Weekly DIY

The Ice Cream Face Cream

This week’s DIY uses just three ingredients (plus water) to make a thick, creamy moisturiser that looks almost like ice cream! It's beginner friendly - the only real trick is using enough heat and a good blender to bring it all together.

5 - 10 minutes

Beginner - Intermediate

Concerns

Dry Skin • Tight Skin • Damaged Skin Barrier

Benefits

Hydrates • Nourishes • Softens

Format

Cream

Shelf life

Use within a week and store in the fridge.

What You'll Need

Soy Lecithin
1 tablespoon
A naturally derived emulsifier, giving the cream its thick, rich, almost ice-cream-like texture - can even be used in W/O formulas

Mango Butter
2 generous tablespoons
A vitamin rich butter that helps soften and nourish dry skin without that heavy feeling

Cucumber Glycerite
1 tablespoon
Adds a hydrating boost, helping draw moisture to the skin while making this rich cream feel more refreshing and skin-calming

How to Make

Add 1 cup of distilled water to a pot and put on a low-medium heat.
Once the water starts steaming, add the glycerite, mango butter and soy lecithin - continue heating the mixture.
Gently mix as the water continues to steam. This won't combine quite yet but the mixing is important to avoid scorching.
Once the water starts to bubble with heat, allow it to bubble for 10-30 seconds, then remove from the heat.
Or if using a thermometer, aim for roughly 75°C before removing from heat.
Once removed from the heat immediately blend the ingredients with either an immersion blender or a milk frother. Use this for at least two minutes but up to five minutes.
After the immersion blender, mix occaisonally with a spoon as it cools down.
Once cool, add preservative if using and store in your 300g tin / jar.

How to Use

Guidance

Use as the final step in your routine, or before you apply sunblock.

Make It Yours

To Extend Shelf Life:
Add ½ teaspoon geogard 221 to extend shelf life to 6 months.
For A More Affordable Edition:
Switch the mango butter with shea, and the glycerite with vegetable glycerine.
For A Classic Glow Face Cream:
Switch 1 tablespoon of mango butter with rosehip oil at step 2.
For An Extra Hydrating Face Cream:
Add 1 teaspoon betaine at step 2.

Pro Tips & Storage

Important: This formula is simple, but it does need proper heat and high-speed blending. Soy lecithin can form a false emulsion, where the cream looks blended at first but separates on the skin or in the jar. Use a stick blender or strong milk frother - a spoon or fork won’t do it.
For scent, add a few drops of your favourite smelling essential oil.
If the cream looks thick but separates into droplets or feels sticky on skin, it may not have been heated or blended enough.
You may find it easier to clean equipment with paper and cloth than hot water, since the oil clings. Some prefer to wipe oily tools with a paper towel first, then wash with hot soapy water.
Made with shea butter and vegetable glycerine, this recipe works out to roughly R25 per batch when you buy the smallest available sizes. That excludes preservative, water, and packaging, but still gives you a generous jar of thick, creamy moisturiser for a fraction of the usual price.

Essentially Natural Liquid Soy Lecithin

R 79.00

Essentially Natural Mango Butter

R 129.00

Essentially Natural Cucumber Glycerite (Cucumis Sativus Extract)

R 49.00

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Aiden van Wyk

Aiden is an eccentric explorer of ideas, endlessly curious and always eager to share his discoveries. His mind is a maze of rabbit holes, each leading to new insights (and occasionally pure chaos). In all honesty - he's a little impulsive, he's easily distracted, delightfully scatterbrained, and unapologetically himself. But through every deep dive and misstep, his mission remains the same:

To make the world a teeny tiny little better, one lesson at a time :)

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