Making Homemade Cosmetics - Part 1

By the time that Thursday rolled around this week, my cold was starting to recede and I was starting to feel a little better, so I decided to make a start on making some natural beauty products.

My first project was to create a homemade face cream, using some of the ingredients I'd bought a few weeks ago.  I began by having a look around YouTube for a recipe and ended up back on Ela Gale's channel, where she has a whole raft of simple recipes for various products.  I really like her videos, as the recipes look so easy to make and she comes across as having a lot of knowledge on the subject, which is very reassuring to a newbie like me.

Initially, I liked the sound of her Green Tea Moisturiser, but on re-watching the video, it became apparent that it was a night time moisturiser recipe, that took a while to sink in and wasn't really what I was looking for.  I then happened upon her recipe for Lavender and Vanilla Bean Face Cream for daytime use, which sound a better prospect.

The main ingredients were:

1 and a half tablespoons of beeswax pellets
3 tablespoons of coconut oil
6 tablespoons of almond oil
1 teaspoon calendula oil
1 teaspoon of vitamin E oil
10 drops lavender essential oil
Half a cup of distilled water
Half a vanilla pod

I had to miss a couple of the ingredients out, as I didn't have them which was a pity, i.e. the vanilla pod and the calendula oil, but I made up the cream using the rest.

To begin with, I put all the oil ingredients into a small glass bowl and using a bain marie melted everything down to liquid form. Once melted, it was then all poured into the blender jug (I used a stick blender) and left to cool down to room temperature.

Once cooled, I blended it up adding the distilled water gradually until it formed a lovely smooth whipped cream. (You would add the chopped vanilla pod at this point too.)  I then scooped it out into various receptacles, as there was more than I expected and I kept having to fill one after another.

I used the bits left on the blender stick to try out the cream on my arms and hands.  It is a lovely consistency and smells very coconutty, but I don't think it is something that I could honestly put on my face, as it feels a little greasy in it's consistency for my skin at least, which is quite oil prone anyway.

Instead, I think that I will definitely use it as a body butter, as I have almost finished using my last non-natural body lotion and it does feel pretty hydrating. Apparently, it doesn't need to be kept in the fridge, as it has vitamin E oil in it to preserve it, so it will be interesting to see what happens to it and how long it lasts.

It was an interesting and enjoyable first attempt with my new ingredients.  I think that in all honesty I might struggle to find a facial moisturiser recipe that does suit my skin. I can see me having to stick to manufactured natural products rather than homemade and finding one of them to suit is hard enough, but you never know until you try these things.

There are lots of other recipes on Ela's channel that I'm still hoping to try, such as some lavender and chamomile bath melts, some night facial lotion bars, spicy clay face masks and some lip balms, but I do need to pick up a couple more ingredients before I can try all of them.  I do, however, have all the ingredients for my own version of the bath melts, so I think they might be my next project.  I'll keep you posted.