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Natural beauty recipes – cleanser & balm

I love making my own products. It feels extra special using things that I know are so pure that I could eat them and just knowing that they were handmade with love by me :) . Makes for great personalised gifts for friends too.

Facial cleanser

I just made this facial cleanser (can’t remember where on the internet I found it though!) although I must admit that I’m not too keen on the olive oil in there, I just don’t fancy the smell of it on my skin. But it does work and I have really soft skin after using it.

Facial cleanser

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp glycerin
  • 2 tbsp pure water

Cooking instructions

  1. Prepare a bain-marie: put a bowl (ceramic, stay away from all plastic if you can, especially when heating as parabens will leach into your mixture) in a saucepan with hot water in it (boiled from the kettle is easiest).
  2. Pop the coconut oil in there so that it melts (doing it this way you don't heat it up too much and therefore conserve all the enzymes in the coconut oil - if you have used a raw, virgin coconut oil).
  3. Add the rest and whisk it around with a whisk for 5 mins or so - it'll go a cloudy yellow colour.
  4. Let the mixture cool down and pour it into a jar of some sort - it does not solidify (unless maybe if you leave the glycerin out, I haven't tried yet, but it will get clumpy bits in it, so just mix it around each time you use it. I just scoop some of the liquid and clumpy parts with the tips of my fingers and smear it on my face. Bit awkward perhaps but does the job.).
  5. Apply to your face, massage gently and wash it off with a wash-cloth and hot water.
You could probably leave out the glycerin – it adds moisture to the skin and keeps the mixture liquid, but if you put the finished concoction in a pot instead of a bottle, you could always leave this out and just ‘scrape’ the mixture out instead.

Lip/hand/face balm

Homemade lip/face/hand balm

Homemade lip/face/hand balm

(inspired by www.healthhomehappy.com)

Lip/hand/face balm

Ingredients

  • 100g coconut oil
  • 12g beeswax
  • 5-8 drops rose essential oil

Cooking instructions

  1. First melt the beeswax in a bain-marie.
  2. Once it has melted (you might want to help it along by shaking it up with a fork) add the coconut which will melt pretty quickly. You might need to change the bain-marie water if it isn't warm enough.
  3. Once that's melted, remove from the hot water bain-marie and add the essential oil drops of your choice. I chose Rose because it's good for toning mature skin (not that I need it yet, you know, just taking precautions). Use your favourite scent.
  4. Pour it into a container/jar - preferably not plastic for the same reasons above, unless it's recycled and paraben free (which is what I have used in the picture, but really, glass/ceramic are the best options).
  5. Let it cool and solidify then you can just scoop a little out and use it as a moisturiser/hand/cream/lip balm etc.
You can order beeswax from any health food shop. I guessed the amount, I’m not usually too precise about these things. For me 5 drops of rose essential oil was the perfect amount. Usually when I make things like this I put way too much in – when I was still working in an office, everyone knew when I felt my hands needed a little ‘homemade rose hand cream love’! This one is subtle so even Dom can use it. I also ended up using this as a deodorant. I had some extra on my hands and didn’t know where to put it, so I smeared it on my armpits for sweet-smelling softness. Worked pretty well actually. This post is part of Real Food Whole Health’s Fresh Bites Friday.