This Cooling Aloe Mint Lotion is my most popular lotion recipe for a good reason, it’s so moisturizing! It’s all thanks to a lot of aloe vera gel for hydrating combined with coconut oil for conditioning and moisturizing the skin. It’s an easy to make DIY that you can customize by changing up the essential oil to suit different seasons. This homemade lotion is easily absorbable with so much aloe vera in it, and keeps my skin nice and smooth.
This lotion is perfect for summertime, or after excercising because of the ‘cooling effect’ from the aloe and mint. It’s particularly awesome after a long day on your feet. And I really love it massaged into my legs and feet after a day hiking in the mountains. With warmer temperatures, I like to use a light moisturizer, and the cooling effect is an added bonus.
I use straight coconut oil as a moisturizer year round. But sometimes I just need a little moisturizing, not the full coconut conditioning. The 50:50 ratio of coconut oil to aloe vera in this recipe has been the perfect amount, with just enough moisturizing. It sinks right into my skin, leaving a smooth non-greasy surface.
Ingredients for this Cooling Aloe Mint Lotion:
- Beeswax – I have a giant block of beeswax I’m still using up. But if you’re looking to buy beeswax I most definitely recommend getting some beeswax pellets so you don’t have to bother with grating it. However the most accurate way to use beeswax pellets is to measure by weight. So if you don’t have a scale, consider grating your beeswax instead.
- Coconut Oil – makes the perfect lightweight and easily absorbable oil to use in this lotion. And because it’s solid at room temperature it helps to thicken up the lotion as well.
- Aloe Vera Gel – I use bottled aloe vera gel, (the Desert Lily brand) because fresh aloe vera spoils too quickly to put into a lotion.
- Peppermint Essential Oil – adds to the cooling feeling of this lotion, but feel free to omit the essential oil for an unscented lotion. Or you can use any essential oil you like the smell of that works for you.
Tip: to get the beeswax off your grater, pour boiling water over the surface and watch it melt away. Or buy beeswax pellets for the easiest DIY projects!
How to make Cooling Aloe Mint Lotion:
I like to have all of my ingredients ready to go before I start. That way, when the beeswax has melted into the oil, you’re ready to whisk in the aloe vera.
There are a couple key points to this lotion:
- It’s very important to make sure the beeswax has completely melted into the coconut oil, with no flecks remaining. If it’s not completely melted, the lotion won’t emulsify properly. And there will be little gritty pieces of beeswax in the finished product as well.
2. The aloe vera gel must be at room temperature. If you put it into the hot oil/wax mixture straight from the refrigerator, the mixture might not emulsify. Instead you might end up with clumps. Also if you add cold liquid to hot oil it can splatter. So it’s best to keep the oil mixture as cool as possible when melting the beeswax, (pictured above). Just warm it enough to melt, but don’t let it get super hot.
This mixture will look too thin at first, (above photo). But it thickens up as it cools (photo below). I like to blend mine on the lower settings of the blender to make it fluffier. Also, it sometimes separates as it cools if it hasn’t been properly emulsified.
If this happens running it for a few seconds on low in the blender has always made it stable for me. Once it’s fully cooled, I haven’t had it separate. You can also lightly warm the mixture and whisk thoroughly to emulsify if it didn’t come together the first time.
The cooling process can take 2-4 hours depending on your room temperature. It’s really best not to rush this process because by cooling down slowly the lotion becomes more stable. I’ve also put the lotion over an ice bath and stirred it vigorously until it thickens.
But if you keep it over the ice water too long, it will harden and separate, (so it really is best just to let it sit on the counter for a couple of hours). It’s not worth the hassle to speed up the cooling process all in all!
This is one of my most popular DIY recipes, and I hope all the extra tips I’ve added today will help you be successful in making your own lotion. Once you get the hang of it, it’s actually quite easy, and only takes a few minutes to whip up.
The reason this lotion needs a little extra care and attention is the large ratio of water to oil, which makes it less stable than normal lotions. This is also the reason it’s such a great summertime lotion though! If you’re looking for an easier first time project, try my Lavender Sugar Scrub, or my Easy Buttercream Lotion.
At home spa day inspiration:
- Refreshing Peppermint Sugar Scrub
- Moisturizing Mint Body Wash
- At Home Facial
- Finish with this lotion!
Cooling Aloe Mint Lotion
- Total Time: 15 mins
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
Description
This Cooling Aloe Mint Lotion is my most popular lotion recipe for a good reason, it’s so moisturizing! It’s all thanks to a lot of aloe vera gel for hydrating combined with coconut oil for conditioning and moisturizing the skin. It’s and easy to make DIY that you can customize by changing up the essential oil to suit different seasons. This homemade lotion is easily absorbable with so much aloe vera in it and keeps my skin nice and smooth.
Ingredients
1/4 cup grated beeswax, 11 grams
1/2 cup coconut oil, 122 grams
1/2 cup aloe vera gel, 122 grams, room temperature
1/8 Teaspoon peppermint essential oil
Instructions
Place the beeswax and coconut oil in a saucepan over low heat. Heat just until just melted with no remaining flecks of beeswax.
Try to keep the temperature as low as possible to preserve the benefits the of coconut oil.
Remove the oil mixture from the heat, and hand whisk in the room temperature aloe vera gel and peppermint essential oil until it’s thoroughly combined.
Let the lotion cool to room temperature, about 2-4 hours. Whisk again, or place in the blender and blend at a medium speed for about 30 seconds for a fluffier version.
Notes
This lotion will naturally become thicker and more solid over time, as some of the aloe vera slowly evaporates.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 5 mins
- Category: DIY
- Method: Whisking
This recipe has been updated with new photos, step by step process, and more tips and additional information in 2021.
I’m sorry – forgot one thing. Is a VitaMix blender too strong? Only kind I have. If so, what would you suggest?
Thanks again, Kari
Marti
A Vitamix is perfect, that’ what kind of blender I have and it’s always worked perfectly!
At what point do you put the mixture into the jars? Do you let it cool in the jars? Will the end product be like a wax or a lotion? Can’t wait to try this – as soon as I get a few answers.
Thanks so much, Kari!
Marti
I usually let me lotion cool in the pan I make it in before transferring it to a jar, except when the opening of the jar is very small, then I try to pour it in before it’s fully set up just to make it easier. You can also use a funnel which can really help depending on the opening size of the container you’re using. As far as the texture being wax or lotion like, I’d say it has the texture of a soft lotion the first day or 2, then over time it continues to thicken as some of the liquid in the lotion evaporates, but definitely not like a wax.
Amazing! This was extremely easy to make! I used fresh aloe gel (by gutting and blending some leaves) and it still worked perfectly. Thank you! Since I am familiar with emulsifying, I did add the aloe vera bit by bit – I’m not sure if that makes any difference with this method.
I’m so glad you found it easy to make, this is a favorite of mine for really deep skin moisturizing and it’s good to know it works with fresh aloe vera – I’d really love to try that out sometime!
Do you happen to have the link to order the Aloe Vera gel you buy? 🙂
I do, and I’ll leave it below. I buy the Lily of the Desert brand because it’s the best quality aloe vera we have here locally. I’m not sure if there’s better brands, but this one doesn’t have fillers and very little in the way of preservatives. I hope this helps, and be sure to let me know if you have anymore questions! 🙂
https://www.amazon.com/Lily-Desert-Aloe-Vera-Pack/dp/B00IDIFDS0/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1500330355&sr=8-1&keywords=desert+lily+aloe+vera+gel
Does anyone make this with Eucalyptus and does anyone sell it ?
I’ve personally never tried it with Eucalyptus essential oil, but the brand that I like to use (Aura Cacia) does sell it.
I make lotions and healing salves and sell them
Rhodes2Healing – FB page.
Koren Rhodes
Hii Kari 🙂 Recipe seems really nice.
Wanted to ask can we use another ingredient in replacement of aloe vera gel ?
I’m not sure exactly what to replace the aloe vera with, but I think water or even rose water should work the same. The lotion might be slightly thinner, but the difference shouldn’t be much. I hope this helps and be sure to let me know if you have anymore questions!
Aloe vera gel can be replaced with aloe vera juice & xanthan gum. (*The juice is best kept refrigerated. So I can only assume in this case that the lotion if made with juice would need to be too.)
Hi kari,
Where do you get the aloe gel from? Also can I use avocado oil instead of coconut?
Thanks,
Aimee
I get my aloe gel from the local health food store, it’s the Lily of the Desert brand. You probably could use avocado oil in this lotion, although it will definitely be thinner because coconut oil is solid at room temperature and avocado oil is liquid. I hope you enjoy the recipe, and be sure to let me know if you have anymore questions!
Hi Kari, this recipe is great and i cant wait to try it. I was wondering though, you said you use this in the summer time, do you have something for winter? I have SEVERE dry skin, I have made my legs bleed scratching them and sometimes it keeps me up all night. It also causes terrible razor burn, 1-2 days after I shave when the hair starts growing back it’s like my skin is too dry for the hair to properly push through an my legs will be in awful pain and extremely bumpy. Do you have recipe that will work for this type of dry skin?
I would definitely try my Easy Buttercream Lotion, but you could also use straight oil for super dry skin. My favorites are jojoba and coconut oil both of which absorb well into my skin. I’m not a doctor of any kind so bear that in mind, but you might want to look into possible causes for the extreme dry skin. Some possibilities could be not enough healthy fats in your diet, maybe an undiagnosed allergy to something, not enough hydration, or maybe even a minor yeast infection – it’s definitely worth checking into some answers since it’s keeping you up at night. As far as surface remedies for dry skin, I love my ultra moisturizing Buttercream Lotion. Pineapple has an enzyme in it that eats away the dead skin without abrasion which could make your skin condition worse, and it will smooth out your skin and get it ready to accept the lotion. Otherwise sometimes with too much dead skin build up, you’re just moisturizing the dead outer layers of skin. I hope some of this helps, and maybe a nutritionalist could help you sort out possible root causes. Let me know if you have anymore questions! 🙂
Personally, I was getting super dry skin whenever I used most less expensive bars of soap (even with the less expensive ones from the health food store).
When I use better bars of soap from health food stores or make my own liquid soap (10%-40% castile, 10% hemp oil, vitamin E, aloe vera juice, maybe xanthan gum or veg glycerin, and a small bit of essential oils, topped up with boiled or filtered water) the dry skin is significantly reduced.
I gather for me personally that eating gluten and/or dairy has also made it worse sometimes too.
But really for me it was the soap I was using.
Regarding razor burn, I learned to follow shaving with applying witch hazel – much reduced skin issues from shaving!
Might also be best to shave at night, so that when one puts on deodorant in the morning, the pores are less open & skin is less sensitive from having just shaved.
Maybe using a natural shaving lotion from the healthstore or DIY recipe for shaving lotion helps too (or even using natural soaps).
Hi Kari,
I cannot apply any oil on skin which clog the pores of the skin and grow reddish spots, any alternative for coconut oil?
Thank you for your reply!
Ivy
You could try jojoba oil instead which has a similar makeup to the oil our skin produces, which might be better for your skin. Since it is much thinner than coconut oil, I’m not sure what the consistency of the final lotion would be, but you might need to add a bit more beeswax. I’m also including a link to my Easy Buttercream Lotion, (which has much less coconut oil in it) and it might be easier to leave the coconut oil out of that recipe, and sub the 3 Tablespoons listed for another oil along with an additional teaspoon or two of beeswax. I hope this helps, and be sure to let me know if you have anymore questions! 🙂
https://getinspiredeveryday.com/lifestyle/easy-buttercream-lotion/
How long will the lotion last?
It lasts for at least a month, and I’ve even had it for 6 weeks before, but it does tend to get thicker over time as the aloe vera slowly evaporates. If you ever notice any kind of weirds smell from a homemade product though, you should throw it out immediately. Usually this keeps well, and I’ve never had it go bad before, but there’s always a chance it could. I hope you enjoy the recipe, and be sure to let me know how it goes, or if you have anymore questions!