I admit I’m a beauty product junkie. But in my continued quest to live a healthier, less-chemical-soaked lifestyle, I’ve started detoxing my beauty routine. That means reading ingredients, looking for natural alternatives, and trying DIY beauty solutions to find what really works!
If you read the ingredients list on a tube of body cream, you won’t recognize most of them. It will be filled with unpronounceable ingredients and preservatives, and if you’re lucky, a few nourishing, natural oils, butters and waxes. And maybe some essential oils too.
But it IS possible to make your own homemade body cream – if you’re willing to learn the process. To be honest, making your own beauty products is a lot like cooking. You start with a recipe to learn the basics, then customize them as you get more confident. But this is also one of my favorite parts of DIY beauty – you can customize them exactly to your skin type and preferences (and use really high-quality ingredients, without paying retail prices!)
Just to be clear up-front – making your own face and body cream is not the best starter project. I’d suggest starting with honey as a face mask, making this cream deodorant, or even making this luxurious cleansing balm first. Quick, easy, great results. Making a cream is more like making a mayonnaise. Easy enough when you know the process, but maybe not the best recipe for your first time in the kitchen!
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How to make a natural face and body cream
I said that making face or body cream is a bit like making mayonnaise. And it really is!
Mayonnaise (and creams) are made of a blend of oils and water.
But as you know, oil and water don’t mix!
So you need to blend them together in the right ratios, sometimes with an emulsifier to make sure they won’t separate – and amazingly during the blending, it turns into a thick, luscious cream!
The recipe below is more of a framework. You can choose the oils and waters that you’d like to include in your own recipe.
If you’d like a specific recipe to make your own body cream, try my Stress Relief Body Cream – it smells fantastic!
Also, don’t forget the packaging.
Sure, you could keep your body cream in a plastic food container – but really, what is the luxurious pampering experience in that?! I love collecting vintage jars, or pretty glass jars and pots, or even reusing nice packaging from store-bought beauty products. It sounds strange, but having nice packaging for your homemade beauty products really makes using them a lot more fun!
Choosing Ingredients for your Homemade Body Cream
There are two types of ingredients in a homemade face and body cream: oils and waters. You can mix and match within each type, to use the ingredients that fit your skin type.
Water Part
Here are some options for the water part of your homemade face and body cream:
- Filtered, distilled or mineral water
- Hydrosol (or ‘flower water’), such as rose water, orange flower water, lavender hydrosol etc.
- Herbal Infusion (aka. Herbal Tea!)
- Aloe Vera Gel (up to 1/3 of the water part maximum)
Oil Part
Here are some options for the oil part of your homemade face and body cream:
- All-purpose unscented oils like Almond, Grapeseed or Sunflower
- Olive oil, although it may add a slightly olive scent to your cream
- Butters such as cocoa butter or shea butter
- Coconut oil
- Beeswax (or vegan alternative) – you’ll need this in your cream to thicken it up
How to make DIY Face and Body Cream
DIY Face and Body Cream Recipe
Waters – 3/4 cup total (use a combination of the water options from above)
Oils 3/4 cup total, use a combination of
- 0.5 oz beeswax
- 1/4 cup cocoa butter
- other oils options from above
- 5 drops Essential Oils of your choice
- In a double boiler (also called a bain marie), heat the oils until melted. Some oils, like cocoa butter and beeswax, are solid at room temperature. So you need to melt all the oils (solid & liquid) together, making sure you have 3/4 c. oil total at the end.
- Pour the oils into a blender (or, into a heatproof container if using a stick-blender). Let the oils cool to room temperature.
- Start the blender – then slowly pour the water in – at some point the blender noise will change and you’ll notice that you have cream! Keep blending to incorporate all of the water. You can also blend the cream by hand, but be ready for a workout!
- Add the drops of essential oil, and stir to disperse throughout the cream.
- Scoop the cream into sterilized jars. Label the jars (don’t forget to include the date!).
That’s it! Making face and body cream is just like cooking – but you end up with a super luxurious, fresh body product.
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