, olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter.

With oily skin, I would do exactly the opposite: decrease the oil quantity and increase the water one. And use lighter oils: sweet almond oil, jojoba oil. However, expect your skin to feel “more balanced” after switching to a handmade lotion + handmade soap.

For sensitive skin or skin with conditions I am more conservative and careful. Consult a doctor to know which ingredients you can use. The oat body lotion recipe is probably the most adequate, containing oat flour and aloe vera, naturally soothing skin ingredients. But make a skin test first. I am not a health specialist, just an amateur skin care formulator. My skin is healthy and I never had problems, but that doesn’t mean the lotions are all safe for sensitive skin.

Don’t forget to make notes of your own experiments, noting the quantities and how the lotion changed – and if you like it or not.  

Natural Ingredients For Your Body Lotion

For the skin of your body, you will want nourishing and moisturizing ingredients. You can use some anti-aging ingredients, but they are expensive, and will increase the price of your lotion really fast. The cost/benefit from using them might not be worth it, but it’s up to you.

Having said that, and what was previously said about skin types, any mixture of natural ingredients will make a good body lotion. Herbal water infusions and vegetable oils will already make a rich combination for your skin, and herbal infusions are cheap to make. But let’s see what ingredients I use in these body lotion recipes:

Small bottle with rose petals toner

Rose Water

The water chosen for most of my homemade lotions is rose water (I have probably mentioned this a dozen times in this artile alone 🙂 ). It contains a good amount of different flavonoids, and vitamin C. It is great for mature and sensitive skin. Rose water is obtained by steam distillation of rose petals. It is fragrant, and it’s sometimes used as a mild natural fragrance as an alternative to chemical-filled perfumes. It also comes with plenty of potential health benefits, including the following:

  • Soothes skin irritation and reduces skin redness
  • Helps prevent and treats infections
  • Heals cuts, scars and burns
  • Has anti-aging properties and contains anti-oxidants

I actually use a rose water infusion instead of store-bought rose water. This is another natural homemade product I strongly vouch for. Using it on its own, my skin is cleansed and hydrated in one go. But both rose water or the cheaper version – rose water infusion – are great ingredients not only for anti-aging lotions, as well as for lotions for any skin type.

Green Tea

Green tea is a drink with anti-oxidant properties, as it is common knowledge. But the same can be said about using it topically, for example, as the water in a lotion. Green tea is very rich with antioxidants and nutrients making it a great and very accessible ingredient for natural beauty products. The major polyphenolic compound present in green tea, EGCG (epigallocatechin-3-gallate), was found to exhibit a wide range of therapeutic properties from a 2018 study.

There are many research studies that show that both drinking green tea and applying it topically can have benefits for your skin. Not only can green tea and green tea extract help with acne and help your skin look younger, but it also has the potential for helping to prevent melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancers (from Healthline website). Green tea’s anti-inflammatory properties can help reduce skin irritation, skin redness, and swelling.

Rich in several polyphenols, it helps reduce cellular damage in your body, by reducing free radicals damage, decreases inflammation, the incidence of age spots and wrinkles, and provides some natural protection from UV damage. Its high vitamin C content also helps to fight bacteria and fungus (helping with acne), due to its antimicrobial properties and reduces cellular damage as well.

Sunflower Oil

Sunflower oil is a light, low comedogenic oil (2). It is an edible oil extracted from sunflower seeds, with a neutral odor. The oil is said to act as a skin barrier against toxins and germs that cause infection, making it a great choice for irritated skin. It helps soften skin, moisturize skin, and soothe irritation.

High in oleic or linoleic fatty acids (depending in the oil type), rich in vitamins A, D and E, it is probably the cheapest from this list, and for that has a great quality/price relation. Perfect for cheap and yet very good body lotions.

sweet almond oil

Sweet Almond Oil

If you ever heard about using vegetable oils on skin, this was one of them. Also an edible oil – and isn’t it a great rule to use on your skin what you can eat as well? – made from the kernels of sweet almonds. It has a strong, nutty aroma. This oil is lightweight and absorbs easily, and is a great moisturizer for dry skin. It has vitamin B and E, oleic and linoleic acids, and several essential minerals like calcium, magnesium or iron.

Easily absorbed by skin, this oil is very complete, suited for all skin types. It’s my number one choice for both body and face lotions.

Jojoba Oil

It’s actually a wax-like substance, extracted from the seeds of jojoba plants. It has powerful moisturizing properties, contains vitamin E and several minerals. This oil is very close to the natural oil produced by the skin so it makes a perfect moisturizer for all skin types. It absorbs easily into the skin and doesn’t clog pores.

Along with acne, it is very effective in the treatment of psoriasis, eczema, sunburn and chapped skin. It’s a very good choice for oily skin, acne-prone skin or sensitive skin. If you wish to indulge yourself with a high-quality body lotion, use jojoba oil. However, it’s better fitted for facial lotions and creams, due to its price.

It’s also my best choice for sensitive skins, or problems like eczema or psoriasis. And if it helps alleviate you from its symptoms, I think it’s well worth the price.

jojoba-oil1

Vitamin E Oil

All my skin care recipes, lotions included, uses 0.5% of vitamin E oil (tocopherol), contributing to its anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Therefore, it also helps fighting free radicals and reducing UV damage. Combined with other oils’ Vitamin C content, it boosts the anti-oxidant properties of both vitamins C and E. I am sure that if you read about vitamin E and its benefits, you will be convinced to use it. Besides vitamin E helps to extend the shelf life of oils (again, as an anti-oxidant).

Horse Chestnut Extract

Horse chestnut extract is best known for treating varicose veins and other circulatory problems, like chronic venous insufficiency, due to its main active substance, aescin. This substance, along with flavonoids, also provide powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. 

Aescin has been shown to inhibit hyaluronidase, an enzyme that can break down the hyaluronic acid found in skin. As skin uses this as a moisturizing component, a reduction in this enzyme can lead to an increase in skin hydration. If you have varicose veins, add this extract to your lotion and see the results by yourself.

Essential Oils

I use them for scent, and that’s it. I’ve read enough literature about pros and cons of essential oils to be careful enough not to list all medicinal properties of essential oils, as it is not proven if and which ones are real. They do exist though and they may help with your skin care product.

They can also be skin irritants, so it’s sort of counterintuitive to advise to use them in good skincare products. Having said that, I use lavender, rose geranium and frankincense essential oils on most of my skin care. I use them because I’ve never had an issue with them, and I like the good, natural scents they provide. Lavender and frankincense are among the mildest essential oils for skin care.

essential oils

Aloe Vera

Aloe vera is a type of tropical cactus that’s been used to treat various skin ailments for thousands of years. Collect the gel from the plant leaves (here’s the procedure to colect aloe vera gel from the plant) and apply it directly on skin. The gel can treat sunburns and is a great non-greasy skin moisturizer. Due to its healing and moisturizing properties, aloe vera is widely used as an ingredient in a variety of skin care products.

Aloe vera is best used as a moisturizer for oily skin. But make a skin test first, as it may cause rashes or hives to certain sensitive skins.

It’s a good choice for oily or acne-prone skin, or for any anti-aging lotion.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is very often used to treat dry, itchy skin, or skin conditions that have these symptons like eczema or psoriasis. This is not exactly anecdotal knowledge. This article from MedicalNewsToday points to some studies showing oatmeal effectiveness at treating dry, itchy skin. One small study from 2015 showed that oatmeal contains anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties that may explain the observed dermatological benefits of oatmeal.

oatmeal

Still, each person reacts differently to the same sort of treatment. Some people develop allergy to oatmeal, so in that case, oatmeal only makes matters worse. But since colloidal oatmeal is cheap and a natural product, it’s always worth to try.

If you have a skin condition that causes itching or dry skin, and oatmeal is effective to calm these symptoms, you may want to consider to use oatmeal in your hygiene products. A sort of an oatmeal line: an unscented soap with oatmeal flour, an oatmeal lotion, cream or ointment, oatmeal face masks and soaking baths.

Find Where To Buy Natural Body Lotions

You’re not yet ready to try to make any of these body lotion recipes at home? DIY is really not yout thing but you still loved to read about lotions with natural ingredients? And now you wish to enjoy a natural body lotion? You can find alternatives at the following links:


Now, it’s time for the juicy stuff: the actual face lotion recipes. But first, find below some very useful posts to make your lotion, including the emulsion tutorial guide, or video of how to make emulsions to give you some directions.

Related Posts 

Watch This Video Before Starting Your Recipe

Botanical Skin Care Course Leaderboard1
White bottle with homemade body lotion with rose water

Homemade Body Lotion With Rose Water

This lotion is a classic and so very simple to make with this rose water toner. The oils are jojoba oil and sweet almond oil for a richer cream. But if you want to make it cheaper, use sweet almond oil only (10g).

The remaining list of ingredients consists of the must-have emulsifying wax and preservative, vitamin E oil that works as an anti-oxidant for the oils, but also as a cosmetic anti-oxidant in itself, and rose geranium essential oil for a delightful aroma to your body lotion.

My Own Experience

After trying for a simple face lotion, I’ve decided to make this rose body lotion and just replaced the body creams I was using before – which, honestly, I was not using that often, due to lack of results and laziness. Along with using handmade soap, my skin felt less dry and more moisturized after 1 month.

I know I sound like a skincare commercial all the time. I should be ashamed of myself, since I am using the same sentences as the marketing department from Dove company, to convince you that handmade skincare is good.

But the reality, the fun part of the story, is that I wasn’t even looking for to improve my skin. I never even like soap all that much, I was always a bath gel person. I just happened to be very curious about making soap at home, and when I had a dozen of soaps at home I said: “What the hell, why not use them as well on my bath?”. After one month of bathing with them, I just found out my skin was… less dry.

And that’s it, this was no “I believe handmade soap is the best!” and had a placebo effect or something going on. This was just a “Oh! Look! My skin feels better! Let me try the homemade body lotion by the way and see how to goes.” And it went well!!

As the rose water is practically free for me – I have wild roses in my garden – this body lotion is quite inexpensive even with the essential oil: less than $1 or 1€ for 50 ml, if you recycle the bottle.

White bottle with homemade body lotion with rose water

Homemade Body Lotion With Rose Water

This simple and natural face lotion recipe, made with natural ingredients, serves as a tutorial to make lotions at home.
Especially indicated for mature, normal to dry skin, this lotion is adequate for all types of skin, including sensitive, due to the mild ingredients used.
Difficulty: Easy
Weight: 50g
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Method: Emulsion
Cosmetic: Lotion
Servings: 1 pot of 50 ml
Author: Sofia Matias
Cost: $0,5 / 0,4€ (price without pot)

Ingredients

Oil Phase

Water Phase

Cooling Phase

Instructions

Preparations

  • Learn the basics of making lotions in How To Make An Emulsion For Skincare or watch the video above. They don't have a recipe, but show generic steps of how to make a lotion (emulsion).
    white emulsion -a body lotion made with rose petals infused water, vegetable oils and rose scent
  • Disinfect all your equipment before starting. You can boil some of your equipment (like the double boiler, glass cups, spoons), and use a solution of 1 liter of water with 1/2 cup of bleach, for items that are not heat-resistant (like the milk frother, plastic cups or the lotion containers)
    Disinfect-equipment
  • Make a rose-petals infused water at home in advance. Learn how in: How To Make a Rose Water Toner. Use distilled water or mineral spring water.
    Small bottle with rose petals toner

Water Phase

  • Measure all the water phase ingredients – rose-infused water – into a cup
    measuring liquids
  • Heat the water ingredients in low heat to around 60ºC. You can use the microwave but the best is to heat in bagne-marie. Do not let the water boil.
    heat-water-phase

Oil Phase

  • Measure all oil ingredients (jojoba oil, sweet almond oil and wax) into the double boiler
    measure oil phase
  • Place the double boiler over a pan with water (bagne-marie) and let emulsifying wax melt in low heat
    heat-oil-phase

Cooling Phase

  • Measure all cooling phase ingredients into a small cup.
    measure-cooling-phase
  • The essential oil is optional. Vitamin E will enrich your lotion with an anti-oxidant, and is also optional. The preservative is not optional. Use the quantities as per manufacturer instructions. I use Euxyl k940 at 1%.
    cooling-phase-ingredients

Making your Lotion

  • Measure the temperature of both the water and the oils. Make sure the rose-infused water is at a higher temperature than the oils.
    measuring-temperature-oils-and-water
  • Pour the water into the oils. The mixture will immediately turn milky.
    add-water-to-oils
  • Blend the mixture well with a milk frother. If you find lumps in the mixture, heat it a little more (on low heat), and use the milk frother to dissolve the lumps.
    blending-the-lotion-with-milk-frother
  • The mixture will become creamy but runny.
    lotion-texture
  • Wait till the mixture is around 50ºC or a little lower (122ºF). Then pour the cooling phase ingredients and mix well with a spoon or the milk frother.
    add cooling phase ingredients

Finishing your Lotion

  • It's time to measure your lotion pH. It should be around 5.5 (5-6). Add one teaspoon of citric acid dissolved in water (you can also use lemon juice) if pH is too high, or a teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in water if pH is too low. Add as many teaspoon as needed but one or two should be enough.
    measuring-pH-with-test-paper
  • Pour your lotion into an opaque squeeze bottle. You can also use a tin container, but a squeeze or pump opaque bottle protects your lotion against light and air oxidation, dirt contamination or getting in contact with your fingers.
    White bottle with homemade body lotion with rose water

Video

Tried this recipe?Send a pic to @herbalcochete!
lavender body lotion recipe to make at home

Lavender Body Lotion Recipe

You like lavender scent? Then this body lotion recipe is totally for you!!! This body lotion recipe is as simple as you get them: a lotion made with a mixture of sunflower and sweet almond oils, and wonderful, lovely lavender-infused water – just make it as if it was this rose water where you will need 2-3 tablespoons of lavender. Lavender essential oil complete the recipe, giving this lotion its wonderful aroma.

You are wondering if you should use a kitchen oil like sunflower oil in your body lotion… Do not have any issues with it. Sunflower oil is actually a very nourishing and low comedogenic oil (2) oil, meaning your skin will love it. It’s probably the best vegetable oil for skincare if you consider a quality/cost relation as a choice factor. The lotion will be odourless and “graseless” with it. Your lotion won’t feel greasy – I swear to it.

The recipe from the photo actually was thick and not fluid like the ones I’ve made before. It had the texture of a cream. That was because, being one of my experiments with ingredients, I have increased the amount of emulsifying wax from 4g/100ml lotion to 10g/100ml. And that is what you see in the photos, a lotion with 10g of emulsifying wax. The recipe will give you a fluid lotion, easy to use in a squeese bottle.

Anyway, this way you can choose the texture of your lotion:

  • If you want a thick cream: use 10g of emulsifying wax per 100 ml of lotion
  • If you want a fluid, light lotion: use 4g-5g of emulsifying wax per 100 ml of lotion

My Own Experience

Lavender essential oil is said to be relaxant and help you with insomnia. Well, if you use this body lotion after your bath, it will surely leave you with a lovely lavender scent for several hours. Up to you to see if you and the ones around you feel more relaxed or not 🙂 Probably good to use it before going to bed.

The lotion itself, without anything special, is very nourishing and moisturizing. Compared to other handmade lotions, it’s no big deal apart from the lavender scent. Compared to store-bought lotions, you are in to feel a big difference: your body will be more moisturized and for longer.

lavender body lotion

Homemade Lavender Body Lotion

Difficulty: Easy
Weight: 100ml
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Method: Emulsion
Cosmetic: Lotion
Servings: 1 pot of 50 ml
Author: Sofia Matias
Cost: $1,35 / 1,20€

Ingredients

Oil Phase

Water Phase

Cooling Phase

Instructions

Preparations

  • Learn the basics of making lotions in How To Make An Emulsion For Skincare or watch the video above. They don't have a recipe, but show generic steps of how to make a lotion (emulsion).
    white emulsion -a body lotion made with rose petals infused water, vegetable oils and rose scent
  • Disinfect all your equipment before starting. You can boil some of your equipment (like the double boiler, glass cups, spoons), and use a solution of 1 liter of water with 1/2 cup of bleach, for items that are not heat-resistant (like the milk frother, plastic cups or the lotion containers)
    Disinfect-equipment
  • Make a lavender infused water at home in advance. Learn how in: How To Make a Rose Water Toner. Simply replace the rose petals with lavender buds.
    Lavender water

Water Phase

  • Measure all the water phase ingredients (rose water and horse chestnut extract) into a cup
    measuring liquids
  • Heat the water ingredients in low heat to around 60ºC. You can use the microwave but the best is to heat in bagne-marie. Do not let the water boil.
    heat-water-phase

Oil Phase

  • Measure all oil ingredients (rosehip seed oil and pomegranate seed oil) into the double boiler
    measure oil phase
  • Place the double boiler over a pan with water (bagne-marie) and heat the oils and emulsifying wax in low heat until the wax melts. Mix to incorporate the coenzime Q10 powder.
    heating liquid ingredients

Cooling Phase

  • Measure all cooling phase ingredients into a small cup.
    measure-cooling-phase
  • The essential oil is optional, and you can use any of your liking (lavender or frankincense are good options). Vitamin E will enrich your lotion with an anti-oxidant, and is also optional. The preservative is not optional. Use the quantities as per manufacturer instructions. I use Euxyl k940 at 1% (0,5 ml).
    cooling-phase-ingredients

Making your Lotion

  • Measure the temperature of both the water and the oils. Make sure the rose-infused water is at a higher temperature than the oils.
    measuring-temperature-oils-and-water
  • Pour the water into the oils. The mixture will immediately turn milky.
    add-water-to-oils
  • Blend the mixture well with a milk frother. If you find lumps in the mixture, heat it a little more (on low heat), and use the milk frother to dissolve the lumps.
    blending-the-lotion-with-milk-frother
  • The mixture will become creamy but runny.
    lotion-texture
  • Wait till the mixture is around 50ºC or a little lower (122ºF). Then pour the cooling phase ingredients and mix well with a spoon or the milk frother.
    add cooling phase ingredients

Finishing your Lotion

  • It's time to measure your lotion pH. It should be around 5.5 (5-6). Add one teaspoon of citric acid dissolved in water (you can also use lemon juice) if pH is too high, or a teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in water if pH is too low. Add as many teaspoon as needed but one or two should be enough.
    measuring-pH-with-test-paper
  • Pour your lotion into an airless pump bottle or tin container. The pump bottle protects your lotion against oxidation, dirt contamination or getting in contact with your fingers, and it's always the best option, but this lotion got quite thick (you can reduce the emulsifying wax to make it more liquid), and I preffered to use a tin can.
    lavender body lotion
Tried this recipe?Send a pic to @herbalcochete!
IMG 20220705 195016

Oat Body Lotion Recipe

This oat body lotion recipe brings a homemade lotion for you with a silky, velvety feeling, very moisturizing and with soothing properties. Enriched with colloidal oat and aloe vera, it may even be adequate for sensitive skin or skin with conditions. Otherwise it’s adequate for any skin type.

Horse chestnut extract may help with varicose veins and increase vascular activity. However, this might not be good if you are aiming at a bosy lotion to calm down your skin. In that case, just replace the 6g of horse chestnut extract for 6g of additional water.

As I was using aloe vera and oat flour, I didn’t want to overload the body lotion with more plant active substances. Therefore, the water is plain distilled water, no water infusion this time.

My Own Experience

This is the lotion I currently use. I have a sunburn on my skin I am still curing from. Since my skin is very sensitive now, more than usual, I can assure you that this lotion looks good for sensitive skin. I had no bad reactions with this lotion so far. I will surely edit this review if it gives me any sort of bad reactions 🙂 I am the first person afraid of my own products.

On my most recent appointment, my dermathologist told meto use a lotion every day – I was using it once per week… – and now the skin feels hydrated, moisturized all the time. It has no miracle effect about the sunburn, but it’s somehow calming and refreshing. It has little aloe vera to be effective probably, but I actually didn’t study it as an after sun, just a lotion enriched with oatmeal, for sensitive skin.

I love neroli essential oil/fragrance (my “essential oil” from Plena Natura is actually 60% essential oil and 40% synthetic fragrance) which makes this lotion really my favorite. However, for sensitive skin, lavender or frankincense are probably better choices. Check out in Essential Oils for Skin Care Products.

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Oat Body Lotion Recipe

This oat body lotion recipe brings a homemade lotion for you with a silky, velvety feeling, very moisturizing and with soothing properties.
Enriched with colloidal oat and aloe vera, it may even be adequate for sensitive skin or skin with conditions. Otherwise it's adequate for any skin type.
Difficulty: Easy
Weight: 50g
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes
Method: Emulsion
Cosmetic: Lotion
Servings: 1 pot of 50 ml
Author: Sofia Matias
Cost: $0,6 / 0,46€ (price without pot)

Ingredients

Oil Phase

Water Phase

Cooling Phase

Instructions

Preparations

  • Learn the basics of making lotions in How To Make An Emulsion For Skincare or watch the video above. They don't have a recipe, but show generic steps of how to make a lotion (emulsion).
    white emulsion -a body lotion made with rose petals infused water, vegetable oils and rose scent
  • Disinfect all your equipment before starting. You can boil some of your equipment (like the double boiler, glass cups, spoons), and use a solution of 1 liter of water with 1/2 cup of bleach, for items that are not heat-resistant (like the milk frother, plastic cups or the lotion containers)
    Disinfect-equipment

Water Phase

  • Measure all the water phase ingredients – water and aloe vera – into a cup. Measure the oat flour into another cup.
    measure ingredients 1
  • Heat the water ingredients in low heat to around temperature60 °C. You can use the microwave but the best is to heat in bagne-marie. Tilt the mug slightly inside the pan with water or the mug will rattle. Do not let the water boil.
    heat water
  • Once hot, you can add the oat flour and mix it with the milk frother. The oat makes easily a lot of lumps, so be patient. Press the lumps with a spoon if needed.
    add oatmeal flour1

Oil Phase

  • Measure all oil ingredients (sunflower oil, sweet almond oil and wax) into the double boiler
    measure ingredients2
  • Place the double boiler over a pan with water (bagne-marie) and let the emulsifying wax melt in low heat
    heat oils

Cooling Phase

  • Measure all cooling phase ingredients into a small cup.
    measure cooling ingredients
  • The essential oil is optional. Vitamin E will enrich your lotion with an anti-oxidant, and is also optional. The preservative is not optional. Use the quantities as per manufacturer instructions. I use Euxyl k940 at 1%.
    cooling-phase-ingredients

Making your Lotion

  • Measure the temperature of both the water and the oils. Make sure the water is at a higher temperature than the oils.
    measure temps
  • Pour the water into the oils. The mixture will immediately turn milky.
    pour water in oils
  • Blend the mixture well with a milk frother. There might be lumps due to the oat flour. Press them with a spoon. Since I have used aloe vera gel from fresh leaves, I've also found some lumps from it.
    mix with milk frother
  • The mixture will become creamy but runny.
    creamy white lotion
  • Wait till the mixture is around temperature50 °C or a little lower. Then pour the cooling phase ingredients and mix well with a spoon or the milk frother.
    add cooling ings

Finishing your Lotion

  • It's time to measure your lotion pH. It should be around 5.5 (5-6). Add one teaspoon of citric acid dissolved in water (you can also use lemon juice) if pH is too high, or a teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in water if pH is too low. Add as many teaspoons as needed but one or two should be enough.
    measuring-pH-with-test-paper
  • Pour your lotion into an opaque squeeze bottle. You can also use a tin container, but a squeeze or pump opaque bottle protects your lotion against light and air oxidation, dirt contamination or getting in contact with your fingers.
    1664451211036 1
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