Upcycled Glass Lotion Bottles

Dawn Shupick
by Dawn Shupick
4 Materials
$12
2 Hours
Easy

Noticed someone online selling some used glass lotions bottles in several different colors. I purchased all of the bottles for $5.00 to use for a couple fun projects. For this project I decided to use three of the bottles in each of my bathrooms for hand soap.

The box of glass bottles before. They are the aroma therapy lotion line from Bath & Body Works.

 

Here are the three colors that were in the box

I removed the pumps from the bottles and soaked them as well as the bottles in hot water and Clorox.

The pumps all cleaned up very nicely

After trying to soak the bottles in hot water and scrubbing them to remove the sticky labels I decided to try putting them in my dish washer to see if the high heat temperature would help to get the labels off, clean, and sanitize them.

After they went through the dishwasher the labels were still sticking to the bottles. I just carefully pulled on each label and they came off, but left behind the sticky residue. Here is what the bottles looked like after removing the labels. On the two bottles in the upper right of this photo you can really see the sticky residue that was left behind.

I then used some Goo-be gone on each bottle. I found that letting the bottle sit for a while with the Goo-be- gone, then scrubbing the surface with a clean washcloth removed the sticky! Here is what one of the bottles looked like after using the Goo-be-gone.

The bottles and pumps cleaned and sanitized. The black bottles outside coloring came completely off, the orange bottles coloring removed where the labels were, and the green bottles color stayed.

I picked up a large container of Dial soap from Wal-Mart to fill the three bottles for my bathrooms.

The orange bottle

This oragne colored bottle looks great in the powder room as it's decorated in old rusty stuff. An Open House sing, kids uhaul truck, paint brush, and door hardware.

The black bottle

I like that you can see the blue soap color through this clear bottle, it matches the colors in my master bathroom icon

The green bottle

The green color goes great in my teens travel themed bathroom.


DIY home decor using recycled glass bottles

Check out more fun and easy ways to make DIY home decor using recycled glass bottles here.

Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
3 of 5 questions
  • Vita Powlison Vita Powlison on Jun 20, 2018

    Thats a great idea, it might also be pretty to put some small fake flowers in the jar and or some marbles or ? Something that goes with the theme of the bathroom. I put clear marbles in one of my soup dispensers and it glamed it up a bit whit a little sparkle. Thanks for sharing .

  • Jak28497006 Jak28497006 on Jun 21, 2018

    Can rubbing alcohol take off the sticky residue?


  • Jennifer Jennifer on Jan 17, 2021

    so cool to find these bottles again...where did you come across them? i only have a couple of this shape and never used them for anything yet, if i may ask, what did you utilize the rest for? Thank you!

Comments
Join the conversation
3 of 76 comments
  • Jo Jo on Jun 09, 2019

    this is a great idea now I’m on a mission to finding bottles at garage sales, I am a crafty person if I get the things I need I’ll have to come on here and show mine, ( THANKS FOR THE IDEA$) 💡

    • Dawn Shupick Dawn Shupick on Jun 10, 2019

      So glad you liked the idea, good luck on your mission! Be sure to share yours when you get them done!

  • Observer Observer on Apr 19, 2020

    I use old liquor bottles for mouthwash etc...

Next