Green Tea and Spearmint Moisturizing Lotion

Back to basics.

I posted recently how to make body butter and I wanted to do a bit more research to come up with a much lighter blend to moisturize while still feeding your skin with basic good-for-you ingredients. I am introducing you to a couple of new ingredients here; Stearic Acid and Emulsifying Wax.  These are "binding agents" that will hold the water and oil together.  Don't worry, these two products are natural and made from vegetables.  Remember to only use ingredients found at a reputable source, such as Mountain Rose Herbs. 

Green tea is one of my favorite drinks, so that was an easy choice.  Then I decided on the grape seed oil in this recipe because I love that it is light, not greasy, and so easily absorbed. It's excellent for problem skin. Grape seed oil has an astringent property, if applied regularly on the skin, it helps in skin tightening and toning. Who doesn't want that? It also provides nourishment to the skin and aids in skin repair. It contains linoleic acid, an polyunsaturated fatty acid, which is an essential component of the cell membrane. Its ability to lock in the moisture and repair the tissues, makes grape seed oil very useful and really effective as a great skin moisturizer. Because it's so easily absorbed, there are hardly any oil residues left once applied. I love that part!  
 
Note: people allergic to grapes are advised to avoid any grape seed extract.  

Green Tea and Spearmint Moisturizing Lotion

1-cup of cold brewed green tea

3/4-cup grape seed oil

1-tablespoon stearic acid

2-tablespoons emulsifying wax

20 drops of spearmint essential oil

In a double boiler, melt the grape seed oil, stearic acid, and emulsifying wax and heat to 180-degrees.  In a separate pan, warm the green tea to 120-degrees. Then put in the blender with the essential oil and turn it on.  Remove the circle knob on the top so you can add the oil through the hole now.  Blend at a high speed until you have a light white creamy mixture, for about 2 minutes, (it will thicken a little more once cooled).  Pour in to clean glass jars or bottles.  This yields about 2 cups.  Shelf life will be 6 months refrigerated, and 3 months at room temperature.

Keep in mind that you do not want to put the lid on your glass jars until it has cooled completely. Condensation can gather under the lid, and cause bacteria to grow. You can avoid this by placing a small piece of oil cloth on top to absorb any condensation.  Make this recipe in small batches (as shown above) so that it can be used rather quickly, like within a few months, because there is no preservative in it. Mold can be present and grow in products before you even see it!  I am working on a recipe now that has natural preservatives included that are easy to find so stay tuned ...

I hope you like this as much as I do and let me know how it works out for you!