Cleopatra’s face cream

I’ve never considered myself skilled at making face creams until I experimented with eliminating shea butter and cocoa butter from my recipe– two staple ingredients listed in every face cream recipe I’ve ever come across. It took me a while to realize the reason my creams came out so grainy in texture and seemed to separate quickly could be due to these ingredients.

Then I discovered the wonders of coconutoil.

I’ve used it for cooking and body oils for years. And now, I use it in my face cream!  I find the silky texture adds that special something for a lovely cream, plus, it’s not a temperamental oil.

I’m excited  to share my precious face cream recipe with you;  I think it is divine, and I’ve named it Cleopatra’s Face Cream after the legendary lover of roses. I am a serious rose lover too, and in this recipe I used rose water, rose infused oil, and a lot of rose absolute essential oil for the scent. It’s amazing.

Basically, a cream is 50/50 (more or less) oil and water. The alchemy is in getting these two substances which normally repel one another to infuse and become one. The result is a very beautiful, nourishing substance that is simply glorious.

INGREDIENTS:

* All amounts are approximate, I’m never strict with amounts* This recipe makes about 2 cups of face cream.

20g beeswax

75g coconut oil

1/2 cup herbal infused oil (or pure olive, sesame, apricot, almond oil) or you could use plain oil that’s not herbally infused

The above ingredients account for your oil group

The remaining three ingredients below account for your water group.

100 aloe vera gel

150ml rose water

1 tsp of rose essential oil
(or your own favourite essential oil e.g lavender, rose geranium, vanilla, Ylang ylang, jasmine, Neroli, chamomile) the options and combinations are endless) and of course you can make this unscented too! Yes, even though an essential “oil” is oily, it’s actually added to your water group.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Place your beeswax and coconut oil  into a glass measuring cup, that measures 2 cups. Then place the measuring cup into a large pot with simmering water that rises to approximately the 1/2 cup mark. This hot water bath is warm enough to melt the wax and oil (coconut oil is solid unless heated) but not so hot you burn the wax or oil.

2. Meanwhile, mix your water group ingredients in a separate measuring cup. Set aside.

3. The wax and coconut oil will eventually become completely liquified. This takes approximately 10 – 15mins. Once solid particles completely dissolved, lift the measuring cup out of the hot water bath.

4. Now, pour your herbal infused oil into the now-warm but not hot wax and coconut oil mixture. See this post for how to make herbal infused oils.

Now, having just poured cool / room temperature oils into warm-body temperature oil/wax it may try to harden and look like this:

Don’t worry! Everything is still ok. However, quickly scoop this concoction into an excellent and very powerful blender if you have one– or my preferred method– a 1 litre mason jar and mix with a stick blender. Use a spatula to get all of the oil/wax into your blender / jar.

5. Then, start blending, while gently pouring your water group into the oil group- this is the amazing part! We are encouraging the water molecules to bind with the oil molecules, to homogenize, and become one.

Very quickly, you have cream! Blend until the water and oil have clearly homogenized – do not over blend or else your finalized cream will separate.

Because the blender motor is warm, the cream may seem a bit runny. Once you transfer into jars, it will settle into a lovely texture.

Done!

TIPS:

– My suggestion for clean up is to rub excess cream all over your body – it’s so much fun plus you’ll feel amazing!
– You can also wipe your dishes/blender down with newspaper mopping up excess oil to prevent your kitchen sink from becoming a greasy disaster
– I have never had any cream go mouldy. Some people are afraid this might happen, in which case add 1/4 tsp of vitamin E oil, OR 1tsp of calendula tincture or, I use poplar bud oil as one of my ingredients for the oil group.

– This cream has a very long shelf life. However I’d recommend use it up within a year.

Enjoy and have fun!