Ingredients for Hand Cream / Lotion Making

There are many ingredients commonly used in hand cream and lotion making. Here is an ingredients list to help you understand what to order and what the various items do. 

Aloe Vera
This is a plant that has thick, long pointy green leaves. If you go into most plant stores you can buy aloe vera or at least look at the plant to see what it's like. The sap of the plant is a natural healer. If you get sunburned you often put aloe vera on the burn to help it feel better. 

Vitamin E
Probably the most common vitamin found in skin lotions. Vitamin E definitely DOES affect the skin and its ability to heal and grow. However, most studies I've read say that vitamin E comes in via the blood stream - i.e. you eat Vitamin E through food or vitamins, it gets digested, goes into your blood and reaches the cells. Your skin layer on top is *dead* skin - it can't grow. So putting Vitamin E on your top, dead skin doesn't really help much. From what I've seen, vitamin E can't absorb past through those layers of dead skin to get into the cells of the live skin below. Still, if you like adding vitamin E to your skin care process, it's cheap and won't hurt. I would still make sure you eat appropriate amounts daily through your MOUTH :) That is the best way to keep your skin health.

 

Olive Oil
Olive oil has been used for thousands of years. The Romans adored olive oil and would bathe and massage with it. It is light, nicely fragrant, and really good at moisturizing your skin. I highly recommend it. Heck, you can cook with it too :).

 

Glycerine
Glycerine is also spelled glycerin and also called glycerol. Glycerine is actually used in cooking as well as in cosmetics. It's a slippery, sugar-based item that is a humectant. This means it brings in moisture, which is perfect for soaps and lotions. I personally adore creams that are made with glycerin - they are very smooth and soft without being greasy. In wine, glycerin can add a smoother mouthfeel. 

Soy Lecithin
I always mistype this as lechithin for some reason!! It is lecithin with only one H. This is an emulsifying agent. It's something that lets an oil and water mix together. If you don't have this sort of stuff in your blend, then after a few minutes you'll start to see your mixture separate out into an oil layer and a water layer. 

NOTE: If you use the caplets, they are a ROYAL pain to cut open one by one. I highly recommend boiling some water and dropping the caplets into the water. The caplets will burst, but the soy lecithin will stay in little balls and can be fished out. Or, if your recipe calls for water, just start out by using that water for this process and fish out the caplets. 

Emulsifying Wax
Sort of a two-in-one mixture. You get the wax for the smooth coating, plus you get an emulsifying agent built in. Emulsifying agents are the things that get oil and water to mix together, rather than separate out. 

Beeswax
Wax adds a nice protective layer or coating to your skin or lips. Many lip glosses involve beeswax for that reason. They keep your lips from chapping and stay on for hours. Beeswax on foot lotions helps to keep the lotion in place and to protect you from callusses. I would use more in those locations, and less in areas like the face. You probably don't need your face to feel waxy :) NOTE: You can't just nuke beeswax - solids don't melt well in microwaves. If you are using the beeswax with other oils, melt the beeswax in whatever oil you're going to use anyway. 

Unibase / Hydrophilic Ointment
There are a number of names for this stuff. In essence it is a lotiony base that helps the other ingredients all blend together well. You usually have to special order it. 

UltraMaize / Structure XL
This is a smoothing agent - it helps give your cream or lotion some texture so that it feels a little thicker and more smooth.

Glossary of Hand Cream / Lotion Terms

There are many terms used in hand cream and lotion making. Here is a glossary to help you understand what to order and what the various items do. 

Humectant
A humectant is something that helps to draw moisture in. Glycerin is a common humectant, that is used in soaps and lotions. I happen to personally LOVE glycerin based soaps and lotions - they help your skin feel soft without feeling greasy at all. 

Emulsifier
You probably know the old adage that oil and water don't mix. Of course, oil and water are two main ingredients in pretty much every lotion and cream! The first times I made lotion recipes, they immediately separated out into an oil layer and a water layer. This is because I didn't have enough emulsifier in there. The emulsifier lets those two items mix together. 

Unibase / Hydrophilic Ointment
There are a number of names for this stuff. In essence it is a lotiony base that helps the other ingredients all blend together well. You usually have to special order it (yeah, and when you find it, make sure you buy enough for the entire process of creaming).

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.