Homemade Hand Cream!

Disclosure: My posts may contain affiliate links. You won’t pay a penny more, but I will receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

“Oh that smells good, what are you cooking?!” The Rancher asks as he walks in the door. I excitedly yell from the kitchen “hand cream!”

Pure silence………………

I’m so glad we have come to a spot in this homemade/homestead world that I am creating for us, where he doesn’t question my madness anymore. Well at least most of the time!

Today I am going to share a very simple recipe for homemade hand cream. I follow a lot of blogs myself and love reading about how to “make” something new, but hand cream always seemed out of my reach. For one, when I started this journey of natural living, I had never even heard of some of the ingredients that people used in their homemade hand creams (I know it’s sad to think I didn’t know what Shea Butter was until a couple years ago). And for two it just seemed too complicated!

I finally got the courage to try it about a year ago and now I am hooked! I buy my bulk ingredients on Amazon and I have a years’ worth of supply for all my hand cream needs! 😊 Best of all these little bad boys can be whipped up quickly and easily and make for a perfect gift when you put it into a nice container with a ribbon or label (You can print FREE labels on Avery.com/print that look professional like the one pictured below).

OK, so enough talk, here is what you will need:

½ cup Shea Butter

1/8 cup JoJoba Oil

1/8 cup Sweet Almond Oil

2 tsp arrowroot powder

10 drops of any essential oils you would like, I recommend doTERRA

**If you don’t already have essential oils and are interested in purchasing some, follow the link provided that will direct you to my doTERRA page. There I can help you with all your essential oil needs!

https://www.doterra.com/US/en/site/stephaniehaglund

First start by adding some water to a pot and bringing it to a boil. You don’t need it to be full, just about half way. Next, add all your ingredients except the essential oils and arrowroot powder into a Pyrex glass measuring cup. Your measurements don’t need to be perfect here. In fact I use just one 1/4 cup measure cup and fill it twice for the Shea Butter and dump it into the Pyrex measuring cup. I will then fill half of it with JoJoba oil and top off the other half with Sweet Almond Oil and then dump that right into the Pyrex measuring cup. Less dishes, win for me! Place the measuring cup carefully into the pot of water so you have a double boiler going on. Keep it boiling and stir your ingredients regularly until everything is completely melted. Use a wooden skewer or Popsicle stick to stir with for easy clean up!

Once all your ingredients are melted use a pot holder to remove your measuring cup of oils out of the pot. Be careful it is HOT!! Let it cool slightly so it is not piping hot. Now I know this sounds crazy, but you want the liquid to now solidify.

I know your thinking “I just melted it down, to let it get solid again?!?!?!” but stay with me, I’m not crazy I promise. Well maybe slightly crazy… but I do have a method to my madness!

Anyways…..

You can wait very very VERY patiently and let your mixture cool and solidify on the counter, you can put it into the fridge and let it solidify semi quickly or you can be like me and want projects done and completed quickly and stick it in the freezer. Now if you use the freezer just beware, you need to watch it closely or it will solidify too much and you will have to start over with re-melting your ingredients.

Don’t ask how I know this………..

Once your mixture is solid around the edges but you can push it and your fingers indent the mixture but NO LIQUID comes up when you push it in, then you are ready for the next step!

Now scrape all your ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer with your whisk attachment and add the arrowroot powder and whatever essential oils you would like. Here are some combinations of oils I have tried and love!

• Rosemary and Ginger
• Cedar Wood and Ginger (Pictured Above as Christmas gifts!)
• Peppermint
• Cinnamon and Wild Orange
• Lemongrass and Ginger

But honestly, the possibilities are endless! Throw in what you like and see how it works. My next one I make I want to try Roman Chamomile and Lavender.

Now get to whipping! Turn your mixer on to level 2 and start mixing. Stop it every couple minutes and scrape down the sides of the bowl and push out any of the hard mixture that is getting stuck in the whisk. Now you want to keep doing this until your cream is white, light, and fluffy! Once you have reached this consistency, put it into a container and enjoy!

If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer and bowl. You just won’t be able to be lazy like me and will have to hold it! 😉

These are the containers I use that I purchase on amazon…

Let me know how you like it and what essential oils you try! I always love to hear what people are making!