Herbal cosmetics

The rain and wind carried on into Wednesday so we decided to try our hand at some herbal cosmetics. I had some basic ingredients, herbs (good start), lavender and Helichrysum hydrosols, macerated St-John's wort, carrot and Helichryseum oils. For the rest we made a list and headed down to the local chemists, this is the countryside here, no super organic shop just around the corner. Our local chemist served us well, glycerine, clay, essential oils, almond oil and the local oil press supplied the other oils we needed. The only thing we could not get our hands on here in the sticks was either cocoa butter, or coconut oil or Shea butter, never mind we would have to adapt our recipes to the ingredients...ooops forgot to mention the beeswax supplied by our local bee-keeper. We began with a simple balm from bees wax and macerated St-John's Wort oil and essential oil of lavender, turned out great and such a lovely colour. Our confidence boosted we moved on to a hydrating cream by using beeswax, almond oil , rose water and essential oils, we then tried a cream with glycerine in it and finally made up our own recipe by changing things around from other recipes. We made a cream with a mix of oils, bees wax, hydrosol, glycerine, white clay, borax and essential oils, it curdled and we felt just like when the mayonnaise separates, however we persevered, returned the pan to the heat, emptied out some of the hydrosol and ended up with a lovely smooth and light cream. What a lovely feeling making your own cosmetics out of your own herbs!