Handmade Holidays: Soothing Skin Ointment

Handmade gifts are the best. This skin ointment makes a great holiday gift for friends or family but it is also a great gift for you.

This natural, soothing and healing ointment is great for dry skin, chapped lips or hands, and perfect for healing rashes or skin irritations. It is surprisingly simple to make and better than store-bought skin care products replete with synthetic and toxic preservatives and other additives. You don’t need any special equipment other than a pot and some glass jars for bottling the ointment. The oils and beeswax can be found at most health food stores. Make sure you choose a reputable brand.

Choose high quality, reputable essential oils, not fragrance oils as they are synthetic and are harmful to health.

Equipment needed:

• Small pot
• Small sterilized jars with lids

Directions:

In a small pot, over low heat on the stove, combine:

• 1 cup of pure (preferably organic), cold-pressed oil such as olive, almond, hazelnut, grape seed or avocado.  If choosing hazelnut or avocado oil, use in a 1:8 ration with one of the other oils mentioned as they are quite rich.
• 1 Tablespoon beeswax (available at many natural food stores)
• 10 drops of your favorite essential oils such as lavender, ylang ylang, or peppermint (see notes below to determine some of the healing properties of each oil)
• 30 drops of pure carrot essential oil (optional)

Slowly heat until the beeswax is melted. Do not let ingredients boil as heat damages the integrity of the oils. It is best to work slowly.

Whisk or stir ingredients to be sure they are blended and pour into glass moisturizer containers (available at many natural food stores). Let sit until cool.

Option:

Congestion Soothing Chest Rub: in place of the carrot oil, use eucalyptus essential oil to create a soothing vaporizing chest rub to ease sinus and lung congestion. You can omit the other essential oils and just use eucalyptus for this recipe. I made this one year for my sister for Christmas and she loved it. She kept asking me to make more.

Essential Oil Properties:

Lavender essential oil is calming, eases headaches, and soothes burns or irritated skin.

Ylang ylang is used to ease depression, insomnia, and anxiety and has a wonderful sweet smell perfect as an alternative to perfume.

Peppermint is uplifting, energizing, and helps with headaches.

Subscribe to my free e-mag World’s Healthiest News to receive monthly health news, tips, recipes and more. Follow me on Twitter @mschoffrocook and Facebook.  Copyright Michelle Schoffro Cook, PhD.