Did you know that your skin is actually your largest body organ? The average person has around 35 billion skin cells, and overall, the total area of your skin amounts to approximately two square metres. With such a vast absorbent surface, what you put on your skin is an important consideration.
If, like me, you want a non-toxic but inexpensive moisturiser, the good news is that you can make your own at home.
My recipe makes a nourishing cream that is easily absorbed, and is gentle enough to use on sensitive skins. It’s incredibly easy, takes only half an hour, and many of the ingredients are edible! Healthy skin is slightly acidic, with a pH of about 5.5, so my secret ingredient is a little kombucha to raise the acidity level of the base ingredients.
If you'd like to try for yourself, here’s my recipe. Of course, you can easily adjust it to suit your own preference.
Ingredients
20g avocado butter
20g cocoa butter
20g calendula oil (home-grown calendula heads infused in olive oil)
6g jojoba oil
13g emulsifying wax
5g cetearyl alcohol
5g lecithin
10 ml kombucha
150 ml water
2.5 ml eco preservative (optional)
30 drops chamomile essential oil (optional)
30 drops lavender essential oil (optional)
Instructions
The principal is really simple: All you are doing is combining fats (butters and oils) with liquid (kombucha and water), with the addition of emulsifiers (emulsifying wax, cetearyl alcohol, and lecithin), so that the fats and water mix together into a stable cream that does not separate. Emulsifiers all have slightly different properties, so using a combination helps to produce a cream with a smooth texture. The addition of essential oils and preservative is optional, but preservative-free creams need to be used quickly and kept in the fridge to keep them free of moulds.
To make your cream
• Melt the fats, oils, and emulsifiers in a basin steeped in water on a low heat until they reach a temperature of about 75 degrees C. Maintain this temperature for 15 minutes to kill any bacteria that may be present.
• In the meantime, boil the water, add the kombucha and set it aside to cool a little while the oils are warming.
• Slowly pour the water/kombucha mix into the oil, stirring all the time. I use an electric whisk at this stage to ensure it is thoroughly mixed.
• Once the cream has cooled enough to feel comfortable on the skin you can add preservative and essential oils; remix thoroughly and pour into clean jars.
This article was originally published on the Equinox Kombucha blog.
