Basics of Hand Cream / Lotion Recipes

Before you start making your own hand creams and lotions, there are a few basics that you need to understand. These basics will help you with whichever project you are working on. 

Keep Everything Clean
Modern lotions can last months because they pump the lotion or cream full of preservatives. While that's great so that the lotion can sit on the store shelves for months before you buy them - it's not good at all for your body. On the other hand, if your mixture has no preservatives, and you get some bacteria in there, it'll grow and turn your lotion green. So make sure you wash your hands, have clean bowls and mixing utensils. 

Store Your Lotion Well
For the same reason, you want to store your lotion in a way that it can last until you're done using it. Keep it somewhere dark and cool. The fridge will help it last up to a month usually, but if it's a pain for you to keep it in the fridge (or you don't like cold lotion!) then anywhere cool and dark will work out. 

Pay Attention To Ingredients
Not all ingredients are the same. Sure, distilled water is probably distilled water anywhere you get it. On the other hand, some fragrances are much higher quality than others. If you're going to be smelling this stuff all day long because it's stuck to your skin, it's worth it to go with a fragrance that smells nice rather than a cheap one that is sickly sweet and chemically. Often it's just a few cents difference, too. Do research and give various options a try. 

Follow the Recipe
It might be tempting to cut the recipe in a quarter to test it out. However, a lot of times - especially with blending and heating - you need the larger quantity so that the blades of the blender can actually grab onto and move the liquid, or there is enough liquid to heat up and blend properly. Go with the proper quantity first. If you get it to work well, you can experiment with reducing it for future runs. Usually the ingredients are inexpensive enough that it won't be a big waste - and you can always give excess to friends and family as a gift.

 Here are some creams that I made for spring for 2 special women from my life:

Hand Cream and Lotion Recipes

Paying attention to proper skin care is a very important part of every person's life. This isn't about being vain. Your skin is your body's primary defense against infection and illness. It is critical that your skin is healthy - well moisturized, protected from sun, if you are going to have it do its job for the many years you hopefully will live! Besides the more serious issues such as skin cancer, there are all of the colds and illnesses that you could avoid getting, because your skin helps to keep you safe. 

Creams and lotions can get expensive, though. Many people really want to keep their skin healthy but just can't afford the high prices of quality cream and lotion. The cheap creams and lotions are often full of junk materials that you wouldn't want anywhere near your skin! By making your own cream and lotion, you can have high quality skin care at a nice, low price. These are also perfect for gift giving! 

I will present you in the next articles the recipes for every product from below! Have fun with "creaming yourself"!

Getting Started

Basics of Hand Cream / Lotion Recipes
Glossary of Hand Cream / Lotion Terms
Ingredients for Hand Cream / Lotion Making
Why Have Different Types of Cream / Lotion
Cost Analysis for Handmade Cream

Recipes
NOTE: These are listed in the order I made them, so if you read them in order you can get a sense of what works and what doesn't work in lotion / cream making. 

Glycerine Rosewater Lotion Recipe
Glycerine Olive Oil Lotion Recipe
Glycerine Wax Cream Recipe
Glycerine Aloe Cream Recipe

Supplies
The place I get containers and lids from is from IKEA  and BayouSome or from a shop in my neighborhood that has small bottles or other types of containers hermetically closed. I don't have an affiliate plan with them (BayouSome) - I simply, honestly recommend them as having good products.

 

Aromatherapy - Aromas and Meanings

Aromatherapy is not some sort of arcane, made-up science. There are well known associations between certain smells and certain physical reactions. Smells are simply combinations of chemicals - and the body reacts to those chemicals in known ways. Some chemicals cause us to fall asleep - other chemicals cause us to become more awaken. 

In addition to these built-in reactions, we also learn reactions over time. If you grow up and always go with your grandmother to pick strawberries, and this is a wonderful memory of yours, then you will have happy thoughts when you smell a strawberry aroma. If you on the other hand always smell oranges when you go to a dentist you hate, then the smell of oranges might cause unhappy feelings. So in the end aroma reaction is a combination between the natural reactions your body tends to have and the learned reactions that you develop over your own lifetime. 

Here are some traditional aromas and reactions that most people have. 

Citrus

Citrus is a very acidic, sharp, fresh aroma. There is a reason people drink things like orange juice and grapefruit juice in the morning - this aroma tends to wake you up and refreshen you. Citrus is great for a morning wash or a mid-day rejuvinating splash. 

Lavender

One of the best known scents for calming and relaxing. There are lavender bath soaps, lavender lotions, lavender pillows, and much more. 

Rose
The aroma of romance and first love. Rose petals have been used since the days of the Greeks and Romans to celebrate love and romance. 

Glossary of Skin Care Terms

There are many terms used in skin care marketing. Learn to know which mean something and which are marketing-speak! 

Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHA)
A skin texture assistant, helps smooth out lines and wrinkles. 

Beta Hydroxy Acids (BHA)
This is used in many anti-acne medicines. Salicylic Acid is a BHA. These help clear out pores and reduce inflammation if your skin is irritated.

Cocoa Butter
Cocoa butter is the primary ingredient in chocolate - it's the natural fat found in cocoa beans. It's supposed to be kept in a fridge - of course most cosmetics don't store in a fridge. It has natural antioxidants in it. Some feel it can last up to a year at room temperature because of the antioxidants. Cocoa butter was first extracted from cocoa in 1828. Cocoa butter has about 5 IU of Vitamin E per oz. 

Jojoba Oil
Jojoba oil comes, naturally, from the jojoba plant. This plant is found in the southwestern parts of the US. It is prized because it is gentle, very much like natural human oils.

Allah's signs in the world - part VII

Hidden Message or Coincidence?

The holy Qur'an comprises 114 suras (chapters) each of which is made up of varying numbers of ayats (verses).

 

The illustration on the left shows a scatter graph of the number of verses in a sura against the number of the sura. The result resembles the word "Allah" in Arabic (right).

The Qur'anic revelation was made by Archangel Gabriel to Prophet Mohamrned (PBUH). It took place over a period of more than 20 years beginning with the first verses of sura 96. After a three year hiatus, the revelation continued up to the death of the Prophet (PBUH) in 632 C.E.

Whenever a fragment of the Qur'an was revealed,the Prophet (PBUH) called one of his literate companions and dictated it to him, indicating at the same time the exact position of the new fragment in the fabric of what had already been revealed. Extremely diverse materials were used for this initial record e.g. leather, parchment,wooden tablets, bones and soft stones for inscription. At the same time the Prophet (PBUH) recommended his followers to memorise the Qur'an, thereby doubly preserving the text.

Following the death of the Prophet (PBUH)in 632 C.E., Abu Bakr (RA), the first Caliph of Islam, asked the Prophet's (PBUH) main scribe, Zaid Ibn Thabit, to make a copy which he duly did. On Omar's (RA) initiative (the then future second Caliph), Zaid consulted all the information he could assemble in Medina and produced a very faithful copy of the book.

Omar, Abu Bakr's successor in 634 C.E. subsequently made a single volume (mushaf) which he preserved and passed on to Hafsa, his only daughter and the Prophet's (PBUH) widow. The third Caliph, Uthman (RA), entrusted a commission of experts with the preparation of the great recension that bears his name. The commission evaluated the authenticity of the document produced under Abu Bakr (RA) and which had remained with Hafsa until then. They also consulted Muslims who had memorised the Qur'an. The critical analysis of the authenticity of the text was carried out very stringently. The agreement of the witnesses was deemed necessary before the slightest verse containing debatable material was retained. The result was a text containing an order of sura that reflects the order followed by the Prophet (PBUH) during his recitals in Ramadan. The 114 suras were arranged in approximately decreasing order of length although there were exceptions.

The sequence of the suras in the Qur'an has proved to be of much interest in modern times. A young Turkish Engineering student at Istanbul Technical University was fascinated by this topic, so much so, that he plotted by hand, a graph of he number of verses in a sura against the number of the sura. The result startled him as it resembled the word "Allah" (God) in Arabic. His findings appeared in a Turkish national newspaper in February 1986.

At the beginning of this article is a computer generated scatter graph of "length of sura" (ie number of verses that it contains) against "number of the sura". The graph is provided both in its raw form and with added shading. There is a distinct similarity between the graph and the Arabic word "Allah". Is this a coincidence or something much more?