by Louise Mclean, LCCH.
When one of my favourite creams suddenly became unavailable, it gave me the idea of making my own. The cream I make is for very dry skin and can be used for face, hands or body. I thought it would be nice to experiment and mix various natural and pure substances together and see how they turn out!
In addition, I decided to do it because I don't want all the chemicals in virtually all cosmetic face and hand creams. When you rub these toxic creams on your skin, the chemicals go from the skin straight into the bloodstream!
I had some Avocado butter and I decided to use that as the base. I also tried using Shea butter but would not recommend it, as when the cream sets, I notice lots of tiny crunchy bits in the cream. You can use Coconut Oil but in hot weather it goes liquid, in cold it sets. I am thinking of trying cocoa butter next!
I am also going to try using organic Beeswax to help solidify the cream. You can buy it and melt it down as per the instructions below. Apparently lots of people use it in homemade face creams.
The idea is to use something that will solidify when it cools. Then while in a liquid state, drop all the other ingredients in and stir them.
First you need to find an empty plastic pot with lid, about 100 ml in size, or any suitable pot to put the cream mix into.
Then you get a very small saucepan and put about 3 level tablespoons of the Avocado butter, Cocoa butter, or Beeswax. If you use all of these, then one tablespoon of each! Put this on a very low heat until it melts to a liquid (1 on my hob). The point of using these, is they help the cream to became solid when it cools down. If you want to add Coconut Oil, then put it in the saucepan to liquify as well.
Then I stir in the following ingredients into the saucepan.-
1. About 10 drops of Organic Calendula Oil (very healing).
2. About 10 drops of Organic Vitamin E Oil.
3. Tablespoon of Castor Oil.
4. Finally, we need to scent the mixture. For this you should choose an aromatherapy oil. Perhaps you like Lavender, Geranium or choose one that is your favourite smell. I love Rose oil but it is fairly expensive. You can get it for less than £20 though. There is Rose Otto, which I am using and Rose Damask, which is more expensive and the prices go very high for the best quality! Put a few drops of your favourite aromatherapy oil into the saucepan.
When you have all your ingredients in the sauce pan, pour them into the pot. Then put the lid on your pot and leave it for about 5 or 6 hours. When you open the lid you will find it has solidified and can now be used as a face or hand cream.
Once you get used to it, you will find it can be done very quickly. Not more than about 15 minutes to make.
If you search online for making creams, you will find other things that can go in, including almond oil, Jojobo oil, etc. The above are just ideas for ingredients you can use, so choose which you like best but with the hard creams (Avocado, Cocoa butter, Beeswax), you will need to add the other oils to soften the cream.
I am still experimenting on this and thinking of using organic lanolin in my creams, which comes from sheep's wool. I used it a long time ago when I was young and it was good.
If you buy all the ingredients you can make a great many pots of cream, which in the long term saves a good deal of money! You should experiment if you like doing this and find the best ingredients for yourself.
You also have the peace of mind of knowing that your home made cream has nothing toxic in it and is much safer than the terribly expensive creams for women that are loaded with nasty hidden substances.
NB. I use a pot which is about 3 times bigger than the one in the picture above. Mainly I use this cream mix for hands and body.
6.3.25
I recently made a cream of organic lanolin (4 heaped teaspoons), castor oil (one tablespoon), calendula oil (2 teaspoons) and vitamin E oil (one teaspoon) mixed together. You do not need to heat the lanolin but just mix all the ingredients together. It is great for very dry hands, creamy but a bit sticky, so you don't need to use much of it. The cream looks much like the picture at the top but a bit more yellow because of the calendula oil. The point is you can experiment yourselves.
I also make my own Face Toner. So I wash and dry my face, splash on the toner and then put on my face cream, which is apparently the one that super models are using, as it is so good for eradicating fine lines! This wonderful face cream is made by Weleda and called Weleda Skin Food. You can get in on Amazon.
To make the toner, you will need a 100 ml bottle with a spout, get distilled water, rose water and witch hazel. You can get all those from Amazon or maybe a chemist. You put about 15 ml of witch hazel (which is a natural astringent) into the bottle, then about 30 ml of rose water. Then fill the rest of the bottle up with distilled water. Done! This is great toner for the skin after washing! You can make quite a few bottles of toner with these things and again, at least you know there are no nasty chemicals in it!
