How Long Does Homemade Lotion Last? (Shelf Life for Selling)

You made a batch of lotion in August, sold half of it, and now a dozen bottles are sitting in a box in the hall closet. A regular wants two for Christmas. Are they still good to sell? With a jar of jam you would check the seal. Lotion gives you fewer clues, and the answer depends almost entirely on one thing: whether there is water in it.

This guide is for people who make lotion and sell it at a farmers market, a craft fair or from their porch. It covers how long each kind of lotion keeps, what the preservative really does, why milk and aloe shorten the clock, how to check pH at the kitchen table, what a lab test costs, what date to print and how to store and display bottles so they stay fresh. If you are still deciding whether to sell lotion at all, start with our guide on how to sell lotion from home, which covers the formula, the cost of a bottle, the label and the 2022 federal cosmetics law. This page picks up where that one stops: once the bottles exist, how long do they last?

How Long Does Homemade Lotion Last?

A water-based homemade lotion lasts 3 to 5 days in the fridge with no preservative, while the same lotion made cleanly with a broad-spectrum preservative can last months, and a waterless lotion bar or body butter usually lasts at least a year. Those three numbers come from different kinds of spoilage. Water lets mold, yeast and bacteria grow. Oil does not grow mold, but it slowly goes stale, the way a bottle of cooking oil does in the pantry.

No source gives one official number for handmade lotion, because every formula, kitchen and container is different. Marie at Humblebee and Me says she tests each formula she shares, which is her own check over time and not the lab challenge test covered below. She writes that she is "reasonably confident" her water-based lotions will keep for "at least 12–24 months" the way she made and stored them, and then warns that a substitution, a jar instead of a pump, or a warmer house can all shorten it. Her site also says nothing on it "has been designed or tested for large scale manufacturing or re-sale." For a home kitchen that has not paid for a lab test, we use more careful numbers. Here is each kind of lotion a small vendor is likely to sell:

Scroll sideways to see every column.

The "how long it keeps" column comes from Humblebee and Me's preservative and shelf life FAQs and Bramble Berry's lotion formulating guide, read October 13, 2026. The last column is our own rule for a home kitchen without lab data, not a legal requirement.

Our dates are cautious quality estimates, not proof of safety. Here is what they assume:

• They count from the batch date, not from when the customer opens the bottle. A bottle sold in week 2 still has about five and a half of its 6 months left for the customer to use.
• They assume room temperature, out of the sun, in a closed pump or tube. A hot car, a steamy bathroom shelf or a jar that fingers dip into all shorten them.
• They assume a clean kitchen, distilled water and the preservative used exactly as its supplier says. Change the formula and the date no longer applies.
• They are not a lab result. Only a challenge test on your exact formula shows that its preservative holds up, which the challenge test section covers.

The rest of this guide explains each row, starting with the one that matters most: water.

Why Does Water Decide Whether Lotion Keeps for Days or Months?

Water is what lets microbes grow, so any lotion with water in it behaves like a perishable product unless a preservative protects it, and the lotion formulas we checked are about two thirds to 80% water. Bramble Berry's general lotion formula calls for 70% to 80% distilled water, and the beginner formula in our lotion guide uses about two thirds. Mold, yeast and bacteria get in from the air, your hands, the bottle and the customer's fingers every time they dip into a jar, and in a warm, wet base they multiply.

FDA's own fact sheet for small businesses and homemade cosmetics sets the bar plainly: cosmetics "do not have to be sterile, but they must not contain any harmful microorganisms, and the number of aerobic microorganisms per gram must be low." A lotion that grows mold in a customer's bathroom fails that bar, even if it looked perfect on your table.

Water also hides in places people forget. Each of these counts as water when you think about shelf life:

• Aloe vera juice or gel. Mostly water, plus plant sugars microbes like.
• Rose water and other hydrosols. Humblebee and Me calls them "water plus additional bacterial temptation."
• Milk of any kind. Goat milk, oat milk and coconut milk all count.
• Herbal teas and infusions. A tea brewed in your kitchen brings its own microbes.
• Witch hazel. Water-based, even though it smells clean.

Oils, butters, beeswax and tallow hold no water. That is why a lotion bar needs no preservative and keeps at least a year, while a pumped lotion without one keeps only days.

Can the Fridge Stand In for a Preservative?

No, a fridge buys an unpreserved lotion only 3 to 5 days, which is about how long you would keep leftover soup. That comparison comes from Humblebee and Me's preservatives and shelf life FAQ, which tells readers to think of an unpreserved water-based recipe "like leftover food." Cold slows microbes down. It does not stop them.

The math also works against you as a vendor. The same FAQ points out that even 50 grams (about 1.76 ounces) of lotion "will usually take a couple weeks to use up." A customer who buys a 4 ounce bottle on Saturday is still using it a month later, on a bathroom counter, at room temperature, with damp hands. An unpreserved bottle would spoil long before it ran out.

Here is where the fridge does help:

• Your own test batches. A 100 gram trial batch you use up within a few days.
• Storing raw oils and butters. Cold slows rancidity in oils that are waiting for your next batch.
• Waterless products in summer. A body butter or lotion bar keeps its shape in a cool spot.
• Backing up a preservative. A preserved lotion kept cool lasts longer than one kept warm.

What it cannot do is replace a preservative in a product someone takes home. If a recipe you found online says "keep in the fridge and use within a week," it is a recipe for personal use, not one to sell.

How Much Time Does a Broad-Spectrum Preservative Buy?

A broad-spectrum preservative, used at the supplier's rate and in the right pH range, turns a lotion that lasts days into one that can last many months. "Broad-spectrum" means it works against bacteria, yeast and mold together. Three that home lotion recipes often use, with the numbers their suppliers or recipe sites give:

• Optiphen Plus. Lotioncrafter's Optiphen Plus product page gives a use rate of 0.75% to 1.5% and says it "performs best in formulations below 6.0 pH," though it is "also proven effective" above 6.0. A 1 pound bottle was $42.95 when we checked on October 13, 2026.
• Liquid Germall Plus. Humblebee and Me lists it at 0.1% to 0.5% with an effective pH range of 3 to 8, and suggests the 0.5% end at home "since our kitchens are far from sterile."
• Optiphen or Phenonip at 1%. Bramble Berry's lotion guide recommends either at 1% of the total weight, added "when the lotion is 160° F or cooler, otherwise they can degrade."

Three habits decide whether the preservative does its job. Use the rate the supplier gives, by weight, on a gram scale. Add it at the temperature the supplier allows. And keep the lotion in the pH range the preservative works in, which the pH section below shows you how to check.

Even the right preservative is not a force field. Humblebee and Me notes that preservatives "are not infallible," and that recipes loaded with plant extracts and other "bacteria food" can still spoil. That is why the best-by date we suggest is shorter than what a tested commercial formula might carry.

Do Vitamin E and Rosemary Extract Help Lotion Last?

Vitamin E and rosemary extract slow the oils in a lotion from going rancid, but they do nothing to stop mold or bacteria, so they help a lotion last only once a real preservative is already in it. They are antioxidants. They protect fats from oxygen, which is the slow kind of spoilage, not the fast kind. Humblebee and Me says rosemary seed extract and vitamin E "are not preservatives and will do nothing to extend the shelf life of something that contains water and requires a broad spectrum preservative."

Lotioncrafter sells vitamin E as mixed tocopherols and says it "guards against oxidation and extends your product's shelf life." Its suggested rate for finished products is 0.5% to 1.5% of the oil phase, meaning a share of the oils and butters only, not of the whole bottle. In a lotion that is 20% oil, that works out to about 0.1% to 0.3% of the total weight.

When does rancidity matter in a water-based lotion? More often than people expect. Humblebee and Me points out that "it is completely possible for an oil in your lotion to oxidize (go rancid) before bacterial spoilage sets in," and names hemp seed and flax seed oil as two short-lived oils to watch. Ways to keep the oil side fresh:

• Buy small. A 1 pound bottle of oil you use up in two batches stays fresher than a gallon that sits for a year.
• Date your raw oils. Write the day you opened each bottle on the cap.
• Add an antioxidant to oils that oxidize fast. Vitamin E at the supplier's rate is cheap insurance.
• Store oils cool and dark. A cabinet away from the stove, or the fridge for the short-lived ones.

None of this replaces the preservative. A lotion with vitamin E and no preservative is still a lotion that grows mold.

How Long Do Lotion Bars, Body Butters and Tallow Balms Keep?

A lotion bar, body butter or tallow balm made with no water usually keeps at least a year, and its real limit is the oil in it with the shortest shelf life. Humblebee and Me says "you'll usually get at least a year out of a 100% oil-based product," and the only spoilage to worry about is rancidity, the stale smell some people describe as old crayons or old lipstick.

The simplest way to set a date is to look at your ingredients. Your finished bar cannot outlast the oil that goes stale first. Humblebee and Me counts any oil with less than a year of shelf life as short. Supplier pages give the number: when we checked Lotioncrafter's listings on October 13, 2026, rosehip seed oil carried a 24 month shelf life and was "somewhat subject to oxidation," while meadowfoam oil carried "once opened, 12 months." If your body butter uses an oil you opened 6 months ago and its supplier gives it 12, the bar has about 6 months left, no matter when you melted it.

Waterless products have their own risks:

• Water from outside. A lotion bar kept in a steamy shower picks up water. Humblebee and Me recommends a preservative for waterless (anhydrous) products that "will come into contact with water," like a shampoo bar that lives in the shower.
• Heat. Shea butter and coconut oil soften in a warm car. Melting and setting again can make a body butter grainy.
• Damp scoops. A wet finger in a tin of whipped butter brings water in with it.

Our guide on how long homemade soap lasts works through the same rancidity problem for soap bars, and the guide to selling herbal salves at the farmers market covers another waterless product that shares a table with lotion bars.

Why Do Goat Milk, Aloe and Herbal Lotions Spoil Sooner?

Milk, aloe, honey, herbs and clays feed microbes, so a lotion made with them spoils faster even with a preservative, and Bramble Berry puts milk lotion at 2 to 4 weeks in the fridge at most. Its guide is blunt: "we don't recommend using milk in lotion." It explains why: "If you leave a carton of milk on the counter, it will go bad eventually. The same will happen to your lotion." It adds that preservatives "don't extend the shelf life of milk."

Humblebee and Me keeps a list of ingredients that speed spoilage. It includes food of any kind (milks, flours, starches, honey, syrup, sugar, nuts), plant matter such as aloe juice and hydrosols, herbs and herbal infusions, and clays. The amount matters too. As Marie puts it, "1% honey is very different from 10% honey."

If you want one of these lotions on your table, here are three ways to lower the risk:

• Use less of it. Humblebee and Me suggests replacing only a quarter or half of the water with oat milk or a hydrosol, not all of it. That swap is for oat milk and hydrosols, not for goat milk or other dairy milk.
• Use a preserved or commercial version. Bramble Berry steers readers to botanical liquids that were distilled or purified and already contain a preservative, not fresh tea or juice.
• Test it before you sell it, and be strictest with dairy milk. A challenge test shows whether your preservative holds up in an aloe, hydrosol or oat milk lotion. Dairy milk is the hard case. Bramble Berry gives a preserved milk lotion only a few weeks in cold storage, and Humblebee and Me calls dairy milk "notoriously difficult to preserve" and would not put it in anything "you don't intend to use up that day." A customer's bottle sits on a bathroom counter for weeks. If you sell goat milk lotion, use a preservative whose supplier data covers milk and have a lab challenge test pass before the first bottle goes out, as the lotion guide says. If that test is not in your budget, a waterless lotion bar is the product to sell beside goat milk soap.

Goat milk lotion is popular at farm stands, and the guide to selling goat milk products locally shows how it fits next to goat milk soap. Treat the lotion as the riskiest product on that table, not the easiest one.

How Do You Check pH So the Preservative Can Work?

You can check a lotion's pH at home for about 18 cents a test with indicator strips, and the check matters because a preservative like Optiphen Plus works best below pH 6.0. Lotioncrafter sold a box of 100 pH-Fix strips (range 2.0 to 9.0) for $17.95 when we checked on October 13, 2026, and its listing explains how to test a thick product like lotion, which a strip cannot read directly.

• Weigh a small sample. Put 1 part lotion into a clean cup, by weight. A few grams is plenty.
• Dilute it. Add 3 to 4 parts distilled water and stir or shake until it is evenly cloudy.
• Dip a strip. Leave it in the mix until the color stops changing.
• Read it against the chart. Match the color to the scale on the box and write the number in your batch notebook.
• Compare it to your preservative. Check the result against the range on the preservative's supplier page before you bottle.

If a lotion reads too high for its preservative, the fix is a pH adjuster such as a small amount of citric acid solution, added a drop at a time and checked again. Write down how much you used, so the next batch of the same formula starts closer to the right number.

A pH check takes about 5 minutes. It will not tell you whether the lotion is free of microbes, but it catches the most common reason a correct preservative fails anyway.

Is a $400 Challenge Test Worth It for a Small Lotion Vendor?

Pentyl Labs charges $400 to $500 per formula for a challenge test, and the test is worth it once you plan to sell the same lotion for years, or any lotion made with aloe or botanicals. In a challenge test, a lab adds bacteria, yeast and mold to a sample of your lotion and counts whether the preservative keeps them down over 28 days. When we checked Pentyl Labs on October 13, 2026, its USP 51 test, a common standard for this check, was $400 per sample with a 250 mL sample, a little more than one 8 ounce bottle, and a 6 week turnaround, with plates read at day 14 and day 28. The version that adds a suitability check was $500.

FDA's fact sheet says it "does not require specific tests" for individual cosmetic products, so this is a choice, not a rule. What it buys you is proof. Here is how the cost spreads out over bottles:

• 100 bottles of one formula: $4.00 a bottle.
• 300 bottles: about $1.33 a bottle.
• 1,000 bottles: 40 cents a bottle.

One test covers one formula. Change the preservative, the emulsifier or swap water for aloe juice and you have a new formula. Pick the lotion you sell most, lock the recipe, then test it.

Until then, Humblebee and Me describes a slower home check: put a jar of the lotion somewhere warm and bright, where anything that can grow will grow faster, and look at it after 3 months, then 6, then a year. It is not a lab result, but it tells you more than guessing. Lotioncrafter's home microbial test kit, a set of dip slides sold for this kind of check, was on closeout when we checked, discontinued by its manufacturer.

Does Lotion You Sell Need an Expiration Date?

No federal law requires an expiration date on a cosmetic lotion, but FDA says working out the shelf life is your job, and we would print a batch code and a best-by month on every bottle. FDA's page on shelf life and expiration dating of cosmetics says "there are no U.S. laws or regulations that require cosmetics to have specific shelf lives or have expiration dates on their labels," and also that "FDA considers determining a product's shelf life to be part of the manufacturer's responsibility." That page was last updated February 25, 2022, and we read it October 13, 2026.

What we would put on the bottom or back of each bottle:

• A batch code. Something short like "L1013A" ties a bottle to the page in your notebook.
• A made-on month. "Made 10/2026" tells the customer how fresh it is.
• A best-by month. Our rule: 6 months after the batch for a preserved lotion in a pump, 3 months in a jar, 12 months for a waterless bar or butter. Write "best by," not "expires," because you are giving a quality estimate.
• A storage line. "Store cool and out of direct sun."

A best-by line and a short "keep it cool" note would set a listing apart from all 15 of those lotion listings today. The chart shows what those 15 listings are made from, going by the base each one names.

Pump, Tube or Jar: Which Keeps Lotion Fresh Longest?

A pump bottle or squeeze tube keeps a lotion fresh longer than an open jar, because nobody's fingers touch the lotion that stays behind. FDA's shelf life page lists "dipping fingers into a product" first among the reasons cosmetics break down, and Humblebee and Me suggests "pump-top bottles instead of open jars for lotions." The container you pick changes the date you can honestly print, which is why our best-by rule drops from 6 months in a pump to 3 months in a jar.

Swipe the table to compare every container.

The finger and pump rows follow FDA's shelf life page and Humblebee and Me's shelf life FAQ, read October 13, 2026. The air and "best for" columns are general packaging guidance, not test results.

If a customer asks for a jar, sell the thicker cream in it and say so on the card: "Use clean, dry fingers or a small spatula." It costs nothing and it keeps water and dirt out of the product.

Where Should Finished Bottles Wait Before They Sell?

Finished lotion lasts longest in a cool, dark, steady spot, such as a closet shelf in a closed box, rather than a garage, attic or sunny windowsill. Humblebee and Me sums it up as "Cool & dark = longer shelf life." FDA's shelf life page adds that "temperature changes and exposure to sunlight and air can cause changes in color and texture and may cause the products to smell."

A simple storage setup for a home lotion vendor:

• An interior closet, not the garage. A room that stays at an even temperature all year beats one that bakes in July and freezes in January.
• A lidded plastic tote or cardboard box. It blocks light and dust.
• Caps on, pumps locked. Store pumps in the down-and-locked position.
• Labels facing up, batch codes visible. You can see which batch to pull first without opening every box.
• First in, first out. The oldest batch code goes in the market tote first.
• A look at every batch. Check the retained bottle from each batch every 2 weeks, as in the vendor tip above, and once a month look over the stored bottles for leaks, and for separation if the bottles are clear.

Keep raw ingredients the same way. An opened oil that sits in a hot kitchen cabinet ages faster, and that time comes off the life of every bottle you make with it.

Can Lotion Handle a Hot Booth or a Car on Market Day?

A few hours in a hot car or a sunny booth can shorten a lotion's life, because FDA says heat "can make preservatives break down and cause bacteria and fungi to grow faster." That warning sits on FDA's shelf life page, which tells shoppers not to leave cosmetics "where they are exposed to heat, such as in a hot car." Your stock spends more time in cars than any customer's bottle does.

Market-day habits that protect your stock:

• Load the lotion last and unload it first. The trunk of a parked car in July gets far hotter than the air outside.
• Keep display stock small. Put out two of each scent and keep the rest in a closed tote in the shade under your table.
• Use a pump bottle as the tester. FDA warns that testers at cosmetic counters "are even more likely to become contaminated." Never set out an open jar for people to dip into.
• Start a fresh tester every 4 weeks (our rule). Pour the old tester out, wash the bottle and pump, and fill it from a new batch.
• Shade the lotion bars. Bars and whipped butters soften fast in sun; a cooler with no ice works as a shady box.

If your stock did sit in a hot car all afternoon, open one bottle from that box at home the next day. Check the texture, the smell and whether it has separated before you sell the rest.

How Many Bottles Should You Make in One Batch?

Keep no more than about 8 weeks of lotion on hand, which for a vendor who sells 6 bottles a week is about 48 bottles, and make it in batches of about 12 bottles every 2 weeks. Humblebee and Me advises home formulators to "avoid making more than you can use in a couple of months," and the same logic works for selling: a bottle that leaves your table within 8 weeks still has most of its life ahead of it in the customer's bathroom.

Here is the math for that 6-bottles-a-week vendor:

1. Weekly sales: 4 bottles at the Saturday market plus 2 porch pickups during the week.
2. Eight weeks of sales: 6 x 8 = 48 bottles.
3. Lotion needed: an 8 ounce bottle holds about 227 grams, so 48 bottles is about 10.9 kilograms of lotion.
4. Batch size: 12 bottles at a time is about 2.7 kilograms of lotion (12 x 227 grams), a size one stick blender and one big double boiler can handle.
5. The schedule: 48 bottles divided into 12-bottle batches is four batches, so make one about every 2 weeks instead of one giant batch every 2 months.

Smaller, more frequent batches also make every other part of this guide easier. Each batch gets its own code, its own retained bottle and its own pH note, and if something goes wrong you lose 12 bottles, not 48.

The hardest week to plan is the one before the holidays, when a customer suddenly wants six bottles for gifts. Knowing what is already ordered before you make the batch is what keeps you from guessing.

Back to the August batch in the hall closet: by Christmas those bottles are about 4 months old. If it is a preserved lotion in pump bottles, that is inside our 6 month best-by, so the two bottles can still sell if the retained bottle from that batch looks, smells and pumps normally, but your regular gets only about 2 months before the best-by month. The same batch in jars is already past our 3 month date, and an unpreserved batch was done in days.

Make Lotion to Your Order Count So Every Bottle Leaves Fresh

The freshest lotion is the one you make after the order comes in, and a storefront that takes orders before batch day turns your 8 week rule into a list of exactly what to fill. Homegrown is built for that kind of local order, at $10 a month billed annually ($12.50 monthly) with no percentage fees beyond standard payment processing.

Five parts of a Homegrown storefront suit a product with a short shelf life:

• Order prep time. You set how much lead time you need before each pickup date, so customers order a week ahead and you make the batch to the count.
• Inventory tracking and low-stock alerts. List only the bottles from the current batch, and the count goes down as people order.
• Scents and sizes as variants. One lotion listing can hold every scent and size, each with its own price.
• Ingredients on every listing. Customers can see what is in the bottle, and you can add a best-by line in the description.
• Pickup or local delivery. Your porch, a farm stand or your market booth, or delivery within a radius you set from 1 to 25 miles.

Compare that to the usual alternatives:

• Instagram or Facebook messages. Free, but scent requests and pickup times scatter across a dozen threads, and nothing tells you the total to make.
• Etsy. Built for shipping to strangers, and on a two-bottle $30 order Etsy takes about $3.50 in listing, transaction and processing fees before shipping, against $1.17 in card processing plus the $10 monthly plan on Homegrown, about $1.37 an order at 50 orders a month.
• Square Online's free plan. A real option at $0 a month, and cheaper than Homegrown's annual plan until about 84 orders a month at $30 an order.

What Homegrown does not do: it does not formulate, test or date your lotion, and it does not track batch codes for you, so the notebook stays your job. It is built for pickup and local delivery, so a vendor who mainly ships across the country is better served by Etsy or Shopify. It has no drops or countdown release feature. Customers create a Homegrown account to place their first order. Your storefront is listed on the Homegrown marketplace, but plan on most orders coming from regulars you send to your own link. Card processing of 2.9% + $0.30 is paid by you, not added to the customer's total.

If your regulars already text you for refills, set up a Homegrown storefront for your lotion and make each batch to the orders already in.

Scroll sideways to see every column.

We checked every fee on each company's own pricing page on October 13, 2026 (Etsy's processing rate is from its Etsy Payments help page). Fees are figured on the $30 price, two 4 ounce lotions at $15, before sales tax and shipping. Etsy figures processing on the full total with shipping and tax, so its real cost runs a little higher, and Offsite Ads can add 15% on ad-driven sales.

How Can You Tell Homemade Lotion Has Gone Bad?

A lotion has gone bad when its color, smell or thickness changes, when you see mold, or when the oil and water separate and will not mix back together. Humblebee and Me lists "viscosity changes, colour changes, scent changes, and the appearance of mould" as signs that the preservative has failed, and adds separation in its preservative FAQ. A stale, old-crayon smell means the oils have oxidized. Marie calls that "inevitable (and not dangerous)," but it is still a bottle to pull.

One warning before the list: a lotion that looks and smells normal can still carry bacteria you cannot see, so these signs tell you when to throw a batch out, never that a batch is safe. Signs to check on a retained bottle, and on any bottle a customer brings back:

• Spots or fuzz. Any speck of mold, on the surface or around the pump, means the whole batch is out.
• A sour, musty or yeasty smell. The fragrance fading is normal; a new smell is not.
• Thinner or lumpier than it was. Microbes can break an emulsion down and change how it pumps.
• Watery layer or oil on top. FDA's shelf life page notes that "emulsions, which are mixtures of water and oil, can separate."
• Color shift. Yellowing or graying that the batch did not start with.

What to do when a batch turns:

• Pull every bottle with that batch code. Do not sell the ones that look fine.
• Contact the customers who bought it. Offer a refund or a fresh bottle from a new batch.
• Write down what changed. Ingredients, pH, temperature, container and storage, so the next batch fixes it.
• Know the reporting rule. Under the 2022 federal cosmetics law, called MoCRA, FDA's page on the law says a serious adverse event, a list that includes "an infection," must be reported to FDA within 15 business days, with a copy of the label.

A spoiled batch of 12 bottles costs about $38 in supplies at the October 8, 2026 prices in our lotion cost guide. A spoiled batch that reaches a customer's skin costs a lot more than that, which is the whole case for small batches, a real preservative and a date on every bottle.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does homemade lotion expire?

Yes, homemade lotion goes bad over time, though no federal law requires an expiration date on it. A water-based homemade lotion with no preservative keeps for only 3 to 5 days when refrigerated, while one made with a broad-spectrum preservative can last months. Waterless lotion bars and body butters usually last at least a year before their oils turn rancid. Printing a best-by month helps customers know when to use it up.

How long does homemade lotion last without preservatives?

A homemade lotion made with water and no preservative keeps about 3 to 5 days chilled, according to Humblebee and Me, which says water-based products are probably only good for a day or two without a preservative. That is too short to sell, because a customer takes weeks to use a bottle. Lotion with no water at all, like a lotion bar or body butter, does not need a preservative unless it will get wet in use, like a bar kept in the shower, and keeps at least a year.

Can I keep homemade lotion in the fridge instead of adding a preservative?

Only for lotion you make for yourself and use within a few days. Cold slows microbes but does not stop them, and a customer's bottle lives on a bathroom counter for weeks. Any water-based lotion you sell needs a broad-spectrum preservative used at the supplier's rate and pH, such as Optiphen Plus at 0.75% to 1.5%.

How long does homemade body butter last?

Homemade body butter made with no water usually lasts at least a year, and its limit is the oil in it that goes rancid first. Check the shelf life your supplier gives for each oil and butter, and use the earliest date as the body butter's best-by. Keep it cool, out of the sun and away from wet fingers.

How do I know if my homemade lotion has gone bad?

Homemade lotion has gone bad if it changes color, smell or thickness, grows mold, or separates into layers that will not mix back. A stale smell like old crayons means the oils have oxidized. If one bottle from a batch shows any of these signs, pull every bottle with the same batch code.

Do I have to put an expiration date on homemade lotion I sell?

No, FDA says no US law requires a shelf life or expiration date on a cosmetic, though working out the shelf life is the manufacturer's job. A lotion with an SPF claim is also a drug and must carry an expiration date, which is one reason to keep SPF off homemade lotion. A batch code and a best-by month on each bottle are a good habit even without a rule.

Related Reading

More for vendors who sell lotion and body care next to their food.

• How to Sell Lotion From Home: the formula, the cost of an 8 ounce bottle, prices, labels and the 2022 federal law.
• How Long Does Homemade Soap Last?: cure times, orange spots and best-by dates for soap bars.
• Can You Sell Homemade Lip Balm?: the rules for another waterless product that sits beside lotion bars.
• Selling Herbal Salves at the Farmers Market: pricing and claims for salves made with the same wax.
• Can You Sell Homemade Sugar Scrub?: which states add their own permit for body care.
• Selling Goat Milk Products Locally: soap, lotion and cheese from the same herd.

Sell Lotion While It Is Fresh

Lotion rewards vendors who make it in small batches of about 12 bottles and sell each batch within 8 weeks. The shelf life you can promise depends far more on how you make, pack and store the lotion than on any single ingredient. A short checklist before every batch:

• A real broad-spectrum preservative at the supplier's rate, added at the temperature it allows.
• A pH check with a strip, written in the batch notebook next to the batch code.
• A pump bottle or tube for anything with water in it, and a jar only for thick creams with a shorter date.
• A batch code and a best-by month on every bottle, plus one retained bottle on a warm shelf.
• Cool, dark storage and a shaded table on market day.

When customers can order ahead, you make each batch for people who are already waiting for it, so no bottle sits in a closet for months. Start your Homegrown storefront and let your regulars reserve their scent before your next batch day.