Hand Cream

Since having horses I have always suffered with dry, cracked hands. All the dirt and grease from grooming works into the lines on my hands and dries out the skin, working with coarse, dusty hay, which sometimes hinds sharp brambles, hauling buckets of water around, and going from cold, wet outdoors into the warm, dry house in the winter is a recipe for split fingers. On top of that, nothing dries your skin out quite like soil and I really don't like wearing gloves in the garden because I find they make my hands feel clunky and awkward; I like to be able to feel what I'm doing when planting or weeding and getting my hands in the soil is one of the fundamental pleasures of having a garden. The bottom line is that my hands take year-round abuse and hand cream is something of a daily staple. Unfortunately most hand cream, apart from being quite expensive, is almost always sold in plastic containers. I don't think I really need to go into the whole 'why plastic is bad' debate here, so suffice it to say, finding a cheaper home-made alternative to shop-bought hand cream was a complete no-brainer.

I started trawling the internet looking for recipes that had simple, easy to get hold of natural ingredients. Bonus points if it was something I could grow myself as some point.

My first attempt was a 'whipped' hand cream using coconut oil, olive oil (bonus point because I can make my own olive oil from the land) shea butter and beeswax.

Unless you like a greasy cream, stay away from olive oil. I've found it sticks to your hands but doesn't easily absorb into your skin. Sweet almond oil is a much nicer alternative. If, like me, your hands are often dry and cracked from hard work, you can use an oil infused with herbs such as calendula, comfrey, or plantain to soothe and heal your skin.