Most day to day beauty products contain dozens of ingredients, including many chemicals that once researched begin to worry some of us that we put them anywhere near our precious skin. If you're concerned about the chemicals added to cosmetics and beauty products, but don’t have the money for the expensive designer organic labels, why not make your own?
Many organic beauty product recipes contain
fewer than ten ingredients, and you can make them without needing a degree and
without having to go out and buy lots of special equipment. As long as the ingredients you use are organic, the product you make
will be organic.
Essentially a cream is a softened mixture of water and oil. You'll need a few basics
to make your own cream at home, these are as follows:
- 4 ounces base oil
- 1 ounce of beeswax
- 2 ounces of distilled water
- 1 teaspoon of essential oils
- 1 vitamin E capsule (optional)
The beeswax acts as an emulsifying agent, and
helps to blend the cream together to form a cream. When selecting an essential
oil to use, popular base oils include jojoba oil, olive oil, and even sunflower
oil. If you are feeling confident or want to experiment you can substitute the
distilled water for a herbal tea of your choice or even rosewater. The Vitamin
E oil is included to help preserve the cream and to extend its shelf life. If
you didn’t want to use Vitamin E oil you could use grapefruit seed in its
place.
If you are feeling brave and wanted to change
the cream slightly there are additional ingredients you could include, such as Shea butter or coconut butter, and essential oils. Adding butter to your cream
can give your homemade product a richer consistency and will also add to the nutritious
and moisturizing properties.
How to make the cream:
The first step in the cream-making process is
to blend and melt down the oils and emulsifiers. Using the ingredients above,
mix together, the base oil of your choice with the beeswax and melt it over a
low heat on the stove or in the microwave. Wait for the beeswax to melt and
then slowly add in the distilled water whilst whisking with an electrical whisk
or hand blender. Once mixed, finally, add the essential oils of your choice and
vitamin E oil (extract this by puncturing the capsule and squeezing out the
contents). Make sure you stir the cream thoroughly and ensure the oils and vitamin
E is mixed in well.
If you did decide to add butter to this cream
recipe, you will need to reduce the amount of base oil you use to keep the
oil-to-water ratio the same. If you do not keep this ratio the same, the cream
will be either thicker or thinner depending on what exactly was added. The
butter is added when you add the oils and beeswax and should be heated so it
can melt down.
The recipe above not only saves you money but
also leaves you with a fully organic (providing you used organic ingredients)
face cream.
It also opens up a whole world of
cream-making possibilities. You could use any base oils, emulsifiers, and
butter along with any floral waters or hydrosols of your choice. You can tailor
make any organic, homemade creams to any part of your body or to help address
any specific skin problems you might have.
