We all use body creams.
The primary aim of a body cream is to help retain moisture of our skin so that it remains smooth and soft even in harsh conditions such as excessive sun or cold.
India fall under a temperature zone where we experience excessive heat (temperatures climb up to 50 degree Celsius) and cold (drop to 3-4 degree Celsius).
To cater to this Indian market is flooded with creams specific to seasons – summer creams and cold creams.
Aloe vera cream came into my notice around 2-3 years ago when my mom made one from aloe vera we have.
I must say the cream stood nowhere in terms of look and fell in front of the creams in the market. It looked bland.
I was hesitant to try it first but anyways did.
It was wintering then. After a few applications, my skin felt really soft and it remained soft for longer durations too.
Initially, I only tried it on my legs but once convinced it became cream for my whole body.
While this story has nothing to do with aloe vera cream preparation but I felt I should share this because many of us have reservations about natural stuff fearing side effects.
You are not wrong in thinking that but there are lots of herbal formulas which are tried and tested and thus can be used safely.
And to be on the safe side you can always try this cream on a small skin patch and see how it goes.
Preparing your aloe vera cream
The key component of our homemade aloe vera cream is aloe vera gel. Aloe vera gel is the innermost layer of aloe vera leaf.
You get it after you remove rind (outermost layer) and latex (second layer). One great thing I found about herbal creams is that you can choose your own ingredients.
For example, there are so many creams claiming they have almond oil or coconut oil or other essential oils. When you are making your own cream you can use them (just be sure your skin is no allergic to any one of those).
Here is what we use for making our aloe vera cream. These are very standard constituents of the cream:
- 1 cup of aloe vera gel
- ½ cup of coconut oil
- ½ cup of almond oil
- 1 ounce of beeswax (natural wax produced by honey bees, this is available in market / Amazon)
- Vitamin E lubricate – 1 spoon
- Lanolin – 1 spoon (also available in market / Amazon)
- Any essential oil of your choice – 1 spoon (it is best to choose a mild one)
Once you have collected all of the above, preparing is really quick. Here are the steps:
- In a pan mix aloe vera gel, Vitamin E lubricates and lanolin. Blend them nicely.
- Warm beeswax and coconut oil a bit and then mix them along with others. Add almond oil and mix again using a processor.
- The trick is to mix in the processor till you get a uniform looking body cream. Add essential oil of your choice and mix again.
Your cream is ready!
The cream should ideally be stored in a wide-mouthed cram jar.
You can use your old cream jars for the same.
Please note coconut oil solidifies in winters and thus you may find some difficulty but it quickly melts when applied on the body due to rubbing and body heat.
You can experiment a bit with constituents of the cream to suit your requirements. The cream may not look beautiful as creams available in the market but it will do the same (even better) job at much less cost.