Alchemy
My sis taught herself to make her own home made face cream.
She spent weeks and weeks researching the method over the Internet, researching the ingredients, reasearching the right formula. Then she spent some more weeks playing with the ingredients, experimenting with various formulas, mixing and matching. Until she found the right one for herself. It’s not over though; she is continuously experimenting with new ingredients. She found it hard to find the right ones on the market so she started growing her own. This summer she grew a field of marigolds and lavander. And then, she taught herself to make marigold oil. More research, more experimentation. It’s all really new to her so it takes time and perseverance. But her best home made face cream has taken shape.
So yesterday evening, after dinner, she showed me the magic. She showed me how you mix mu butters with my oils and with some essential oils. And voila! Half an hour later we had four smooth, Amber coloured, scented jars of facial, moisturising, anti-ageing cream.
When someone shows it to you, like she showed me, it’s really quite simple. It’s a bit like baking a cake, except you use your nose a bit more ( quite a bit of smelling essential essences went on, in the process).
But it’s also pure alchemy – you turn something into something else. For me this face cream is pure gold. Not because I can’t find a better cream on the market. But because this cream is charged with my sister’s magic. It’s infused with her desire to learn something new, it’s scented with a concoctions of smells her nose dreamt up, it’s coloured with the marigolds she grew. And then she added some vitamins for longevity: she taught me how to make my own. So now I can dream up my own smells, my own colours, my own consistency. I will make it my own, of course, but I’ll keep the same vitamins for longevity that she used; and so I’ll share with you her recipe. If you want my sis to teach you, just ask, I’m sure she will happily teach you- she is a fabulous teacher, my sis 🙂 Once you get the basics you can start playing with it and make it your own. Keep the same vitamin though please, for longevity! Pass it on, share it with someone who likes to play, who enjoys a bit of simple magic.
My sister’s winter nourishing face cream (for normal to dry skin):
To make 200g of facial cream (some for you and some to gift) you’ll need:
-a base – this will make 70%of the body of your cream. We used shea butter and coacoa butter,organic
-oils – 25%. We mixed marigold with borage and pomegranate, in sort of equal parts. We used marigold for it’s healing properties, borage to help the elasticity of our skin and pomegranate for its anti-ageing properties.
-essential essences: Wild carrot essence and frankincense, a few drops. We also added, for colour and it’s miraculous properties, sea buckthorn oil.
Melt the butters on the hob in Bain Marie in a glass bowl. Start with the cocoa butter as this is harder and it takes a bit longer to melt, then add the Shea butter. Make sure you don’t heat them up beyond 70 degrees Celsius, to preserve their properties( you can use a cooking thermometer).
Once they melted, add the oils while keep stirring. Turn the flame down to low or if your now melted butters reached 70 degrees you can turn the job off completely at this point. Now add a few drops of your chosen oils.
We also added 10 drops of vit A (nourishing the skin) and 5 of vit E (to stop the cream from oxidising).
Pour your cream while hot in little jars, screw the lid on tight and shake well for a minute or so to help all the elements to mix.
Try it, make it your own by mixing your own essential oils and let us know how you get on. Enjoy!
#goodthings