When I am at work my hands are always getting dry really quickly and I need to have a hand cream around at all times. I just keep a large pot around at my desk all year round and really could not live without it. What I do need is for this cream to be heavy and moisturize my dry hands, but also absorb well and quickly so that I am not stuck with greasy hands for 10 minutes and not able to get back to what I was doing. This weekend I finally created a hand cream that seems to fit all of my criteria for a heavy duty, but well absorbing hand cream. It is actually made only from a few ingredients and quite easy and quick to make. Oh and it smells absolutely great as I combined two different vanilla fragrance oils and they make an incredible blend. But feel free to try out any other fragrance you like.
Ingredients:
2 1/2 tbsp emulsifying wax
5 tbsp grapeseed oil
1 tsp honey
1 tsp vegetable glycerin
1 cup heated up distilled water
6 drops vit E oil
4 drops of vanilla sugar fragrance oil and 5 drops of wild vanilla from Tahiti (or any other fragrance/essential oils of your liking)
Preparation:
In a medium sized jar/other glass dish place the emulsifying wax and oil and heat up till it is melted and blended well with the oil. In a cup heat up distilled water, next add the honey and glycerin. Wait till the honey has dissolved, mix well and add to the warm mixture of oil and wax. Whip everything with a hand wisp until the mixture has cooled down and has the texture of a semi heavy cream. Now add the vit E and fragrance oils.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI like the look of your recipe and would love to try it. It is the sort of hand cream that I am looking for. As I am not sure of the measurements you used (cup for example), I would appreciate it if you could give the measurements in grammes or in %. I hope it is not too much trouble. Thank you in anticipation.
Nicole
Hi Nicole,
Delete1 cup is 250 mL of water, sorry I don't have a scale to weigh of the other ingredients. The truth is that depending on the emulsifying wax that you use the consistency will be a bit different so the amount of water/oil is just approximate.
I hope it works out nice for you if you give the recipe a try!
Anna
It looks heavenly, I bet it smells even better;-) Quick question though - since it doesn't have any preservatives, do I need to store it in a fridge or something? Thank you so much for all your amazing ideas, Anna!
ReplyDeleteMaria, It does smell pretty good ;) but then again I think anything that smells of vanilla smells good haha!
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, I don't store my creams in the fridge. You can to make them last longer, but usually I use them up within 1 - 1.5 month and they do not go bad in anyway during that time. This particular one I keep on my desk at work, where it is standing right next to the radiator and window where the sun shins right at it, so worse possible conditions for a cream with no preservatives, but it lasts without going bad for quite a while.
Thanks for your comments, Maria! They are always a pleasure to read!
Do you think that honey is necessary in the hand cream? I personally have not had good experiences with honey in handmade cosmetics, but I would love to try out this recipe.
ReplyDeleteHi Raspberry,
Deleteno of course the honey is not necessary I just add it because I like it's effect on my skin. If you remove the honey I would maybe add an extra tsp of glycerin to the recipe.
Out of curiosity what bad experience have you had with honey in homemade cosmetics?
Thanks for your comment!
Anna
When I make lip balm with honey I never stir enough/cool the mixture long enough, for the wax and honey to emulsify. Even then sometimes the honey will separate from the wax and I'm left with a gooey mess. When I made scrubs with honey, the other ingredients "seize" up. I've never tried honey in lotion before so maybe it will result in something pleasant, but I'm a bit hesitant.
DeleteI can see why you want to avoid adding honey then. Personally never had bad experience with it in body lotions and face creams (I add it to both), but the cream will be just fine without the honey so avoid it if you do not have a good feeling about this ingredient.
DeleteAnna
Sodium lactate is another valid humectant that you can add to this cream.
DeleteI've never used sodium lactate in a cream before. Thank you for the suggestion. Do you know what percentage amount I should use?
DeleteThank you for the comment!
Anna