How to make your own lotions and bath products at home, safely

Most bath products are a handful of cheap ingredients, a lot of water and a nice label. Once you own a bag of beeswax, a bottle of carrier oil and a scale or measuring spoons, you can make a month of lotion bars, bath salts and scrub for the price of one fancy jar at the mall. The recipes below are sized for a single kitchen batch and written so you can make them on a weeknight.

There is one rule that matters more than any recipe, so it comes first.

Water changes everything

Oil and wax on their own do not spoil quickly. The moment you add water, aloe gel, rosewater or any hydrosol, you have made a place where bacteria and mold can grow, and they grow fast at room temperature. A creamy lotion made with water and no preservative can look and smell fine while it is already contaminated.

You have two safe choices with water-based lotion:

• Add a broad-spectrum cosmetic preservative made for lotions and use it at the rate printed on the package. Craft and soap supply shops sell them in small bottles.
• Make a tiny batch, 2 to 4 ounces, keep it in the refrigerator in a clean jar and throw it out after about a week.

Vitamin E, grapefruit seed extract and essential oils are not preservatives. Vitamin E slows oils from going rancid, which is useful, but it does nothing against microbes.

If that sounds like a hassle, the oil-only recipes below skip the problem completely. That is why lotion bars and body butter are the best place to start.

Before you mix anything

1. Wash your hands and wipe the counter, bowls and spoons with rubbing alcohol or run them through the dishwasher.
2. Use jars that have been washed in hot soapy water and dried completely.
3. Keep a separate set of tools for cosmetics, especially if you melt wax. A thrift store Pyrex measuring cup works well.
4. Label every jar with what it is and the date you made it.
5. Patch test anything new: rub a dime-sized amount on the inside of your forearm and wait 24 to 48 hours. Redness, itching or bumps mean that batch is not for you.

Lotion bars (no water, long shelf life)

A lotion bar is a solid stick that melts when it touches warm skin. It travels well, lasts for months and makes a good stocking stuffer.

Use equal parts by weight: 2 ounces beeswax, 2 ounces shea butter or cocoa butter, and 2 ounces sweet almond, sunflower or olive oil. Melt everything in a heat-safe glass measuring cup set in a pan of simmering water, stirring with a bamboo skewer. Take it off the heat, let it cool for a minute and add up to 30 drops of essential oil if you want scent. Pour it into silicone muffin cups or a clean deodorant tube and leave it on the counter until firm, about an hour.

For a softer bar, drop the beeswax to 1.5 ounces. For a harder bar in a hot summer car, raise it to 2.5.

Whipped body butter

Melt 4 ounces of shea butter with 2 ounces of coconut oil, stir in 2 ounces of a liquid oil, then put the bowl in the refrigerator until the edges start to set, 30 to 45 minutes. Whip it with a hand mixer for 5 minutes until it looks like frosting. Spoon it into a jar and keep it somewhere cool, since coconut oil melts at about 76°F and the fluffy texture collapses in a warm bathroom.

It feels greasy for a few minutes after you apply it. Use a small amount on damp skin after a shower and it soaks in faster.

Choosing a carrier oil

Skip almond oil for anyone with a tree nut allergy. Sunflower oil from the grocery aisle at Aldi is the cheapest good option and works in every recipe here.

Bath salts

Mix 2 cups of Epsom salt with 1 cup of coarse sea salt in a large bowl. In a small cup, stir 15 to 20 drops of essential oil into 1 tablespoon of carrier oil, then drizzle it over the salt and mix with your hands in a food-safe glove. Use about half a cup per bath. A few drops of food coloring make gift jars prettier, though too much can tint a white tub.

Lavender is a gentle, popular choice. Keep strong oils such as peppermint and eucalyptus out of baths for babies and young children.

Sugar scrub

Stir together 1 cup of white or brown sugar and half a cup of olive or sunflower oil. That is the whole recipe. A few drops of vanilla extract or a pinch of cinnamon make it smell like a bakery without buying anything new. Keep it in the shower in a jar, and scoop it out with a spoon so wet fingers do not introduce water into the jar.

Oil makes the tub floor slippery. Rinse the tub after you use a scrub, and put a note on gift jars saying so. Use scrubs before shaving, not after, and never on broken or sunburned skin.

Bubble bath and shower gel

Both start with plain baby shampoo or unscented liquid Castile soap. For bubble bath, mix 1 cup of baby shampoo with a quarter cup of glycerin and 10 drops of essential oil. Glycerin makes the bubbles last longer. Pour a quarter cup under running water. For shower gel, mix half a cup of Castile soap with 2 tablespoons of glycerin and 10 drops of essential oil, then pour it into a pump bottle.

Adding water to either one brings back the preservative problem, so leave it out. The store product already contains a preservative; diluting it just spreads it thinner.

A note on essential oils

Scent is where homemade products get expensive and where most reactions come from. For leave-on lotion, stay around 1 percent, which is about 6 drops per ounce. Cold-pressed citrus oils such as lemon, lime and bergamot can cause a skin reaction in sunlight when left on the skin, so save them for rinse-off products. Pregnant women and anyone with sensitive skin can simply leave the scent out; the product works the same.

What it costs

A 1-pound bag of beeswax pellets, a tub of shea butter and a bottle of sunflower oil cost roughly $30 to $35 together, and that is enough for about eight batches of lotion bars. Each bar then costs around a dollar. A 4-pound bag of Epsom salt runs a few dollars at Walmart or Target and makes three or four gift jars.

Homemade jars make thoughtful gifts; see the inexpensive stocking stuffers list for pairing ideas. If you want to sell them at a craft fair, read the labeling rules on the FDA cosmetics pages first, because a lotion sold to the public is a regulated cosmetic. For more kitchen-cabinet recipes, the guide to old-fashioned kitchen beauty tricks covers oat masks, honey and lip balm, and the homemade laundry detergent recipe uses the same bars of soap you may already buy. Browse the rest of the family and home money savers for more.

Store your finished bars in a cool, dark cupboard. Beeswax and shea keep for six months to a year, and when a product starts to smell like old crayons, the oil has turned and it is time to make a fresh batch.