I didn’t even know I was deficient in magnesium! Using this homemade DIY magnesium lotion has helped my restless legs, quality of sleep, and it has reduced my anxiety! It’s super easy & fun to make, and it’s affordable too!
I try to use home remedies whenever I can, like healing chapped lips without medication, making elderberry syrup to prevent colds before they even come, and charcoal gummies when someone gets the stomach flu. And these all work!
But I tried every stretch and massage technique you can think of to stop my restless legs from keeping me up at night and nothing worked.
So I decided to go out on a limb and make my own magnesium lotion. Oh my goodness, why in the world did I wait so long?! Here are the Top 5 Reasons That I love it!
- Helps me sleep at night
- Calms my nerves and muscles
- Reduces stress (read here on how magnesium reduces stress)
- It’s fun + really easy to make…
- And it’s more affordable than store-bought!
Read my research and even more about the benefits of magnesium lotion HERE!
Here’s What You Need
- ½ cup magnesium flakes
- 3 Tbsp boiling water
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- 2 Tbsp beeswax pastilles
- 3 Tbsp shea butter
- 1 quart mason jar
- 2 coffee mugs
- Immersion blender
Notes on Ingredients
Shea Butter. For this recipe, you want unrefined, ivory shea butter. I use this brand because it’s the best quality I’ve tested among shea butters.
Beeswax
Definitely use pastilles (pellets) instead of the brick. The brick is fine if you’re using the whole thing, but when you need just a tablespoon or two, the pastilles make it SO much easier to measure. I use these because I’ve used their other products (including the shea butter mentioned above, and their zinc oxide to make homemade sunscreen) and I trust them to provide great quality.
Coconut Oil
You want unrefined virgin coconut oil – the kind that is solid at room temperature – not refined coconut oil. I’ve been using this coconut oil <needs new link> for years, but this brand is also really good.
Magnesium Flakes
You want magnesium chloride flakes, which is a highly concentrated form of magnesium. This brand is one of the best on the market.
- There are other types of magnesium on the market, so make sure you’re getting the right kind. I explain the most common types of magnesium in this post. For the tutorial below, make sure you get magnesium chloride flakes.
- If this is the first time you’re making magnesium lotion, I recommend starting with this 1.65 lb bag. If you’ve already made the lotion and have fallen in love (like me!), you can upgrade to buying it in bulk. This 8 lb bag has the lowest price per pound – and trust me, I’ve looked at them ALL!
How to Use the Extra Ingredients
- An 8 oz bar of shea butter will make about 4 batches of magnesium lotion. If you are looking for other uses for it, I also use shea butter in homemade shaving cream and in homemade peppermint lip balm.
- If you have extra beeswax to use, consider making homemade citronella candles or use it in homemade dry-skin healing lotion. Otherwise, one bag of beeswax pellets will make 8+ batches of magnesium lotion.
- We use coconut oil all the time in the kitchen, and I also use it in my natural skincare routine to remove make-up naturally and as a daily facial moisturizer.
Ps….Having ingredients on hand for more than one purpose is a great use of your budget! I go more in-depth on making the most of your grocery budget in Grocery Budget Bootcamp. The best thing is, the principles in this course can apply to more than just groceries!
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1. Measure magnesium flakes into a mug. Fill another mug halfway with water and microwave on high until it is boiling, about 2-3 minutes. (Alternatively, you can bring water to boil on the stove.) Measure 3 Tbsp of boiling water into the mug with the flakes. Stir until the flakes are dissolved and set aside.
Step 2. In the quart mason jar, measure coconut oil, beeswax and shea butter. Place the jar in a small pan filled with 1-2 inches of water. Place it on the stove and turn the heat to medium high.
Step 3. Allow the solids to melt, swirling the jar occasionally if necessary. (Be sure to wear an oven mitt.)
Step 4. When everything inside the jar is melted, remove it from the pan and let it cool for about 5 minutes.
Step 5. Pour the dissolved magnesium into the quarter mason jar. If it solidifies upon contact, that’s ok. Place the immersion blender at the bottom of the jar and blend everything together really well, moving the blender up and down along the sides of the jar as necessary to incorporate the ingredients.
This makes about 8 ounces of lotion. Store at room temperature for up to 2 months.
Notes
Note 1. This magnesium lotion recipe is more of a butter/salve than a liquid, pumpable lotion. It has a slightly waxy, greasy feel because of the combination coconut oil and magnesium. You can use a different oil if you’d like, as long as it’s liquid. Know that this will change the final texture slightly. Also, because of the ingredients used, it will not absorb like we’ve come to expect when using typical over-the-counter lotion. Then again, it’s not supposed to. 🙂
Note 2. If you find the list of ingredients and the idea of making lotion daunting, I HIGHLY recommend making magnesium oil spray. It’s just two ingredients – magnesium and water – and it’s great beginner DIY. It’s also just as effective as magnesium lotion! You can find the tutorial for DIY magnesium spray here.
How to Clean Your Supplies
The hardest part of this tutorial is cleaning your supplies, but I’ve figured a way to make it easier!
- Scrape as much of the lotion off of the immersion blender as possible.
- Fill another quart jar halfway with very hot, soap water. Place the immersion blender inside and let it soak for a few minutes. (I set my kitchen timer for 3 minutes so I don’t forget.)
- Turn the immersion blender on in the jar for about 10 seconds. Dump out the water and repeat step 2, this time adding a couple tablespoons of baking soda. Place the immersion blender inside and let it soak for a few minutes. (Again, I use the kitchen timer.)
- Turn the immersion blender on in the jar. Dump out the water and, at this point, the immersion blender should be fairly clean. If it isn’t, you can use a sponge with dish soap to remove any remaining portions of the lotion.
FAQs
What is magnesium lotion used for?
People most often use magnesium lotion for improved sleep, relaxation, stress reduction, and magnesium deficiency. This article talks about the importance of magnesium for our bodies.
What is the best magnesium lotion?
My homemade magnesium lotion is the best, of course! It’s much more cost effective to make your own (especially if you use it nightly), and you get to control the quality of the ingredients.
If you don’t want to make the lotion yourself, you can get a similar high quality magnesium lotion here.
Does magnesium lotion help you sleep?
It definitely helps me sleep! After I started using it, I noticed improvement in just a few days. Now I use it on my legs every night before I go to bed. Not only do I fall asleep faster, but I stay asleep the whole night and my restless legs are no more!
You can read more about the sleep benefits of magnesium in this post.
Holy Cow! I can not wait to try this!! I have ran out of my medicine for my legs and my Dr won’t refill until I see him Its about a month away. I haven’t slept well in ages even with the medicine but without it is even worse. I have the spray and it does sting a bit, plus its cold and I’m wimpy when I’m tired.
Is there a reason why this would turn out so watery that it would be hard to mix? The first time I made it, it turned out great….creamy & as you described. The last two times it was really quite liquidy with no differences in the recipe. Thanks!
Hi Abigail! I’ve made this numerous times and it has not once ever turned out watery. You mentioned not changing the recipe, but did you use different ingredients? Maybe a different brand? Or is the house a different temperature? Different pot? I might be reaching on the last one, but I really truly can’t think of why this wouldn’t thicken, unless it was an inferior ingredient?
Do you think the whisk attachment on my stick blender will work? I really don’t want to use my stick blender that I use for food, and we never use the whisk attachment.
I don’t know Lori… my gut says no. 🙁
Hello I am thinking that although a lotion/ cream sounds great the magnesium would not absorb as well as just a water and magnesium” spray” because the oils would hinder magnesium to absorb fully. It would be best to just dissolve magnesium into distilled water and spray on.
I have to respectfully disagree Colleen. We’ve had great success with our magnesium lotion absorbing just fine!
This sounds terrific! I’m excited to try it and look forward to your newsletter. Thank you!
You’re very welcome Jan!
WOW! made this today! easier than I thought!, I added some glyceryn, lanolin, almond oil, witch hazel, rose water, and yling ylang essential oil. made two batches, first using the published recipe and the other one adding all thisi ingredients. Loved them both, one is for serious dryness and the tother one for everyday use! THANK YOU VERU MUCH!
You’re very welcome!
Why 2 months? What exactly in this recipe goes bad in 2 months?
Nothing, but there isn’t an official preservative so I gave 2 months to err on the side of caution. We’ve had ours open for MUCH longer though, without any issues.
Hi Tiffany. This was a wonderfully informative blog. I wondered if you sell your cream, or might recommend 1 you find as natural & beneficial as your recipe. I generally like to make these DIY’s, but by the time I’ve bought all the ingredients, I couldn’t bought 10 jars! lol Thanks for sharing your information.
We do sell our lotion, but we’re out of stock at the moment. If you sign up for the newsletter, I’ll send you an email when we have more!
Thanks for sharing! Does it does it separate? Thanks for including clean up instructions?
Nope, it doesn’t separate!
I tried melting the magnesium flakes in the oils so that there wouldn’t be water in the mix and the shelf life would be longer. Well, that didn’t work so I ended up pouring off the melted fats and beeswax and adding the water to the coated magnesium flakes. They melted nicely and I added the magnesium oil to the rest of the ingredients a little at a time and used a fork to mix it all together. I had no problems with the magnesium separating. I don’t know if it’s because I added it a little at a time or because the mag. flakes had already been coated with the fats and wax. Either way, it worked great even without a stick blender. Thanks!
You’re very welcome Debbie! Glad it turned out!
Would it work to simply use your favorite lotion and ads magensium to it?
Unfortunately, no. I tried this and made a big gloppy mess!
I made this recipe to a T! I cannot stand the thick greasy feel on my legs. My legs are sticking to my pjs and sheets! So I made the oil and “ouch!” Hate the sting! Tiffany, is your home lotion in your shop as greasy as this recipe? Hoping it’s not since you used different oils. If so, I’ll be ordering some! Thank you!
Hi Jennifer! The lotion in our shop is a different formula than this one completely. Both are incredibly effective, but we thought this version was a bit too greasy to sell as well, so we modified it. 🙂
Great! So using 1 tsp. per night, how long will your jar last?
Wonderful recipe thankyou for sharing. I have been making my own magnesium Elixir to heal my son and he has now recovered abt 80% from cerable palsy. It truly is a life changing discovery of pure bliss 😁
Do you find that you need to wash this off after a while? I’ve used the spray before & have to wash it off because it starts to itch/sting…
Nope! I put it on and leave it on. This lotion is not itchy at all, and doesn’t sting!
Can this be used on children?
Yes!
Tiffany, thanks so much for this recipe. I have suffered with RLS for 20 years and have taken Requip for most of that time. I tried taking a magnesium supplement but it upsets my stomach. I’m so glad that I spotted this post on your Facebook page. I’m really wanting to stop the Requip (it upsets my stomach too).
You’re very welcome Zena Sue!
Can we purchase some from you?
As soon as I have more back in stock, yes!
Hi. Is there a store brand of this lotion? I’d like to get it for my mom, but don’t want to buy everything needed to make it and have it not work. Thanks!
Hey Vicki! We make this lotion in small batches and offer it for sale in our store. Check back for when we’re back in stock!
Great recipe! I am so glad I found this, I used your recipe for magnesium body spray! & i can definitely see a change in my RLS & my mood! It has helped my anxiety so much! I am wondering tho, why is the lotion only good for a couple months?
Thanks Melissa! There’s no official preservative in the lotion, so I’m covering my bases with that disclaimer. In our home, I’ve made this and had it last several months (4+) without a problem. 🙂
Thank you so much for this info. I just made this and it is cooling on the table. I decided to take a warm bath in the mag. flakes about an hour ago and when I go to bed I’m going to use the lotion. I also have RLS and so does my 95 year old Dad so we will let you know how it goes. I’m hoping the bath helps too, I’m already sleepy 🙂
Thanks again.
Vickie