Ashley Adamant

Homemade face mask creams can be stored as simple powdered masks, and rehydrated as needed.  This one uses the power of greens to nourish your skin.

Natural herbal face masks are known for their ability to brighten skin and deliver nutrients and moisture right where it’s needed most.  This simple facemask uses powdered greens to nourish your skin.

This recipe comes from the book Natural Homemade Skin Care by Militza Maury, and it’s simple to make and store. 

In powdered form, the mask will store quite a long time, meaning you can rehydrate it and apply it whenever you need a bit of self-care.

Reprinted with permission from Natural Homemade Skin Care by Militza Maury. Page Street Publishing Co. 2020. Photo credit: Militza Maury.

If you have powdered greens in your kitchen, you have the makings of amazing skincare!

Superfood green powders are made of dehydrated and powdered vegetables and fruits. This mask recipe is all about nourishing the skin. The color alone of a green powder tells you about the density of nutrients that go into this mask.

That vibrant green indicates it’s incredibly high in chlorophyll, the substance that feeds plants energy from the sunlight.

On skin, chlorophyll has a protective and anti-inflammatory effect, but it is also very purifying and cleansing, releasing toxins in the skin. This mask is good for all skin types to build health and resiliency in the skin, but acne-prone skin especially will benefit from “wearing” greens.

Super Greens Powder Mask

Skin type: all skin types, especially acne-prone or dull skin

Shelf life: 3 months in powdered form, 1 day when activated with water

• 4 tbsp (32 g) greens powder blend
• 4 tbsp (20 g) kaolin clay
• 4 tbsp (32 g) coconut milk powder

Clean and dry a jar for storing the mask powder. Fill the jar with greens powder, kaolin clay, and coconut milk powder.

Depending on the size of the jar and the amount you want to make, you can easily adjust the measurements, filling the jar with one part of each ingredient. Instead of coconut milk powder, you can also use the milk powder of your choice—buttermilk, cow’s milk, or goat milk. They all deliver fatty moisture to the skin.

To use, scoop out 1 tablespoon (10 g) of the powdered mask mixture into a small bowl. Drizzle droplets of water over the powder and stir to activate the mask, adding enough water to achieve a creamy consistency.

Apply the mask to your skin and allow it to sit for 15 minutes. Remove with a soft cotton cloth and water.

Tip: If you don’t have powdered milk, use just the greens powder and kaolin clay for your dry mixture, and add fresh cow’s milk or coconut milk to activate the mask instead of using water.

Super Greens Powder Mask

Superfood green powders are made of dehydrated and powdered vegetables and fruits. This mask recipe is all about nourishing the skin. The color alone of a green powder tells you about the density of nutrients that go into this mask.

That vibrant green indicates it’s incredibly high in chlorophyll, the substance that feeds plants energy from the sunlight.

On skin, chlorophyll has a protective and anti-inflammatory effect, but it is also very purifying and cleansing, releasing toxins in the skin. This mask is good for all skin types to build health and resiliency in the skin, but acne-prone skin especially will benefit from “wearing” greens.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 4 tbsp 32 g greens powder blend
• 4 tbsp 20 g kaolin clay


• 4 tbsp 32 g coconut milk powder

Method

 

1. Clean and dry a jar for storing the mask powder. Fill the jar with the greens powder, kaolin clay, and coconut milk powder. Depending on the size of the jar and the amount you want to make, you can easily adjust the measurements, filling the jar with one part of each ingredient. Instead of coconut milk powder, you can also use the milk powder of your choice—buttermilk, cow’s milk, or goat milk. They all deliver fatty moisture to the skin.
2. To use, scoop out 1 tablespoon (10 g) of the powdered mask mixture into a small bowl. Drizzle droplets of water over the powder and stir to activate the mask, adding enough water to achieve a creamy consistency.
3. Apply the mask to your skin and allow it to sit for 15 minutes. Remove with a soft cotton cloth and water.
4. Tip: If you don’t have powdered milk, use just the greens powder and kaolin clay for your dry mixture, and add fresh cow’s milk or coconut milk to activate the mask instead of using water.

DIY Skincare

Looking for more herbal skincare recipes?

• Calendula Body Butter
• Homemade Lotion Bars

Lotion bars are solid bars of moisturizer made from equal parts oil, butter, and beeswax. They soften at the touch of warm skin, travel without leaking, and keep for a year or more on the shelf, so they make an easy first body care project and a simple homemade gift.

A lotion bar is about as simple as homemade body care gets. There’s no water in the recipe, so there’s nothing to emulsify and no preservative to add.

That’s the big difference from homemade lotion. Anything made with water needs a preservative to keep mold away, while a bar of oil, butter, and wax keeps until the oils themselves get old.

The base is only three ingredients: a liquid oil, a solid butter like shea, and beeswax. You can leave it unscented, add a few drops of essential oil, or steep herbs into the oil first, the same way you would for calendula body butter.

If you enjoy making these, shampoo bars and bath bombs use many of the same ingredients and the same molds.

What Is a Lotion Bar?

A lotion bar is a block of moisturizer that’s firm at room temperature, a bit like a bar of soap. When you rub it on your skin, body heat softens the surface and leaves a thin layer of oil behind.

It has a few advantages over lotion in a bottle:

• No container needed: A bar holds its shape on its own, though it looks nice in a small tin.
• Portable: It won’t leak in a bag or a pocket the way a bottle can.
• Simple ingredients: You choose every oil and scent that goes in, and you can leave out anything your skin doesn’t like.
• Long shelf life: With no water in it, a lotion bar keeps far longer than homemade lotion.

How to Use a Lotion Bar

Hold the bar in your hand for a moment, then glide it over your skin. It softens as it warms, and a little goes a long way. Rub it in with your fingers afterward.

It works best right after a shower or bath, while your skin is still warm and a little damp. I like to keep one close to the shower for that reason.

You can use it on your face too. It’s heavier than a typical face moisturizer, so many people prefer it as part of an evening routine.

Ingredients for Lotion Bars

The recipe is equal parts oil, butter, and wax, and each part has a few good swaps. Jojoba oil and shea butter are the pairing I like most, with beeswax to firm it up.

• Liquid oil: This is what makes the bar glide. Jojoba oil, sweet almond, apricot kernel, grapeseed, and avocado oil all work, alone or blended. You can also use an herb-infused oil here.
• Butter: Shea butter gives a creamy, soft bar with very little scent. Cocoa butter makes a harder bar that smells faintly of chocolate, and mango butter makes a softer one.
• Beeswax: The wax is what holds the bar together. Beeswax pellets are the easiest to measure, and a beeswax block works if you grate or weigh it.
• Essential oil (optional): A few drops add scent. Skip it for an unscented bar, which is a good choice for sensitive skin.

Choosing Oil for Lotion Bars

Any skin-safe liquid oil will make a lotion bar, so the choice mostly comes down to how it feels. Some sink in quickly, and others leave more of a glow on the skin.

Jojoba is technically a liquid wax rather than a true oil. A 2018 review in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences notes that it’s made mostly of wax esters, which is part of why it feels light and absorbs quickly.

• Jojoba oil: Light, with almost no scent, and it’s the one I use most often.
• Sweet almond oil: A classic for body care, slightly richer than jojoba. Skip it if anyone using the bars has a nut allergy.
• Apricot kernel oil: Similar to almond oil in feel and a little lighter.
• Grapeseed oil: Very light and inexpensive, a good choice if heavier oils seem to sit on top of your skin.

Avocado oil is thicker and richer, and coconut oil firms up the bar since it’s solid at cool room temperature. Olive oil is easy to find, but the same 2018 review reports that olive oil on its own can weaken the skin’s outer barrier, so it’s better as part of a blend than as the only oil.

Adding Herbs or Essential Oils

An herb-infused oil gives the bars a gentle scent and color. Calendula is a common choice, and the method is the same for most dried herbs. There are step-by-step instructions for calendula oil, dandelion oil, and herbal infused oil in general.

Essential oils give a stronger scent. They’re concentrated, and the National Capital Poison Center advises diluting them in a carrier oil to avoid a bad reaction on the skin. In a lotion bar, the oil and butter do that job, so add them only to the melted mixture and never put them straight on your skin.

A little goes a long way. This essential oil dilution chart suggests 0.5 to 1 percent for lotion bars, or 3 to 6 drops per ounce, which works out to about 15 to 25 drops for one batch of this recipe.

I usually choose scents based on what I enjoy or what a friend would like. Lavender, rose geranium, rosemary, clary sage, peppermint, and frankincense are all popular in lotion bars, alone or blended.

Vegan Lotion Bars without Beeswax

Candelilla wax is the usual plant-based swap. It has about twice the firming power of beeswax, so one supplier, Aussie Soap Supplies, recommends cutting the wax by half when you substitute it.

Start with half as much candelilla as the beeswax called for, then make a small test bar. You can always remelt the batch and add a little more wax if it’s too soft.

Equipment for Lotion Bars

You probably have most of what you need already. A double boiler keeps the heat gentle, and a heatproof glass bowl set over a pot of simmering water works just as well.

Here’s what to gather:

• Scale: A digital scale is handy if you’re working from a block of beeswax.
• Double boiler: Or a glass bowl over a saucepan of water.
• Spatula: A silicone spatula scrapes the last of the mixture out of the bowl.
• Molds: Silicone lotion bar molds, or a muffin tin lightly greased with a neutral oil.

How to Make Lotion Bars

Set up the double boiler and add the oil, butter, and beeswax to the top. Keep the water at a gentle simmer and make sure the bowl isn’t touching it, then stir now and then until everything has melted together.

Take the mixture off the heat. If you’re using essential oil, add it 10 drops at a time and stir it in, up to about 25 drops for the whole batch. You can always add more, but you can’t take the scent back out.

Pour the mixture into your molds. Let the bars set at room temperature for about an hour, or put them in the fridge for 15 minutes to speed things up. Then pop them out, and they’re ready to use.

Troubleshooting Lotion Bars

Lotion bars are forgiving. If a batch doesn’t turn out the way you want, melt it down gently and adjust one ingredient at a time.

Climate makes a difference too. In a hot, humid place you’ll want a firmer bar, and in a cold, dry one a slightly softer bar is easier to use.

How to Make Lotion Bars Harder

Add more wax. Try 1 1/2 times the beeswax as a starting point, or swap some of the shea butter for cocoa butter, which is firmer.

Measuring by volume makes a fairly soft bar, because a 1/4 cup of beeswax pellets weighs only about half as much as a 1/4 cup of oil. For a firmer bar that holds up in warm weather, weigh the ingredients instead. These herbal lotion bars use roughly equal weights of beeswax, butter, and oil.

How to Make Lotion Bars Softer

Use a little less wax and keep everything else the same. Changing one ingredient at a time makes it easy to see what did the trick.

Mango butter also gives a softer bar. I don’t usually use it, but it’s a good choice if you want a bar that glides more easily.

Why Are My Lotion Bars Greasy?

A lotion bar is mostly oil, so it will feel richer than lotion from a bottle. Use less than you think you need, and rub it in well with your hands.

Applying it to damp skin right after a shower helps it absorb. If it still feels heavy, try a lighter oil like grapeseed or jojoba in the next batch, or add a little more wax.

How to Store Lotion Bars

Small salve tins are an easy way to store lotion bars, and the ones with windows look especially nice for gifts. 4 ounce tins with windows, plain 2 ounce salve tins, and little 1 ounce tins all work, depending on the size of your molds.

You can also stack bars in a glass jar with a square of parchment paper between each one. For an on-the-go bar, pour the slightly cooled mixture into an empty twist-up deodorant tube and let it set.

Keep lotion bars away from heat, whether that’s a radiator, a sunny window, or a hot car. They’ll soften into a puddle in the heat, though they still work fine once they cool.

I store mine in metal tins, and the small amount of essential oil in these bars hasn’t caused any trouble with the tins in my experience.

Are Lotion Bars Shelf Stable?

Yes. With no water in the recipe, lotion bars don’t grow mold the way homemade lotion can. What eventually goes off is the oil, which can turn rancid over time.

Most lotion bars keep for 1 to 2 years. A few drops of vitamin E oil stirred into the melted oils can help slow rancidity, and storing the bars somewhere cool and dark helps too.

Lotion Bar Recipe Variations

Once you’ve made a basic batch, it’s easy to change things up. Infused oils are the simplest swap, and calendula lotion bars use calendula-infused oil in place of plain oil.

Dried flower petals pressed into the top of the mold make a pretty gift, like these flower lotion bars. If you’d like to learn more about herbs for body care, the Herbal Academy has courses on making herbal skin care at home.

Lotion Bars FAQs

These are the questions readers ask most, starting with how many bars one batch makes.

ashley.adamant

Lotion Bars

5 from 2 votes

Homemade lotion bars made with equal parts oil, shea butter, and beeswax. This simple lotion bar recipe takes about 20 minutes of hands-on time and makes solid bars that soften on warm skin.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 10 minutes mins

Setting Time 1 hour hr

Total Time 1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Servings: 2 2-ounce bars

Course: Body Care

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1/4 cup liquid oil such as jojoba or sweet almond, see notes
• 1/4 cup shea butter or cocoa or mango butter
• 1/4 cup beeswax pellets see notes
• essential oil optional, see notes

Equipment

• Double boiler
• Silicone spatula
• Lotion bar molds or muffin tin
• Digital scale (optional)

Method

 

1. Set up a double boiler with the water at a gentle simmer, making sure the top bowl does not touch the water.
2. Add the oil, shea butter, and beeswax to the top of the double boiler and stir now and then until everything has melted together.
3. Take the mixture off the heat. If using essential oil, stir it in 10 drops at a time, up to about 25 drops.
4. Pour the mixture into lotion bar molds, or into a muffin tin lightly greased with a neutral oil.
5. Let the bars set at room temperature for about 1 hour, or refrigerate for 15 minutes.
6. Pop the bars out of the molds. Use right away or store them in tins somewhere cool.

Notes

Yield: One batch weighs about 4 1/2 ounces (52 grams oil, 44 grams shea butter, 28 grams beeswax pellets). That fills about two 2 ounce bee molds with a little left over, or four 1 ounce molds.

Ratio: Keep the oil, butter, and beeswax in equal parts by volume and you can scale the recipe up or down.

Firmer bars: Measuring by volume makes a fairly soft bar. For a firmer bar in warm weather, use equal weights of oil, butter, and beeswax, or add up to half again as much beeswax.

Softer bars: Use a little less beeswax, or swap some of the shea for mango butter.

Essential oils: Add them only to the melted mixture, 10 drops at a time, up to about 25 drops per batch (0.5 to 1 percent). Never put them straight on your skin. Leave them out for an unscented bar.

Vegan option: Use candelilla wax in place of beeswax, starting with half as much.

Storage: Keep the bars somewhere cool and away from heat. They keep for 1 to 2 years.

More Natural Body Care

These use many of the same oils, butters, and molds.

• How to Make Lotion at Home
• Calendula Body Butter
• How to Make Shampoo Bars
• How to Make a Herbal Healing Salve