An organic, unscented, uncoloured cream base — a blank canvas. Use it as it is, or add your own actives, essential oils or extracts to make something that suits your skin. Formulated with 99% ingredients of natural origin, including aloe vera juice and organic sweet almond and sesame oils. Light, non-greasy and non-sticky.
Allergens — please read before buying, and before giving it to anyone
This cream contains SWEET ALMOND, which is a tree nut, and SESAME. Both are among the fourteen allergens that must be declared under EU food law, and both are significant allergens on skin as well as in food.
It matters especially here for two reasons. A neutral base is exactly the sort of thing people make up for other people, including children — so the person using it may never see the ingredient list. And there is a body of research, going back to work published in 2003, suggesting that exposure of damaged or eczematous skin to nut and seed proteins may be associated with sensitisation. The evidence is still debated and this is not a reason to fear a well-made cream. It is a firm reason not to use nut or seed oil products on broken, weeping or eczematous skin, and to raise it with a doctor if there is a strong family history of allergy.
What a cosmetic base can honestly claim
Plant oils in a base cream are routinely listed as "moisturizing, soothing, nourishing and protective". Soothing and protective are claims a cosmetic base cannot make under EU cosmetics law, so they are not made here.
What is true: it is a well-made emulsion of water and plant oils with no fragrance, no colour and nothing to react to beyond the oils themselves. That is exactly what you want from a base.
The rule that matters if you are customising it
This is the single most important thing about DIY cosmetics and it is almost never said, so here it is plainly.
Do not add water, hydrosol, aloe juice, tea, milk or any other watery liquid to this cream. A finished cream contains a preservative system calculated for its own water content. Adding more water dilutes that system below the point where it works, and you have made an unpreserved, water-containing product — which is a growth medium. Mould and bacteria in a jar you are putting on your face is not a theoretical risk, and it will not always be visible.
What you can safely add:
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Essential oils — at 0.5% to 1% for a face cream (that is 3 to 6 drops in 30 g), and lower for oils that carry their own limit. Bergamot must stay at or below 0.4% on skin that sees daylight. Never use phenol-rich oils like clove, thyme thymol or cinnamon on a face.
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Oil-soluble actives — vitamin E, a few drops of a carrier or macerated oil, an oil-based extract.
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Small quantities of oil-soluble cosmetic powders, mixed in thoroughly.
Work clean. Sterilise the jar and the spatula with alcohol, never put fingers into the pot you are mixing in, make small batches, label them with the date and the contents, and keep them in the fridge. Patch test any new mixture on your inner arm and wait 24 hours before putting it on your face.
Using it as it is
Perfectly good on its own. Fragrance-free and colour-free makes it a sensible choice for reactive skin, for a face that is fed up with everything, or simply for anyone who does not want to smell of a product. Note the period-after-opening symbol on the pack and keep the lid on.
Weleda
Daki saboaria artesanal
Fleurance Nature
Propos'Nature
