I’ve had a lot of requests for a straight-up face cream, but for some reason or another, I haven’t really strayed into that territory too much until now. That’s mostly because I adore oil-based serums; my skin loves their potency, and when a serum is 100% oil based that means you can really load your skin up with all kinds of fatty acids that are amazing for your skin (linoleic acid 😍) without any water diluting them. But… when winter sets in and dehydration begins to be a chronic issue, the appeal of including water becomes much more obvious. So, here we are, with a recipe for a richly hydrating Winter Solstice Facial Cream. I love it, and I think you will, too.
Once you decide you’re going to include water in something, there are so many exciting ingredients you can use—water soluble ones like silk, herbal extracts, allantoin, hydrolyzed proteins, and floral waters. When I first started brainstorming up the ingredients I wanted to use in this cream I had a pretty long list of fun water soluble goodies I wanted to include, but I managed to restrain myself. I limited myself to silk, allantoin, and rose water. Silk has long been a favourite ingredient of mine; it helps keep your skin hydrated and is said to have anti-aging properties. Allantoin is pretty darn amazing, really. It helps protect the skin as well as boosting cell regeneration, and the FDA has approved it to help protect and prevent chapped, irritated skin (brilliant for winter!). Rose water smells pretty and brings some soothing, skin-toning rose goodness to the party.
I had some fun with the oils part, too. I wanted to be quite cognizant of sticking with ingredients with relatively low comedogenic ratings (how pore clogging things are). For the oils and butters I chose a blend of argan oil, olive squalane, and mango butter. I’ve been using argan oil on my face for years and I love it. Olive squalane is really neat; it’s squalane that’s been derived from olives (as opposed to fish). It’s a lightweight, fast-absorbing oil that quickly and easily penetrates the skin. It’s also an antioxidant and helps prevent UV damage (though it’s not a sunscreen!). Mango butter has a wonderful dry touch finish to it and a comeodogenic rating of zero, which is as good as it gets.
My double water bath set up.
For an emulsifier I chose BTMS-50 for its wonderfully powdery finish to make for a lighter feeling final product, though you could use a different complete emulsifying wax if that’s what you’ve got. I included some cetyl alcohol to make the lotion extra creamy, but if you don’t have that, you can use more mango butter instead. Vitamin E rounds off the oil part with some additional anti-oxidizing, healing-boosting goodness.
Our cool down phase includes some panthenol, aka vitamin B5. Panthenol is a great humectant and moisturizer, attracting water to the skin and hold it there, keeping our skin feeling soft and hydrated longer. And, of course, our preservative is included in the cool down phase. For essential oils I chose a soft blend of lavender, spruce, and cardamom, but there’s plenty of room to play here. If you prefer to let the rose water shine you could leave out all the essential oils, or you could add a bit of rose absolute. Benzoin would be lovely with rose as well. If you’d like to boost the anti-aging properties of this cream you could add some carrot seed essential oil, or perhaps some tea tree to help fight acne. Have fun with it!
The end final Winter Solstice Overnight Face Cream is lovely. It’s rich and creamy, and glides over the skin like a dream before sinking in. When I use it on my hands it absorbs in a silky flash, but it takes a bit longer to sink into my face. I’ve been using this morning and night, after I wash my face with some black soap, and my skin has never been better. It’s hard to say how much of this is this cream, but suffice it to say, I’m positively chuffed with how my skin looks these days. Once the cream has absorbed, my skin feels plump and hydrated, but not at all oily. I’m loving this stuff, and you should definitely make some!
Winter Solstice Face Cream
54g | 1.9oz water
15g | 0.53oz rose hydrosol
1g | 0.03oz allantoin (USA / Canada)
2g | 0.07oz vegetable glycerine (USA / Canada)
1g | 0.03oz silk peptides (wondering about substitutions?)5g | 0.17oz olive squalane (USA / Canada)
5g | 0.17oz argan oil (USA / Canada)
5g | 0.17oz mango butter (USA / Canada)
3g | 0.1oz cetyl alcohol (USA / Canada)
2g | 0.07oz Vitamin E MT-50 (USA / Canada)
5g | 0.17oz BTMS-50 or Emulsifying Wax NF (USA / Canada / AU)1g | 0.03oz panthenol
0.5g | 0.017oz Liquid Germall Plus™ (USA / Canada) (or other broad spectrum preservative of choice at recommended usage rate [why?])5 drops cardamom essential oil
4 drops spruce essential oil
5 drops lavender essential oilPrepare a water bath by bringing about 3cm/1″ of water to a bare simmer over low to medium-low heat in a wide, flat-bottomed sauté pan.
Weigh the water, rose water, allantoin, glycerin, and silk into a small heat-resistant glass measuring cup. Cover that measuring cup with some foil, and place the measuring cup in your prepared water bath to melt everything through. Weight the olive squalane, argan oil, mango butter, cetyl alcohol, vitamin E, and BTMS-50 into a second heat-resistant glass measuring cup and place that measuring cup in the water bath as well.
Heat both parts through for thirty minutes; this ensures the oil part is thoroughly melted, helps the allantoin and silk fully dissolve in the water part, and helps kill anything that might be living in our water part.
After thirty minutes, pour the water part into the oil part. Remove the measuring cup with the two parts from the water bath and set it on a dishtowel to insulate it from the counter top. Using an immersion blender, blend the solution together, in bursts to prevent the lotion from leaping out of the measuring cup. After a minute or two of blending, leave it to cool for ten minutes before returning to blend it some more.
Do that a few more times until the cream is only a bit warmer than room temperature, and then stir in the panthenol, liquid germall plus, and essential oils. Transfer the cream into a 120mL/4oz plastic pump-top bottle or jar (I used this one from YellowBee—you’d need two for this batch size, or you could use the 100mL version).
To use, smooth a small amount over just-washed skin.
Shelf Life & Storage
Because this cream contains water, you must include a broad-spectrum preservative to ward off microbial growth. This is non-optional. Even with a preservative this project is likely to eventually spoil as our kitchens are not sterile laboratories, so in the event you notice any change in colour, scent, or texture, chuck it out and make a fresh batch.
I do not recommend scaling this recipe up as 100g is quite a lot of face cream! After three weeks of 2–3x daily use I’ve barely made a dent in mine.
Will most of your posted recipes appear in your upcoming book?
No—the book is almost entirely brand new recipes. Nobody would want to pay to publish a book full of recipes that are available for free—nobody would pay for it!
I would pay for a book of the recipes on your blog! It would be convenient to have them in one place with an index. I try to print them out but I have yet to find a way to print just the recipe without the multiple pages of instructions with pictures (which) don’t get me wrong I do love. Love your blog love your recipes do wish you would publish another book! And yes I have the first one!
You should tell my publisher that! 😛 Aside from just “all the recipes”, which particular category would you be most interested in for book #2?
I absolutely had to comment and agree with Cindy! It would be so convenient for us frequent DIY HB&M followers to have a book to refer to in the midst of DIYing rather than a phone or laptop.I get headaches if im looking at a screen too long as well.lol But besides that, back on topic, i bet everyone of us would love a copy of a book of your blog recipes. And since you already have your amazing book with MMU, a book with your skin care recipes like this one,and the anti acne and anti aging ones would be a hit. It can be your book of lotions and body butters ect. Cuz ya know, what good is make up guna do if your skin isnt well taken care of using Maries magical recipes? Lol
You guys have my brain gears whirring, haha. I have three ideas for book #2 now, and I’m still having fun brainstorming more. Something I love about book writing vs blog writing is the big chunk of time to focus on a topic obsessively, so I’m basically thinking up things I want to obsess over haha.
Oh and, I know your recipes could easily be written down and what not.And i will write one down that has more ingredients than i can remember when i dont feel like looking at a screen. But I would feel kind of bad to go thru and copy down allbof your recipes. And feel like a thief.lol i may or may not be the only one to feel this way, but that could be another reason to have a blog book! Lol
There’s also a green print recipe button at the bottom of everything—it works pretty well! You can easily drop bits you don’t want to print and what-not 🙂 Definitely don’t feel like a thief for printing things for your personal use, though—I want you to do whatever you need to do to make your making easier!
I would gladly tell your publisher that I would support another book! And it seems I am not alone! Do you and anyone else out there have any tips for organizing all the stuff for these fabulous recipes? Every time you put up a new product on the blog I order more ingredients and sometimes I already have them ugh! I haven’t found a good method of organization. I do keep an excel spreadsheet now of my inventory but actually storing it where I can easily find everything is a problem. I do store my eo’s and butters in the refrigerator because I live in an area where the summer temps would be deadly to the life of the ingredients but they are tossed in a shoe box and a pain to find exactly what I need at any given point. Suggestions?
I’m working on some new book ideas, but they are mostly just nebulous notions at this point. In any case, we’ll need more (good) sales number before anyone will want another book from me!
For ingredients; I may be the last person to ask. My system is mostly memory and very frequent interaction with my massive stash. It is nothing I would encourage anybody to replicate! I store everything in the second kitchen (well, set of cupboards and a sink) in my basement as it is cool and dark down there. I have an oils shelf, a butters shelf, and EO cabinet, etc., but in general it is an embarrassing disaster.
What is what with my eyesight? I thought i read somewhere you telling someone already, but i couldnt find the darn thing. And even now, after for surely reading about the mysterious button, i cannot seem to locate the thing. Lol i will try on my laptop later to see if that makes a difference. Anywhooo, sooo glad to here the wheels are turning. I have been waiting for book #2 since i received #1.lol haha.
It’s down at the bottom of every post, in the same line as all the social share buttons. It’s round, green, and on the right hand side 🙂
Cindy… I have a good old fashioned recipe box with a file card for every product I have. I keep it in my “cooking/creating” area and when I am low or out of something I remove the card to tell me to order more. When the order comes in the card gets filed back in the box. Old fashioned ? Yup but you know the saying”if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.
PS Some of the cards have tips on them like …buy again…don’t buy again. Not strong enough scent in CP soap…stuff like that. I also keep current pricing on them and where I got them.
I love this! I’d probably prefer a digital version knowing me, but the concept is awesome 😀
I agree too! I would def pay for a book with all the lovely formulations from your blog! Fairly new to your blog but not to DIY skin care your formulations have moved to front of the line for me! I also purchased your book. I need to start reviewing the formulations I have made. Anyway, a book with all these formulations would be fantastic!
Thanks for the support, but that will never happen. Between my right of first refusal contract with my publisher and the fact that no publisher (and very few people) would pay to produce something readily available for free… well, don’t get your hopes up lol. But you can sign up for my Patreon to get the Monthly Collection!
I did sign up just yesterday so I will put my own book together, month by month! Thank you so much!
Awesome! Thank you so much 🙂
Hi, Marie
Your recipes, WOW is all I can say! Thank you SO much for taking the time to help so many with your very informative knowledge and mad skills. You are pretty darn mind blowing and just cute as a button.
I have two quick questions regarding this facial cream. Firstly, Panthenol; I made it this morning and left out the Panthenol as I did it have any. Could I have used Niacinamide as a substitution? When using Panthenol, why do you add it to the cool down part versus the water part as isn’t it water soluble?
Secondly, it feels a tad greasy on my face and isn’t soaking in well (I did use BTMS 50). I have had this issue with a couple of lotions I have made. I am not sure if living in Louisiana with this humidity (our summers are literally like living in hell ) may be causing an issue with my concoctions turning a tad greasy. When I begin the emulsification process, I don’t typically have to blend more than twice as it comes together rather quickly. Well, minus making body butter; which is just an oily/greasy mess…and oh how I am obsessed with the smell of cocoa butter!!! Sorry, I digressed into my cocoa fantasy world.
Thank you again for sharing your vast knowledge with the world!!
Hugs from Louisiana,
Michelle
Hi Michelle! You can use niacinamide instead of panthenol, but sort of in the same way you can use parley instead of basil; they aren’t the same, but often do well in similar recipes. If you really wanted a margherita pizza you’d be disappointed in parsley when you wanted basil, but if it was just a touch of either (like here), swapping one for another will still work, even though they aren’t all that similar.
Panthenol is heat sensitive, but I’ve since learned that’s just the liquid type, so if you have the powdered stuff, feel free to add it to the heated water phase.
I must admit heat + humidity is pretty far away from my area of expertise; I live in cold and dry. That said, I am in the land of hot humidity right now (Ottawa—high of 32°C today with 80%+ humidity!), and I find that lotions I have that sink in easily at home need a bit more time here, likely because my skin is more hydrated just from existing in this steamy environment haha. Have you tried using less product or just giving it a couple more minutes? As someone who formulates pretty much exclusively in exactly the opposite environment I’m not even sure if it’s possible to create something that wouldn’t feel a bit slow to absorb in such conditions, haha.
Patron here! I would LOOOVE another book from you! Maybe one for all things face (except makeup) and then one for body and hair. or everything in one. I also would definitely buy a book with the recipes you have posted! It would be nice to have it to page through and to take notes! It would be a beautiful book with the fabulous pics you use for your tutorials!
Sadly the “book with the recipes you have posted” will never interest any publisher, and I can’t say I blame them. While people like you who really appreciate and support what I do would buy it, plenty of people would realize they could get it all (or most of it) for free and wouldn’t buy it, so it would be a pretty poor financial move on the part of any publisher 🙁
I definitely do want to write another book, though!
Marie,
This sounds quite yummy and decadent with the addition of the mango butter! I use argan and squalene in a face cream I make and it’s a great combo. I’ve been wanting to try Abyssinian oil instead of argan, since I’ve heard they have very similar properties, but haven’t made any lotions with it yet. Have you tried it in one of your facial serums yet?
Thanks for another great recipe!
Belinda
Thanks, Belinda! I’ve barely used Abyssinian oil, but I have read the same thing about it. I think I’ve only made one balm with it, and so far it’s lovely, I just need more time to play with it 🙂 Happy making!
Just in time! Thank you Marie. Today I was planning to use a modified version of one of your body lotions to make a face cream (to give as Christmas gifts), as I realised that many ladies who have used face creams all their lives still want face creams that feel light… well… like the ones they normally use. So… I am happy to use a proper recipe, dreamed up by the expert. Thank you.
You’re welcome! I look forward to hearing what you thing 😀
I confess I had afterall modified the recipe as I did not have all ingredients. I’ve replaced olive squalane with hemp oil and mango butter with shea butter, and added some aloe vera juice to the water mixture as I do not have allantoin, and added geranium and rose wood essential oils instead of spruce essential oil… The knowledge accumulated from following your recipes for quite a while, helped. However, the end result is divine. The cream absorbs in the skin instantly and leaves it nicely hydrated, without the greasy feeling you get from oil serums for a few minutes after applying. I like it so much I am of course using it myself. I was not keen on the idea of having the preservative on my face, as oil serums do not need it, but… well… it really feels luxurious. Thank you again for all your work, much appreciated.
Thanks, Miruna! I’m so glad you’re enjoying your face cream 😀 It sounds like you made some great swaps, and I’m thrilled you are loving the end product!
Good morning! I’ve seen rose wood essential oil kicking about for a while and have been keen on buying it. How does it smell?
I definitely can’t be of any help here, hopefully Miruna sees this and can chime in 🙂
I love face lotions! I usually use aloe vera water as my liquid and toss in some extracts like nettle and burdock and if I’m feeling cheeky? Some cucumber. My extracts dealer got me some bamboo, green tea and honey. He claims I have weird tastes.
I’ve never seen olive squalane. Drats. Just as soon as I think I have all the ingredients I might want, another one pops up! I so want to try this out! Now I really want to use BTMS on my face!
One of the sellers from Taobao I regularly buy from keeps sending me obscene amounts of hydrosols. I’ve liters and liters of the stuff, but the only recipe I kind of like it in, is a face spray with glycerine. Can they be used instead of Rose water?
I love your winter inspired goodies! And yay for face lotions! I love them in the winter!
I’m so envious of your hydrosols—they are so pricey here! You can definitely use them instead of rose water, they’re effectively the same thing for our purposes—rose water is just easier/less expensive to get here. If you read through some of the other comments here several other reads have swapped squalane for some other things that might give you some ideas 😉 Happy making, and I’m keeping a close eye on my mailbox!
I found olive squalane and ordered a bunch to check it out. It’s FNWL and imported so had to pay a few giant pennies. I’m hoping to whip this up today to check out squalane. Oh! I found broccoli seed oil too! And roasted coffee seed oil.
I scored right before Christmas!
I’m waiting upon a tracking number from Mister Procrastinator Himself!
Wahoo! What a boatload of goodies 😀 I wish I was able to order ingredients as often as you are—I only order a few times a year now :/ Alas. But they are doozy orders when they do happen haha.
Hi there,
Good containers to formulate in are mason jars! You can also get plastic lids to use with them for the heat and hold. If you find you still get evaporation – use plastic wrap then the cap.
The nice thing with mason jars they come in various sizes and are made of glass that can handle the heat.
Good tip! I think I would miss the pour spouts, though—I’m a bit of a klutz with pouring 😛 I definitely have TONS of ’em, though 🙂 Thanks for reading!
Could you use olive oil instead of olive squalene? This sounds like a fantastic cream!
Honestly, I would choose something quite a lot lighter than olive oil; rosehip or macadamia nut oils would be good choices. Olive oil is much heavier than olive squalane, so even though they both have olive-y roots, they aren’t all that similar.
Thanks Marie ! I have both oils but prefer Rosehip. I’ll order Sualene eventually but one step at a time 🙂
Happy making!
This looks amazing! I only very recently got into thinking about making my own cream. My skin is so dry lately and the ingredients in this look lovely. I was wondering if there was a possible way to add prickly pear oil to this somehow. I’m just not sure what to adjust to add it.
Thanks for posting this as I was one of your faithful followers who requested a face cream with water (among others). I like the all serum based ones for night time when I won’t be putting on make up. I prefer something waster based for daytime as I find it absorbs much better.
Can you suggest a sub for Olive Squabane oil ? Thanks (I have to order 4 ingredients to make this and the cost is mounting)
Hey Deb! You can use another lightweight, fast-absorbing oil instead of squalane; rosehip, hazelnut, or camellia seed would all be good choices 🙂
I’m so excited to see a regular face cream up on your blog! This one sounds divine. I will have to give it a shot for when I get my hands on some mango butter (trying to work through my shea first!).
I’ve been making my own face lotions for a few months now. It really makes a difference when your skin is dehydrated (as you said)!
Woohoo! I look forward to hearing what you think 😀
I love all the goodies in this! The more, the better. Sometimes less is not more, in my book….which Amazon says isn’t shipping till the 27th. A curse on them!!
I’m making this later today and will update on if I love it or love it.
Sorry about that cold air up there. Utterly miserable cold.
Update? On this side of the world it is the next day!
My squalane (that sounds hilarious) won’t be here for a few days so I must wait patiently before I can make this divine hydrating lotion. I feel like Twidledee playing with my thumbs.
Have you made Marie’s Coral Kiss Lip Gloss yet? I’m loving the new jojoba gloss recipe over the glosses with glycerine.
Merry Christmas from The Middle Kingdom!
I think Christie got lost in her cupboard.
Someone lost his phone. Bahumbug!
I made this yesterday!
Tweaked it as I discovered somehow, I was out of the argan oil I just bought!
5g olive squalane
2g moringa oil
2g camellia oil
1g evening primrose oil
8g mango butter
2g vitamin E oil
5g BTMS-50
1 swirl vitamin b5
Liquids I used rose geranium hydrosol and water, I tossed in all the goodies you listed and added 1 pinch of burdock extract.
And…. all I can say is wow wee! My skin has been lovely lately with this new serum I concocted last month, but I’ve never before felt it so plump. I think this recipe is a keeper! Need to give it a month of use to see how my skin responds but, so far I really like it!
Beautiful! I”m so glad you are loving it 😀 And I definitely agree with the “plump” assessment—my skin is so happy!
I look forward to hearing what you think! Happy making 😀
My sweat teacher I have a question. Can we use the rose water in the morning? I think so that this material we can’t use with sun. Is it true or not. Even in winter we have a lot of sun in Greece.
I’m waiting your answer with impatience. Thank you so much!
Nothing I’ve ever read says that rose water is photosensitizing; do you have a source for that? I’ve certainly had no issues using rose water before sun exposure.
This looks wonderful but I don’t have a few things: mango butter (which I’ll sub with shea butter and up that amount to replace the cetyl alcohol), squalene (which I’ll sub with apricot kernel oil). I don’t have Allantoin so wondering what to sub that out with.
I’d probably swap all the water + the weight of the allantoin for aloe vera juice 🙂
As somebody with chronic dry winter skin, I’ve avoided lotions on my face recently because, like you said, face oils and serums are so much more potent. But when my nice oil wasn’t pulling its weight this winter here in Maine, I realized I need to change something up.
This lotion is beautiful. The argan oil and mango butter work wonderfully together, and since I didn’t have squalene (I needed this lotion ASAP so I didn’t order any) I replaced it evenly between hemp oil and rosehip oil. I also added matcha powder (albeit a bit too much powder because my lotion is verrrry green, but goes on clear thankfully). And instead of the cetyl alcohol I did as you recommended and increased the mango butter. My e-wax of choice is Polawax. The result is stunning. I showered as it thickened up, and when I got out I massaged face oil and then this lotion into my skin and my skin is no longer peeling and red and irritated! I’m very excited to have a way to combat winter skin now 🙂
TL;DR : my recipe turned out like this
– 54g | water
– 15g | rose water
– 1g | allantoin
– 1g | silk peptides
– 2g | honey
– 0.5g | matcha powder
– 2.5g | hemp oil
– 2.5g | rosehip oil
– 7g | argan oil
– 8g | mango butter
– 5g | Polawax
– 0.5g | liquid germall plus
Woohoo! Thanks for sharing your modified version, and I’m so glad you’re loving the final result 😀 My skin is still so happy, I’m a bit miffed at past me for not trying this earlier 😛
I made this, but it felt very waxy or left a filmy feeling after absorbed in. I used Emulsifying Wax Pastiles by Millard. Says its 100% vegetable derived with no additives. I have made some other loitions and soaps that feel waxy too. Could the type of Emulsyfier be the culprit?
It very well could be (though not in your soap—soap shouldn’t have emulsifying wax in it)—read this for more info 🙂 Different emulsifying waxes have different feels; the BTMS-50 I used here has a nice powdery feel.
Made this cream today. I didn’t use any Essential Oils and added just a tad bit of IPM. I have not used squalane before. What have I been missing? This recipe is what I have been looking for! Just awesome! Thanks for your wonderful creations.
Yay! I’m so glad you’re loving it 😀 Enjoy and thanks for DIYing with me!
Hi Marie,
Thx for the recipe. I am wondering if sudden temperate change will cause unstable emulsion. I mean is it ok to put the emulsion in a cold water bath after mixing water and oil phases together, to speed up the cooling ? Will this drastic change of temp result in unstable emulsion ? Coz I hv never seen u doing this so I am wondering if it’s bad.
Thanks a lot.
I’m afraid I’ve never tried it—waiting 20 minutes for something to cool doesn’t really bother me 🙂
I once poured the water part into the melted oil/e-wax part when the water was too cool and it was a gobby mess. It just left it in the mixing cup in the water bath until the oils melted again but what I am trying to say is that I think cooling too fast will cause the oils to separate from the liquid. Then again, like Marie, I have never tried it …exactly 🙂
Ah yes, that’ll happen! I’ve definitely done that before haha… oops. At least it is easy to fix if you don’t panic and just leave it on the heat for a while longer 😛
Thanks so much for this recipe. I asked over a year ago for a simple vitamin e cream but this is even better. By the way, I pre-ordered my book on Amazon in October and I finally got a notice that I will get it on Dec 29. Can’t wait! Also received the signed card, thanks for that too, peace and blessings, Lin
You’re very welcome—I hope you love it! December 29 feels really far away, but with everything between now and then I bet it will pass very quickly 😀 Thanks so much for reading and DIYin with me, and for buying my book 🙂
I think sometimes you read my mind. I managed to dry out my face about two weeks ago (over-scrubbing and weather, I think), and the various oil serums were slow to rehydrate.
You posted this on Monday, I ordered the new ingredients on Tuesday, and I found out that Lotioncrafters is based about 75 miles from me, so I received them on Wednesday and made this on Thursday.
It’s LOVELY. I’ve been using it morning and night since, and my face is all soft and smooth again. It’s scent-wise the perfect followup to your Cold Snap Cleansing Balm, which is funny to me because I was just writing about that last week, too.
This also rarely factors into my making projects, but this recipe is comparable to or better than the Burt’s Bees face creams I used to buy at ~$25USD/2oz. That adds up, especially since this is one I’m making for other folks.
Now that my skin is all hydrated again, I’ll probably start using oil serums at night again, but I really like the “dry touch” of this cream for the day, even though I don’t wear makeup.
I am so thrilled you are loving this! I’m honestly shocked at how many people have already made this and reported back that they are really enjoying it 🙂 It’s always a thrill when people make my recipes and report back, but it rarely happens quickly! I’m still using this daily and my skin loves it… but I am, of course, already thinking about what I want to try for my next face cream—ha! I can’t leave well enough alone 😛 Thanks so much for reading, DIYing with me, and sharing your results so generously! 🙂
Hey there Marie!
Thanks so much for sharing this awesome recipe, I’m itching to start! But before I do, I’d like to ask something, and slightly embarrass myself:
I don’t have a blender for DIYing, and I’m sure the regular one that I use for cooking has all kinds of bacteria lurking everywhere? So, before I make a big purchase, I was wondering…. Is a milk frother a good way to go for this recipe? And how about a mixer, which is easier to clean?
Thanks and warm greetings!
Rena
Hey Rena! If you are going to use a milk frother, make sure you get one with some good kick—the one I’m using does 15,000 RPMs and that seems to be working well 🙂 Otherwise, if you have a good dishwasher that gets really hot, I wouldn’t be worried about your kitchen immersion blender multi-tasking after sending it through the dishwasher. Just make sure it’s an immersion blender, and not a blender—the immersion blenders are much better, and much easier to clean than a blender! Happy making 🙂
Thank you Marie! You’re awesome!
😀
A question about Panthenol. (The link provided isn’t working). Is it liquid or powder ? I need to order a couple things to make this and Panthenol is one. Saffire Blue sells Panthenol DL Powder. Can I use that so I only have to order from one place ? What amount would be used in the recipe (I think yours is liquid as you are adding it with Germall)? Thanks !
I use the powdered version (I updated the link—thanks!). It’s added during cool down as it’s heat sensitive, though Susan at POI says the powdered stuff can be added to the heated water phase. I obviously didn’t do that, but you could 🙂
Thanks Marie ! I’ll order the powder from Saffire Blue tonight.
Looking forward to Amazon shipping your book out this week….YAH !!!
Woohoo! And AHHHHHH! It’s available on Amazon now and I’m beyond stoked
YES ! I got an email yesterday saying it was in the mail !!!! (Canada Post from Amazon.ca) YIPEEEEEEEEE
Wahoo! 😀
Is there a difference between BTMS-50 and BTMS-225?
I’d love to know the answer to this as well as I can’t seem to find BTMS-50 in Canada but BTMS-225 is available. I bought some BTMS-225 thinking I would use it and now I have no idea what to do with it. Any info would be appreciated ! Thanks.
Windy Point has BTMS-50 in Canada! They also have quite a few other ingredients it can be tricky to find up here, so it’s worth putting together an order 🙂
Yes, but having never worked with it before, I will let Susan do the explaining 🙂
Hey Marie,
Happy new year!
I was wondering: what is the PH of this lovely concoction?
Warm greetings,
Rena
I have absolutely no idea! Not 2, definitely not 10. I’ve never invested in a pH meter.
You can get really cheap ph papers that do the trick! I got mine on aliexpress, but I’m sure amazon has them too. I’ve been checking ph ever since I stumbled on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ihqNtYvmE
And here’s a publication of a study on ph: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18489300
I also read somewhere that you can lower down ph with lactic acid. (I still have to try it out and see the results, so maybe with this recipe?)
Happy watching!
Hmmm, interesting! I’ll have to do some more poking around in this realm 🙂 I know citric acid is very commonly used as a pH buffer, so I would probably recommend that, though I haven’t done much pH buffering myself 🙂
Hello Marie, thank you so much for posting this. I love this recipe and will try this today and tomorrow!!! I was going to wait until I get allantoin but can’t wait haha. I’m also planning on making some eye cream and wondering if you make your own eye cream as well? I’m not sure if I want to use an emulsifying wax for eye cream. Let me know if you do use the e-wax for your eye cream, if you make one!!
I don’t make eye cream (it’s not something I use), but I do apply this cream around my eyes. There’s really no reason you wouldn’t want e-wax in a cream; if you want a cream, you have to use some sort of emulsifier, which is typically a complete emulsifying wax unless you are a cosmetic chemist and can create your own emulsifying wax or emulsifier. No ewax, no cream, basically!
Made this. Had no squalane. Substituted carrot seed oil, sea buckthorn oil and rosehip seed oil. Lovely butter yellow color. Lovely feel. Thank you.
Wonderful! I’m glad you’re enjoying it 🙂 Thanks for DIYing with me!
Made this yesterday. I used benzoin EO instead. The cream is divine. Thank you. I was wondering, would you have any EOs’ suggestions if to make this cream for a man?
Wonderful! For men I usually like working with woodsy EOs like cedarwood and pine, as well as vanilla and light smoke notes 🙂
Thanks. I was thinking about those just wasn’t sure how they would go along rose water included in cream. Will try. 🙂
Hello Marie, Happy New Year! I left a comment on one of your other posts but it seems like it is not there anymore. I guess it wasn’t posted properly. Anyways thank you so much for sharing your recipes and information I honestly learned so much from you!!
I made my face cream using this recipe as a reference. But my emulsion broke.. 🙁 Next time I make it I will follow this strictly not modifying it myself haha. I have a question for you. Do you make your own eye cream? If so, do you use complete emulsifying wax and preservatives? I wasn’t confident using these two ingredients especially because it will go around my eye areas. Please let me know 🙂
You question didn’t vanish—read this 🙂
I already answered the e-wax question in your previous comment, but for preservatives that is a gigantic OH MY GOD YES. Unless you like eye infections, I guess. If there was ever a time for a preservative, it’s when you’re putting something near your eyes!!!
Now I see both of my comments haha. Thank you for letting me know! I should make some soon 🙂
Hi! I made this a couple of weeks ago and I will never use anything else! My skin looks amazing. I am 62 so I threw in some Frankincense Oil to tighten everything up….LOL Thank you for a wonderful cream and Happy New Year.
YAY!!! I’m so glad 😀 Thank you so much for sharing, and happy making!
I made this for Christmas presents, and for myself. It is lovely, definitely one of my favourites. In my mid 60s my skin cries out for moisture, but very little seems to suit. I shall be making this again, and again. Thanks Marie, and others who have offered interesting subs.
Yay! I’m so glad 😀 Happy making and thank you for sharing!
Hey Marie,
I made this cream, and I totally love it, I even use it on my toddler’s cheeks well 30min before a walk. But I wanted to get it to my friends. It was about -10*C today, and the water just got straight out of the cream. Why, what should I do about this?
Did the container of lotion freeze? Unfortunately, if it has separated, there’s really nothing to be done but make a fresh batch—a split emulsion is a done emulsion 🙁
Hi Marie, lovely recipe, thanks!
I wonder if it’s possible to add hyaluronic acid into this recipe? Coz I really like hyaluronic acid!
I’ve never worked with it so I really don’t know. Probably?
Hey there Marie! This is my absolute favorite lotion! I made my second batch about 2 months ago. I also tripled the recipe. Just last week the lotion (stored in a jar) started developing pink colored “ribbons” of discoloration. Does this mean it’s starting to “turn” and should be thrown away? Thank you
Yeah—any change in colour, consistency, or scent means it’s time to chuck it. That’s why I specifically recommended against scaling up the recipe 🙂 Oh well, at least it’s pretty cheap to chuck and re-make!
HI Marie. Love your blogs. I have made lots of your recipes. My question is how do I make a lotion with emulsion O?
I ordered it by error and thought that it was a complete emulsion.
I have tried to find a recipe but no luck so far. My lotion separated.
Thanks Rose
Hi Rose! I’m afraid I have never worked with that emulsifying wax as it is incomplete. You’ll need to know the HLB value and balance it off with another emulsifier with an HLB value on the other end of the scale. Susan has some good resources on how to do this 🙂
Marie,
I have followed/subscribed to your blog for about 3 years and have made many of your wonderful recipes. Thank you for all you do and share. I was very pleased to find through your blog the web site for Windy Point in Calgary. I especially like the ability to order smaller amounts of products when wanting to try new ingredients.
This week I made the Winter Solstice Face Cream. The only substitution I made was Camellia seed oil for the Olive Squalane. I also made the Gentle Chamomile face cleanser and the Lemon Chiffon body and hand lotion. Both my husband and I love the essential oils you added to the body lotion and the fast absorption. I can see I’ll need to make a second batch sooner than I expected. As so many have stated before me I am loving everything about the three new cleanser and creams. Again thank you.
Yay! I’m so glad 🙂 It always makes me so happy to hear about people having successes with my recipes! Also… any chance you know a Frances Douros here in Calgary? If so, we may have a person in common!
Hi Marie ~ I have made this lotion twice but each time have found it to be a little prickly on my skin. I read in another blog post that allantoin can make a lotion “shardy” meaning it feels like glass shards on the skin, right? I’m wondering if my skin doesn’t like allantoin or if I am not cooking it long enough before I add the oils. I adore the consistency of this lotion and how emollient it feels (other than the prickliness, which goes away after a few minutes).Your expertise here is much appreciated!
~ Lisa D
Hey Lisa! Is it prickly or shardy? Those two things have very different meanings to me, and you say it feels prickly, but then say allantoin can make it feel shardy… sooo… confusion. To me, “prickly” is a feeling from within the skin, which can happen with vitamin C serums or high concentrations of niacinamide—sort of like a hot flash or flushing setting in. “Shardy” would be there’s definite sharp things in the lotion and those hurt when you apply it. Which one are you experiencing?
Hi, I have also experienced the prickliness… I would call it tingly. Marie, could it be the panthenol…?
Niacinamide (vitamin B3) is sometimes associated with a prickle/tingle, but I can’t find anything about panthenol (vitamin B5) causing such a thing. I think the allantoin is the only real candidate for some sort of sensation, but that would be a noticeably physical prickle, not a tingle. Weird :/
Hi Marie,
Have you ever used Liquid Colloidal Copper as the “water” ingredient? I have read that copper is great for skin and used in lots of cosmetic products…
I haven’t—I haven’t even heard of it. Colloidal silver, sure, but not copper. I would never recommend swapping out all of the water in a recipe for something that active. From what I can find it’s not a cosmetic ingredient; it seems to be more of a supplement. I can’t find anything on it from any of my reputable formulating sources—what information I can find seems to be mostly on overly hyped junky looking websites that make pretty extraordinary claims with no evidence. So… I guess I’d say liquid colloidal copper looks like Dr. Oz sort of thing… which is not a compliment. I’d probably save your money. Whatever it is supposed to do—there’s an ingredient out there that has been proven to do it.
Hi Marie, thanks for the recipe. However, I’m having some difficulties….could you please help. 🙁
First of all, I used rose water instead of water, therefore 69g of rose water. Also, accidentally I put double dose of germal plus, 1g instead of 0.5g. I don’t know what implication/consequence there is with doubled preservative? (should I throw away this batch and start again?)
The result….I found this cream quite oily for my skin…(have I applied too much?? maybe) and (yes, I do have oily skin (that is even at my age!!)) Also, this morning I noticed my face looked a bit dark….almost grey color….:(
Everything else was according to the recipe… Would you know how to fix….or would Orange Blossom cream be less thick/oily?
I was hoping to say what everyone says here….’loving my skin with this cream!’
Hey Grace! Hmm. I’d start off by saying that using entirely rose water for the water portion isn’t a good idea; not only is it very expensive (and crazy fragrant—10 to 20% is super rose scented!), but that much hydrosol is quite difficult to preserve. Double preservative also isn’t good; preservatives are pretty powerful chemicals (which is what we want!), and too much is not better—sort of like how more pain killers than recommended is not better. I would probably throw it out.
If you’re finding it oily you are likely applying too much; the oils we’re using are lightweight and fast-absorbing, so the structure of the cream is not oily. I find a daub that is pea sized or smaller is more than enough.
I have no idea what would be going on with the darker skin, and given that you do not live in a sterile lab and presumably have many different variables in your life, that could just as well be what you ate for dinner, or a light bulb near your vanity dimming, so I’m not sure that’s relevant to the use of the lotion, but who knows?
This one is made with lighter oils than the Orange Blossom, so this one will be less oily.
I hope that’s helpful!
Thanks Marie!
With all rose water instead of water, I still don’t smell rose at all (yes, I’m not really sensitive person…:))
As you said with double dose of preservative I will throw this one away….Btw, what would be the consequence of this??
I will try your new Green Tea Face Cream instead. Do you think this would be better for my oily skin? Where I live is now approaching winter, so I thought this could be a good one to try. Also, thanks for letting me know that Orange Blossom is even oilier!!
Hm… are you using a proper rose hydrosol? I’ve discovered in the months since I released this recipe that rose water is a rather poor swap for true rose hydrosol, which smells so overwhelmingly rosey that it is positively delightful and indulgent, even at 10–20%. It’s amazing and I can’t recommend getting a bottle of the real stuff enough!
As for what happens with too much preservative—I don’t know. BUT, as with all things, the dose makes the poison, and you have doubled the recommended safe dose. Is that enough to do damage? I don’t know, but I also don’t want you to be the one to find out!
I am enjoying the green tea lotion; especially because it is so thick! It seems a touch counter-intuitive, but because it is quite thick it is easier to take less and spread it around better. Green tea extract is also a bit astringent thanks to the tannins is contains, so you may find that beneficial for your oily skin 🙂
Happy lotion-ing!
Well, I don’t know whether it’s proper rose water. I bought it from New Directions Australia. It’s called Rose Otto Floral Water, Organic Rosa damascene. Have I got a wrong one??
With the word ‘poison’ for too much preservative, it’s enough to convince me probably the dark complexion came from this mistake….
Thanks a lot Marie, wish me the best result with Green tea face cream. While I’m getting a few extra ingredients I need, I’ll manage with Immortelle Primrose Facial Serum in place of cream. 🙂
If it’s from NDA it’ll be a proper hydrosol—it’s stuff from the grocery store that usually isn’t, but it’s so darn cheap and easy to get that it’s easy to pick up instead 🙂
I said “the dose makes the poison”—a common saying that reminds one that too much of anything, no matter how safe in recommended quantities, can be a poison! Water, spinach, ibuprofen, whatever—everything (preservatives included) have a safe dose and an unsafe dose. With preservatives, that margin between safe and unsafe is smaller than it is with something like water or spinach, but that does not mean they are poison—it means they can be when used improperly 🙂 Don’t get too alarmed!
Eeks! I have ended up putting too much Germal in most all of my products! The stuff is so lightweight, it simply does not register on my scale until 1g has been reached. Is there another way to measure the germal (say via the tiny measuring spoons)?
I have not experienced any issues though. I love, love, love the Winter Solstice moisturizer…
I would recommend getting a more precise scale—they’re about $13 on Amazon and you will get a ton of use out of it! One of my favourite things about having a more accurate scale is the ability to make tiny batches of things—which means I can make lots of different sorts of things without drowning in my DIY products 😛
Marie,
Another question about this cream… What do you think about adding these ingredients to your concoction for anti-aging effects:
Gladback, Decorinyl, Trylagen PCB, Syn-Hycan
Got these anti-aging ingredients over at Lotioncrafter:
http://www.lotioncrafter.com/formulary/Antiaging_Facial_Moisturizer_Mature.pdf
…but I like the mango butter, etc. from your ingredients. I am wondering if I can add these ingredients at the percentage suggested (of the overall weight to your list of ingredients which is approx 99.5 g) to boost up this moisturizer for aging skin…
Do you see any red flags to this idea? Thanks so much!
I can’t see why not! Just be sure to remove the percentages from the oil or water phase (based on the solubility of each additive) to keep the recipe in balance 🙂 I have never worked with any of these ingredients though, so this is all just hypothesis—keep me posted!
Hi Marie, this face cream is amazing! I was using a vitamin e cream from our local health food shop, but haven’t since January, & i’ve given a few pots away. Everyone loves it!
In my latest batch i swapped out the oils in the recipe for tea tree & vetiver – for my husband. & i made a tea tree & lemon myrtle version for myself (only 5 drops of each). It’s really fresh & summery. From what i’ve read i think this is safe to use as a day cream. Would you agree?
Thanks for another amazing recipe!
YAY! I’m so glad you are loving it 😀 Your combinations sound beautiful and like a wonderful way to customize your face cream 🙂
I sort of combined this with your rose cardamom lotion and it’s AMAZING. Basically followed the recipe, but I used a rose, chamomile, and lavender herbal tea instead of water, subbed a gram of the mango butter for rose wax, and used the oils from the lotion instead. It smells and feels amazing! Another great recipe!
Oooooh, so cool! That sounds downright divine 🙂 Thanks for making with me!
Hey Marie! I made this two weeks ago using all exact ingredients (preservative too!) and I now have a mold spot. Super bummed as this was my first time making a lotion. I’ve been so hesitant for this very reason. Any idea how to troubleshoot this? I sterilized all equipment and put the finished product in a pump jar. Feeling defeated!
Hmm. Huge bummer indeed 🙁 Have you thought about trying a really simple recipe to eliminate as many variables as possible? Something like 73.5% water, 1% glycerin, 5% e-wax NF, 20% liquid oil, 0.5% LGP? A simple recipe like that removes a lot of possible sources of bug food, so if you can make that work, then we know you can get other things to work, too, but perhaps one of your ingredients is problematic.
Hey Marie, do you have an alternatif for Allantoin? We can’t find it in Europe, (not here in Belgium and not in The Netherlands).
Same for all types of your preservatifs… The only -natural- preservatifs I found is Rokonsal, Biokons en bio weingeist alcohol.
Btw: I bought your book (e-book) 🙂 So know I hope I can make some comsmetics with ingrediënts I can find in Belgium.
Have a nice day. Your YouTubechannel is awesome!
Djeezes, I found out that Rokonsal is a broad spectrum natural preservatif.
But I have to say: not easy to make your beautiful recipes if I can’t find the ingrediënts you use… (Sorry, I’m not English 🙂 )
Comfrey root is naturally rich in allantoin, so if you had a comfrey extract that could be a good alternative! For preservatives I’d recommend giving this page a read—I definitely haven’t had a ton of experience with a wide variety of preservatives as I tend to stick to LGP, but Jane (the professional cosmetic chemist who put that page together) is brilliant!
Thanks so much for reading and buying my book!
Ha Vera, I know it’s a challenge, right? I wish we had access to the same goods!! Did you find the allantoin? In The Netherlands you can buy it at Jojoli, De Hekserij and De Kruiderie. I bought it at New Directions UK because eventhough I paid lost more for shipping, prices for a lot of ingrediënts were much lower.
Made this recipe this afternoon…switched out the olive squalane (although I do know I have some here somewhere but came across the Rosehip first while I was looking !) I switched out the essential oils for Geranium Rose, Juniper Berry, Sandalwood and a drop of Helichrysum !!! So deliciously silky smooth !! thank you for the recipe !!
Beautiful! I’m so glad you’re loving it 😀 Thanks for DIYing with me!
Can I use few drops of fragrance oil in this recepie to make it smell good
Since it’s for my face I wanted to know the safest ratio!
Yup; follow your manufacturer’s recommend amount (typically 1% or less).
Hi Marie, I just wanted to say thank you for this wonderful recipe. I’ve been reading your blog for years and this was the first time I’ve tried making one of your recipes – and it was a huge success! I modified it a bit based on what ingredients I had on hand and which ingredients I could buy (I live in Germany). I also added a bit of citric acid – for the preservative to work and to bring the pH closer to the skin’s natural pH level. My flakey, eczema-prone skin feels so much plumper and happier already, all without being greasy, something no store-bought cream has ever been able to achieve so effectively. Wish I’d made this sooner and am definitely going to try some of your other recipes asap! 🙂
Here’s my recipe, in case anyone is interested:
69g distilled water
1g allantoin
2g vegetable glycerin
1g silk peptides
12g rosehip oil
8g mango butter
5g Emulsan (emulsifying wax)
1g panthenol
0.5g Rokonsal (broad-spectrum preservative)
a pinch of citric acid powder
10 drops cinnamon leaf essential oil
I’m so, SO glad! YAY! Thanks so much for sharing and for DIYing with me 😀
Hey Marie !! Back to making more face lotions and noticed the amount of Essential Oils in this. based on the amount of oil, the Orange Blossom face lotion is about 1% dilution. which is great for the face, however this one is about 5%, which is way too much for your face. I’ve adjusted here on my end but wanted to let you know that there may be some sensitizing going on with 5% dilution. Also, the latest comment from Anna: Cinnamon Leaf has a very low dilution rate of only .07%…it is an Aldehyde and an extremely strong skin sensitizer. 10 drops of Cinnamon leaf in 20 ml of oil is about 2 % ! Anyway, I know you’ve been digging into the safety of Essential Oils since this was first posted, thought you may want to re-look at it 😉 Just bought your book and am excited to try more recipes !!
Hey! How have you come to that 5% number? This is a 100g recipe, so we’d need ~5g of essential oils to hit 5%. 5 drops of lavender EO is ~0.12g, and if we assume similar densities for the other EOs that’s about 0.025g/drop, so at 14 drops that’s 0.35g essential oil total in the recipe (approximately), which works out to 0.35%, which is nowhere close to 5%. Even if you do it out of the oil phase (which isn’t what they teach at Formula Botanica and from what I can tell, is not part of the IFRA standards on dilution—please feel free to direct me to the proper resources if I’m mistaken!), 0.35g/25g = 1.4%.
Marie, I’ve got 17 g of fat/glycerin…not sure if I can include the cetyl alcohol or not…so, 15 g or 15 ml of fat with 14 drops of EO is about 5%. I’ll find your direct email and send you my references. check out Tisserand’s Safety Page http://tisserandinstitute.org/safety/safety-guidelines/ .2-1.5% dilutions for the face. Like I said, I will have to double about the other ingredients. Oh, right the emulsifying wax brings it up to 22mls so that’s a little over 3% on my dilution scale. will send everything over !! Still concerned about Anna though…please don’t use Cinnamon Leaf on your face!
Ok, I kind of get where you’re coming from… but you’ve made some large errors in your conversions AND you are working from a chart that is a rough guideline for dilutions by volume, while I’m working with precise weights for our ingredients in the context of this formula.
It is incorrect to assume 15g = 15mL and then move on to 14 drops = 5%. In saying that you’ve made two incorrect conversions (that g= mL and that drops are a defined and uniform measurement). 15g = 15mL ONLY if we’re talking about water, but we’re not. Oil is lighter than water, so the volume measurement would be higher. Looking in Tisserand’s book (p57) he notes “the number of drops per mL can vary from 20 to 40″—that’s a massive range! With a range like that we really cannot count on drops for any sort of precision for calculating dilution. So, from those points we can say we don’t know the volume of either carrier oils OR essential oils used in this recipe. We do have the weights, though.
When we need precision we need to work in weight, not the volume, as all these ingredients have different densities (please do try it if you have a precise scale—it’s really interesting!). This is emphasized very heavily in the Formula Botanica coursework and general formulation best practices. The chart you shared a link to is a useful starter guide, but it is just that—it says “These values are approximate” and “Does not imply that all these dilutions are safe for all essential oils in all situations” right on it. I can certainly understand why he’s provided that guideline chart—the encouraged use of undiluted EOs is definitely an issue on the internet. It looks to be based off of the lower number of drops per mL, and would be a very useful guide for somebody who does not own a precise scale.
I’m providing you with recipe specific weights and basing my calculations off of those. It’s sort of like if I told you my rent was $1000 and you said you’d seen a chart that said average rents in my area were $1500, so my rent must be $1500. Specifics matter, and while it’s good to have rough guidelines and statistics, when we’re talking about an individual recipe, those rough rules of thumb take a backseat to the specifics of an individual formula.
Cetyl alcohol would count towards the fatty content as it is a fatty alcohol. So, if you include glycerin in there we have 0.35g/27g= 1.29%. Formula Botanica guidelines include the entirety of the recipe, though, so that’s still 0.35%.
I humbly apologize… your the expert…
Made a super modified version of this cream, and it turned out to be divine….I ditched the rose water, allantoin, panthenol, cetyl alcohol, mango butter, olive squalene, argan oil, and all the essential oils, and instead added orange blossom water, left out the allantoin and panthenol, isopropyl myristate instead of the cetyl alcohol, though you could probably have used any carrier oil or wax, shea butter instead of mango, grapeseed oil instead of the olive squalene, jojoba oil instead of the argan, and did my own sweet blend of essential oils. Proud to say it worked out beautifully, although I had to add a ton of the essential oils in in order to mask the whole rancid silk peptide smell. Whoo-hoo! Looking forward to making the Cocoa Butter Body Meringue next!!!!!
How decadent! I’m sorry your silk peptides smell so rank, though 🙁 Mine have always been inoffensive in the scent department.
Yeah i finally got some preservation (struggle to choose one here in The Netherlands for quite some time). So im off to making creams again! YAY. I looove my serum, and my skin is pretty happy, but i do wonder if it would like some more hydration….
Right now i combine my serum with some toner (hydrosol/ witch hazel/ glycerine) i spray on it, hoping they work together to do a bit of the same as a cream. Sounds logic, but not sure that this true, do you?
Anyway i remember reading several times that you are very very happy with adding cream to your routine. I am wondering if this is still your favourite? Or did you create a cream you love even more in the meantime?
Woo! Congrats on the shiny new preservative 🙂
I know many people have good experiences doing watery things + serums; I typically do many watery toners/mists and a cream as well—sometimes a serum. I haven’t made or used this cream in a while simply because I am always making new things, but I do still love this one 🙂
Oh another question. Is silk peptides the same as hydrolized silk? And if not, interchangable? I read they are called hydrolized silk peptides here and then. Its a new ingredient for me and it got me confused…
They can be, because they mean different things. “Hydrolyzed” means the silk has been modified to be water soluble, while the “peptides” bit is typically an indication of particle size. Check with your supplier to find out exactly what you’re getting 🙂
Hi, would this be suitable as an eye cream? Thanks!
You can use it around your eyes (though I would recommend dropping the essential oils if you want to use it solely as an eye product), but it isn’t designed to do fancy eye cream things so if you’re looking for a high-impact eye cream, this likely isn’t it 🙂
Hey Marie, This past year I’ve been getting into DIY body products: soaps, lotions, etc. I found your Winter Solstice recipie and decided to give it a try, AMAZING! Very nourishing, but I also found it to be healing. My daughter had a bad cold and her nose became raw, she used the cream not only did it heal, but it also created a barrier from further chafing. I had a bad cold sore and the cream healed my skin quickly. Ive been using it on my lips this winter but realize that I need to put it with some beeswax to hold it. Im not really sure if this should be used on the lips, what is your thoughts? BTW, I just bougt your book, so I’ll be busy this weekend…lol.
I am so glad! Something to be wary of for use on the mouth is that many preservatives are not lip/mouth safe, including the one I have used here. You can learn more about possible alternatives here 🙂
What causes the matte like finish to this face cream? I love it, but would like it to be a little oilier after applied. Hope that makes sense. Thank you.
It’s mostly the size of the oil phase (small), though the light oils will also help. If you’re looking for something more like a cold cream I’d recommend this formula 🙂
Marie,
can you please provide the percentages please… pretty please….
I want to make this for xmas presents as I LOVE this face cream
Sorry, I don’t have the time to go back and do that, but you can do it pretty easily yourself 🙂
This is way late but in case anyone else is swanning around the comments years later and has the same question:
For this formulation, the number of grams of the ingredients minus the essential oils is 99.5. So assume the essential oils are .5g, and the whole thing is 100g. Which means that the number of grams of an ingredient is the percentage.
ie. 15g rose hydrosol = 15% rose hydrosol, 1g allantoin = 1% allantoin.
Easy peasy lotion squeazy!
I cut the essential oils because my face says no to them and because I didn’t want to do calculations based on weight/maximum recommended use (yeeesss laziness!), so I used .5g extra water for a total of 54.5g water instead.
Yup, bang on 🙂 This is how I did things ages ago—I’m very happy to have moved to just sharing the % now, it sure makes my life easier LOL.
Hi Marie,
In your experience, which ingredient(s) in this recipe would be most likely to irritate the skin? I’ve made this twice so far and both times I experienced a very light burning sensation when applying to the face. Ingredient-wise I substituted the cetyl alcohol with more mango butter and used a different preservative (Phenonip), but for the rest it’s identical to yours.
To rule some of the ingredients out I tried making your recent “Super Simple Moisturizing Lotion” which contains ingredients that are all present here. This one didn’t burn at all so I can rule out the water, glycerine, oil, emulsifying wax NF, preservative and the essential oils.
This means that the culprit is most likely to be one of the following: rose water, allantoin, silk peptides, vitamin E oil or Panthenol.
I’d love to hear your opinion about this!
My guess would be the Allantoin. Try moving it to the cool down phase as it is less likely to crystallize from cooling too fast as it has been known to do when put in the heated water phase. 😉
Hi Mary! O love your blog and website in general, so happy I have found it (accidentally actually). I have done this recipe, as I have all the ingredients on the required list, and it turned out quite well! I will definitely do it again, however, i have two concerns and would love your thought about how to avoid/resolve them in the future: 1. When I opened the jar the day after, the cream consistency seemed t be very porous and airy… not all buttery as I would imagine. In fact, when I mixed it again with a tooth stick, it got all heavier and as if finally “settled down”. and 2. – it smells terribly of some medicine! When you apply it on the skin, the actual smell weathers out after some time but it makes you sick initially put your nose into the jar! :))
I have checked all the ingredients one by one in order to identify which one may have that pharmaceutical smell, and it turns out that cetyl alcohol smells of some sort of medicine! Is this normal?
Thank you, Ilona
But she’s amazing my Mary. You’re a perfect chef.
Of course, I also made some changes because I missed some.
I did not have Allantoin and ketalic alcohol, I put Atecoron plusR. For emulsifier, i put Olivem 1000 and Phytocream.
Instead of Argan oil I put grape oil and jojoba oil.
For silk peptide I put silk protein I do not know if it is the same.
And of essential oils I had only lavender, the others were geranium and rosewood.
I called it Silky and i love it.
Sorry if my english is not good.
Many hugs and kisses from Greece.
Thank you so much. Despina.