Why Your Body Lotion Is 90% Water (And What to Use Instead)

Do me a favor: grab your current body lotion and look at the first ingredient. In most cases, it’s water. Sometimes listed as aqua, sometimes as H2O, but it’s the same thing, making up 70 to 90 percent of the bottle. Why is it there? Skincare brands use water primarily to create the lightweight, spreadable cream texture we expect from "lotion," and to serve as a cheap filler that dilutes highly concentrated plant oils and butters so they can be pumped easily from a plastic bottle.

That realization tends to catch people off guard. Not because water is harmful, but because it shifts how you think about what your moisturizer is actually doing for your skin. When most of the formula is water, the ingredients that truly lock in hydration, like butters and oils, make up a much smaller portion than you might expect. What you are primarily paying for, transporting, and pumping onto your skin—whether you have oily skin, combination skin, or dry skin—is simply water, which quickly evaporates from the surface if it is not adequately sealed to prevent evaporation.

Because this is such a fundamental shift in how we think about skincare, I put together a Complete Guide to Concentrated Natural Moisturizing, specifically for the Body Lotion Bar. It acts as a deeper look at the chemistry of waterless skincare products, but for now, it’s worth asking a simple question: what happens when you remove the water entirely?

Why Do Skincare Brands Put Water in Lotion?

Water isn’t “bad.” It’s just a formulation choice with caveats when referring to moisturizing dehydrated skin.

There are practical reasons brands (even Emogene & Co.) use it:

• It acts as a carrier, helping spread ingredients easily across the skin.

• It creates the lightweight texture most of us recognize as “lotion.”

• It provides an immediate cooling and plumping sensation.

The other side of the equation is just as practical:

• Water-based products usually need preservatives. When a formula contains water, it creates an environment where microbes can grow, so the product needs a preservation system.

• Water evaporates if it is not correctly sealed into place. When you apply a water-based lotion, some of that “fresh” feeling is simply water sitting on the surface and then disappearing.

None of this is a conspiracy. It is a formulation convention. But it does explain why many people with dehydrated skin feel like they have to reapply lotion constantly. The skin-benefiting ingredients may be there, but they are often a smaller percentage than most people assume.

What Is a Waterless Moisturizer?

A water free moisturizer is exactly what it sounds like: a moisturizer with no water at all.

Instead of using water as the base or a vehicle for delivering active ingredients to the skin, every ingredient is there to do one job: LOCK IN HYDRATION CONTAINED WITHIN THE SKIN. Think butters, oils, waxes, and botanicals. In a truly water-free formula, you do not need the same preservative approach as a water-based lotion because there is no water phase to support microbial growth.

You will see waterless moisturizers show up in a few forms:

• balms and salves

• facial or body oils

• solid moisturizer bar formats

Understanding the limitations of water-based formulas is exactly what led me to develop the Nourish Body Lotion Bar. I wanted to create a moisturizer that focused entirely on the natural ingredients that seal hydration into the skin and support a healthy skin barrier. By choosing a solid bar format, we’re able to deliver those nutrient-dense plant oils and butters in their purest, most concentrated state—giving your skin exactly what it needs, without the unnecessary fillers.

If you’re new to the idea of a solid moisturizer and want to understand why we chose to move away from the traditional pump bottle in the first place, our foundation post on What is a Lotion Bar is a great place to start.

Water-Based Lotion vs. The Waterless Body Lotion Bar

This comparison is the clearest way to understand the difference in how these products behave.

Is Waterless Moisturizing Products Better for Dry Skin?

For most people with dry skin—and even those with combination skin who struggle with dry patches—yes. Not because water is harmful, but because water is not what builds a resilient skin barrier. Water provides hydration to actual skin cells and can temporarily plump the surface of the skin. If this water is not adequately sealed in, it evaporates. For some people, that evaporation is part of why their skin feels dry again so quickly.

This is also where you may hear the concept of transepidermal water loss (TEWL). In simple terms, your skin is always losing water to the environment. When your barrier is compromised or under-supported, that loss can feel like tightness, rough patches, and the “I just moisturized and I’m already dry again” problem. This is the reason why I regularly mention using The Healer Balm as the occlusive last step in a facial skincare regimen for dry & mature skin! Read more about this as part of a Moisture Sandwich™. 

A waterless moisturizer works differently. It relies on lipids, like the fatty acids naturally found in butters and plant oils, to support the barrier and help prevent hydration from evaporating. Water can feel nice in the moment, but lipids are what help keep skin comfortable for longer. 

All of that makes sense on paper. But the most common question I hear is still a practical one: what does it actually feel like to use a moisturizer with no water in it? A waterless lotion in bar form feels different because you are applying the moisturizing ingredients directly, not applying water that carries a small percentage of them.

A body lotion bar warms with body heat, then glides a thin layer onto the skin. The goal is not to coat you in oil. The goal is to give the skin barrier what it actually uses to stay comfortable. Practically speaking, a water-free bar tends to be most satisfying for:

• elbows, heels, and hands

• winter skin

• “I moisturize every day and still feel dry” skin

If chronic dryness is your main struggle, you can also read The Best Natural Solution for Chronically Dry Skin.

The Bonus: Zero Waste by Default

This is one of my favorite parts, because it’s not a marketing angle. It is simply a result of the format. When you remove water, you often remove the need for a plastic bottle and pump. A solid bar can be stored simply and used down to the last bit with minimal waste. If you are trying to reduce packaging without turning your whole routine upside down, a bar is a straightforward step.

What You Use Instead

If you’ve been using the same bottle lotion for years, the idea that it’s mostly water can feel like a revelation. It’s a simple realization that changes the way you shop for skincare—shifting the focus from how big the bottle is to how effective the natural ingredients are.

If you want to seal in hydration, and you want fewer ingredients that exist mainly to support a water-based formula, a water free moisturizer is worth trying. The simplest place to start is a body lotion bar, because it’s familiar in purpose and different only in format! 

Shop the Nourish Body Lotion Bar, launching October 22nd!

Lotion Bar vs Regular Lotion: Which One Actually Works Better?