Skin Cream Recipe

I have recently found real comfort and joy in re-creating old recipes and doing things like canning peaches or making preserves. Of course there is also that "rum pot" brewing in the cold room- this is a layered mixture of fruit a little bit of sugar and rum (I used Screech). You keep adding layers as the fruit comes in season. I been afraid to look so have no idea how it's doing now, but mine has blackberries, peaches, cherries, blueberries, organic sugar and a whole lot of rum. This recipe came from a friend of mine who swears it's wonderful over ice-cream round about Christmas.

So while digging through old recipes last year I found some for making skin cream. Just so happens I had a pretty good supply of bees wax as I had been trying to make beeswax candles and a couple of friends that keep bees had given me their wax. I'm still working on making the candles work!, but in the meantime I have a great supply of cleaned and melted down wax. It's a lot of work to clean and melt down the wax by the way- you can buy pure beeswax at most health food stores, craft stores, and even some gift stores without the hassle. You can even use a small beeswax candle- just remove the wick and you're set.

The recipe is very simple:
1 oz beeswax (about the amount in a tealight candle)
6 oz oil (olive, apricot, or almond) I like almond the best
25 drops of essential oil
2 drops of colloidal silver (optional)

You melt the beeswax and oil in the top of a double boiler. If you're using a candle for the wax, you can just put the whole candle in there and then dig out the wick. Stir it around until the wax is all melted. Do this over medium heat so that the water in the bottom pot is boiling but the wax and oil just gets to the melting point.

Remove from the heat and add 25 drops of an essential oil of your choice. I use some combination ones, but you could use pine (hence the picture today!), or lavender, wild rose, lemongrass- find one that really feels good for you.

As a last step I add a couple of drops of colloidal silver just to help purify and prevent bacterial from growing as you use it.

Pour the mixture into a glass container and let it sit for a couple of hours.

I use this as face and hand cream and no longer buy anything else. I have been using it for over a year, every night and morning on my face, and I haven't experienced any weird reactions, growths or disease!! It's quite greasy rather than creamy so you have to put it on and wait a few minutes for it to absorb before applying make-up.

You can also use the same recipe with healing oils and make salves. I've harvested calendula this summer and am making it into oil to create a salve for burns, and skin infections. A few modifications to the wax, oil combination add spearmint or wintergreen essential oil, and you have a great lip balm/chapstick!

For me, the process has just been a lot of fun. Kind of like chemistry class without having to follow the rules! Plus I have the added benefit of cutting down on the chemicals and products that go onto my skin.