DIY beauty products: 'heavenly facial cream' recipe, why and how to make it

DIY beauty products

Today I did something that was long pending. I don't know exactly why I postponed it. Maybe because doing this involved some things I hadn't done before, and some ingredients I couldn't find. But today I finally made it! :)

I really love DIY - we built our own home, I like cooking my food from unprocessed ingredients. And this summer I got all excited about DIY beauty products! Since I care about healthy food and know the importance of detoxing the body from the toxins it collects in so many different ways, it also made sense to put more effort into beauty products that are organic, free of any additives and built from simple, quality ingredients which have their natural benefits. So, my birthday came up, and my parents bought me a book I wanted to have: 'Natuurlijk Mooi' (English title: All Natural Beauty) by Karin Berndl and Nici Hofer.

The book has a lot of amazing recipes for DIY beauty products, from body scrubs to hair oil, from lip balm to deodorant. And then friends were sweet to give me the different ingredients required for these recipes, and I bought some myself, getting the materials one by one but also not being able to find some particular products that are used for multiple recipes in the book.

Getting started

So the materials I did collect were just there, kind of sitting on the shelf. Looking so beautiful and natural I maybe was hoping that just having them on that shelf would do me some good, somehow, anyway ;). Just look at this bar of bees wax. Isn't it almost too golden and honey coloured and smooth to even start making something with it? That's how I felt at least. After I took its picture I was less sad to chop off a corner and use it for my beauty product - at least its looks had been recorded ;).

So even with some ingredients missing, such as rose-hip oil, and some essential oils like insence oil and immortelle oil, I decided today should be the day that I would make the 'heavenly facial cream', or at least give it a try with the ingredients I did have. As you understand, the recipe for this DIY beauty product is not mine, it's from the book. But I wanted to share the fun of trying this new thing with you. And there were some glitches I came across in making the product which allow me to do it better next time, and if you are going to try this out then those tips might be useful for you too!

Mini glass jars

There was one last thing I needed before I could get started: mini glass jars, to put the facial cream in when done. I went to the shops and really couldn't find the right size jar with the easy kind of lid. So ended up buying some small jars with weird orange pot pouri. Not interested in the pot pouri, but the jars were perfect :).

Health benefits of the ingredients

What I love about the book 'All Natural Beauty' is that it not only gives great recipes, it also gives information on the qualities and benefits of the ingredients used. For example, they tell about bees wax that it is a natural conservative and emulsifier, which is nourishing and has healing properties, without clogging the pores. Shea butter is anti inflammatory, has a deep nourishing quality and moisturises the skin. The explanation about the ingredients and their properties really helps understand how amazing nature is, how the beauty product you're about to make is going to be so wonderful for your skin (so you're excited to actually get started on the whole thing), and it also grows your understanding of what products to use in what situations.

For this recipe the book tells me that rose-hip oil - the one I couldn't find - is packed with antioxidants and is an intense moisturiser. But there is more: the last pages of the book consist of an index of all the products used in the different recipes and their qualities. So for example, if you have an agitated or inflammated skin, you can choose to use more of those products with anti-inflammatory properties. I love it when books have lists like those ;). Another one of my favorites is a book called The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook, by James A. Duke, with lists and lists of herbs and their properties and physical issues and their natural herbal remedies. But maybe I'll save all that for a later post.

Heavenly Facial Cream, the recipe

The recipe for the DIY facial product lists these ingredients:
1 table spoon bees wax
1 table spoon shea butter
2,5 table spoons jojoba oil
2 teaspoons rose-hip oil (couldn't find that, didn't use it)
10 drops of insence oil (don't have it)
4 drops of immortelle-oil (don't have it)
2 drops of jasmin oil (did have jasmin and looove the smell, so just used a lot of that instead of the other essential oils)

The recipe is to heat the bees wax au bain marie, and the shea butter au bain marie as well, in a different bowl. Add the jojoba oil to the shea butter once it is melted, and when all oils have melted (without becoming hot), put them together. Stir till the substance turns milky, then add the essential oils. And pour into jar.

Making the Heavenly Facial Cream

Sounds easy right? Well it was relatively easy. The bees wax took quite some time to melt. I've seen them sell it in stores in small balls. That would make it more easy to measure a table spoon and to let it melt. As I had a chunk, I chopped that up in tiny pieces and then the melting process didn't take too long.

The shea butter melted quickly and adding the jojoba oil was not a problem, then adding those to the bees wax was fine as well. Then the instruction was to stir till the substance turned milky. When I was stirring, the sides, which were cooling off more quickly, already hardened up. Then when I added the essential oils, they were cold and created chunks in the mixture. I ended up putting the whole thing back in the au bain marie bowl and melting it again. I got the idea that the mixture was too stiff the way I had made it, as it hardened it seemed so close to being a bees wax candle. So I decided to add three table spoons of almond oil. Also great for skin, and liquid at room temperature. Maybe in the original recipe the rose-hip oil would have softened the mixture. Or perhaps I used more than a table spoon of bees wax. Next time, I think I'll use a small table spoon rather than a big one, since not a lot of bees wax is needed to firm up the cream.

After melting the oils again, I wanted to pour the contents into that tiny jar, but things got quite messy. So a tip for if you try this at home: do the au bain marie in a bowl from which you can easily pour, or use a small funnel. But then using a funnel adds to the things you need to clean afterwards - the beeswax creates this layer on everything which is not easiest to remove.

Then finally the product was sitting in its jar. I had made a mess, so more than enough opportunity to try out the cream on my face, hands, arms... ;) And I have to say, the stuff is amazing. It is just super soft and nourishing for the skin, nothing like I've ever felt before. I am really pleasantly surprised! The cream does add a little bit of a shine, so I think I'll use it before going to sleep. And the shea butter has an intense smell to it. Not bad, just intense. The recipe originally has more essential oils, maybe they combine really well with the shea butter aroma. Now I just added jasmin, one of my favorite scents. My end result is actually very interesting. The more I smell it, the better I like it. Still, I'm interested what the original combination would smell like. Who knows, if I find those other ingredients I'll try it out. Or maybe you will find them and make the product and tell me? ;)

Conclusion (costs?)

Making this facial cream was fun! Yes, I kind of made a mess, but that is more due to my fumbling around then that it was really necessary. And the end product is just amazing when applied to the skin! I'm really happy I finally tried it out. Now I have a great product to moisturise, soften and rejuvenate my skin - completely free of any unwanted chemicals, with only natures best products and all their benefits!

Getting the ingredients for these DIY products was a bit of a hassle and also getting quality products is not very cheap. For example, the bar of bees wax and the (big) pot of raw shea butter cost me around 10 euro's each, the jojoba oil is maybe 6 or 7 euro's and the essential oils I have cost me between the 6 and 10 euro's (I know that when it comes to essential oils, there are far better quality products around and they cost a ton more. Who knows, if I keep up this hobby, I'll invest a little more in that later). All in all, getting the ingredients for this recipe is a little costly. But then, I can use these same ingredients for DIY deodorant, or hand cream, or many other things. And I can make it again and again (still a whole lot of it left) before I need to purchase them again.

In the end, I don't think that these DIY beauty products are a lot cheaper than the cheap store bought products. But, these DIY's are toxin free and filled to the rim with the best qualities you can ask for! And you can have fun making them! For me, this experience was a success and I'll try out more of the recipes, now that I've gotten a taste of it.

Thanks!

Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed. If you did, would love to see your upvotes, comments and follows! I'll definitely be posting more on topics of health, beauty, food, detox etc. As I was taking pictures of the DIY facial cream, took this shot of the river just outside, can't resist sharing with you. Have a lovely day!!