Cucumber Honey Facial Cream

Cucumber Honey Facial Cream: A cooling moisturizer made with cucumber, honey, and rose hip ingredients.

The soothing benefits of cucumber meet the moisturizing boost of honey in this easy to make facial cream. We used a blend of cucumber seed oil and virgin coconut for the base of our Cucumber Honey Facial Cream.

These two oils provide plenty of moisture while leaving the skin feeling soft, non-greasy, and well-balanced. Nourishing rose hip hydrosol and natural honey make up the water portion, while a splash of essential oils add a fresh scent and enhanced benefit.

Our plant-based emulsifying wax makes our Cucumber Honey Facial Cream super easy to make. If you are new to formulating lotions and creams, this recipe is a great one to start off with. Feel free to swap out the carrier oils for any that you prefer. You can also replace the hydrosol with almost any water-based liquid. You can use aloe vera gel, green tea, or even distilled water.

This Cucumber Honey Facial Cream uses a combination of cooling Andean mint and balancing lemon balm essential oil. This makes the recipe superb for oily skin, combination skin, and for anyone needing to keep things extra light and fresh during hot summer weather.

About the Ingredients

Rose Hip Hydrosol

Rose hips are a classic natural beauty ingredient – most often enjoyed as a carrier oil. Our rose hip hydrosol provides a gentle boost of rose hip along with a fresh, fruity aroma.

Because rose hips are naturally bursting with vitamin c, it is possible for some vitamin c to be present in the hydrosol as well. Vitamin C is fantastic for the skin, but notoriously difficult to incorporate into skin care formulations as its shelf life is quite short.

Organic Virgin Coconut Oil

Easily the most popular natural skin care ingredient of the day, virgin coconut oil helps provide both moisturizing and astringent benefits. This makes it an excellent choice for all skin types, but especially beneficial to oily or combination skin. We love the light texture and dreamy aroma of virgin coconut. It’s semi-solid texture also helps to give our Cucumber Honey Facial Cream some body.

Cucumber Seed Oil

Cucumber seed oil is the star of the show in our Cucumber Honey Facial Cream recipe. This unique carrier oil is packed with oleic and linoleic fatty acids. This makes it an excellent moisturizer for both skin and hair. Cucumber seed oil also contains a remarkable amount of phytosterols, which are touted to support moisture and elasticity for healthy, glowing skin.

Emulsifying Wax

Our emulsifying wax is an easy to use, vegetable-based wax formulated specifically for creating stable emulsions. While the wax itself is not naturally occurring, it is made using naturally sourced ingredients and components. Emulsifying wax makes a fantastic alternative to beeswax, as it does not usually require additional emulsifiers or stabilizers (like borax) to work.

Honey

Honey has been used in natural skin care recipes for ages. The sweet, sticky, substance is a natural humectant. This means that it draws in moisture. In our Cucumber Honey Facial Cream, honey helps the cream bring moisture to the skin and to retain it. Honey can also help to stabilize emulsions.

Lactobacillus Ferment & Elderberry Extract

We used a combination of two natural preservatives to help stabilize our Cucumber Honey Facial Cream. Lactobacillus ferment uses the same type of bacteria that you might find in cultured foods such as pickles or kimchi. In oil and water emulsions, lactobacillus helps to battle unwanted microbes. Elderberry Extract is an oil-soluble extract which also offers antimicrobial and anti fungal properties.

Superfine Silk Powder

Pulverized silk adds a soft slip to emulsions like our Cucumber Honey Facial Cream, and helps to cut the greasiness sometimes inherent in handmade lotions and creams. Try adding superfine silk powder to lotions, creams, body butters, and balms! This super soft powder can also be used to refract light and balance moisture in mineral makeup formulations.

Andean Mint Essential Oil

Andean Mint Essential Oil is an extra potent heirloom herb responsibly harvested from the mountains of Peru. The fresh, cool aroma and tingling chill of Andean Mint makes our Cucumber Honey Facial Cream extra refreshing!

Melissa (Lemon Balm) Essential Oil

Also known as lemon balm essential oil, Melissa essential oil is often used in skin care formulations to balance moisture and tame oily skin. We added a handful of drops of Melissa oil to our Cucumber Honey Facial Cream to make it extra friendly to oily and combination skin types.

Cucumber Honey Facial Cream

Makes about 70 grams

Ingredients

• 30 grams Rose Hip Hydrosol
• 15 grams Organic Virgin Coconut Oil
• 10 grams Cucumber Seed Oil
• 5 grams Emulsifying Wax
• 5 grams Honey
• 1.25 grams Superfine Silk Powder
• 2.5 ml Lactobacillus Ferment
• 1.25 ml Elderberry Extract
• 15-20 drops Andean Mint Essential Oil
• 5 drops Melissa (Lemon Balm) Essential Oil

Directions

1. Combine the emulsifying wax and coconut oil in a double boiler and heat just until fully melted. Remove from heat, and add cucumber seed oil.
2. Sift superfine silk powder into the oil mixture and whisk until smooth.
3. In a second vessel, gently heat rose hip Hydrosol and honey until it is roughly the same temperature as the oil mixture. Both mixtures should be hot but nowhere near boiling.
4. Add the Lactobacillus ferment to the hydrosol and honey mixture and stir well to make sure honey is fully dissolved.
5. Add the elderberry extract and essential oils to the oils mixture and blend well.
6. While whisking vigorously, slowly drizzle the oil mixture into the water portion. Whisk continuously for at least five minutes before stopping. As you whisk, the cream will become cool and thick.
7. If the cream has not cooled and thickened to the consistency of yogurt after five minutes, transfer the vessel you are mixing in to an ice water bath. This will speed up the cooling considerably, so be sure to keep whisking at this point to avoid separation.

Usage & Packaging

• We packaged our Cucumber Honey Facial Cream in some fancy lotion pump bottles for this project. They also do quite well in cream jars.
• While we have added two preservatives to this formulation for educational purposes, this formulation has NOT been tested for stability. Any formulations containing water based ingredients should be professionally tested before being used in commercial products.
• As with any untested handmade emulsion, this cream should be used within 2-3 weeks and refrigerated to ensure maximum shelf life.

Shelf Life & Stability: Please note that the formulations featured here on The Natural Beauty Workshop have not been challenge tested for stability or shelf life, and may not be suitable for commercial use as-is. For more information on shelf life, stability, and working with preservatives, check out the following article from our Information Library.

Want to learn more about making handcrafted lotions and creams? Check out our blog post: Emulsion, The Magic Trick of Creams and Lotions. Also be sure to visit our lotions and creams recipes section for more great ideas!