Making your own hand cream
Ditch the chemicals, and teach yourself (and friends!) to make your own hand cream. It’s fast, easy, fun, and the results are great! Here are instructions that use either our DIY organic hand cream kit with Israeli products (rosemary) or our DIY organic hand cream kit with Israeli products (lavender).
- Shea butter is included in the kit as the base for our hand cream. Shea butter is natural, safe, anti-inflammatory, and a great moisturizer.
- To make the hand cream more liquid, we’ll add olive oil, which also creates a hydration barrier and smooths & softens the skin.
- And finally, an essential oil adds an alluring scent and the oil’s health benefits.
Gather ingredients
For ingredients, you’ll need:
- Shea butter
- An essential oil
- Olive oil (not included in kit – any kitchen olive oil is fine)
- A jar to store the hand cream
- A stirrer such as a popsicle stick or spoon
You’ll also need a way to heat up and cool the hand cream. Continue on to the next section!
Prepare hot & cold baths
You’ll need to heat up the shea butter so it becomes a liquid, letting you mix in other ingredients. The shea butter should be heated using hot water (not the microwave!).
If you have a double boiler (a two-level pot), assemble it now. You can make the hand cream there, and transfer it to a jar at the end.
If you are like us and don’t have anything that fancy, find a large jar and pour in hot water. You want to suspend the little jar (from the kit) so it is surrounded by water but no water gets in. We put a thin towel over the jar, and hold it in place with a rubber band or tight piece of string. Let the towel sag in the middle just enough to hold the little jar surrounded by water, as shown in the photo.
In the second stage of making the hand cream, you’ll replace the hot water with ice water, to cool the shea butter until it is solid again. If you don’t have any – make some ice cubes now!
Make the hand cream
Let’s go! This part should take about 30 minutes, perfect for a party activity.
- Weigh out 30 grams (2 tablespoons) of shea butter.
2. Add 13 grams (1 tablespoon) of olive oil.
3. Boil water, and pour – slowly! – into a large jar. Suspend the jar of shea butter and olive oil in the water, as described in the previous section. Start stirring!
4. Keep stirring for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is completely liquid, as shown in the picture above.
5. Add a few drops of essential oil (it’s ok to mix a few oils). We like 5-8 drops for a light scent, but you could keep going to 10-12.
6. Pour out the hot water from the large jar (or double boiler), and replace with cold water and ice. Put back the towel + rubber band + small jar.
7. Stir for about 10 minutes, until the hand cream is thickened. You could put it in the fridge instead, but stirring makes the hand cream light and fluffy.
8. That’s it! Decorate the jar with a ribbon, stickers, etc, and enjoy your creation!