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!
Easy Natural Lotion for Beginners
If you've been wanting to dive into making your very own easy natural lotion, start here! This post is the first in a series on how to create your very own lotions. Today I'll teach you how to make a basic lotion, and in upcoming posts I'll teach you how to customize...
Raspberry Mint Body Custard
If you're looking for a glossy, slippy, richly hydrating body lotion sort of thing for summer, I think this pretty pink Raspberry Mint Body Custard might just be it. This formulation is unlike emulsion I've ever made, with a consistency that puts me in mind of rich...
Raspberry Mint No-Melt Summer Body Butter
This silky, indulgent Raspberry Mint No-Melt Summer Body Butter has all the luxurious loveliness you want in a body butter, but it's much lighter—making it perfect for summer skincare! It is an emulsified body butter, so it's not only faster absorbing than anhydrous...
Soft Oat Hand Lotion
This pillowy, silky hand lotion has earned a much-coveted spot on my bedside table. I positively adore how it makes my skin feel; it is richly moisturizing without being greasy, and has a luxurious, powdery finish. I thought a wonderful hand lotion formulation was...
Raspberry Lavender Soothing Body Milk
This Raspberry Lavender Soothing Body Milk is a lightweight, drizzle-able, all-natural body milk made with a new-to-me palm-free emulsifier. It's a gorgeous way to moisturize and soothe summer skin without feeling weighed down or greasy. Let's dive in! Want to watch...
Winter Solstice Facial Cleansing Cream
This silky, slippy, honey and rose scented Winter Solstice Cleansing Cream is a positively divine way to gently cleanse your skin at the darkest, coldest time of year (if you're in the southern hemisphere you might prefer this summer solstice themed formulation!)....
Candlelight Body Cream
A theme centred around rich, indulgent, glowy goodness definitely needs a rich body cream, and this one fits the bill beautifully. Not only does it moisturize, hydrate, and soothe, but it also contains an all-natural active to help even out skin tone and reduce dark...
Super Simple All Natural Lotion: Follow-Up Q&A
Welcome to the Q&A follow-up post for my Super Simple Natural Lotion formulation! Today I'm tackling some of the questions I got about this formulation that were not answered in the original blog post or video. Can you add goat milk powder? How about using a...
Super Simple Natural Lotion
If you've been wanting to make an all-natural lotion but haven't been sure where to start—start here! You'll need just six ingredients to make this Super Simple Natural Lotion. It's a lightweight, pumpable, moisturizing lotion that makes a great hand and body lotion....
Rich Mocha Hand & Body Lotion
If you adore the combination of sweet, rich cocoa and intoxicating coffee, this Rich Mocha Body Lotion will be right up your alley ☕️ It stars gorgeous unrefined cocoa butter and espresso-coloured, ultra-fragrant coffee oil—you'll be tempted to taste it,...
Summer Solstice Body Milk
If you've been looking for an ultra-light, low-viscosity, super-hydrating summer moisturizer, I think this satiny Summer Solstice Body Milk might just be it. It smells softly of sunshine on a meadow in July; drizzle it over dry skin and massage it in for feather-light...
Almond Oat Natural Body Lotion
Today's formulation is for a lightweight, silky, slippy, all-natural Almond Oat Natural Body Lotion! It smells softly of almonds and oats, is hydrating and moisturizing but not at all greasy, and if you make it as written you don't need to adjust the pH (hooray!). The...
Macadamia Vanilla Emulsified Body Butter
This decadent Macadamia Vanilla Emulsified Body Butter is lovely; it is rich and indulgent without being heavy or greasy. It smells softly nutty with a warm vanilla base note, and it's scoopy and soft like a decadent custard. If you're anything like me, you'll...
Radiant Berry Hand & Body Cream
Today's formulation stars three utterly lovely carrier oils to create a richly moisturizing Radiant Berry Hand & Body Cream. It smells fresh, tart, and juicy, and includes a few of my favourite moisturizing ingredients to leave your skin happy and hydrated. This...
Sourdough Body Cream
Today we're whipping up something fun and different—a Sourdough Body Cream. I had a blast developing and testing this DIY! This is a great way to start using fun and beneficial fermented ingredients in your DIY skincare in an easy, accessible way. Want to watch this...
Happy Hemp Hand Cream
Today we're blending up a product I've had a lot of requests for! I'm calling this pale green lotion Happy Hemp Hand Cream, and it was inspired by The Body Shop's Hemp Hand Protector. My version is a bit lighter and more slippy, but it still includes many of the same...
Strawberry Kiwi Body Yogurt
Today we're whipping up an ultra-light, super-slippy, richly moisturizing Strawberry Kiwi Body Yogurt. I've had a ton of requests for a body yogurt formulation, and I had lots of fun working on this DIY. The scent comes from a juicy strawberry distillate, and the kiwi...
Honey Bee Mine Body Lotion
Brr! This week has been frigid; as I type this, it's -37°C with wind chill outside. It's the first proper cold snap we've had this winter. Along with that cold, it's also very dry. I currently have four (4!) humidifiers running in my home, and they barely make a dent...
Shealoe Emulsified Body Butter
Today I'm sharing my first Bee Better 3.0 project; a soft and creamy Shealoe Emulsified Body Butter that's an evolution on a shea butter and aloe vera heavy formulation I first shared in 2014, and then revised in 2019. This updated 2021 version uses a new emulsifier...
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...
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 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...