Never made lotion before?
If you’re brand new to lotion making, start with my Super Simple Moisturizing Lotion.
What are emulsifying waxes and are they all the same?
All lotions need an emulsifier, and my formulations call for a variety of different emulsifiers. Learn more about them (and substitutions!) in the Humblebee & Me DIY Encyclopedia.
A Quick Guide to Preservatives
Because all lotions have water in them, they’ll mold sooner rather than later without a broad spectrum preservative. Here’s a quick guide!
Jojoba Mint Natural Foot Cream
With summer sandal season right around the corner, now feels like the perfect time to whip up a batch of rich & velvety Jojoba Mint Natural Foot Cream! This beginner-friendly DIY stars some of my favourite oils and butters, and I’ve taken care of all the fussy...
Sugar Plum Fairy Natural Hand & Body Lotion
If you’ve been disappointed or frustrated by DIY lotions that are heavy and greasy, this DIY is for you! This all-natural, lightweight hand and body lotion is packed with my favourite skin-soothing, moisturizing goodies, making it perfect for winter skincare. I’ve...
Easy DIY Hyaluronic Acid Lotion
I'm loving this lightweight, 7-ingredient hyaluronic acid lotion—it leaves my hands soft and moisturized with a super touchable, powdery finish. I kept this formulation super simple so its very beginner friendly, but that doesn't mean it isn't lovely! If you're newer...
A hand & body milk formulation I adore
I have been loving this formulation for quite a while now and I just couldn't keep it to myself any longer 😄 It's lightweight, super fluid, and perfect for summer skincare.
Light Tallow Hand Lotion
Dehydrated skin needs water as well as oils. In this formulation, moisturizing tallow teams up with hydrating water and glycerin plus some other skincare favourites to create a non-greasy, pumpable hand lotion that leaves your skin soft and moisturized without feeling...
A simple lotion + polarity experiment
Eight months ago I whipped up four different lotions using four different emollient blends to see what I could learn about using emollients with different polarities in emulsions. Here are the results!
Hand Lotion with Green Tea
This formulation began as a riff on the formulation I shared in a similar video last month. Basically: this is a formulation I made with no intentions of publishing—it was a gift for a friend. I used ingredients I had from a variety of sources/countries and leaned...
An oat-rich lotion
Another fun one, and a fairly accessible/DIY-able one to boot! Hooray 😄
A wintery lotion for a friend
I'm trying something new with this video—let me know if you find it helpful 😄 Very basically, this is a formulation I made with no intentions of publishing it; I used ingredients I had from a variety of sources/countries and leaned into being a bit fussy...
A body treatment for crepe-y skin
Let's find out what makes CrépeErase's Body Repair Treatment tick 😄 There were a couple really neat, new-to-me actives in this one. Not all of them are available, but quite a few are, so hooray!
My first emulsions with Magnesium Chloride
Magnesium Chloride emulsions are all the rage, so let's try making some!
Winter Wonderland Hand & Body Lotion
Today's gift-able holiday DIY is a powdery, silky, fragrant Winter Wonderland Hand & Body Lotion that I'm just obsessed with. I find hand and body lotion is quite a good gift as it's a product many people already use (so it's already part of their day-to-day life...
Easy Non-Greasy Hand Lotion
Hand lotion is a skincare staple; heck, even my dad uses it! But, if your handmade lotions are anything like the ones I made when I was a new maker, you’ve probably noticed that your DIY versions are really different from products sold by big brands like Cerave,...
Easy Non-Greasy Lotion: 6 more variations
As I was working on my Easy Non-Greasy Hand Lotion formulation I created seven different variations before choosing one to share. They're all pretty similar on paper, but noticeably different in reality (though all are still light, pump-friendly lotions). I wanted to...
CeraVe’s Moisturizing Cream
This drugstore staple is a favourite of many, featuring hyaluronic acid, ceramides, and a reasonable price tag! Join me and my patrons as we figure out how it works and if we might be able to make something similar at home.
20 Quick & Easy Ways to Customize Lotion Formulations
So, you’ve finally made your very first lotion. Exciting stuff! If you're anything like me, you're now dreaming up all the different ways you'd love to customize the formulation. Could it be thicker? Can you add some colour? What about some scent? However, as a new...
An experiment that turned into my fave summer lotion
This gorgeous, ultra-fluid emulsion was born out of some experiments I did earlier this year where I pushed the lower effective limits of a variety of emulsifiers. I didn't expect it to work (let alone stay stable for 6+ months!), but it did and it has, and I've...
Strawberry Body Yogurt
You’ve almost certainly heard of the rather dairy-product-sounding "body butter"; but what about the equally dairy-ish body yogurt? Think of body yogurt as body butter’s ultra-light cousin: a fast-absorbing and super-slippy body moisturizer that is low on rich oils...
Lavender Oat Dream Cream
Today we are diving deep into the archives to Bee Better a project I published almost exactly nine (!!) years ago. This formulation began life as a Lush dupe(ish), and while the 2014 version wasn't bad, I've learned a lot since then. Today's updated version is softer...
Can you make an emulsion with perfume?
You've got a perfume you adore and you'd love to have a lotion that smells just like it... can you make an emulsion and use your perfume to scent it? Let's find out!
Naturium’s Bio-Lipid Restoring Body Lotion
What makes this highly-rated body lotion stand out? Join me and my patrons as we dive into the ingredient list to figure out why it's so lovely!
Rich Herbal Body Cream
Today we're blending up a rich, botanically blessed body cream that is perfect for cold, dry winter days. I developed this formulation with the help of my readers; t's creamy, scoopable, skin-soothing, and positively decadent. Enjoy! Want to watch this project instead...
Hot Chocolate Body Milk
I'm kicking off the 2022 holiday making series with a pair of Hot Chocolate themed moisturizers; there's a public emulsified body butter and a Patron-exclusive Hot Chocolate Body Milk 😄
How to make your lotions thicker
If you want to make thicker lotions and creams, you've come to the right place! In this post I'll be teaching you three different (easy!) strategies for thickening and adding body to your natural lotions. You can use these strategies alone or combine them–it's up to...