 |
Home chefs, gardeners, and just about anyone in cold climates during the winter can regularly have problems with dry, cracked cuticles. This soothing balm is packed with a herbal blend that will mend those cracks and make hands soft again.
Ingredients:
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tbsp sweet almond oil
- 1 tbsp hemp oil
- 1 tbsp mango butter
- 1½ tbsp grated beeswax
- 10 drops lavender essential oil
- 5 drops peppermint essential oil
- 5 drops eucalyptus essential oil
- 5 drops fennel essential oil
- 5 drops clary sage essential oil
Equipment
- Double boiler
- Small spatula or metal spoon
- 5 small metal tins or pots
Instructions:
1. Melt the mango butter, oils and beeswax in the double boiler.
2. Remove from heat, add essential oils, and blend well.
3. Pour into pots and leave untouched to set. If you are using this as a cuticle balm, small lip balm pots are best. Otherwise use 2 larger size pots/tins and use it as a hand salve.
Thanks for visiting the weekend project. While it won’t take a whole weekend to make this simple balm, be sure to check out all of the other Handmade Holiday Gifts you can tackle this weekend. Here are just a few to get you started:
Just when I thought that I was going to have to fold my cuticles over and wear them like fingerless gloves you came to the rescue! Cheers for this wonderful sounding cream. After a hard days slog in the garden trying to reclaim some ground from the advancing weeds and the jungle species here on Serendipity Farm in Northern Tasmania there is nothing like the simple act of washing your hands and applying some deliciously scented hand cream to make everything right with the world again :). I know what I am going to give my fellow hard slogging gardener mates this Christmas :)
With all of those scented oils, I bet this smells amazing. What a great Christmas gift idea.
Potatoes are easy to grow, but they prefer cool weather so you should try to get them into the ground at the right time. You can order seed potatoes through mail-order garden companies or buy them at local garden centers or hardware stores. (You could use supermarket potatoes, but be aware they have probably been treated with chemicals to inhibit sprouting, so they may not grow well.) Store your seed potatoes in the refrigerator.
Where can I buy the ingredients? My cuticle is in need of rescue.
Yannie, I get this questions a lot so I am making up kits. They will be available very soon. Keep in touch or follow us through Facebook, sign up for the Garden Therapy Newsletter or follow our RSS feed to hear about it as soon as they are launched.
so lovely!!
Where did you get your small tin containers from?
Hi Rain, you can but them online for $.98 each here: http://amzn.to/VwZtCj
The shipping price is the same for 1 or 30, so it makes sense to buy a bunch at one time. You can use them for lip balm too!
Can I leave the Eucalyptus oil out? My husband is allergic to the plant…
Johane, go ahead, leave it out! It will still be wonderful.
Hi! I look forward to trying this one. A few questions though, could I use shea butter instead of the Mango butter? What are the properties of the Mango butter and the hemp oil? I only ask because they are the only ones I don’t have and I don’t want to run out and buy them if I can use something I already have ;) What would be a good substitute for the hemp oil? Thank you.
Hi Elizabeth, both the mango butter and hemp oil are very moisturizing so good for using just a little as you would on your cuticles. I can not say how substitutions would work, as for me these recipes are trial and error. Why not try it with shea butter and perhaps just more of the sweet almond oil and see how it turns out. It may not end up being right for cuticles, but if you like it, then you could use it as a lip butter or a heel butter instead. Or who knows, it could be even better! I find the shea butter to be a bit gritty at times, so I prefer the mango butter, but that is just through my own recipe trials.
Thank you. I just bought some Kokum butter, I might try that as well. I will let you know how it goes!