Hand cream recipes that moisturize and nourish the skin

Hand cream is easily made at home. Most of them involve the use of beeswax as it is one of the best natural ingredients that lock in the moisture and protect the skin of the hands from drying and damage.

Before using a cream, you should use a hand scrub in order to remove the dead skin cells and open up the pores so that the cream can penetrate better and deeper.

Start with this recipe:

Apricot Hand Scrub

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup of brown sugar
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons of apricot oil

Preparation

Combine all the ingredients
Immediately rub the mix into the hands and continue gently rubbing and massaging
Rinse with warm water and pat dry

Brown sugar is a universally used ingredient in any scrub. Body scrubs use it and so do foot scrubs. Brown sugar is full of molasses which makes it brown and moist. Its grains are smaller than of regular, white sugar which makes it a perfect exfoliant. It is not too harsh on the skin, it is gentle and easily sloughs off dead skin cells. It smells great, warms the skin up, and leaves it smooth and luscious.

Once you are done with the hand scrub, choose from one of the following hand creams:

Coconut hand cream

Ingredients

1/4 cup of beeswax
1/4 cup coconut oil
3 tablespoons of baby oil
1/3 cup of glycerin

Preparation

Melt the beeswax and coconut oil over a double boiler
Add the rest of the ingredients and heat until the mix is smooth. This will take around 5 minutes
Pour into a clean container. The mix will harden as it cools

This recipe yields 1 cup.

Almond hand cream

Ingredients

1/4 cup beeswax
1/2 cup of almond oil
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/4 cup of rosewater

Preparation

Melt the beeswax and coconut oil over a double boiler
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until the mass is consistent
Pour into a clean container, and let it cool down. The mix will harden

This recipe yields about half a cup.

This one if my favorite:

Cocoa butter hand moisturizer

Ingredients

2 cups of warm water
1 1/2 cups of glycerin
1/2 ounces spirits of ammonia
1/2 ounces cocoa butter
1/2 teaspoon of boric acid
1 cup of stearic acid

Preparation

Using a glass pan, combine the cocoa butter, glycerin and stearic acid.
Melt over a low heat
Remove from the heat and add ammonia
Stir until the mass becomes milky
Add boric acid to warm water
Mix using a beater set at high for 10 minutes
You could add a drop or two of your essential oil to perfume the mass
Pour into a plastic container and set aside for 2 weeks, it needs to age before it can be used.

This recipe yields 1 1/2 quarts.

Apricot hand moisturizer

Ingredients

6 dried apricots
1 ounce grated beeswax
2 cups of water
1 cup of apricot oil
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/2 cup of aloe vera gel
5 Vitamin E capsules (broken open)

Preparation

Using a saucepan, bring water and dried apricots to a boil
Simmer for 20 minutes
Set aside to cool down
Using a double boiler, combine beeswax, apricot oil and coconut oil
Stir constantly for about 10 minutes
Pour this into a glass container and leave aside
Blend the water and apricots until smooth
Strain using a gauze and discard the solids. Pour the liquid back into the blender
Add aloe vera gel and Vitamin E capsules
Blend and slowly drizzle the beeswax mix into the blender and continue with blending until the mix resembles frosting
Pour the mixture into glass jars and store in a cool and dry place. The mix will harden as it cools down
Apply to hands every time you wash them