The Victorian Cold Cream
A Victorian cold cream has many uses. It can take off makeup and remove dirt and grime - it can also be used to moisturise and soften the skin. It is wonderful for very dry and rough areas such as knees or elbows or the heel of the foot. It is also very basic, very natural and does not contain any synthetic preservates.
The original recipe is sandwiched in between one for Gordon's Indelible Ink and a Fire-Proof wash for Kitchens...anyway it goes like this: Two ounces of oil of sweet almonds, half an ounce of spermaceti, a drachm of white wax and one ounce of rose water. Melt the first three ingredients, and gradually stir in the last in very small portions. Stir till cold and perfectly smooth.
Spermaceti came from the head of the sperm whale and it was a humectant - that is, it helped to retain moisture in the skin. Of course today we wouldn't even consider an ingredient like that - even if it were available (but it always puzzled me... who would have thought to use it in a cream in the first place?). After much experimentation I have been able to convert this recipe into something that we can copy... the only difference I can see would be the final consistency is probably less stiff than the Victorian version.
Simple Cold Cream - Modern Adaptation Ingredients 60gram Sweet Almond Oil 8gram Bees Wax 25gram Rose water 5 drops essential oil of your choice (Information and suggested blends here) Method Melt the bees wax and sweet almond oil in a double boiler or bain marie. In a separate pot heat the rose water to roughly the same temperature as the wax and oil. Take the wax and oil off the heat and slowly add the rose water drop by drop while stirring until all the water is added and the mixture is cool. you need to stir fairly vigorously. If it separates out then simply melt it again and once more stir while it is cooling. 
As you can see from the picture of the bees wax above you have some choices to make when choosing your ingredients. All three are bees wax and as such, totally natural, but come from different suppliers. Two (the yellowy ones) have come from bee keepers in different areas and the third (the white wax chips) has come from a cosmetic ingredient supplier. These wax chips have been washed clean and do not smell very much at all. The yellow ones both smell of honey - but the pale yellow one is much more delicate smelling.The final look and smell of the cream will be determined by which of these you use... and of course the smell of the bees wax or lack of it will impact on any essential oils you use. To Vary Change the oil that you use. Have a look at
oils suitable for use in cold cream
and choose something to suit your skintype. Change the rose water to witch hazel or plain distilled water or check out the
Hydrosols
page for more options. You could also vary your choice of
essential oil.
So why aren't we all using cold cream today? Well unfortunately it is very greasy and takes a good fifteen to twenty minutes to soak into the skin which doesn't really make it suitable for use under makeup or compatible with our busy-dash-around modern lifestyles.Bees wax is a wonderful natural emulsifier but alas not stable enough to cope with large quantities of water and in order to make this cream less oily you would need to increase the water content quite a bit.
...Which brings me to Borax. Borax is a natural mineral which has been used for many years as a thickener and stabiliser in creams. It was also used in eye baths and for general cleaning. It has always been considered fairly gentle until the last few years when instances of higher percentages of cancer in the borax miners has prompted the European Union to ban it's use in cosmetics. This ban has not been taken up in the USA or other countries which leads me to think that the scientific proof is less than overwhelming. All the same, I do not use it in any of my preparations. If the EU had not banned it's use, I would simply put it down to another of these urban myths... but... in light of the ban, I have removed it from all the old recipes I have. Strangely enough I have not found an original Victorian cold cream recipe which contains borax so I am not sure when it first started to be included in the recipes, during the 20th century I imagine - certainly the recipe that I have from the 1960's contains it.
I have just found out... that in actual fact borax is not banned in the EU... just restricted. It's use is not sanctioned for products aimed at children under 3 years of age. Well! It just goes to show you... there is always room to learn, no matter how much you already know!
If you use
Rose Hydrosol
in your cream it may also give the final product a hint of a smell - making it unnecessary to add the essential oils - but I usually do anyway, simply because I like my cream to have a definite smell. Of course you could use a
fragrance.
And you will notice... No
Preservative
has been included in this recipe, as such, if you have been spotlessly clean the cream will last a few days at most - kept in the fridge, maybe a few days longer. Rose water purchased from the cake decorating dept of the supermarket will have a preservative in it - this will help your cream last a little longer, but of course is a synthetic ingredient.
There is room for experiments here. If anyone does play with tinctures in cold cream do let me know how it turns out won't you. You can contact me from
here.
This cold cream is the starting point for all kinds of moisturisers and creams containing water. The splitting of the ingredients into water and oil stages that are combined after heating is typical of all cream recipes and it is a good idea to have a go at this recipe before attempting more sophisticated creams. A page on general cleanliness, using preservatives and recipes for much more sophisticated products is coming very soon. Return to the Moisturising Page
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