A simple all-natural face lotion is made by melting a plant butter with carrier oils, then whipping the mixture until light and fluffy.
For the full breakdown, see our best All Natural Face Lotion guide.
Making all natural face lotion at home takes about fifteen minutes and a handful of ingredients you can find at most grocery or health food stores. The most forgiving version is an anhydrous whipped moisturizer — no water, no preservatives, no fuss. You melt the fats, cool them, whip them, and you’re done. The result feels rich going on and absorbs without leaving a greasy film, which makes it a satisfying first DIY cosmetics project.
What Ingredients Do You Need?
The base is one solid plant butter plus one or two liquid carrier oils. The most common pairing in recipes is shea butter and jojoba oil, with coconut oil added for spreadability. Many recipes also include almond oil, vitamin E as a natural antioxidant, and a few drops of essential oil for scent.
A reliable starter ratio is roughly equal parts shea butter and coconut oil, with about a quarter as much jojoba or almond oil. You can adjust the texture by shifting the balance: more butter makes a thicker balm, more oil makes a softer lotion. Keep the jar you plan to fill nearby, clean, and wide-mouthed so you can scoop the finished product out easily.
The Melting and Whipping Method
Gently melting the fats is the step where most beginners go wrong. Use a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over low simmering water, and stir until everything is just liquid.
Once melted, let the mixture cool at room temperature until the edges start to firm up again, which usually takes twenty to thirty minutes. Then whip it with a hand mixer for three to seven minutes, until it turns pale, fluffy, and looks like whipped butter. If you blend past the point of thickening, the mixture can turn runny again, so stop as soon as it holds soft peaks.
Transfer the whipped lotion to a clean glass jar and let it rest at room temperature until fully set.
When Do You Need a Preservative?
Here is the line that separates a simple recipe from a chemistry project: the moment you add water, aloe vera gel, or any aqueous ingredient, the formula is no longer anhydrous, and it needs a broad-spectrum preservative.
Recipes that skip the preservative, like the oil-only whipped version above, work because bacteria cannot grow without water. Recipes that include aloe or a water phase explicitly add emulsifying wax — to bind oil and water together — plus a preservative like Geogard ECT, which gets stirred in only after the mixture cools below 100°F. If you want a lighter, lotion-like texture with water in it, plan for those two extra ingredients and follow that sequence: melt the oil phase with the wax, heat the water phase separately, blend both with an immersion blender, cool, then add the preservative and essential oils.
FAQs
Can I use essential oils in this face lotion?
Yes, but they are optional. Recipes treat them as an addition rather than a required ingredient, and they are always added after the mixture cools so the heat does not break them down. If you have sensitive skin, patch-test a small amount on your inner arm first, since some essential oils can cause irritation.
Why did my whipped lotion turn runny?
Overblending after the mixture thickens is the usual culprit. Once the lotion starts to hold soft peaks, stop whipping — continuing can break the emulsion-like structure and leave it liquid. If that happens, you can refrigerate it to thicken it, though it may not rewhip perfectly.
How long does homemade face lotion last?
If your recipe includes water or aloe, rely on the preservative and use it within a few months, since its effectiveness depends on how the product is handled.
References & Sources
- Dr. Axe. “DIY Face Moisturizer.” Provides the base recipe and step-by-step melting and whipping instructions.