Spring skin-cream

Spring is always a big mix of things, blowing freezing winds and little blizzards of snow and hail, then suddenly the blissful, warm sunshine that we’ve waited so long to feel on our faces.

This Spring, of course has thrown a whole layer of extra complication in with Coronavirus changing the world around us in a way that wouldn’t have seemed possible only a couple of months ago. Your skin has never faced bigger challenges. And this could be a perfect time to focus on looking at how to be its best friend :)

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For anyone waiting to start IVF (and I really feel for you that that is probably on hold at the moment) or if you’re just trying to maximise your fertility, then using skin care products which are as free as possible of synthetic ingredients is a good idea. Many IVF clinics now ask their couples to stay away from synthetic products, especially synthetic scents.

Here I’ll focus on a natural face cream, packed full of goodies to help skin blossom and repair after the long Winter. The oils I’ve chosen make it disappear into your skin without leaving any greasiness and it smells truly divine; like diving into rose petals! :)

I’ve had so much fun working on it in my kitchen at home. I’ve tried to keep things as simple as possible so it doesn’t get too expensive with lots of ingredients, but the ones I’ve chosen maximise their magic. I’ve kept this cream free of any nasties at all. It is completely free of synthetic preservatives and emulsifiers.

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I buy as much as possible from my local shops and I love Appleseeds in Ulverston which does a great range of essential oils and also sells some of the other oils in this recipe.

Everything else I get online from The Soap Kitchen or Baldwins. Both of those companies also sell pretty containers, but you could just as easily use a clean jam jar. Sterilise it like you would for making jam, to keep this cream fresh for as long as possible. If you keep it in the fridge it’ll last even longer, but I must admit I’ve never done that (the walk from bathroom to fridge and back would just never happen!)

I love the scent of rose, so I’ve used it as the main scent in this recipe, but you could have fun finding your own favourites. Finding out about how the scents change when you mix them, and what their therapeutic properties are, can start a whole adventure into making your own cosmetics!

Recipe: Therapeutic Face Cream

Ingredients To make a 60ml jar

For the base:

  • Rosehip oil - 3 tsp.
  • Sweet almond oil - 2 tsp.
  • Jojoba oil - 3 tsp.
  • Wheatgerm oil - ¾ tsp.
  • Vitamin E oil - ¼ tsp.
  • Beeswax (organic) - 2 tsp.
  • Rose water (a.k.a Rose hydrolate) - 8 tsp.

Essential oils: You could leave these out for a super simple cream; good if you have particularly sensitive skin or are avoiding artificial scents

  • Rose (5% dilution) - 10 drops
  • Rose geranium - 10 drops

Method

  1. Combine the Rosehip, Jojoba, Sweet Almond, Wheatgerm, and Vitamin E oils together with the organic beeswax in a clean basin, big enough to fit a whisk in.
  2. Pop the basin in a saucepan of water and warm on the cooker until the wax pellets have completely melted and combined with the oils.
  3. In the meantime, in a separate saucepan of warming water put a small basin containing the rose water. Your aim is to get the oil and beeswax mix to become a similar temperature to the rose water.
  4. Once the wax has melted take everything off the cooker, carefully lift the basins out of the saucepans of warm water and start whisking the oil and wax combination with a stick whisk while gradually adding the warmed rose water, spoon by spoon.
  5. As the mixture starts to cool you should see things turning to a pale cream. At this point you can add your essential oils if you'd like.
  6. Keep whisking for a minute or two. When it’s ready you shouldn’t see any water on top of the cream, but if you do just whisk a bit longer until it combines in.
  7. Scoop the cream into your clean container and leave it for a couple of hours with the lid off to firm. Popping it in the fridge speeds this up.


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Notes

I’m using this all the time at the moment and really love it!

Rose water is delicious; it’s the water left over from distilling rose petals! But it can be expensive, so you could swap it for boiled water if you like. And watch out - some products labelled as rose water for cooking are actually oil based and contain preservatives, so are best avoided.

If the number of oils is too fiddly or too expensive you could swap them all for Sweet Almond oil or Grapeseed oil. You could also use Olive oil, but it’ll smell of... well, Olive oil of course :)

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