QUICK SUMMARY
DIY body care products are the easiest way to keep parabens, phthalates, formaldehyde, triclosan, and hidden “fragrance” off your family’s skin. Except for color additives, cosmetics and their ingredients do not need FDA approval before they go on the market, so it’s up to us to read labels and choose (or make!) safe, truly non-toxic products.
Below are six simple DIYs to start with: soap, toothpaste, shampoo, a moisturizing body butter, lipstick, and deodorant. Dilute your essential oils to about 2 percent for body products and 0.5 to 1 percent for the face and underarms, and make water-based recipes in small batches.
Buying organic produce and making DIY cleaners are often at the top of the priority list when cleaning up chemicals in the home. But an entire section of toxins is often overlooked even though they are one of the biggest everyday sources of chemical exposure: body care products.
Take the time to learn which toxins should absolutely be avoided and just how easy it can be to replace them with DIY body care products.
Table of Contents
Do Body Care Companies Actually Care?
The irony of the term “body care” is not lost on the person looking to make better choices for their skin. With so many skin, cosmetic, and hygiene companies touting body care products, we want to believe they actually do care and have our skin’s best interests at heart.
A quick look at an ingredients list with an informed eye reveals the truth: convenience often overshadows quality. Under federal law, cosmetic products and ingredients, other than color additives, do not need FDA approval before they go on the market. (1)
The Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 is the biggest expansion of FDA’s authority over cosmetics since 1938, and that is real progress. (2) But it’s still up to us to learn the ropes and “vote with our dollars,” choosing (or making!) only safe, natural, truly non-toxic body care products.
One of our favorite resources is the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database, an easily searchable index of products and ingredients.
Ingredients to Avoid in Body Care Products
Body care products are poured on, rubbed in, left to sit, and sometimes soaked into our skin, the largest organ of the body. Your skin is a brilliant God-designed barrier, but it is not a sealed wall. It absorbs some of what we put on it.
In a 2023 study, Korean researchers rubbed a cream containing three common parabens onto the arms of five men and tested their blood and urine for two days. The parabens passed through the skin into the bloodstream, peaking 5 to 10 hours later, and more of them stayed in their active form than when the same parabens were swallowed. (3)
In the case of a good anti-inflammatory oil dilution, this is great! In the case of toxic, hormone-disrupting chemicals in body care products, this is exactly what we want to avoid!
Chemicals to Stay Away From
Instead of trying to become a full-blown chemist to weed through label nightmares, we can learn some basics to watch out for. Some quick ingredients to avoid in body care products include (but are certainly not limited to):
- Parabens: spotted as a suffix (methylparaben, propylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben). Parabens are hormone-disrupting chemicals that show up in human blood and urine, and in the lab they raise local estrogen levels and switch on growth signals in breast cancer cells. (4)
- Phthalates: used pervasively in fragrance and packaging. In a systematic review of girls’ puberty, the strongest evidence linked prenatal exposure to monoethyl phthalate, the breakdown product of the phthalate used in fragrance, to slightly earlier puberty. (5) In a 2024 study of 303 pregnant women, those who used the fewest fragranced products had 7 to 10 percent less of that phthalate in their urine than average. (6)
- Formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing preservatives: formaldehyde is a known human carcinogen. (7) FDA warns that some hair-smoothing products release it as a gas when heated, where it can burn the eyes, nose, and throat. (8)
- Triclosan: an antibacterial staple that is an endocrine disruptor, with estrogenic and androgenic activity. Animal and human studies point to harm to the reproductive system and, to a lesser extent, to the heart and thyroid. (9)
- Fragrance: a catch-all term. Fragrance formulas are complex mixtures of natural and synthetic chemicals, they are protected as trade secrets, and some of their components can cause allergic reactions. (10) A 2026 review from dermatologists at New York University names fragrances among the most common allergy triggers in personal care products. (11) See why we avoid them in this report on artificial fragrances.
If you’re ever in doubt about a product, start with the EWG’s Skin Deep Database, then read the actual ingredient list yourself.
To boil this down to the simplest of safety rules, remember that what goes on your skin can make it into the body, especially if it’s a leave-on product. So, if you wouldn’t eat it, don’t apply it!
You might not want to chug a batch of natural massage oil, but this “rule” is still a good way to remember that skincare is far more than skin deep.
Why We Need to DIY Body Care Products
In 2016, the FDA issued a final rule under which 19 active ingredients, including triclosan and triclocarban, can no longer be sold in consumer hand soaps, bar soaps, and body washes. Manufacturers never showed that these ingredients were safe for daily long-term use or that they worked better than plain soap and water. (12)
For years, those products were marketed as more effective than good ol’ fashioned soap and water, and consumers were misled into buying them. In the FDA’s own words, there “isn’t sufficient evidence to show that over-the-counter (OTC) antibacterial soaps are better at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water.” (12)
Simply put: antibacterial products kill both the bad and the good bacteria on your hands. The microbes that live on your skin interact with your skin barrier and your immune system, so stripping them away is not ideal for healthy skin. (13)
Biblical health is not just about what you eat. It is also about what you put on your skin, what you breathe in your home, and how you steward your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Demystifying Essential Oil DIYs
Don’t click away just yet, you can do this! DIY body care products aren’t just for the Pinterest-inclined among us. You don’t have to be a fancy blogger or experienced aromatherapist to make your own toiletries, sans nasty toxins!
Essential oils make the process even easier, adding familiar scents with just a few drops. As a bonus, they are loaded with health and beauty benefits that can change the way we look at hygiene and basic body care.
Tips and tricks when working with essential oils to make body care products:
- Dilute appropriately: 2 percent is the standard adult dilution for body products, and 0.5 to 1 percent is right for the face, for children, and for sensitive skin like the underarms.
- Keep blends to a few oils, usually sharing similar or complementary benefits.
- Oil and water don’t mix! Disperse essential oils into high-proof alcohol or a solubilizer before adding water.
- Store all products in clean, sterilized glass containers.
- Make small batches and use them before they go bad. Water, hydrosols, and aloe vera gel invite bacteria and mold, so we make water-based batches weekly and keep them in the fridge, and we toss any batch that changes in smell, color, or texture. (14)
6 Body Care DIYs to Start With
Making your own body care products can be rewarding, empowering, and, dare I say, addictive. Try a few of these basic formulas first to get your feet wet and confidence built.
1. Soap
Hand washing was one of the first great improvements in the shift toward modern medicine. Imagine your doctor moving from a surgery to a birth to dressing your wound without ever washing their hands! Unfortunately, we quickly took things a tinge too far, with antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers coming on the scene in full force.
In normal life, when we aren’t surgeons or chefs, trying to sterilize our hands and bodies can actually be counterproductive. Plain soap and water are all you need; in the words of an FDA physician, “It’s simple, and it works.” (12)
Use essential oils in a homemade soap for a clean, natural scent. A simple soap can be made by adding essential oils into a high-quality melt-and-pour soap base.
DIY Essential Oil Soap Recipe
Quantity
Ingredients
- Melt and Pour Soap Base
- Peppermint essential oil per base instructions
Instructions
- Prepare the melt-and-pour soap base you chose according to the label instructions.
- Play with the oil blends, using citrus, tea tree, and other gently antimicrobial essential oils. Add them into the soap base immediately before pouring into the soap molds of your choice.
- Pour into your preferred soap molds and allow to cool according to your soap base label instructions.
2. Toothpaste
Oral health is much more than cosmetic. Oral diseases affect an estimated 3.5 billion people, and they share risk factors with diabetes and heart disease. (15) (See our discussion of metabolic health here.)
Some conventional oral care may even work against you. In a landmark 2013 study, 19 healthy volunteers used a chlorhexidine antiseptic mouthwash for one week; it cut the nitrite made by the bacteria in their mouths by 90 percent, and their blood pressure rose 2 to 3.5 points. (16)
A 2025 study of hospital records found that people who had used chlorhexidine mouthwash were about three times as likely to have a high blood pressure diagnosis, even after the researchers accounted for age, diabetes, and gum disease. The authors are careful to say a records study like this cannot prove the rinse caused it. (17)
A 2026 scoping review found that five of nine human studies showed blood pressure going up after antibacterial mouthwash, while four found no link. (18) A 2026 meta-analysis that pooled five chlorhexidine studies found only a very small change in blood pressure, but we see no reason to wipe out the good bacteria in your mouth every day. (19)
Check your toothpaste and mouthwash for questionable ingredients like triclosan and controversial fluoride. Especially with children, who will likely swallow some of the paste, use a small amount and supervise brushing.
Check out my article on essential oils for oral health if you are stumped on which oils to use, then add them to these ingredients:
Homemade Essential Oil Toothpaste Recipe
Quantity
Ingredients
- Equal parts baking soda AND coconut oil extra-virgin AND unrefined (¼ cup each is good to start with)
- 1-2 teaspoons sea salt, ground
- 5-7 drops essential oils
- optional: 1-2 teaspoons each powdered stevia OR bentonite clay
Instructions
- Mix and place in a small jar or a squeeze bottle. Use a spoon or disposable wooden scoop to get the paste out and avoid contamination.
3. Shampoo
Shampoo can’t be overlooked, especially since it’s so easy to make. Hair care products are manufactured en masse, and too often that means harsh cleansers and ambiguous fragrance.
Most commercial shampoos strip the natural oils from your hair and scalp, which then conveniently “requires” a conditioner. This recipe uses a castile-soap base and adds nourishing natural ingredients:
Homemade Essential Oil Shampoo Recipe
Quantity
Ingredients
- 1½ cups (1 can) coconut milk, organic
- 1½ cups organic unscented liquid castile soap
- 40 drops lavender essential oil
Instructions
- Mix well (a blender might work best!) and add to a BPA-free squeeze bottle. Store no more than a week in the fridge before using or replacing. Shake before use.
4. Skin Moisturizers
We all could stand a little more moisturizing to take care of the skin that works so hard for us. But lotions, creams, and body butters are not just applied to the skin; we rub them in and leave them on all day.
Look for all of the basic warning ingredients (parabens, fragrance, phthalates) when replacing your standard lotion. Water-based lotions are tricky to make safely at home, which is why an oil-based DIY, moisturizing body butter is such a practical starter project.
Here’s an excellent starter recipe. Simply combine a few ingredients:
Essential Oil Hand Cream Lotion Recipe
Quantity
Ingredients
- ¼ cup unrefined shea butter
- ⅛ cup sweet almond oil
- 1 tablespoon organic beeswax pellets yellow or white
Instructions
- Carefully melt, then add 20-30 drops of essential oils. Stir, then pour into sterilized jars. Adjust the amount of beeswax for a firmer or softer body butter. Try nourishing oils like lavender, chamomile, citrus, and myrrh.
5. Cosmetics
Cosmetics are applied around the eyes and lips, often every day, where they are blinked into the eyes and licked off the lips. Don’t you want to know if those ingredients are safe?
The first stop is the EWG Skin Deep database, to find products made without toxic chemicals, fragrances, and preservatives. But you can DIY cosmetics just like any other topical formula: DIY lipstick is nothing more complicated than a jazzed-up lip balm. Here are the main ingredients:
DIY Essential Oil Lipstick Recipe
Quantity
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons sweet almond oil OR coconut oil
- 1 teaspoon organic beeswax pellets yellow OR white
- 1 teaspoon Cocoa butter OR unrefined shea butter
- Organic beet powder (optional)
- Organic Ceylon cinnamon (optional)
- Organic turmeric (optional)
Instructions
- Finally, remove from heat and stir in a drop or two of essential oil for fragrance and nourishment, like peppermint, lavender, sweet orange, or lemongrass. See more information on how to make homemade lipstick here.
Citrus Oil Safety
A word of caution about citrus essential oils: some are phototoxic. Cold-pressed citrus oils keep furocoumarins, natural compounds that react with sunlight on the skin, and a 2026 review notes that cold-pressed lemon oil holds far more of them than steam-distilled lemon, with bergamot and grapefruit oils among the richest. (20)
Safety Tip: Cold-pressed bergamot, lemon, lime, and grapefruit oils are known to be phototoxic, so if you use them in a leave-on product like lipstick, choose bergamot FCF or steam-distilled lemon and lime, or avoid direct sunlight for at least 12 hours if your skin is prone to a photosensitive reaction.
If you choose to use citrus in your lipstick, use only 1 drop and stick with the list that’s considered safe according to the classic text, Essential Oil Safety:
- Bergamot Oil (FCF): Bergaptene/Furanocoumarins removed
- Blood Orange Oil
- Lemon Oil (Steam Distilled)
- Lime Oil (Steam Distilled)
- Mandarin Oil
- Sweet Orange Oil
- Orange Leaf Oil
- Satsuma Oil (Cold/Expeller Pressed)
- Tangelo Oil
- Tangerine Oil
- Yuzu Oil
Download our free how-to-dilute essential oils guide for more information.
6. Deodorant
Last but not least, we cannot forget the daily product we rub into the skin of our underarms. Antiperspirants use aluminum salts to stop sweating, and both antiperspirants and deodorants often carry synthetic fragrance and preservatives.
Deodorant is also a product we’re not easily convinced to eliminate. No one wants body odor to be the first thing that signals a natural lifestyle!
Instead of spending a fortune on products that fit your standards or forgoing deodorant altogether, simply make your own homemade deodorant. This recipe will keep you clean and fresh with a simple ingredient list.
Essential Oil Deodorant Recipe
Quantity
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup coconut oil, extra-virgin AND unrefined
- ¼ cup baking soda
- ¼ cup arrowroot powder
- 4 tablespoons organic corn starch
- Essential oils-try tea tree sweet orange, lavender, frankincense, etc.
Instructions
- Combine the dry ingredients first, then add coconut oil and up to 10-15 drops essential oils. Add more dry or wet ingredients as necessary for consistency; store in a jar or roll-up tube.
Which of the DIY body care products are you going to make first?
Want to learn more tips for making essential oils part of your everyday life? Check out our Essential Oil Lifestyle Library.
Keep reading: Homemade Body Wash for Kids: DIY, Gentle & Non-Toxic · DIY Dry Shampoo with Essential Oils & Safe Ingredients · Homemade Hand Cream with Essential Oils for Dry Hands
References
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Parabens in cosmetics. FDA. Accessed 2026. Source.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA). FDA. Accessed 2026. Source.
- Shin MY, Choi JW, Lee S, et al. Pharmacokinetics of transdermal methyl-, ethyl-, and propylparaben in humans following single dermal administration. Chemosphere. 2023. Source.
- Hager E, Chen J, Zhao L. Minireview: parabens exposure and breast cancer. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022. Source.
- Rivera-Núñez Z, Kinkade CW, Zhang Y, et al. Phenols, parabens, phthalates and puberty: a systematic review of synthetic chemicals commonly found in personal care products and girls’ pubertal development. Current Environmental Health Reports. 2022. Source.
- Rosen EM, Stevens DR, Ramos AM, et al. Personal care product use patterns in association with phthalate and replacement biomarkers across pregnancy. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology. 2024. Source.
- National Cancer Institute. Formaldehyde and cancer risk. NCI. Accessed 2026. Source.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Hair smoothing products that release formaldehyde when heated. FDA. Accessed 2026. Source.
- Marques AC, Mariana M, Cairrao E. Triclosan and its consequences on the reproductive, cardiovascular and thyroid levels. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2022. Source.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Fragrances in cosmetics. FDA. Accessed 2026. Source.
- Smale NE, Karagounis TK, Milam EC, Cohen DE, Flamm A. Allergic contact dermatitis to personal care products: a focus on established and emerging allergens. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. 2026. Source.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Skip the antibacterial soap; use plain soap and water. FDA Consumer Updates. Accessed 2026. Source.
- Lee HJ, Kim M. Skin barrier function and the microbiome. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2022. Source.
- U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Microbiological safety and cosmetics. FDA. Accessed 2026. Source.
- World Health Organization. Oral health. WHO Health Topics. Accessed 2026. Source.
- Kapil V, Haydar SM, Pearl V, Lundberg JO, Weitzberg E, Ahluwalia A. Physiological role for nitrate-reducing oral bacteria in blood pressure control. Free Radical Biology and Medicine. 2013. Source.
- Katz J, Garcia I. The use of chlorhexidine mouthwash and diagnosis of primary hypertension in a large hospital cohort. Quintessence International. 2025. Source.
- Singh B, North P, Rushetsky ZM, Brito RC, Jenney FE Jr. The effect of antibacterial mouthwash on blood pressure in humans: a scoping review. BMC Cardiovascular Disorders. 2026. Source.
- Toonen LSJ, Van Swaaij BWM, Vagevuur ML, et al. The effect of chlorhexidine mouthwash on blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Dental Hygiene. 2026. Source.
- Zhang Y, Luo R, Yang R, Ma X, Wang M. Citrus essential oils: a review of chemical composition, bioactivity, safe use, and potential applications. Chemistry & Biodiversity. 2026. Source.
