Create Your Own Face Creams and Body Butters

Handcrafted facial creams and body butters are fun, easy and rewarding to make. Not only will you be pampering your skin, but you will be empowered with the knowledge that your ingredients are of the purest quality. Not only that, by creating your own natural moisturizers you can forgo dubious additives and questionable chemical preservatives found in many commercial products.

Recipes for homemade creams are a diverse medley of melted waxes, healing botanicals, restorative oils, and fragrant, nourishing extracts. You are sure to be inspired by the variety of ingredients at your fingertips, and will be amazed by your ability to craft moisturizers that appeal to your personal tastes and skin care needs.

With the holiday season upon us, delight family and friends alike with your signature moisturizing blends. Give them away in a gift basket or create a "sample" set from a mishmash of tempting creams and butters.

Before you begin, there are a few things to keep in mind. As a general rule, all of your ingredients should each be at around the same temperature when you combine them together.

The waxes are always melted first over a low heat. Gradually, the heated oils are beaten into the waxes. Warmed waters or extracts are then blended, at a trickle, into the wax/oil mixture. Easy, peasy...10-20 minutes tops.

Don't fret if you forget to add an item. Small amounts of specialized ingredients like botanical infusions, vitamin powders, curative and scented waters, and essential oils can be added to your cream recipes just before or even after its gone into jars. A drop or two of food coloring can also be blended into your mixture to further enhance its appeal.

If you're not happy with the consistency of your cream, no worries. For a relatively firm cream, add more wax; for a softer cream add more oil. A light, fluffy souffle-like cream is made by whipping in more water, however, these can separate easily due to the water-to-oil ratio. To prevent separation, consider including herbs that are mucilaginous, i.e. aloe vera, comfrey, hens and chicks, slippery elm and marsh mallow.

Your basic cream recipe consists of:

• Emulsifying wax(s) - 1/3 pound or 150g
• Glycerin – 2 ½ ounces or 70g
• Distilled water - 1/3 cup or 80ml

Additional ingredients may include:

• Dried herbs or fresh herbs
• Botanical waters and extracts
• Natural preservatives
• Organic, natural oils
• Essential oils
• Vitamin powders

Tip: By adding essential oils such as 1ml of tea tree oil, grapefruit seed oil or rosemary extract to 100ml (slightly less than a ½ cup) of cream, helps to neutralize mold growth and extends shelf live, as does 5 ml (1 tsp) of borax or benzoin gum powder.

Natural waxes provide stability to your cream formulations and enhance their viscosity and consistency. Most come in block form or easy to use pastilles or pellets, and flakes. Select waxes that are suitable for most skin types.

• Beeswax
• Soy Wax
• Candelilla Wax
• Carnauba Wax

Use in cream mixtures runs between 3-5%

Most emollients are forms of oil, grease or fats that work to increase the skins ability to hold and retain water, provide an occlusive layer to prevent moisture loss, and lubricate the skin.

• Aloe Vera Butter is made from aloe vera juice unified with virgin coconut oil
• Shea Butter is high in vitamins A and E, is healing, and provides natural UV sun protection
• Avocado Butter is high in natural fats. This butter and is extremely beneficial to dry, chapped skin
• Mango Butter, among its many benefits, is wound healing and stimulates cellular regeneration
• Cocoa Butter is a thick fat from the cocoa bean and used as an emollient. This ingredient may be irritating to highly sensitive and allergy prone skins
• Glycerin is a thick, colorless, odorless syrup and byproduct of manufactured soap. It mixes with water, is soluble in alcohol and has softening properties. Glycerin can be irritating to highly sensitive and allergy prone skins 

• 1 tsp beeswax or wax of choice
• 1 tsp emollient like lanolin, cocoa butter, avocado butter, glycerin, mango butter
• 1 tbsp of oil like sweet almond, rose hip, squalane, avocado, jojoba
• ½ tsp wheatgerm oil
• ¼ tsp borax (optional)
• 3 tbsp botanical water such as rosewater, cucumber, calendula, green tea, basil, aloe vera
• 1-2 tbsp botanical extract like watermelon, nettle, melissa, elderflower, hens and chicks and so on
• 6 drops essential oil of your choice
• Add a complementary touch of color with a few drops of food coloring (optional)

1.) Melt the wax and the emollient together, stirring constantly

2.) Warm the oils gently then gradually beat them into the melted waxes

3.) Dissolve the borax in the botanical water and slowly add to the oil and wax mixture, beating constantly until cool

4.) Stir in the essential oil as the mixture begins to thicken

5.) Spoon into sanitized jars, secure the lid, and apply label

• Hemp Seed Oil has been shown to relieve the symptoms of eczema (atopic dermatitis). Skin irritation is not typical.
• Macadamia Nut Oil is especially suited for heavy creams. Skin irritation is not expected.
• Rose Hip Oil is an excellent emollient and moisturizer, leaves the skin soft, smooth and hydrated. May cause some irritation or discomfort to sensitive skin prone to allergy or irritation
• Sweet Almond Oil leaves the skin soft, smooth and conditioned and nourished. Skin irritation is not typical.

Other skin-enriching oils include avocado, castor, squalane, sesame seed, meadowfoam, wheatgerm, and carrot.

• Borage is good for dry, sensitive skin
• Calendula helps heal rough, problematic skin; soothes inflammation
• Comfrey heals and soothes rough, dry, damaged and mature skins. It also contains allantoin, a protein that helps to speed up cell renewal.
• Aloe Vera liquid potent moisturizer, and is a regenerating and healing agent for all skin types, expecially dry skin
• Dandelion has emollient properties and is beneficial to dry, sallow skin
• Elderflower softens and smooths wrinkles, and is believed to fade freckles and relieve sunburned skin
• Fennel is soothing and purifies oily skin
• Hens and Chicks is healing and soothing, especially to dry and sensitive skin
• Ivy helps release retained fluids and toxins from the skin and relieves sunburn. It can also be irritating to highly sensitive and allergy prone skins
• Lady’s Mantle is a good astringent for large pores (follicles) and is healing to dry and sensitive skin
• Linden Tree Blossom softens the skin but is a known irritant to highly sensitive and allergy prone skin
• Marsh Mallow softens and heals dry, chapped and sunburned skin
• Orange Flower helps to restore the skins acid mantle (barrier) and heals dry skin, broken capillaries and stimulates cell renewal
• Parsley conditions dry, sensitive and easily irritated skin
• Peppermint is good for itchy skin
• Rose is softening and soothing
• Rosemary stimulates circulation
• Yarrow has healing properties and is good for oily skin

Vitamin and mineral capsules, in powdered form (vitamins A, C, E and B complex) are a convenient way to enhance creams. Others include antioxidants like co-enzyme Q10, as well as zinc oxide and titanium dioxide for physical sunscreen protection.

Botanical extracts include algae, sea kelp, cucumber, bamboo, watermelon, licorice, and green and white tea.

Cellulite creams can be made using oregano, juniper, grapefruit, lemon, cedarwood, fennel, cypress, celery, thyme, rosemary, sage, basil, patchouli, and evening primrose.

Consider extending the shelf-life of your creams and butters with a natural preservative, especially if you will be giving many of your beauty creams away as gifts. Preservatives are active ingredients that will help prevent the growth of bacteria, mold, and viruses. Many preservatives also work to stabilize your creams and prevent them from separating or deteriorating.

Create a special infusion by putting a heaping handful of fresh herbs or 1 ounce of dried herbs into a heat resistant container. Bring to a boil 2 ½ cups of distilled water. Pour over the herbal mixture and immediately cover. Steep for 30 minutes, strain and store for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

For herbs that are likely to lose their therapeutic properties when heated, macerating is a good alternative. Pack a heat resistant glass jar with pulverized or crushed fresh herbs. Cover with vegetable oil, cider vinegar or pure ethyl alcohol. Tightly seal with the lid and leave for 2 weeks, giving the jar a good shake once a day. Repeat until the liquid smells strongly herbal. Strain and seal. Macerated herbs and botanicals keep well, all the while retaining their herbal scent.

Another easy way to add your botanical ingredients is to begin by melting your choice of emulsifying wax in a glass bowl placed over a sauce pan of boiling water or use an enamel double boiler. Add glycerin, water and selected herbs, stirring all the while. Once combined allow mixture to simmer for 3 hours.

Strain through a gauze or cheesecloth lined colander into a clean glass bowl. Stir slowly but continuously until cream mixture cools and sets.

All ingredients are likely to cause someone, somewhere to have an allergic reaction, therefore none is truly hypoallergenic or non-allergy producing.

A test patch of your cream(s) will save you a lot of grief. Simply dab some of your product on the inner wrist, elbow, or inner arm and cover with a band-aid. Wait 12-24 hours, at which time you will know if you have any sensitivities. By having an awareness of your ingredients, you  know right where to begin to weed-out the culprit.

Remember to label your products with the date it was prepared, and a list of all the ingredients from the highest concentration to lowest.

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