I admit I’m a beauty product junkie. I used to work across the street from Sephora, and was too frequently tempted to pop in during lunch and pick up a few items. That was a fun but expensive habit.
On my continued quest to learn how to make stuff, I’ve turned my attention to beauty products. I recently wrote about using honey as a face mask. Creating homemade beauty products is a lot like cooking – you can start with a recipe to learn the basics, and then embellish as you get more confident. But most importantly, you can customize the products to your own skin type (and use really high-quality ingredients, without paying retail prices!).
Making creams is a lot like making mayonnaise. It’s a bit of a miracle, getting oil and water to mix together in a beautiful emulsion. The first time I saw it happen in the herbal medicine class, I was amazed! (Almost as amazed as when I made yogurt!)
Give this recipe a try. Remember to find some gorgeous packaging that appeals to you – as all the big beauty brands know, the packaging is half of the fun of using the product. You can customize this with any type of waters, oils and essential oils that suit your skin type.
Water: You could use rose water, orange flower water or an herbal infusion. I like to include about one third aloe vera gel in this amount.
Oil: Almond oil, grapeseed oil, olive oil (although this has a stronger smell). I used a combination of almond and grapeseed.
Let me know what combinations you try!
Classic Face & Body Cream
Water – 3/4 c. total (use a combination of your floral waters and aloe vera)
Oil – 3/4 c. total (use a combination of 1/2oz beeswax, 1/4 c. cocoa butter, and oils above.)
Essential Oils – 5 drops your choice
How to: In a double boiler, heat the oils until melted. The cocoa butter and beeswax will be solid at room temp, so melt them down in the other oils, making sure you have 3/4 c. oil total at the end.
- Pour the oils into a blender (or, if you use a stick-blender like me, then into another container). Let the oils cool to room temperature.
- Add the drops of essential oil to the oils.
- Start the blender – then slowly pour the water in – at some point the blender noise will change and you’ll notice that you have cream! Keep blending to incorporate all of the water. You can do this by hand, but be ready for a workout!
- Scoop the cream into sterilized jars. Label the jars (don’t forget to include the date!).
That’s it! Just like cooking – but you end up with a super luxurious, fresh body product. Have you tried making cream? What are your favorite oil/scent combinations?
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this sounds nice and easy. i bought some lovely handmade creams on etsy, but making them would certainly be cheaper.
it’s so nice to not be soaking in chemicals!
Hi Suzannah, thanks for stopping by! If you do make the cream, let me know how it works for you (and what types of scents you use!)
Hi Amanda, do you have any experience yet as to how long the homemade cream will last before it goes bad?
I’m sure gonna have to try this because all the cream recipes I’ve found so far include glycerin, which kind of defeats the purpose of making stuff at home, I think.