How to Make a Body Lotion Bar

If you've made lip balm then you can make a lotion bar. The process is the same - you make a semi solid cake with moisturizing oils and beeswax.

The finished lotion bar melts on contact with your warm skin.  This bar is lovely to rub on your dewy skin after a shower.

With the lip balm recipe a couple posts back, I used simple oils that are readily available in the kitchen.

For this recipe it uses a variety of nourishing and moisturizing oils which are quite luxurious for the skin.

The beeswax helps to create an emollient barrier on the skin which holds the moisture against the skin.


Essential oils give your bar glorious scents and if you explore some aromatherapy oils you can create blends that can be for stress, relaxation, etc.  These give your bar an added dimension and are value added which takes your product up a notch.

The molds used for the shapes are soap molds (Milky Way brand of molds - "Guest Soap") which are sold at the suppliers listed previously on the Lip Balm recipe and re-posted at the bottom.

A small kitchen scales will help tremendously since most recipes are not by tbsp or cups, but instead by grams.

Some of the oils are semi-solid at room temperature and some are liquid oils.

Recipe yields 6 bars

18 g Virgin Coconut Oil
36 g Apricot Kernel Oil
36 g Jojoba Oil
30 g Shea Butter
36 g Cocoa Butter (deodorized or it smells like chocolate - which isn't a bad thing)
 15 g Mango Butter
8 gel capsules Vitamin E Oil
3 g Essential Oil Blend
81 g Beeswax

Slowly melt the beeswax, coconut oil, apricot kernel oil, jojoba oils and cocoa butter on a low heat until melted.  Then add in the Shea and Mango Butters.  Finally add the more delicate Vitamin E Oil and your Essential Oil blend.  Stir and make sure everything is melted.

Have your molds ready and pour your warm mixture into the molds.  Leave 30 minutes to cool.  I find it's best to put in the freezer for 5 minutes prior to unmolding so that pieces don't stick in the mold.

Or a better way is to place the freshly poured molds into the freezer for 15 minutes, then remove and unmold so that your mold is freed up to do another batch.

The bars do fit nicely into metal tins sold at the suppliers which keep them from being crushed.

I'd love to hear from you if you try this.  Good luck!


Candian suppliers:
New Directions - Canada
Voyageur Soap & Candle

USA suppliers:
New Directions - USA
Brambleberry