The self-esterification of the lauric acid (LA) with diethylene glycol (DEG) to produce diethylene glycol dilaurate (DEG-DL) was conducted under atmospheric via conventional method. The effects of reaction temperature, reactant molar ratio and stirring speed rate were studied. Results showed that the composition of DEG-DL was increased with the increase in reaction temperature and reactant molar ratio. The reaction rate was observed independent of stirring speed rate. A high conversion of LA (>90%) was obtained based on one-factor-at-time (OFAT) method of designing experiments. At the reaction temperature of 230°C and molar ratio of LA: DEG was varied from 1:1 to 2:1, the composition of DEG-DL was increased from 50.1% to 97.2%. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra confirmed a compound produced was DEG-DL based on structural result. The acid value of LA was reduced from 182 to 3.09 mg KOH g-1 LA. The autocatalytic esterification is a clean reaction as it omits the separation step of catalyst and solvents. The hydrophilic lipophilic balance (HLB) index calculated for DEG-DL was 7.5 and potentially functioned as a water-in-oil or oil-in-water emulsifier for cosmetic applications.