These have been wonderful for my winter dry skin. I used to coat my hands at night with petroleum jelly, because it was the only thing that helped with the dryness. Normal lotion didn’t help much at all, plus I don’t like the fragrance of most lotions, and many have questionable ingredients. Since I do a lot of dishes and wash my hands frequently, these bars have been a godsend. No more dry skin for me! My only regret is that I didn’t try them sooner, since they are so easy to make. The smell is light and pleasant, and they absorb fairly quickly.
Most homemade lotion recipes involve quite a few ingredients, blenders and more mess than I’d prefer to clean up. In contrast, all you need for these these bars is three ingredients, one pot, and molds – that’s it!
I used a recipe from Jo’s Health Corner, a site that I highly recommend. Jo has tons of neat ideas for natural health products.
Hard Lotion Bar Recipe
Ingredients
1 part each
- Cocoa butter or shea butter
- Oil
- Beeswax
Melt all ingredients together, pour in molds, let set until hard, unmold, and you’re done!
I used plantain infused olive oil, almond oil would probably work nicely as well. I made one batch with cocoa butter and one with shea butter, just to compare. For the wax, I used granules from Frontier, but will probably switch to some sort of unrefined beeswax in the future because it is more therapeutic.
Here’s a shot of all the ingredients as they begin to melt. In this batch, I used two ounces by weight or volume of each ingredient. I weighed the wax and cocoa butter, and used a liquid measure for the oil.
When everything has melted completely, pour the liquid into molds of your choice. I had molds available that I used for melt and pour soap making. You could also use muffin tins or some other small container. 6 ounces of product filled two molds completely and one partial mold.
After several hours, the lotion will be firm and hard and should release easily from the mold.
My mold set has a lot of fun shapes. I’m rather fond of the basic oval bars, but the boys like the stars and moons better. I bought these years ago at a local craft store, but there are some super cute molds available now like this fish, frog and turtle mold.
Shea Butter Lotion Bars
Both the shea butter and cocoa butter work well for moisturizing. I find the shea butter bars to be a little tackier and take longer to absorb into the skin. They also smell a bit “planty”, not bad, just not as good (to me) as the cocoa butter.
Cocoa Butter Hard Lotion Bar
The cocoa butter bars smell good enough to eat! My younger son loved the smell so much I caught him rubbing the bar all over himself after he got out of the shower – even in his armpits. I had been using the bars as a lip balm, too…oops… The next time I made a batch, I poured some into smaller containers to use as lip balm, and made my son his own special bar.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. This one’s a keeper in our house! Please pass the post along if you find it helpful, and leave a comment if you have any questions or ideas.
Update: – You can find these ingredients (and containers and molds) at Mountain Rose Herbs (link below), amazon.com (linked within the post), soaperschoice.com, and many other sites around the web. I do have affiliate accounts with Mountain Rose and Amazon, so I get a small payment if you purchase from either through the links below. Keep in mind that two ounces of each ingredient made three bars, so a bulk purchase would make a LOT of bars.
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Want to “cheat” a little and have someone else make the bars for you? Check out MadeOn Hard Lotion Bars. They also have complete DIY kits for making lotion and lip balm, which include a copy of the “My Buttered Life” e-book with five skin care recipes.
This post has been added to Domestically Divine at Far Above Rubies and Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS.
super easy and super good! u go gurl!!
Thanks for sharing this easy recipe! Fabulous idea!
Oh wow! These look and sound great! Thanks so much for sharing! I what to try these pretty soon.
These are so pretty! Now where would I purchase something like this? Locally- if so what type of store or On-Line?
I mean, the ingredients- where would I purchase them, not the completed bars.
I’m interested, Laurie! I’d love you point in the right direction as to which butters are best to buy and where.
Loved the armpit – lip balm. Totally something that would happen at my house.
Love this! Thanks for the recipe…I’ve pinned it for later
The links to the cocoa butter and shea butter don’t work.
Thanks everyone for your comments, and thank you for letting me know the links aren’t working. I’ve added some additional links at the bottom of the post to ingredient sources.
Oh wow, this looks GREAt…and definitely easy enough for me to make at home!!!! Thanks for the easy project recipe!!!! I’ll write this on my list of stuff to do this month…err,…this month in February
Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather 
Made a bar today and I love it! I used beeswax from my farmers market, sweet almond oil, and drugstore cocoa butter. Thanks for sharing this great tip for my super-dry winter hands.
Thanks for the shout out!
I taught how to make these in a class a few weeks ago and they were a big hit.
I have a one ingredient solid lotion recipe I keep in the fridge in a mason jar. Grassfed beef tallow! It smells a little meaty when you first put it on, but it soaks right in and soothes my hands like nothing else in the world. I rendered it myself from fat I bought from a local rancher who I trust. Seriously, I don’t think you could beat it with anything.
Heather – quickest lotion ever – except maybe Deborah’s beef tallow.
Carolyn – I keep a bar on my desk and a bar on my nightstand. Love it!
Jo – these are great! Have you made them with coconut oil?
Deborah – I remember how soft my hands were after we rendered tallow, but I admit, I’m a sucker for the chocolate smell of the cocoa butter.
This would be easy to make as I have all the ingredients. We have bees, partner likes to make chocolates, and we have olive oil from the farmers’ market. Thanks!
Mil – sounds like you’re in business!
Can’t wait to try this! Love the ingredients!
I’m going to pin this recipe. Looks so easy! I suppose I have to devote a pan to this process?? I like the clean look of your blog too. THANKS!
Michelle – as long as you’re using everything edible (well, you could eat the wax, but it wouldn’t be tasty), I don’t see a reason why you couldn’t use a regular kitchen pot. If you start adding essential oils they might leave an “off” flavor, but with stainless steel pots and therapeutic grade oils, even that should be okay. My goal is to get everything I put on my skin to be safe enough to eat.
Thanks for the kind words about the blog. I’m still learning WordPress, so it’ll keep changing slowly, but I want to keep it easy to use.
So glad I found your blog. I can’t wait to try making some lotion bars myself.
I can’t wait to try this. Thanks got sharing this awesome idea!
I love this recipe and I love affiliate programs if I am going to buy something why not help out another in the process. That said I do not see the links for MountainRoseHerbs
hhhmmmm sorry about that I switched over to Internet Explorer and I can see it now
)
I shared your lotion bar with my friends. It has been a big hit. Thank you for making it available.
Thanks, Donna. Glad that it working well for you.
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I’m sorry, I guess I don’t understand fully what the lotion bars are for. Do you put it on your wet skin? I’ve never heard of this before! Thanks for any answers!
No problem, Sarah. You use them like you would a normal lotion or cream for dry skin. While the bars are firm at normal room temps (for most people – low to mid 70′s or cooler), they soften at body temperature. To use a lotion bar, you simply rub it over the area of dry skin you want to apply it to, or rub the bar with your hands to coat your hands, and then use your hands to apply to the desired area. The warmth of your body softens the bar. The natural oils absorb within minutes, leaving the skin soft and supple, and the wax protects the skin and firms up the bar. Good quality ingredients also nourish the skin and promote healing, as opposed to many synthetic formulas that clog the pores and/or make your skin more dependent on the product. One of my goals this year is to try and keep everything I put on my skin safe enough to eat, as the skin is very absorbent (think trans-dermal medications).
Thank you for your answers! I completely agree about the funny ingredients in lotions. I have been looking into things I can make myself so I’m not spending a fortune! Much of what I have found comes from the kitchen. Sunflower and coconut oil etc. I have enough skin issues especially in the winter without adding alcohol type ingredients. Some of them are preservatives so it doesn’t go bad but they make dryness and irritation worse. I am probably preaching to the choir on this!
lol – maybe we can sing in the choir together.
I’ve been using coconut oil to clean my face, and it’s smoother and softer than it has been in years. So nice to find simple solutions.
Please share with us where you bought the charming moon and star mold on the first page.
Carol – I wish I could, but I can’t remember! I bought them many years ago, and now I can’t find any similar. I think I may have purchased them at the local Hobby Lobby.
Hi there,
I really want to try these. Do these require the use of a double boiler pan as I have seen in other recipes for hard lotion bars?
I just use a heavy bottom pan and heat gently.
Thanks!
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I am totally going to try this, but I need to buy some cocoa or shea butter first.
I imagine it might be similar to what I do when my skin gets super industrial dried out – I have a tin of burt’s bees lip balm and instead of putting it on my lips, I put it on my hands. It feels great!
That’s exactly it! Extra heavy duty protection and soothing.
I had to tell you that I made these and they are *awesome*. My son developed a really strange rash-like dry scaly skin on his hands. It turned out to be a virus so it had to run its course but these lotion bars helped relieve the burning and itching he was experiencing. Thank you for that.
I’m glad that you were able to treat his condition and that the lotion bars were able to help with the symptoms. We use ours daily.
Want to know what is really amazing?? I used 2 of the bars in a barter situation and was able to trade them for a service that would have probably cost me $100 or more. Crazy huh?
Wow! That’s great!
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