Life's Jewels on String: aloe vera

Friday, 3 February 2012

A bit more handcream.

I've been making handcream again!

I did one batch with my Sis-in-law last week and then another batch today. I now know a bit more about handcream-making (click here for the original post and recipe).

Batch 2

To solve the not so perfect and professional (post-stirring) look we tried adding the lavender essential oil to the little containers and pouring the hot mixture on top. Then a quick mix while everything is still quite liquid. This way it cooled down with a smooth top. The downside is that some of the lavender oil probably still evaporates (as essential oil does when too hot), but hopefully not much. We can report that the cream still smelt lavenderish when it was finished!
To try and retain some of that lavenderishness we closed the lids of the pots before the cream was cool. This wasn't a good idea as we ended up with some liquid separation. I think it was the aloe vera gel which was also added while the mix was hot. Perhaps re-melting and mixing again would help.

Batch 3

I couldn't be bothered with the in-the-oven sterilisation process for the glass today. But as I was also using some smaller plastic pots, I used a bigger saucepan and just bunged everything in the hot water letting it boil for a minute or two to get them really clean. Update: Do not sterilise plastic pots in this way! The heat warps them, although impossible to see, when you try to close them the threads don't line up anymore. Very disappointed, I ruined them. Don't make the same mistake!
Again I mixed in the aloe vera gel when my mixture was hot. This time I let the cream cool with the jars open. There was still a little separation, but much less than batch 2. I think it's a good idea to add less aloe (so far I've put in a generous splash, might try a stingy one next time!) or to omit it unless I add it and mix it in when the mixture is cooler...but then I don't get the pretty smooth top...Mmmmm...
I was hoping to make some coco lip balm today, but my new glass pots are quite big and swallowed up all my mixture! I will try next time (see updates below!).

Updates:

I made another batch, this time using 20 drops of Orange essential oil in about 100g of cream (I mixed it directly in the jar). Smells like chocolate orange!
And I had a tiny bit of the plain mixture left over so I melted in some coconut oil and then tipped it into an emptied out old vaseline jar. Mmmm... It's more of a vaseline type texture because of the extra oil: Please welcome my new Coconut Lip Salve :)

PS. Are you into buying handmade? Yes? Then you should check out the amazing stuff in the Etsy Stock Take. If you sell your craft on Etsy, please come and join in :)

Monday, 28 November 2011

How to: Handmade Hand and Lip Cream.

For a long time I have wanted to make homemade hand cream. Then a couple of weeks ago I started thinking about this again (cold winter weather was threatening to ruin my hands).

I am so sick of commercial creams, I either don't like the smell, or the texture or my skin doesn't agree with them because I have eczema on my hands. So I decided it was about time to do something about it!

I live in Germany and the most convenient way to get beeswax (a main ingredient) was to shop online with Kosmetikmacherei.

Kosmetikmacherei Review:

I would recommend the site as it is easy to use. You choose the item you want, put it in your cart and complete check out with your name and contact details (all in German, no English I'm afraid). They email you an invoice, which you pay with a bank transfer to Austria (although I admit I was hoping to use PayPal).

Then a couple of days later a box arrives in the post - exciting!

Research began:

While waiting for my package I did some research. I found a great list of recipes online and a very informative blog post by A Sonoma Garden.

After some musing and adapting and converting, here's the recipe I came up with:

Basic recipe: 1 part beeswax to 3 parts oil.

I'm planning on using olive oil this time, but maybe other oils would also work well, like coconut oil for example. I might also add some aloe vera gel and essential oils for added goodness.

I decided to use an egg cup for the measuring as it was far simpler than working out the American Cup equivalents in grams! That way anyone that reads this blog can make cream without any measuring headaches.

What I did:

This batch = 2 egg cups of beeswax to 6 egg cups of olive oil.

I put the beeswax and olive oil into a big glass jar and put this in a saucepan of water (that came half way up the sides of my jar). I heated this on a medium/low heat until all the beeswax had melted, giving it a couple of good mixes with a fork.

When completely melted I poured the mixture into little jars which I had sterilised.

I then left these to cool to room temperature. Oh, they looked so sweet and almost professional! However at this point I wanted to add a splash of aloe vera gel and lavender oil to my cream. So I gave them a good stir to incorporate the new ingredients.

This is where things started to look less than professional! I will have to try a new batch soon and see if I can get around this. I am wondering why the advice was to add extra ingredients once the cream is room temperature. Maybe I can mix them in to the melted liquid and let it solidify without any stirring? Or is heating the essential oils bad, maybe changing their properties or making them lose their strength?

Results:

I ended up with 5 almost full 50g jars.

The cream is quite solid, but you can easily get a nice amount on your finger and it melts into the skin like a dream. A minute or so later it is completely absorbed and doesn't leave a greasy feeling. I am rather proud of them and will be gifting them to unsuspecting family members to see what they think. Yay!