There are plenty of advantages to making your own natural moisturizer at home—whether that's a creamy lotion, a rich balm, a nourishing oil blend, or a bar to rub on.

In addition to the flexibility of customizing your formulas—think of all the scents, textures, and presentations you can create!—you can target your skin's specific needs, reduce your exposure to chemical ingredients in store-bought beauty products, and cut down on plastic waste. And that's just the beginning!

Learn how to make eight different homemade natural moisturizers, starting with the lightest, most lotion-like variation at the top, and moving down into the creamier and then oilier lotions towards the bottom of the list.

This light lotion is great to have on hand near the kitchen or bathroom sink to keep hands moisturized after washing. This moisturizer will be similar to the kind you buy at the grocery store or drug store in a big pump bottle—and this will refill one of those bottles well (it's a pump-able consistency).

Creating a lotion requires emulsification, so be sure to follow the instructions closely.

Stored in a cool place, your lotion will keep for up to three weeks.

This is a simple, basic moisturizer recipe suitable for most skin types. It can be used on the body and face. The emulsification process is key, so take your time, go slowly, and follow the directions below.

Your lotion will keep for two to three weeks when stored in a cool place.

This oil-based moisturizer featuring chamomile oil is ideal for dry, irritated, itchy, or blotchy skin.

This oil moisturizer should be stored in a dark place or in a dark container away from heat. Since the mixture will keep for up to six weeks, you might want to consider halving the recipe if you're only going to use it for your face.

Hibiscus flower has long been used in natural beauty applications because of its skin hydrating properties. It's also easy to procure and inexpensive, and lends a lovely pink color to this moisturizer. The combination with soothing rose makes this a serious skin treat.

This is a rich, liquid moisturizer for dry facial skin, but it could work as an enriching all-over body moisturizer, too.

Some people can experience irritation with ylang-ylang, so a spot test is recommended (note that ylang-ylang should always be mixed with a carrier oil, even for a skin test).

This thick and rich oil is ideal for the body but will likely be too heavy for most facial skin.

The combination of essential oils means that the scent matches the intensity of the moisturizer—but you can leave them out, change them up, or halve them if it's too much scent for you.

Moisturizing bars are great for travel, camping, or people who don't want to worry about using up a lot of moisturizer in a few weeks before it goes bad. Made into different shapes, they also make adorable gifts!

These bars are meant to be solid until rubbed on skin, when they will melt just enough from the heat of your body to give you a usable amount of moisturizer.

This extra-rich oil combination can be used to moisturize face, neck, and chest, especially if you have very dry skin.

Rosehip oil and marula oil are both shown to have anti-aging effects. The essential oils and carrot seed oil mix well together to provide hydration benefits.

Shoko, Tinotenda, et al. "Anti-Aging Potential of Extracts from Sclerocarya birrea (A. Rich.) Hochst and Its Chemical Profiling by UPLC-Q-TOF-MS." BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 18, 2018., doi:10.1186/s12906-018-2112-1

There was an error. Please try again.

Thank you for signing up.