Body & Skin Care Recipes
Lotion, lip balm, salves, body oils, and more—oh my! You can make it all with these awesome recipes.
Making Substitutions
Don’t have the oil or butter called for in the recipe? Here’s a guide on how to choose a good alternative from what you do have.
What's with the waxes?
Beeswax, carnauba wax, candelila wax, bayberry wax—how are they different? Can you use one instead of another?
Help, I made a mess!
My best tips for cleaning up your DIY messes 🙂
Sun Bum Body Cream
Over the years I have received a lot of requests for a Sol de Janeiro Brazillian Bum Bum Cream DIY. I found a 2018 request from Nichole and a 2020 request from Leslie in my records, and I'm pretty darn sure there have been others that have been lost in the shuffle of...
Phryne’s Milk of Roses
Last year I positively devoured Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher Mystery series. Set in Melbourne in the late 1920s, the novels star the glamourous and clever Miss Phryne Fisher, who solves all kinds of mysteries in style. I first discovered Phyrne in the TV show based...
Passionfruit Velvet Dry Oil Mist
Today's formulation was inspired by Glossier's "Body Hero Dry-Touch Oil Mist"—I saw it on their website and loved the idea of an oil mist, remembering reading on Lotion Crafter that fractionated coconut oil is "light enough to spray through a pump sprayer". That got...
Moisturizing Repair Lotion
Happy new year, and happy 2021! I decided to kick off this new year with an evolution of the formulation that kicked off 2020—my much-loved Moisturizing Repair Cream (please read that post, too—there's lots of good background information in it!). This lotion-y...
Super Simple Moisturizing Lotion with Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate
Today we're re-visiting this summer's Super Simple Moisturizing Lotion to learn how to adapt formulations to use the emulsifier Glyceryl Stearate (and) PEG-100 Stearate instead of emulsifying waxes like Polawax, Emulsifying Wax NF, Olivem 1000, BTMS-50, or Ritamulse...
Ice Palace Fizzing Shimmering Bath Dust
This Ice Palace Fizzing Shimmering Bath Dust has all the fizzy fun of a bath bomb, combined with the ease and indulgence of bath salts. There's no moulding or pressing—just massage everything together, leave the mixture out to dry for a day or two, and you've got...
Ice Palace Bath Bombs
One of the things I absolutely have to make every year as part of my holiday DIYing is bath bombs—my mom loves them, so I need to make sure she's set for the following year 😊 This year's holiday bath bombs are Ice Palace themed, with a fizzy surprise in the...
Cocoa Coconut Vegan Body Butter Bars
Today's DIY is part of our ongoing Cocoa Coconut theme—we're melting up some stunning Cocoa Coconut Vegan Body Butter Bars that put silky cocoa butter and mouthwatering coconut oil on a pedestal so they can shine. You'll only need six or seven ingredients to make...
Ice Palace Body Wash
We're getting all kinds of sudsy today with a pearlescent and bubbly Ice Palace Body Wash! If you're generally a fan of creamy body washes, this one is just the thing—it kicks off heaps of fluffy bubbles, smells wonderfully refreshing, and looks a bit like a liquid...
Popping Cocoa Coconut Bath Salts
These beautiful and fun Popping Cocoa Coconut Bath Salts are the latest addition to this year's Cocoa Coconut Holiday 2020 theme! And yes—they do pop! They pop and fizz and crackle like an indulgent magic trick when added to your bathwater. In addition to the popping...
Ice Palace Body Glow Lotion
We're continuing our Ice Palace theme today with this lovely Ice Palace Body Glow Lotion! This one is really neat in the skin feel/consistency department. In regards to viscosity and absorption speed, it's more like a mid-weight lotion—but the richness is closer to...
Autumn Spice Whipped Body Butter
This decadent Autumn Spice Whipped Body Butter is a Bee Better of a Whipped Pumpkin Spice Body Butter I shared back in 2016. This updated version features fully percentage-ified measurements, a safer scent blend, and a new whipping method. Starring lightweight mango...
Cinnamon Sugar Dry Foaming Body Scrub
Today we're mixing up a fragrant, perfect-for-autumn Cinnamon Sugar Dry Foaming Body Scrub. Starring sugar, rhassoul clay, and a gentle surfactant for all kinds of gorgeous bubbles, this 7-ingredient scrub makes a great gift and a great excuse to take a hot bath...
Cocoa Coconut Emulsified Body Butter
If you love The Body Shop's body butters, you are going to love this Cocoa Coconut Emulsified Body Butter! Fragrant coconut oil and cocoa butter star, making up a full 40% of this formulation. This Cocoa Coconut Emulsified Body Butter has much of the richness of a...
Silk Aloe Body Wash
This DIY came from an old ideas notebook I started back in 2014 or so—on a trip to Costa Rica, I believe (there are a lot of doodles of geckos and notes about surfing and passionfruit and goodness... to be back there now!). This little notebook is filled with all...
Hemp & Shea Hand and Body Lotion
This silky Hemp & Shea Hand and Body Lotion is another Bee Better project, riffing on and updating the Healing Herbal Hemp & Shea Lotion I shared back in October 2014. This version keeps many of the same ingredients and very much riffs on the same themes of...
Calendula + Clay Soft Foaming Body Scrub
If you've been looking for a way to mix up your bath routine, I think you might just love this Calendula + Clay Soft Foaming Body Scrub. It's a dry, sudsy body scrub that works beautifully on a loofah or between your hands—just work it up with a bit of water and...
Nourishing Hand Rescue Lotion
This gorgeous Nourishing Hand Rescue Lotion is another "riff" project—taking inspiration from April's much-loved Intense Hand Rescue Cream with the aim of creating something similar, but lighter and more pump-top/squeeze tube friendly. I positively adore April's...
Bubbly Bath Dough
I had a heck of a time trying to name this fun DIY! Generally speaking, it's a sort of play-dough for the bath or shower that can be sculpted into whatever your heart desires, used as a body wash, and/or crumbled under a running tap to create all kinds of bubbles....
Passionfruit Coconut Conditioning Body Lotion + Hair Conditioner
Today's DIY is a beautiful Passionfruit Coconut Conditioning Body Lotion. This rich emulsion is not only a great hand and body lotion, but it also makes a fantastic hair conditioner! Depending on your hair (and how much you use), it can be anything from a hair mask to...
Super Simple Whipped Shea Butter
Today's project is another back-to-basics post—we're making an all-natural Super Simple Whipped Shea Butter! You'll need just four basic ingredients to create this decadent body butter. It's not greasy, you don't need to heat anything up, and half of the ingredients...
Passionfruit Coconut Body Scrub
Over the last couple months, emulsified scrubs of all types have become a big favourite of mine. I've always like them, but now I don't want to take a bath without one! A good scrub leaves my skin all kinds of soft and moisturized—I usually don't need lotion-ing...
Watermelon Mint Foaming Hand Wash
Our summery Watermelon Mint series continues today with a simple Watermelon Mint Foaming Hand Wash that pumps out thick clouds of the most decadent lather, making handwashing a treat. To keep things as easy as possible, I've used a pre-blended surfactant product so...
Summer Glow Body Lotion
Today's DIY is another Bee Better project—an update of the Summer Shimmer Body Lotion I shared back in 2015 (over five years ago!). This lotion is lightweight and packs a serious shimmery punch to leave you glowing like a summer sunset. You can easily customize the...
