Propolis cream

I've finally made that propolis cream! :-) I siphoned off the tincture last weekend after two weeks of being lovingly shaken a few times a day. And now this evening I made a base cream and added in the tincture (it's about 8% of the total ingredients). What I realised when I'd made the tincture is that it has a very distinct smell of rum, which is fine when you're taking it internally (especially if you happen to like 80% rum!) but not so good for a skin cream. In fact, in the final cream the smell is quite faint. I also added some rosewood essential oil at the end which helps, but next time I'll remember to make it with an odorless alcohol.

I decided to use a base cream that is for sensitive skin - it uses apricot kernel oil, borage, vitamin E and vitamin A palmitate - with the idea that this will be a gentle formula if it's being used on irritable or unhappy skin. It also gives it a lightness that feels really nice on the skin.

I don't have any skin conditions to treat with this cream but I'm sending it off to a friend who has used commercial propolis creams, so hopefully I will get some feedback and comparison!

An afterthought... even though the idea of using a sensitive skin base is good, I think next time I will make it with a slightly heavier base. The reason being that the alcohol in the tincture is in itself drying. The cream has thickened to a good consistency though.

And some feedback... I spoke to the friend I sent this today today. She said that it is better than the propolis cream she's bought in Holland & Barrett previously, and that the smell of propolis is more prominent (meaning they use a weaker tincture and/ or put less in).

Other propolis posts:

• Propolis for hayfever
• Propolis tincture
• Researching propolis cream
• Ingredients for teeth and gums
  

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