Non-Greasy Hand & Body Cream
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If you’re looking for a homemade lotion or hand cream that will nourish your skin, look no further. This recipe is super nourishing, super versatile and super simple. And I’ve updated it with essential oils suitable for your skin’s needs.
I love making as many of my personal care items in order to cut down on toxins in our home and on our bodies.
I’ve made Eye Makeup Remover, Alcohol-Free Hairspray, Sugar Scrub, Nourishing Lip Scrub, Hair Rinse, Homemade Body Wash, and more. I’ve been looking for a homemade lotion recipe that works for a long time, and I finally have it.
I’ve bought so many lotions and creams in my life, but have really wanted to go to making homemade lotion myself.
I can’t stand forking out a ton of money for something when I can make it for a fraction of the cost myself.
That doesn’t mean that I am opposed to buying high-quality things but
I asked all of my great readers the other day for recipes for DIY lotions, and one reader had a recipe that really appealed to me. I liked it, but then tweaked it to remove the aloe so it didn’t need a preservative.
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Why You’ll Love This Lotion
This homemade lotion is
– non-greasy
– super easy to make (no fancy tools–just melt, stir, and pour)
– smells great
– has flexible ingredients (so you can pretty much use what you have on hand)
Why Hard Lotions Didn’t Work for Me
It’s a cross between a smooth lotion and a hard lotion. Are you familiar with those hard lotion bars that are all the rage now on the internet?
While I love the concept, I have found that the hard lotion bars are a little tough for me to use.
Mostly, I think it’s because I’m a little too impatient to wait for the bar to soften. Does anyone else get frustrated with this?
I find myself trying to rub the hard lotion into my skin before it’s had time to soften and as I watch my skin pulling and stretching, I think, “That can’t be too good for my skin, can it?”
Anyhow, this lotion is solid at room temp, but it isn’t super hard and softens up really quickly in your hands, even in our home in winter when it’s on the chilly side.
Essential Oils for Different Skin Issues
This lotion recipe uses essential oils. While they aren’t necessary, adding them can turn your lotion from being simply moisturizing to something that really addresses what is going on with your skin.
- Dry or aging skin? Try rose & geranium
- Need to be energized and refreshed? Try lavender, lemon, and grapefruit
- Troubled skin like psoriasis or eczema? Try helichrysum, frankincense, lavender, sandalwood, chamomile, rose or jasmine
- Want to avoid Stretch Marks? Try helichrysum, lavender, patchouli, neroli, rose, & geranium
Why This Lotion Is Non-Greasy
The simple step of adding some arrowroot powder makes this a non-greasy lotion for both your body and face. So simple!
Arrowroot is a great oil absorber. It can be used for removing oil stains from clothing and it’s also a great ingredient in DIY dry shampoo. In fact, we often use arrowroot on its own as a super quick “I didn’t have time to wash my hair” solution.
Arrowroot absorbs some of the oil in this recipe to make this a DIY lotion that is a great consistency and also a non-greasy treat for your skin.
While I really like arrowroot for this purpose, you can also use cornstarch or tapioca starch, and you should get the same result.
How to Use This Lotion
Of course you can simply put this lotion on your skin, but here are some things I’ve done that make it work even better.
- Use a Sugar Scrub followed with this Body Cream for hands that feel super soft and revitalized. The moisture left from rinsing off the scrub is sealed into your skin by the cream.
- Put this body cream on before bed (misting your body with some water first is best) and wake up to healthy, nourished skin.
Recipe Notes
1. For essential oils, use whatever you like. I’ve used orange, which was really heavenly smelling, especially combined with the fragrance of the coconut oil. It smelled kind of like a creamsicle. Lavender would be very soothing as well.
2. Buttter/Oil Options: This recipe is very versatile. I’ve used extra coconut oil and shea butter when I was out of cocoa butter, and it still turned out great.
3. Container Size: This makes a small amount: just enough for one of these small canning jars like these.
4. Solidifying Problems: Please note that some (including me) who have made this have had issues with it not solidifying. I suspect it has to do with the type of shea butter used. It seems that if you use a raw shea butter, the resulting product is not as firm.
Some people mentioned in the comments that their lotion didn’t solidify. I’m guessing that is due to different temperatures or perhaps that quality of the ingredients used.
Even if yours is liquidy, you can still use it. In fact, one idea is to put it in a pump bottle.
This bottle would be just perfect for that.
Where to Buy Ingredients
For essential oils, I recommend checking out the company I recommend in my Best Essential Oils Series.
More Homemade Personal Care Products You’ll Love
Homemade Shea Butter Lotion – non-greasy and great for all skin types, including aging skin and acne-pron skin.
Homemade Lip Scrub – so healthy you can literally eat it!
Apple Cider Vinegar Hair Rinse – makes your hair super healthy!
DIY Sugar Scrub – get spa results without the spa prices
Black Cumin Face Oil Blend – get amazing skin without paying a hefty price
Nourishing Hand and Body Cream
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup coconut oil (I also really like Nutiva organic)
- 1/8 cup shea butter
- 1/8 cup cocoa butter (See notes for alternatives)
- 1 tablespoon carrier oil of choice (like sweet almond, jojoba, grapeseed, etc.)
- 1/2 tablespoon arrowroot powder
- 5-10 drops essential oils (optional. Read Which Essential Oils Company is Best? to see why I recommend this company.)
- Cute container for storing. I like glass jars like this one
- See notes for ideas according to skin type (above)
Instructions
- Heat the shea butter, coconut oil, and cocoa butter over very low heat until melted. A double boiler works well for this.
- Remove from heat.
- Combine the carrier oil, arrowroot, and essential oils (if using) in a small bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Store in container of your choice. I like these small canning jars.
- Add the carrier oil mixture to the melted butters. Mix well with a fork or hand mixer, but don't over-whip. Allow to cool in the fridge.
Not Wanting To DIY?
If you aren’t really in the mood to make your own lotion, or just are out of time, you can buy clean lotions too. I’m really careful to avoid using anything with artificial fragrances.
Poofy Organics has a lot of great options at a reasonable price. Their Skin Hero lotion is fantastic. Use code WNM to get 10% off your first order.
Have you ever made your own homemade lotion?
Photo credits – Naomi Huzovicova
For those of you experiencing a greasy feeling from this recipe, try adding arrow root powder a little at a time . mixing with a whisk, until it gets like pudding. Shea butter will turn hard when it cools, coconut oil can be greasy if you add too much, so try a different butter that is softer. You can also add liquid oils that absorb well, such as, grapeseed oil and almond oil, but remember to add arrow root powder.
Hi Kay! Thanks for the tip. I did have that tip in this recipe but I’ve just added it to this one. Thanks for reading!
What type of/brands of broad spectrum preservative do you recommend for your DIY Hand Cream, please?
Not sure I would/could use up this recipe in 3 days. ?
So sorry it took forever to get back to you! The preservative information is in the post and I’ll put it in the recipe card as well! Thanks for your patience!
Hello Adriene,
I followed this recipe for the hand cream for dry skin, but have clearly done something wrong as mine won’t set unless put in the fridge, left out it is very runny. I only used a bit when I had it in the fridge but it was very oily. Can you please tell me what I could have done wrong? Thank you
Hi there – I’m so sorry! Did you follow the directions exactly? I actually haven’t made this is a very long time but I’ll do my best to help!
Adrienne,
Thank you.
Yes I did follow the instructions as laid out in the recipe. Should I have either whipped/beaten the ingredients at the end? Maybe I should have put beeswax? It is summer here in Aus so I would imagine that would have some affect over how solid it would be too.
What’s the temperature there? I’m so sorry!
How much preservative (vegetable glycerin) should I put?
Hi there. I don’t think glycerin would function as a great preservative here.
What type of liquid fat would you suggest in place of aloe juice? I find coconut oil greasy, I personally wouldn’t want to add more and ruin clothing.
Hmmm….that’s a good question. Fractionated coconut oil doesn’t stain. However, I would think most any lotion could stain clothing.
Hi,
This sounds so amazing and I want to try it out!
I was a bit confused about the storage time! If I leave the aloe oil out then it will last longer? Or how can I make it so it last longer then 3 days and not have to put it in a fridge?
Thanks
Hi there. Sorry for the delay. It’s aloe vera not oil–is that what you meant?
What’s the difference in aloe Vera juice and aloe Vera gel
I’ve never heard of the juice
Typically gel is for topical and juice is for internal but not exclusively. The gel comes from when you split the leaf in half and the juice is just under the the green skin of the leaf. Hope that helps! We love the juice for digestive health. Trader Joe’s has a great value on this.
Thank you for the recipe. I just have one question, for how many days can we store this lotion? Thank you in advance.
Hi there. It really depends on the ingredients that you use–if you use the aloe or not, as well as sterile quality of the ingredients. Hope that helps!
If I use aloe vera gel from market, in that case how many days can I store it?
Aloe vera is very vulnerable to bacteria growth so same precautions. I will try to have another cream without that issue!
I used apricot oil, shea butter, beeswax, vegetable glycerin, aloe, arrowroot powder, and essential oils and the lotion still feels too greasy. I’ve tried less of one thing more of another ect but can’t seem to capture the right feel. Its plenty creamy but still a little greasy.
Hmmm..that’s quite a bit different than the formula I posted. I’m not sure what to say! How greasy is it?
If you’re still concerned about the lotion not solidifying, you could add a little beeswax, + that helps to seal moisture in, great to apply right after you use your sugar scrub.
Bethany, how much beeswax would you add to this recipe please.
Thank you
Hi. You have an easy recipe but no I cant use all your ingredients have a bad allergy to ingredients and all of them in your cream will give me allergy pimples. Any other with not these ingredients plus garlic, honey and any comedogenic acne ingredients with a rating 3 up please I don’t want them on my skin anymore.
Thanks
Hi there. Sorry that this won’t work for you–are you saying that every ingredient is a problem for you?
I’d love to know more about the concerns you mention around homemade personal care products. Could you provide a link to some of the information you’ve been reading out there? Thanks so much!!
Hi there. There are all kinds of things–not blending well enough (i.e. for sunscreen), using substandard ingredients that aren’t tested for contamination / heavy metals, bacterial contamination, improper / insufficient amounts of preservatives, etc. Does that help? I should do a post about this.
What is the yield on this recipe please? You may have already said but I couldn’t see it, thanks!
Hi there. It would be just about the sum of the amounts of the ingredients so about 5/8 of a cup. Enjoy!