Homemade Luxurious Moisturizing Cream for Your Face

I ran out of my homemade face cream a few weeks ago and I was limping along using an over-the-counter brand I had bought from an aesthetician.  It's a nice cream, but super expensive and I like when I can whip up my own.  While the investment in oils up front can seem pricey, once you have them, their uses seem pretty endless.

I finally found a few spare minutes today to whip up an easy moisturizing cream recipe.  This moisturizer is pretty customizable depending on what oils you want to put in it.  Start with the moisturizer base and then add the essential oils you want from there.

Takes a quick 30 minutes.  Yields approximately (2) 4oz jars.

Here's what you need:

Water ratio (30%)
6 tsp of Rose Water, Purified or Boiled water

Natural Emulsifier (10%)
2 1/2 tsp. organic beeswax pellets

Moisturizing Cream Oil Base (60%)
1/4 Cup Almond, Coconut or Jojoba Oil (moisturizing)
4 tsp Shea Butter
1/8 Cup Apricot (soothing, absorbes easily)
1 tsp. Argan oil (ultra moisturizing, deters acne)
1 tsp Vitamin E oil (anti-oxidant, fights against environmental damaging effects)

Essential Oils (Optional.  If you omit, increase your oils above by an additional 4 tsp. total.)

6 Drops Melaleuca Oil (also known as tea tree oil) (anti-fungal, helps prevent acne)
18 drops of these essential oils:
I prefer Frankincense, Orange, Lavender, Rose, Sandalwood in any combination that smells great.

Orange oil (uplifting), Frankincense (fights premature aging), Lavender (treats acne, calming), Rose (antimicrobial, increases skin's permeability), Sandalwood (astringent - tightens skin, soothing).  Google "essential oils and skin" for more benefits information.

Here's how you make it:

Start by sterilizing your glass jars by placing them in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Lay them out to dry on a clean towel.

In a 2 cup glass measuring bowl, add the beeswax and the first two ingredients of the cream oil base.  Heat (you can microwave to save time) until the beeswax is melted.  About 3-4 minutes, checking and stirring regularly.

Add the rest of your base ingredients, give a quick stir and pour in your sterilized jar containers. (You'll add your essential oils later.)

Once your melted cream mixture is in your jars, mix with an electric hand mixer on medium speed for 2-3 minutes.  (I like to use one beater and my hand mixer because the size is just right to get into my 4oz. jars.). Now add your essential oils.

Let your cream cool for about 15 minutes.

Then whip the cream again with the mixer on high for another 3-5 minutes.  The beeswax will emulsify turning your cream into delicious smelling heaven.

I place extra jars of moisturizer in the refrigerator until I need them, then take them out a day ahead to bring them to room temperature.

These little jars of cream make excellent Christmas gifts.  Go ahead. Get a head start.

Enjoy.

Charlene

Video Tutorial: My Quick DIY Heavenly Citrus Cleaning Scrub

Today I'm in my scrubs and I just have this itch to clean! I love a clean house and I love cleaning. And I usually love it even more on an overcast day.  Call me crazy.

While I'm working away, I thought I would just take a quick video to show you how I make my Quick Heavenly Citrus Cleaning Scrub.  This scrub is fresh, has a little bit of scrubbing power and makes everything sparkly clean.  I also plop it in the washing machine tub as it is filling just before I launder our sheets.

This is the only scrub that is used to clean my entire house.  From kitchen to baths, greasy stoves, refrigerators and tile floors to tile countertops.  

First, start with:

• White Distilled Vinegar
• Baking Soda
• Essential Oils (Citrus is preferred along with doTerra's Purity or On-Guard.

Here's why I like this paste:

• There's nothing harmful in it making it safe to use around children, pets and septic systems.
• Vinegar is tough on bacteria and mildew and has the ability to brighten and whiten.
• Baking Soda is a mild alkalei and helps to dissolves dirt and grease.  
• When mixed with a little bit of vinegar, baking soda is a gentle scrubbing agent that is tough on dirt, gentle on your home.
• Essential oils have dissinfectant, antifungal and antiviral properties.  They give the baking soda and vinegar scrub a huge boost and make it great smelling.

Here's the ratio I use to make the paste  (these are approximate - use a general estimation and you can't go wrong):

3/4 Cup Baking Soda

1/2 Cup of Vinegar

3-4 Drops of Citrus Essential Oil

Check out my video below.

(This video was waaaaay impromptu- apologies for the skinny video width!)

Once you have a few couple of oils in your stash, there is so much that you can do with them. Higher quality essential oils are purer and highly potent.  Higher quality means more effective. They go a lot further making them much more cost-effective in creating your own products than what you can buy at the store.

Where do you start?  I recommend starting with 3-4 basics:  Lemon, Lavendar, Peppermint and Clove are a few of my favorites.  With these in your home, you can make cleaning products, promote restful sleep, make beauty products and promote healthy dental hygiene.  Check out some of my other recipes here on the blog that use these oils.

To get more information on how to start with essential oils, you can email me.

Have a great rest of your week.

Charlene

Summer Fun and Homemade Granola

I've spent most of the summer away from home.  Between the Colorado house renovation and spending time with friends and family on some fun trips, the summer is winding down and I'm feeling like fall looks promising for a little slow time.  Notice I didn't say rest, because that would imply that I know how to do that.  Slower fastness, I can do.

Last week we spent time in Colorado working on mom's house.  When I am there, I feel so many emotions.  Sadness, joy, love, homesickness... all of it.  It's hard to explain really.  I feel close to mom and dad.  Even though I feel relief and am energized by the progress of the renovation, I get sad over things like the 3 kinds of carpet, dad's recliner and the old brown paneling.

Here's the kitchen as I've always known it.

 The photo above was taken just after the estate sale in May.

Here is the kitchen at the end of July.

And the kitchen when we left on Sunday.

Small progress, but getting there slowly....

The rest of the house is primarily finished.  The rebuild of the bathrooms and the updating of the kitchen was by far, the largest amount of work in the house. We're hoping to have the tiling of the kitchen counters finished by the end of next week.  We'll wrap up the interior renovation with all new flooring soon. Hopefully.

The renovation has been therapeutic for me.  The physical work that we haven't contracted out has been exhausting but rewarding.  The hammering, sawing and prying has allowed me to cry out some good tears when I've needed to, it's offered comfort when I needed it and given me confidence when I felt like rolling over into the "I don't want to be an adult anymore" fetal position.

In between the construction, there were a couple of days that Noah and I took a break and did some hiking. 

Getting to our hiking spots was familiar. I travelled this road a lot with my dad on our way to fish when I was little. Good memories.

I think I've always really liked the outdoors.  Dennis and I used to try to hike with our kids a lot when they were little. Noah still loves it.

The fresh air was sooo good.  Cleansing for my head. For my soul.

Here's a picture of us at Treasure Falls.  T/F is located at the south end of Wolf Creek pass not to far from Pagosa Springs.

One of the best things about Colorado is spending time with my sister.  She feels like home to me and she makes me good food!  Here's a recipe that we made - Alling House-Made Granola I'll call it.

For this healthy and yummy recipe, you'll need:

3 Cups of Oatmeal (like the Quaker Old Fashioned kind)
3/4 Cup Brown Sugar
2-3 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon
1 Cup Coconut
1/2 Cup Dried Fruit  (raisins, apricots, or any other of your choice)
1/4 Cup Canola Oil
1/4 Cup Honey (I prefer honey local to my area)
1 Tbsp Vanilla

Makes about 4 Cups of Granola.  Takes about 20 minutes to make.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Start with the oatmeal and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl.  Stir.

Then add your raisins and coconut and brown sugar.  (My sister likes to mix fast. She's zippy that way. Sorry my pictures aren't quite step by step.)

Give another good stir.

Next add the canola oil.  The oil acts like a binder to get it all to stick.

Now add your honey, honey.

And lastly... but not leastly... the vanilla.  Give another stir.

Fold your granola mixture onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes stirring halfway through baking.

[PRETEND WE HAVE A PICTURE HERE.  A PICTURE OF CHOPPED WALNUTS PILED ON THE GRANOLA.]

This is where Sally got ahead of me.  Again.  Take your baking sheet out of the oven and add the chopped nuts.  Stir it up (you know you like to) and pop the baking sheet back into the oven.  Bake for another 10 minutes, again stirring every 5 minutes.

Pull your granola out of the oven and smell it.  A big whiff.  It's that good.

TIP: Sally recommends you remove your granola from the hot pan pronto after baking to keep it from cooking on the baking sheet. It browns pretty quickly.

The granola is great as a snack on its own, but I like to throw it on top of low fat Greek yogurt with a smidge of honey and a whole lot of fresh fruit.

Pretend this is a smidge of honey.

Delish...

Have you ever fasted for any particular reason?  I'm considering it.  I'll tell you why in my next post.

Charlene

Fresh and Fruity Strawberry, Pear Walnut Summer Salad

Rain and more rain.  We've gotten a lot lately here in NM and I think we're all breathing a sigh of relief.  Normally around this time each summer, our forests are crispy, dry and on fire.

Afternoon rains have made our garden happy.

Doesn't this little budding green pepper look like he's smiling?

The humidity and smell of rain has also made my running happy...

And our village ditches fuller.

Lots of water for lots of irrigation for lots of yummy garden produce!

Speaking of garden, I made a great summer salad last week.

What I like about the salad is that when we are in the throes of dual sports with Noah, I can prep all the salad components ahead of time so we only have to assemble at dinner time.

Easy dinner, healthy and super delicious!  I served our salad without meat, but if you prefer, a grilled chicken breast would be superb on the side.

PS: This is a flexible recipe meaning that you can substitute several of the ingredients depending on what you have on hand.  Healthy, flexible and fast.  What's not to love?

To make your Fresh Fruit and Nut summer salad, start here:

Fresh Fruit and Nut Summer Salad
Prep Time (20-30 min)
Yields: 2-4 Servings

Tip:  This recipe works great for small children that aren't inclined to eat a salad. Just serve the fruit individually with a side of yogurt.  (Mix a little honey in the yogurt to chase the bitterness away.)  You can also add a cheese stick and sliced chicken breast to their plate. Viola!

For the salad:

• 4 Cups Salad Greens. You can use just about any and a combination thereof.  I happened to use spring greens and butter lettuce.
• 1/2 Cup each of 2-3 kinds of fresh fruit, sliced where appropriate.  I recommend any of the following: strawberries, pears, apples, blueberries
• Feta (or other crumbly cheese) for sprinkling

For the roasted, glazed nuts:

• 1 1/2 Cups of Walnuts, Almonds or Pecans.  (I used walnuts.)
• 1/4 Cup of Powered Sugar
• 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp. Cayenne Pepper Powder (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. Salt (optional)

For the fruity summer dressing (Depending on how much dressing your family uses, you may need to double the recipe if desired):

• 1/4 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1 Cup Unsweetened, Plain Greek Yogurt (I like Fage', but any will do)
• 1 Tablespoon Honey (I like using local because it helps my family keep seasonal allergies away.)
• 1 Tablespoon Fruit Preserves, Jam or Jelly (I recommend raspberry or strawberry)
• 1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Dash of salt and Pepper

Preparation

Roasted, glazed nuts

Mix the powdered sugar, cinnamon (and cayenne pepper) in a bowl.

Blanch the nuts in boiling water for 1 minute.

Drain the nuts and immediately toss them into the sugar mixture to coat.

Lay the nuts on a lightly oiled or buttered baking sheet and roast at 350 degrees until golden brown (about 8-10 minutes).

Set the nuts aside to cool.


Dressing

Blend all the ingredients in a blender or mix with a mixture for just a minute or so until smooth.

Place your dressing in the refrigerator to keep cool.


Salad

Wash and chop your greens and fruit.

Assembly Time!

Layer salad, dressing and then your fruit, nuts and cheese.

It tastes every bit as good as it looks.

Enjoy.

~Charlene

Spring Rain, Homemade Mosquito Repellent & Copycat Earth Paste Toothpaste Recipes

I hope your Memorial Day weekend was a great one.

Saturday I got the inside of my house in order so I could spend most of the rest of the weekend outside.

Sunday morning I took an early morning walk with a good friend.

The afternoon rains here in my part of New Mexico have been terrific.

We haven't used the irrigation system in a whole week!

You can almost smell the fresh after-it-rains smell just by looking at this picture.

On Monday we had a rainy day reprieve so we spent it working in the yard.

The guys worked on the soil prep and irrigation..

and I relished over colorful seed packets.

When we finished with the garden, my helpers and I drove over to Village Mercantile to pick up some replacement shrubs for the few plants that didn't survive the winter.

I don't know what this plant is called, but it's supposed to bloom beautiful blue flowers. That's how I pick 'em.  Colorful.

I finished the rest of the planting just in time for the afternoon rain.

This week we're restarting soccer.  Again.  For the 745th day this year.  We had a whole 2 week's break.  With all the rain we've been getting, the fields are thick with juicy blood sucking mosquitos.  To save myself and the rest of my peeps, I made some insect repellent.  I'm positive it's the best homemade insect repellent on the planet!  It's not sticky, stinky or full of deet.  This recipe works so well and smells so good that you'll be the most popular gal at practice.  Or camp. Or your own back yard.  Whichever.

DEET-FREE MOSQUITO REPELLENT

You need:

4 Tablespoons Vodka or Witch Hazel (Buy Witch Hazel here (or ABQ local here)
20 Drops doTERRA On Guard Blend (Buy it here)
5 doTERRA Lemongrass (Buy it here)
5 doTERRA Lavender (Buy it here)
5 doTERRA Peppermint (Buy it here)
Distilled or Boiled Water that has cooled
1 (4 oz) Glass Spray Bottle

Mix the first 5 ingredients in the bottle and give it a gentle shake.  Add water until liquids reach level just below bottle neck.  Give another gentle shake.

This insect repellent has a shelf life of 6 months.

COPYCAT EARTHPASTE TOOTHPASTE
Yields about a month's worth of toothpaste.

Natural toothpaste is so much healthier than the major name brands.  The mucous membranes beneath our tongue absorb everything in our mouths and super quick.  This absorption is a direct path direct to our bloodstream and after learning this, I decided the stuff in my major brand toothpaste wasn't cutting it.

Earthpaste is a great brand that comes in many flavors.  The Lemon Twist variety is a kids' favorite at my house.  I've listed the recipe below.  If you prefer to buy Earthpaste rather than make the copycat recipe, you can buy it here or here.

You need:

2 Tablespoons Bentonite Clay (Buy it here or ABQ local here)
    (Note: Bentonite Clay color varies.  If you prefer a white toothpaste, opt for
    a white clay (vs. gray) such as the Redmond pictured above.)
2-4 Tablespoons of Distilled Water (or boiled water that has cooled)
2 Drops of doTERRA Melaleuca Oil
12 Drops of doTERRA Lemon Oil
5 Drops of Lemon Liquid Stevia (approx. to taste)
Pinch of Redmond Real Salt (see below)

Mix the Bentonite clay and water.  Add the oils and liquid Stevia.  Store your toothpaste in a 4oz glass jar.  You can also store it in a zip seal snack size bag with one bottom corner snipped off.

If your paste dries out, add water to rehydrate.

OTHER VARIATIONS OF THIS PASTE:

DELICIOUS CINNAMON/CLOVE TOOTHPASTE
2 Tablespoons Bentonite Clay
2-4 Tablespoons of Distilled Water (or boiled water that has cooled)
2 Drops of doTERRA Melaleuca Oil
9 Drops of doTERRA OnGuard Oil Blend
3 Drops of doTERRA Clove Oil
5 Drops of Cinnamon Liquid Stevia (approx. to taste)
Itty Bitty Pinch of Remond Real Salt

MINTY FRESH MINT TOOTHPASTE
2 Tablespoons Bentonite Clay
2-4 Tablespoons of Distilled Water (or boiled water that has cooled)
12 Drops of doTERRA Peppermint Oil
5 Drops of Liquid Stevia
Itty Bitty Pinch of Remond Real Salt

Ready to get started with your own oils?  Yell "sign me up!"  and then Click here.

Enjoy the rest of your week.