Homemade Organic Facial & Body Cream
April 16, 2008 by Jennifer
Some recipes for homemade creams and lotions are really complicated. This one below has a lot of steps, but is relatively easy in comparison to most.
Any herb face and body cream:
Pick a herb. You can use most any herb, but I suggest choosing one that’s good for your particular skin type. You can use elderflower, calendula, linden blossom, and more. If you’d like to make a cream for children I suggest comfrey or chamomile, which are gentle.
Gather supplies:
- 4oz fresh organic herb of your choice (or 2oz dried) – fresh is best
- 150 ml almond oil, or if olive oil is too rich for your tastes, try almond or apricot oil – just be sure it’s a nice quality oil
- Two tablespoons beeswax
- Two tablespoons organic cocoa butter
- Two teaspoons honey – if you can aim for a high quality raw honey you can use processed honey, but your cream will be a little less thick
- One teaspoon borax
To make:
- Place herbs in glass or pottery bowl and pour 1/3 pint boiling water over them. Steep for 4 hours. If the water looks too low, you can add a bit more.
- Into a small double boiler (that’s already boiling) add: oil and beeswax – slowly melt beeswax.
- Add cocoa butter and melt.
In another pot that’s being warmed but not boiled:
- Add 1/3 pint of your herbal infusion – liquid only
- Add borax, and stir until dissolved.
- Add honey, and stir until dissolved.
Remove both bots from heat. Mix contents of both pots together – it works best if you add the infusion mixture to the oil mixture slowly. Beat mixture until creamy – as soon as it starts to cool it’ll thicken and be harder to beat so start right away.
Store in little containers. Sometimes I’ve added tea tree or other essential oils to this mix as well. If you add oils do it during the last stage – the mixing part. Remember to check and see which mixtures of herbs and oils will work for your skin. This cream DOES NOT need to be kept in the fridge. Most lotions do, so this is a huge plus.
If you want to give this as a gift, you can pick up a thrift store, antique looking lotion pot – just be sure to include ingredients on a little card for the recipient, you don’t want to risk them being allergic to a herb or oil.
Before getting started don’t forget to read: Homemade Beauty Products – Safety 101
Jennifer…this is great! Someday I will have time to use all these cool recipes!
Hi Jennifer, what a wonderful opportunity to make home – made lotions. I can always sense the chemicals in the bought ones! I look forward to trying these out. Well done!
Dr Alison Grimston
Holistic Doctor and Healer
One day Marye, you’ll sit down and make all of them and have to open a shop
There are quite a few recipes on here now.
@Alison thanks for visiting Tree Hugging Family. It’s true it does seem like you can feel the chemicals in products. Also, cool anti-milk stuff on your site. Milk is terrible. Well, organic is better, but still… We only do soy at my house. I liked the breast cancer slant your sis found.
I can’t believe I missed this. I’ve been looking for a lotion recipe, one that doesn’t need to be in the fridge. Good grief, I am kicking myself for missing this. Now I just can’t wait until payday!
It’s impossible to catch everything here – we post a lot. I should do a better sunday round-up and bold stuff.
I just don’t really like to use borax in creams….I guess lots of it would have to be used for any toxic effect, but if the cream is supposed to be organic then why add BORAX…
Borax, sodium tetraborate decahydrate, is not acutely toxic. [6] Its LD50 (median lethal dose) score is tested at 2.66 g/kg in rats. [7] This does not mean that it is safe, merely that a significant dose of the chemical is needed to cause severe symptoms or death. Simple exposure can cause respiratory and skin irritation. Ingestion may cause gastrointestinal distress including nausea, persistent vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. Effects on the vascular system and brain include headaches and lethargy, but are less frequent. “In severe poisonings, a beefy red skin rash affecting palms, soles, buttocks and scrotum has been described. With severe poisoning, erythematous and exfoliative rash, unconsciousness, respiratory depression, and renal failure.” [8]
A reassessment of boric acid/borax by the United States Environmental Protection Agency Office of Pesticide Programs found potential developmental toxicity (especially effects on the testes).[9] Boric acid solutions used as an eye wash or on abraded skin are known to be especially toxic to infants, especially after repeated use because of its slow elimination rate.[10]
Me, don’t worry. Borax has never killed anyone. Remember we aren’t rats!! We’re humans……a difference!
I’m a liscensed cosmetologist and can tell you, it’s safe. You’ve probably used much more harsh chemicals on your body than borax. Gee!!
Do you ever think about the food you eat? All those nasty chemicals? I think you need to look into that and you’ll see what an affect it has on us as a whole.
Borax? Seriously? How can it be banned from food in the US, but somehow it’s OK to put on our bodies? Just asking???
@Casio – in very high levels Borax can be toxic to humans which is likely why it’s a bad choice in food items. If you look up the toxicity level it’s on the same level as table salt. In small levels say in beeswax products or creams it creates a stable emulsion without the use of chemical emulsions. I don’t think people should use borax in all their products, because there are natural alternatives in many cases, but unless you od on a cream, and I mean massively od, the levels of borax in one or two beauty items won’t hurt you.
what can be substituted for borax to stablize the lotion? Vit E? lemon?
What can be substituted for borax to stablize the lotion?
If no substitue – then where can I buy such a product?
Julie & Meifang – I don’t know of anything natural, or less toxic than borox to stabilize lotion. I’m not going to suggest a more toxic product so you’ll have to do a search on the web if you want another stabilizer.
Meifang – borox is available at every grocery store I’ve ever been to – in the laundry section.
I just came across this forum while searching for something else. Just to clarify- Borax, the “20 Mule Team” kind is a naturally occuring mineral, usually from Boron, California (near Death Valley), where the world’s largest deposit of borax sits. It’s puriifed for cosmetic use, but is no more processed than organic sunflower oil. I called the folks at the 20 Mule Team brand and they confirm that their particular borax is pure, without any additives. They have their own mine to ensure that it’s pure. It’s a great natural emulsifier.
Pls i need the world health organisation’s (who) standard for bodycream production, i need for project purpose. Thanks
how long does this cream usually last?