Home Made Cosmetics

Recently, I've got quite interested in making home made cosmetics. I think it must be a combination of Grow Your Own Drugs, The Apprentice soapmaking sandalwood fiasco, an article in Permaculture Magazine by Star Khechara, and the idea we've had for a couple of years but have never got round to doing: making luxurious beauty products from our own beeswax. Anyway, recently I've been looking up recipes on the web a fair bit, and today I tried it for the first time!

Of course, being me, I just suddenly decided I wanted to do it now, and went and did it: didn't bother finding a recipe, checking the store cupboard or weighing ingredients. It would either be amazing or a total disaster. "But how hard can it be?" I thought - after all my research it seemed to me that you can make just about anything from soap to lip balm to bubble bath with oil(s), water, and smelly stuff.

The first thing I did was go out into the garden and pick a load of smelly herbs: wallflowers, currant leaves, sage, lemon balm, Boles mint, fennel, chamomile.

I bunged all these in a panful of water and turned on the heat. It heated pretty gently; the water turned a cool green colour. Then I thought I'd add some of last year's lavender crop (dried) and a squeeze of lemon.

As soon as I added the lemon, the water went pink!

Anyway, I carried on heating it. It was smelling LOVELY but unfortunately I left it to boil...a stupid mistake as all the lovely fragrance vanished and I was left with an acrid and overpowering lavender scent. Oh well.

After boiling it for about 2 mins I strained it through muslin and a collander, squeezing all the juice I could from the leftover leaves.

Then I put three small ladlefuls back into the pan, with an equal amount of Tesco's cheapo sunflower oil. I turned the heat back on and melted in a few scraps of our own beeswax. After this came a fairly long period of whisking it, and being unable to decide whether I should be heating it fiercely, gently or not at all.

After a fairly long time whisking and oscillating between the three possible heat settings, I got fed up. It seemed to be emulsifying a bit, as it was turning a sort of even creamy colour, but it still looked horribly liquid. I filled a basin of cold water and put the pan in there, still whisking.

After a while longer I was completely shocked to find that it went all lumpy like curdled milk - I was just getting myself ready to throw it away! Kept whisking it, and it came out as a lovely pale, soft cream. Wow!

The 6 ladleful mixture filled about 2 jars. Having tried the cream I would say that it was a bit greasy - less oil next time perhaps, or a different sort. I'd also like it to smell nice - when the roses are out I'll use some petals, I think. But apart from that, it's pretty luscious! I'll definitely use it before and after gardening - has already completely rehydrated my cracked knuckles, and as I know that everything in it is edible, I may apply it to chapped lips too! Or a foot cream! Whatever, it's not all that bad and it's definitely useable. And the leftover herb-infused pink water concoction could make a nice addition to a pampering bath. Not bad for a first completely madcap attempt without a recipe!