A few months ago I became obsessed with creating the perfect skin care regimen for myself. I was very unhappy with my face. Something had happened: first, some hormonal issues that produced some ugly red spots. Then, I had just realized that my favorite skin cream, which I buy in bulk from Romania every other year and keep in the fridge and use religiously for every skin problem, as a night cream and day cream too, this fantastic product, although largely clean, is based on petroleum jelly. Now, petroleum jelly doesn’t seem to be too harmful–on the EWG Skin Deep Cosmetic Database (one of the best resources for checking the harmful ingredients in your day-to-day cosmetics, which is why this is my favorite organization to support) it is listed as a 2 toxicity level, on a scale from 0 to 5. This is not too bad. But it comes from petroleum, and although a natural resource, petroleum use is harmful in many ways for the environment. I would prefer to use on my skin products that grow under the sun, products that are not too far removed from the dinner table either.
So I started my research and my squirreling of little bottles in my little fridge. I made one combination of oils for nighttime and one for daytime. For daytime I use apricot kernel oil with argan, tamanu and calendula oil. Apricot oil is a light carrier oil, although it also contains essential fatty acids good for the skin. Argan oil is quite popular right now. It is produced from the argan tree nuts almost exclusively by cooperatives of women in Morocco, where the tree originates. Argan oil is very rich in vitamin E, anti-inflamatory, UV-protectant and healing for the skin. Calendula oil is my favorite because it is used in my part of the world. Calendula flowers grow abundantly in Romania and are a common ingredient in many health products. I can swear that it heals anything. Tamanu oil is another magical ingredient that has anti-aging and healing effects on the skin.
Look at all the bottles and jars. It makes me feel like a crafty little witch.
For the nighttime use I made a mixture of the same argan oil, with rosehip seed oil and rose otto oil. Rosehip seed is meant for rejuvenating aging skin, just like the rose otto oil, except that rose otto is much more expensive, so I use just a bit of that, mainly for the smell. I think that rosehip seed oil is miraculous and simply erases wrinkles. It barely seems real.
Natural oils and ingredients for any natural products are easy to find these days, and the fun of creating your own concoctions along with the guilt-free use are definitive arguments for me in favor of homemade cosmetics.
If you have tried making your own skin lotions, please let me know about it. There is so much to learn and I can never have enough of this topic. I bet some of you do, though, so I am going to stop with this now and quietly take off on my broom.
