diff --git a/src/basedir.c b/src/basedir.c
index 852fc7b..747bcfa 100644
--- a/src/basedir.c
+++ b/src/basedir.c
@@ -496,16 +496,19 @@ int xdgMakePath(const char * path, mode_t mode)
 	if (tmpPath[length-1] == DIR_SEPARATOR_CHAR)
 		tmpPath[length-1] = '\0';
 
-	for (tmpPtr = tmpPath; *tmpPtr; ++tmpPtr)
+	/* skip tmpPath[0] since if it's a seperator we have an absolute path */
+	for (tmpPtr = tmpPath+1; *tmpPtr; ++tmpPtr)
 	{
 		if (*tmpPtr == DIR_SEPARATOR_CHAR)
 		{
 			*tmpPtr = '\0';
 			if (mkdir(tmpPath, mode) == -1)
 			{
-				/* here mkdir will have already set errno */
-				free(tmpPath);
-				return -1;
+				if (errno != EEXIST)
+				{
+					free(tmpPath);
+					return -1;
+				}
 			}
 			*tmpPtr = DIR_SEPARATOR_CHAR;
 		}