Soooooooooo excited about this!!! Been wanting to make more of my own beauty products for ages, so I've been hoarding recipes and ingredients trying to work out what to do. I've tried a number of natural products over the past few years and with some tips from my mum made this beautiful face cream (well, you could use it on any skin really).
Though it took me many weeks to actually get around to doing it, the whole process took literally 10 minutes to put together, then a few hours to cool slowly, mixing every so often. Unbelievably easy. Seriously.
I actually can't begin to tell you how gorgeous this smells, I used a special combination of Ylang-ylang, Lavender, Melrose (a Young Living blend great for skin and eczema) and my favourite ingredient of all....Jasmine essential oil. You could of course use any blend you like, personalising the scent just for you.
This little bottle isn't just a lovely face cream, it's another small but oh so liberating victory over the ruthless marketing and the money-hungry chemical companies pitching to me wherever I turn these days. I told my daughter when she'd finished filling the pots with me that she never has to buy the 'fake' products in her lifetime because she knows how to make her own out of real ingredients so she can be sure exactly what she's putting on her skin and into her body. And boy does it smell good too!!!
RECIPE
*use all of the best possible, organic ingredients you can find.
- 120g coconut oil
- 60g shea butter
- 30g beeswax
- 3 tablespoons of each of the following 'carrier' oils: Sweet Almond, Apricot Kernel, Sunflower, Olive and Castor
- The gel from 3 stripped aloe-vera leaves
- 12 drops Melrose essential oil (EO)
- 12 drops Lavender EO
- 6 drops Ylang-ylang EO
- 6 drops Jasmine EO
Melt the coconut oil, shea butter and beeswax down in a glass container over some boiling water (or in a glass jar with a lid so you can lift out and give it a shake to mix - be careful, the glass gets hot!).Mix the carrier oils together with the essential oils and the aloe vera gel.Allow the melted oils to cool but not solidify (you don't want to heat essential oils much at all otherwise they begin to break down and you'll lose some of the quality), then mix together with the rest.Now, you can either put in a blender to mix thoroughly into a smooth mixture, or do what I did and mix/whisk by hand because I was too scared I'd ruin my blender! Allow to cool further (will start to solidify) and mix again. Do this a few more times until you're happy with the mixture and it's getting very thick. Put into glass containers (preferably dark glass to protect the contents from too much light) and place in the fridge to cool properly.Voila.
I only use the tiniest bit as a night cream after cleansing and toning (will post these recipes another time). It does feel a bit oily going on but give it a few minutes and it soaks right in leaving your skin feeling silky smooth and smelling AMAZING!!!