Homemade All-Natural Body Lotion?

Well, a true lotion contains water and oils and because it contains water, it must have a preservative. There are paraben free preservatives out there and most preservatives are used at less than 1% of the total formula but you still have to have a preservative or products with water will grow mold, yeast and bacteria among other things.

Additionally, because water and oil don't mix, you have to have an emulsifier so that will be one other not so natural ingredient.

Other than the emulsifier and preservative which make up about 4-5% of a product, you should easily be able to find WAHMs who make lotions which have no other chemicals. Also, many WAHMs are more than happy to do custom orders if you want certain scents etc...

As far as making a true lotion yourself, it may be a little hard to do unless you want to get emulsifiers and preservatives.

But, you can use just oil or oils and butters plus your EO to create a moisturizer.

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This will not work and it drives me crazy when I see articles like this printed with misinformation. Vitamin E is NOT a preservative. It is an antioxidant. It will help prevent the oils from going rancid but it will not keep the lotion from growing mold, yeast etc...

Believe me, I make and sell my own lotions. I researched and researched and researched until I was blue in the face. I am absolutely committed to doing things as naturally as possible but safety is an issue as well. To ensure that someone is not harmed by yeast, mold, bacteria and a whole host of other yuckies that you may not even be able to see, I preserve every product that contains water. I use paraben free preservatives and I use it at less than 1% of the product, but a preservative is an absolute must for safety.

Also, this article calls for beeswax as an emulsifier. This is not a reliable emulsifier. It may stay together for awhile but it's very unstable and will likely seperate.

Also, just blending oil and water like mayonaise won't work either. Mayo doesn't contain water but the oil is emulsified by the egg - I believe it's the lecithin.

I don't mean to poo poo every idea, I just want people to benefit from the research others have done. The quest for the perfect, all natural lotion continues. Until I find it, I'm pretty happy with my 96% natural lotion knowing that it's properly preserved and emulsified and that no one is going to get injured using it.

Have you ever used lotion bars? This is an all natural moisturizer w/o water. I got this recipe from the soap goat.com. I have only made it once, but it was easy and worked well.

Lotion Bars
3oz coconut oil
3oz beeswax
1.5oz shea butter
+essential oil as desired.
Heat the oil, beeswax and shea butter only until melted. DO NOT BOIL!! Mix. When cooled slightly add e. oils of choice (if you add the e. oils when the mixture is very warm, it will kill some of the scent but you don't want to wait too long or the mixture will solidify) mix well.

Pour into molds. You can use just about anything for this. Something with a little give is easiest, but if you pour into something hard (glass etc) you may have to hold glass in hot water for a few seconds to loosen bars.

Apply as you are stepping out of the shower, gently rub the bar across your skin, when you rub it on it leaves a thin layer of moisturizer on your skin. If it is a little sticky after you get out of the shower, just rub it in.

I haven't done as much research as pp, but I have done quite a bit, so there may be some risk to this that I don't know about. If so, please let us know, but I too wanted a lotion with no fake stuff in it and was concerned about the risk of not using preservatives also. This is the solution that we have come up with for now. Good luck and have fun!!

OK, this may not be what you are looking for, but I thought I'd throw it out there in case it works for you.

I have had good experiences using Crisco. Uh-huh, really! I bathe or shower before bed and DON'T dry off. I take a dab of crisco and rub it between my palms to liquify it. Then I rub it on. I repeat the "little dab, liquify it, rub it on" until I've done all the body parts that need it. The water left on your skin helps spread the Crisco, and the Crisco seals in the moisture in your skin. Then I put on PJs or other snuggy clothes (and usually go to bed). Next morning, oooh, my skin feels nice and soft!

I've even tried mixing a bit of EO with it first. That was nice, and I'll do that again.

Oils applied to wet skin work well, too. Jojoba oil is very close to skin's own sebum, so it makes a very nice emolient (I use it on my hair). Safflower oil is also fairly light. Some people like olive oil, but it ends up feeling too heavy, almost sticky, on me. Somehow, the Crisco spreads thinner for me than olive oil, and it's easier to handle (since it's not a liquid until I sort of melt it in my palms) than liquid oils.

The trick is to still be wet. If I still feel too wet after rubbing it on, I'll use a wash cloth or small towel to blot dry.