Homemade Diaper Rash Cream and Hand Lotion

Imagine not needing to buy anything expensive from the pharmacy, and still be able to treat your baby's diaper rash. Imagine having a good, soothing hand cream to use on your dry, chapped hands. Imagine having a cream that would be good for faces, also as a moisturizer, but also helping to fight acne. Imagine having diaper rash cream and hand cream and a fae cream that as completely devoid of man made chemicals, parabens, and a 15+ ingredient list, most of which you vcan't pronounce and whose safety is questionable... Imagine those all in one. Imagine such a thing that didn't cost a small fortune...

Imagine no longer.
Here's a recipe.
5 ingredients.
5 safe ingredients.
5 effective ingredients.
5 ingredients with well documented, multifaceted healing properties.
5 ingredients whose name everyone can pronounce, some which can be bought in the grocery and/or health food store, and some can be found free everywhere.

Here is a cream/lotion/mixture that you can easily make at home that is good for diaper rashes, faces, and body lotion. Two caveats though- because it has very few ingredients and no chemicals, it needs to be kept in the refrigerator to prevent spoilage. Also because of the lack of chemicals, its texture is also a little different than the creams and lotions you're used to, but that's ok- once you're rubbing it in, it feels good anyhow.

Homemade Diaper Rash Cream and Hand Lotion Recipe

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups plantain leaves (plantago, the wild green that is probably growing in your yard, not the banana like plant)
2-3 aloe vera leaves/spikes
Up to 1/4 cup water
1 1/3 cup coconut oil
10 drops tea tree oil

Before I go on with this recipe, sharing how to make the cream/lotion, I figured I'd talk a little bit about the various ingredients.

Coconut Oil is very moisturizing and soothing to the skin. It also antibacterial and antifungal. It is solid when cold, and liquid when warmed. These properties make it perfect as the base for a cream and lotion, as the antibacterial and antifungal aspect of it are good for diaper rashes, in case they're caused by yeast, and its soothing for chapped or raw skin, which makes it good for lotion on any part of the body. Coconut oil also helps in treating various skin problems including psoriasis, dermatitis, eczema, acne, and other skin infections.

Aloe Vera is known by most as a treatment for burns, as the gel found inside its leaves is very soothing. Its moisturizing, and anti-inflammatory and is  helpful in curing blisters, insect bites and any allergic reactions, eczema, wounds, and psoriasis. This makes it a terrific addition to cream, whether it is meant to be used on a baby's sore bottom, an adult's chapped hands, or a teenager's pimply face.

Tea Tree Oil is an essential oil with many uses, but the reason I chose this as an addition to the other ingredients is because it works as a very effective antifungal, much stronger than coconut oil, a more mild antifungal. Its also antibacterial and antiviral. It's used to heal acne, abscess, oily skin, blisters, sun burns, athlete's foot, warts, herpes, insect bites, rashes, dandruff and other minor wounds and irritations. Because it is strong though, it's best diluted in other oils, which is why in this recipe, there is just a little bit.

Plantain is a plant I wanted to write a full length post on in the future, but in summary, its one of the most healing plants that nature has, especially useful for any skin issues. It grows all over the world, and you probably have it growing in your backyard. Its mucilage is used to heal many skin problems, and is very soothing, which is why I put it in this cream/lotion. (This is what plantain looks like. Look familiar? Good- it should!)

So, how do you make the cream/lotion?

Instructions:

1. You want the cream to be pure cream, being able to be rubbed into the skin completely, so you have to first extract the juices/liquids from the plantain and aloe. You also need to be able to emulsify/mix the oils and the liquids, which is why you need a specific texture for the coconut oil when making this. Half the coconut oil needs to be solid, and half the coconut oil needs to be liquid. If its warm out, and your coconut oil is liquid, put half in the refrigerator. If its cold out and your oil is solid, heat up half in a pot on the stovetop until it is melted.

2. Put your aloe vera and washed/cleaned plantain leaves in a food processor/blender. Blend up until as liquified as possible. If you need to add a drop of liquid, add up to a quarter cup of water so the whole thing will blend smoothly.

3. Pour the plant mixture through a cheesecloth (or I use an old cloth napkin) and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. You'll get this weird brownish/greenish liquid.

4. When half the coconut oil is liquid and half is solid, put them in the food processor/blender, and blend/process until the two are combined, and you have something with the texture of whipped butter.

5. Add your tea tree oil and blend.

6. Add a tablespoon of your aloe vera/plantain juice to the whipped coconut oil, until it emulsifies/disappears into the oil.

7. Add more and more plantain/aloe juice to the coconut oil, a little bit at a time, so that it gets encorporated into the oil a little bit at a time. If you do too much at once, it won't work.

8. At some point, when you try adding the liquid, you'll see that the liquid doesn't want to get mixed into the oil anymore, and it'll just bead on top of it, like in the picture. At this point, you're done.

9. Use the cream as is, or place in a container and refrigerate. This makes two whipped cream cheese sized containers- I put one in the fridge and one in the freezer for a later point in time. Once cold, it will harden more, and you may need to scrape out a little bit to use at a time, or you might not find that necessary. But once in contact with the skin, it will warm up and be easy to rub into the skin.

P.S. Whatever aloe/plantain liquid you have left works well to moisturize cloth wipes.

Have you made any hand cream or diaper rash cream before? What was in it? Why were those things specifically in it? How hard was it to make, and would you do it again?

Does this look like a recipe you'd try out? Do you have these ingredients at home?