Herb Face and Body Cream

Pick a herb. You can use most any herb, suggest choosing one that’s good for your particular skin type. You can use elderflower, calendula, linden blossom, and more. If you’d like to make a cream for children suggest comfrey or chamomile, which are gentle.

Gather supplies:

1. 4oz fresh organic herb of your choice (or 2oz dried) - fresh is best
2. 150 ml almond oil, or if olive oil is too rich for your tastes, try almond or apricot oil - just be sure it’s a nice quality oil

3. Two tablespoons beeswax
4. Two tablespoons organic cocoa butter
5. Two teaspoons honey - if you can aim for a high quality raw honey you can use processed honey, but your cream will be a little less thick
6. One teaspoon borax

To make:

1. Place herbs in glass or pottery bowl and pour 1/3 pint boiling water over them. Steep for 4 hours. If the water looks too low, you can add a bit more.
2. Into a small double boiler (that’s already boiling) add: oil and beeswax - slowly melt beeswax.
3. Add cocoa butter and melt.

In another pot that’s being warmed but not boiled:

1. Add 1/3 pint of your herbal infusion - liquid only
2. Add borax, and stir until dissolved.
3. Add honey, and stir until dissolved.

Remove both bots from heat. Mix contents of both pots together - it works best if you add the infusion mixture to the oil mixture slowly. Beat mixture until creamy - as soon as it starts to cool it’ll thicken and be harder to beat so start right away.

Store in little containers. Sometimes I’ve added tea tree or other essential oils to this mix as well. If you add oils do it during the last stage - the mixing part. Remember to check and see which mixtures of herbs and oils will work for your skin. This cream DOES NOT need to be kept in the fridge. Most lotions do, so this is a huge plus.

If you want to give this as a gift, you can pick up a thrift store, antique looking lotion pot - just be sure to include ingredients on a little card for the recipient, you don’t want to risk them being allergic to a herb or oil.