Aloe Mint Lotion Recipe

I’ve been experimenting with pure aloe vera to create a homemade aloe mint lotion recipe perfect for the warm spring and summer days and finally found one that I absolutely love!

I based it off of Rosemary Gladstar’s “Famous Face Cream” recipe found in her book, Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide, and then tweaked it around a bit. (PS: that book is fabulous and not just for beginners. I love my copy!)

Aloe Mint Lotion Recipe

Beeswax Lotion Making Video Tip

Making lotions and creams with beeswax is trickier than using a true emulsifier. Here’s a video of me making a cream with beeswax, which is the similar method you’ll use for this lotion. (Sometimes an ad plays first, but the video will play right after. If you have an ad blocker, the player won’t appear below.)

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While this version is made with mint, don’t be afraid to swap ingredients around and use another flower or herb that you like.

If you don’t want to use shea butter, try mango or cocoa butter instead. The type of carrier oil can be varied as well.

Aloe Vera & Mint

Aloe Mint Lotion Recipe:

Water Phase:

Oil Phase:

Cool Down Phase:


I infuse my sunflower oil with mint leaves (see HERE for more detailed directions) – but you can use plain oil, if you wish.

Make sure that you are using pure aloe vera gel. (I use the kind from Mountain Rose Herbs, but your local health store should have a high quality option as well.)

Mint Tea Infusion

Take a small, heat-proof measuring cup or jar and add the oil, beeswax, and shea butter in it. Set this down into a saucepan containing a few inches of water. Set the pan over a medium-low burner until the wax and butter have melted. Remove from heat.

Combine the aloe and water.

Now, comes the waiting part. Set everything aside to cool to room temperature.

Using either a blender or a mixing bowl and hand mixer, start blending/beating the oil on high speed. Slowly drizzle in the water mixture while you continue to blend.

After several minutes, the mixture will emulsify into a soft, creamy lotion, that will firm further as it sets.

Add a few drops of peppermint essential oil and your preservative of choice, then beat a bit longer. Spoon into a glass jar for storage.

Preservative Recommendation:

If you have never used a preservative before and want more information, check out my article Natural Preservatives for Homemade Lotions.

• If you don’t add a preservative, store this lotion in the refrigerator and use within a few days. To make it last longer though, try adding a nature-derived preservative.

• I’m currently a fan of using Leucidal SF Complete at 2 to 4% (I prefer to use closer to the full 4% amount). To figure the amount needed, add up the weight of the ingredients – which are 162 grams in this recipe – then multiply by 2% (.02) to get 3.24 grams needed, which I would just round to 3 grams. For a 99% natural lotion, you could use Optiphen Plus as a longer lasting, stronger preservative. For this recipe, you would use 1% to 1.5%, or about 2 grams.

Total yield is almost 4 ounces.


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22 Comments

  1. What a great way to use my aloe vera plants! I love mint and homemade body butters/lotions. This is next on my list.

    1. Hi Tausha! In theory, you should be able to. I usually put coconut oil in the category with liquid carrier oils when making substitutes, since it melts so much easier than the other butters (shea, mango, cocoa), but I’m not exactly sure how the end texture will be affected by doing so. You could make a half batch and see how it turns out and then adjust your next batch from those results. I like having a good portion of solid butters in my lotions/creams, because it seems to make them hold up better, so if you can keep a solid butter in (shea, mango, cocoa) then I think you’ll be happier with the end product. Happy experimenting! :)

  2. Hi! I have been reading your blog & follow u on FB for a little while now& I love, love your creative money saving, natural ideas & creations! Tysm for sharing them :-) I am very, very new to making soaps, salve, balms etc..with this recipe my question is I don’t have access to butter(shea, mango or cocoa.) I do have the oils / herbs/aloe/e.o.s/some powders..anyway I can make a lotion/cream w/o the “butters”? Ty for any advice

    1. Hi Tara! If you can obtain some coconut oil, you can make some great lotions and such. I live in the boonies but even the small towns nearest to me have coconut oil for sale. While the luxurious, organic brands are nice to have, sometimes they just aren’t in the budget and I feel that store oils do just as well.

  3. Tysm for your help! I do have lotta coconut oil!! Love the stuff♥ lol I’m in the north east,& for some reason finding C.O (organic cold pressed) is the easy part ;-)

  4. Hello! I’ve made a few of your soap recipes and thought I would try some of your others because everything I’ve made from your site has been amazing! I do have a question though for this recipe that may answer questions I have for a couple of other recipes you have. I recently purchased aloe vera liquid from a supplier to use for some of the recipes I seen on your site, however I wasn’t paying much attention when the purchase was made and now I have aloe vera “juice” when I really need gel. How would I make the liquid into a gel using natural ingredients? Or can I just use the liquid for the recipes? I want to make the above recipe, your aloe and rose soap and a few others that contain aloe on your site!!

    1. Hi Sheena, I’m happy that you’re enjoying the recipes on the site! That’s a great question about using aloe vera juice instead of gel. The type I have is pourable, so not as thick as other types I’ve bought in the past, but still not watery. If your juice is water-like, I think you could use it in this recipe, only reduce the total amount of water too. So for this recipe, instead of 2 ounces of tea and 1/2 ounce aloe vera gel, maybe you could try 1 1/2 oz tea and 1/2 ounce aloe vera juice (omitting the 1/2 oz that would’ve went to the gel.) So, you’re still getting aloe benefits in, but not disrupting the water/oils/beeswax ratio. For soap, I would do the same thing – just use aloe vera juice for a portion of the water/tea a recipe calls for and reduce the overall liquids amount by a bit. Having not quite enough liquids is often better than having too much, in most cases. I think with a little experimenting and tweaking as you go, it should work just as well for you!

  5. Love this recipe. Although I did not have all of the ingredients on hand, I tried it anyway with what I had and was glad I did. The result is much better than other recipes I’ve tried that were too oily or separated. This glides onto the skin and absorbs well. Didn’t have the “tea” so just used 1/4 c. aloe gel. Also, had grape seed oil instead of sunflower. Thanks so much for sharing! I think my search has ended! Blessings!

  6. Dear Jan, as summer is here, I tried this wonderful recipe I used all the ingredients but next day I fund little bumps (like small grains) in the creamy texture and I don’t know why? or what can I do…these small grains are melting from the heat of the hand but it’s not a pleasant feeling in the beginning…what could possibly went wrong? Thank you :-)

    1. Hi Punita! I think the culprit is probably your shea butter. When it overheats or goes through temperature fluctuations, it will sometimes get grainy. (Other butters will as well, but shea is the worst for it.) I noticed that the last batch of unrefined shea butter that I ordered from a supplier is doing the same thing, so I think it must’ve gotten too hot when it was shipped to me. I also ordered a refined shea from another place around the same time though and it’s been behaving nicely.

  7. Thank you so much Jan, I thought that is the reason as I was using unrefined new source Shea Butter,thank you for the info,I love all your recipes :-)

  8. Hello! Just wondering if this is good for oily skin and acne, since it contains mint? :) Also, can I substitute the sunflower with grapeseed oil? Been looking for the right cream for my acne-prone oily skin. Thanks!

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