Tutorial for making a Natural Healing Cream for Eczema and Psoriasis

Skin conditions of any sort can be uncomfortable, but two of the most common and irritating are eczema and psoriasis. Both are genetic autoimmune conditions that result in flaky, inflamed skin that can itch uncontrollably, leaving you feeling helpless and even embarrassed. There is no cure, and treatment is usually limited to controlling the severity of outbreaks and soothing symptoms. The usual remedy is keeping your skin clean and moisturized, but unfortunately, many of the recommended skincare products on the market contain petrochemical byproducts such as petroleum jelly and coal tar.

Hi, I’m Tanya from Lovely Greens, and in this tutorial, I’d like to show you how to make an all-natural skin balm that can help soothe the effects of dermatitis and help promote healing.

Natural Skincare Ingredients

The ingredients in this natural skincare recipe are simple and completely natural.

Cocoa Butter and Shea Butter

The first is cocoa butter. Cocoa butter, with use in creams and lotions, helps to form a barrier on your skin, and what that does is it helps to lock moisture in and protect your skin from outside skin irritants. Shea butter is a vitamin-rich oil; it’s highly nourishing, highly moisturizing, but it also helps to promote skin cell regeneration.

Liquid Oils: Castor and Sweet Almond

We use two liquid oils in this recipe: first is castor oil and the other is sweet almond oil. Castor oil is a thick oil that will also help to hydrate your skin, but it’s also known for helping to reduce redness and inflammation. Sweet almond oil is also anti-inflammatory, but we use it mainly in this recipe to help thin out the consistency of the final product.

Neem Oil and Vitamin E

Probably the most important oil that we’ll be using is neem oil. It’s a thick, slightly pungent oil that’s relatively unknown in the West. It has a lot of beneficial properties, which include being antimicrobial, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory, but it’s also great at helping to reduce itchiness and pain. It will also work in the same way as cocoa butter in helping to form a slight barrier on the skin. Vitamin E oil is also an anti-inflammatory, but we use it mainly because it’s an antioxidant, so what that will do is help prolong the shelf life of the other oils.

Lavender Essential Oil

The last ingredient is optional; it’s lavender essential oil, and we use it for two reasons. The first is that it also helps to promote skin cell regeneration, but it also smells great, so if you’re not fond of the smell of the neem oil, you can use it to mask the scent a little bit.

Making the Neem Balm

Making the neem balm is very simple. What you do is you take a small saucepan and you put in all of your oils except for the neem oil: the cocoa butter, shea butter, sweet almond oil, and your castor oil. Use a spoon to get every last drop that you can. Castor oil is really thick and sticky, so it likes to stick inside any kind of bowl. Do the same with the sweet almond oil.

Right, so once that’s in the pan, we’re going to put it into a double boiler, also called a bain-marie. I’ve got another saucepan with hot water on the hob right now, so I’ll just take it over. I’m just going to give this a little bit of a swirl. Most of the oils are melted now; just a little bit of the shea butter needs to melt, but there it goes, and all the oils are now melted. Now what we do is grab a towel and just wipe the sides and the bottom of the pan, and we’re going to place this in the freezer just as it is right now.

Cooling and Incorporating Final Oils

So once your pan’s in the freezer, you’ll want to wait about five minutes. What you’re waiting for is for the oils to start going a little bit more opaque, which means that they’re cooling, and at that point, when they’re still a little bit runny but opaque, that’s when you can add your essential oil, the vitamin E, and the neem oil.

After about five minutes in the freezer, your oil should start to look slightly opaque, getting a little bit slushy but not hard. If it’s too hard, then you may have to remelt and start again. You need it to be liquid enough so that you can incorporate the neem oil and the various other oils that we’re going to put in just now.

Right, so we’re going to spoon our neem oil into this, and we’re going to put in also an eighth of a teaspoon of vitamin E, and this will be beneficial for your skin but also make sure that the oils don’t go off. And then to finish it off, we’re going to put in five drops of lavender essential oil. Lavender essential oil is really sensitive, so you could probably put in a bit more if you prefer. There we go. Now with a whisk, we’re going to beat this up really well. You can see it’s getting even more opaque as it cools.

Packaging and Storage

Right now, all that’s left is to pour it into a container. So we’re using an aluminum screw-top jar, so this will actually keep it contained but also make sure that no contaminants get inside your neem balm as well. So let’s spoon it in. It’s already starting to harden up. It’s not a problem at this point, just so long as you’re able to spoon it into your container. Perfect. I made a little bit of a mess; just go around the edges with a towel or paper towel if you prefer. Seal it up, and the product is complete.

How to Use the Neem Balm

So once you’ve made your neem balm and it’s hardened, you can use it immediately. Just use it as you would any other thick cream or balm. Just pull a bit out and massage it onto your skin. It’s thick, but it will melt in on contact, and it creates a nice rich barrier that helps keep your skin hydrated.

Thank you very much for this tutorial. Good luck with making your own neem balm, and if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave me a message in the form below. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Bye for now.