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If you want to prepare a rich, softening balm for dry skin, we bring you a recipe that combines vegetable oils and butters providing the skin with intensive hydration and protection against water loss.You will definitely fall in love with this balm if you have dry skin on your elbows, soles of the feet, hands or knees.
The base for making the balm for dry skin is Vegeline – vegetable petroleum jelly. This raw material gives the balm a rich consistency and at the same time helps to create a protective film on the skin, which prevents further dehydration. To reduce the feeling of greasiness, other raw materials such as starch or alkyl benzoate were used, which make the application of the product to the skin more pleasant.
Do you want to make the production of your balm for dry skin easier? You are in the right place!For heating the raw materials in a water bath, choose a container that is sufficiently wide and is also suitable for mixing – it has a rounded bottom, for example a metal or heat-resistant plastic bowl. The cooling time will differ depending on the amount of product you will be making. However, do not leave the mixture in the refrigerator or freezer overnight – the balm will already be too hard to whip. It is enough that there is no liquid mixture left at the bottom of the container.You can also speed up cooling by first leaving an empty metal bowl to cool in the freezer. Then start to pour the still hot mixture, after removing it from the water bath, in small portions along the walls of the cooled bowl. The mixture will start to solidify almost immediately. Later, however, you will need to use a spatula to get the mixture from the walls to the whisks of the mixer.When adding starch to the mixture, it is important to proceed gradually. It is good to switch off the mixer, stir a portion of the starch with a spoon into the mixture, mix with the mixer, and repeat this process several times until you have added all the starch into the mixture. If you sprinkle the starch while mixing with the mixer running, it may happen that the mixer stirs up the starch and disperses it into the surroundings. It is good to store the finished product away from sources of direct sunlight and heat. Dark glass jars are suitable, since the mixture is not liquid and would be difficult to dispense from another container. The advantage is that as long as the oils and butters in the product have not oxidised and no water (for example from wet hands) has got into the product, it can still be used. Since no water is included in the recipe, the product does not require a preservative.
Below you will find information about the properties of the individual raw materials in the recipe. You will also find out more about their possible substitutions or ways to tailor the balm exactly to your needs.
To create a rich consistency of the balm for dry skin, the vegetable petroleum jelly Vegeline was used. However, this is not its only role. Thanks to its content of vegetable fats, it can hydrate very dry skin excellently by creating a protective film on it, which prevents further water loss from the skin and in turn helps the other components to penetrate the skin better. This petroleum jelly is of purely vegetable origin, without paraffins or other substances derived from petroleum.You will appreciate Vegeline especially if you often have to wash or disinfect your hands, and therefore have dry and cracked skin. If you would like a less rich balm that spreads a little more easily, reduce the proportion of Vegeline in the recipe and replace it with selected oils or butters.
An excellent butter for hydrating the skin is cocoa butter. This butter melts already at body temperature and thus facilitates the application of creams or balms. In addition, if you choose the unrefined version of this butter, you can also enjoy the pleasant chocolate aroma that accompanies cocoa butter. Cocoa butter also contributes to the richness of the balm, therefore reducing its content in the recipe will cause the product to be more liquid and easier to apply. You can replace this butter with other vegetable butters, but each substitution will result in a certain change in the consistency of the product.
The advantage of the neutral oil MCT Caprylis is the fact that this oil is extremely stable and only minimally undergoes oxidation. Thanks to this, you can enjoy your products for longer. In addition, this oil is colourless and odourless, so the other components of the product can stand out. Of course, MCT Caprylis can be replaced by another vegetable oil of your choice. You can also choose a combination of several oils or increase their proportion in the recipe if you want a balm that is more creamy and easier to apply to the skin.
The main component reducing the greasiness of the finished balm for dry skin is rice starch. This type of starch is extremely gentle to the skin, which is why it is also often used in baby powders or dry shampoos. Rice starch can be replaced with any other starch, try for example corn starch.If the product seems to you not nourishing and oily enough, reduce the dose of starch in the recipe. Conversely, you can increase the content of starch in the recipe at the expense of Vegeline. However, it should be borne in mind that rice starch contributes to the richness of the product.
Alkyl benzoate is a raw material based on oil that perfectly complements the other components of the product. This substance is used to replace part of the vegetable oils, since it is well absorbed by the skin and does not leave a greasy feeling. If you do not have alkyl benzoate at hand, you can replace this substance with vegetable oils, especially those that are well absorbed by the skin, such as almond oil or apricot oil.
To keep the oils and fats used in the balm recipe fresh for longer, tocopheryl acetate was used. This is a form of vitamin E, which is a fat-soluble vitamin with antioxidant properties. Its ability to scavenge free radicals and thus fight oxidation will be appreciated not only by our skin, but also by the other raw materials in the product. Thanks to vitamin E, the final stage of oxidation, when oils and fats change colour and acquire an unpleasant odour, is delayed.Tocopheryl acetate is sensitive to heat, so add it only to the cooled mixture. A possible substitute is tocopherol, 96% vitamin E.
The balm for dry skin obtained a fresh fragrance thanks to the use of essential oil of corn mint. Essential or aromatic oils are a great way to fragrance products in a natural way. You can replace the mint essential oil with another type of these oils, but it is good to follow the recommended dosage (see the IFRA document for the product).Another option is to omit any perfuming or to choose fragrance oils, which are a synthetic substitute for essential oils. These oils provide an even wider palette of fragrances, so you can also reach for various fruity scents.
As mentioned, you can experiment with homemade recipes to achieve the desired properties. However, the final result can be influenced by many factors, such as humidity, temperature, quality of raw materials or their storage. Before you use any raw material to make a cosmetic product, get acquainted with its properties, recommended dosage, storage conditions and safe handling. Each raw material can have the potential to trigger an allergic reaction in sensitive individuals, therefore before using the product we recommend finding out whether you are not allergic to any of the raw materials or the overall product, for example by a skin test. If you have very sensitive or very acne-prone skin, or if you have other skin and health problems, we recommend that you consult a medical professional before applying a new product to the skin, whether it is a homemade cosmetic product, a pure raw material or a commercially available product.
We thank the wonderful Ivana Jačalová for the excellent contribution with instructions for making a balm for dry skin. Have you created it with us? If you have comments, experiences or questions that arose while reading or making our tutorial on the blog, write to us at marketing@handymade.sk and we will gladly answer you.Until we see each other again with a new article or tutorial, have a beautiful and creative day.
Until soaping, friends.
