This winter has been such a bear when it comes to maintaining healthy glowing skin. Either you live where it's cold and about as humid as a lit barbeque or you're lucky enough to have some sort of moisture in the air. Where I live, it seems to fluctuate pretty regularly making my skin dry, thirsty, and longing for a good moisturizer.

Creamy Winter Sunscreen Balm

This recipe was supposed to be a tinted moisturizer that offered light coverage along with a nice boost of skin softening moisturization. However, that experiment sort of failed which is why this balm has a beige-y color to it from the cacao powder. I think if I add some pigment to it (which I am definitely going to be doing in the near future so stay tuned!) this would make an all-natural smooth finish foundation.

However, despite my original intent not quite pulling through, I was left with a rather nice face balm that's perfect for protecting the skin during the dry winter months.

While I'm working on figuring out the best humectants and hydration protocol for my skin, I've been using this balm to help rebalance and nourish it. It's worked out really well for me since my skin tends to be quite oily yet feels stripped a lot of the time during the winter.

The balm itself can be really heavy if you use too much so when I say use just a tiny amount, I mean just a tiny amount! This is because it contains shea butter and cocoa butter which are known to be a bit on the greasy side of things.

But don't let that tidbit scare you away! When you use a small amount of this balm on freshly cleansed skin, it feels smooth and plump to the touch which to me, is exactly what you want in the winter!

This balm also serves as a nice primer for my make-up and my homemade mattifying setting powder. Despite having very oily skin, the combination of these two recipes leaves my skin looking fresh all day long. I hope you give them a try!

Here's what you need to make my creamy winter sunscreen balm:

• A kitchen scale
• A small pyrex measuring cup
• A whisk
• A 1oz tin
• .3oz carrier oil (I used .2oz jojoba oil and .1oz of raspberry seed oil for extra spf protection)
• .2oz shea butter
• .1oz cocoa butter
• .1oz beeswax
• 1 drop vitamin E oil
• .1oz zinc oxide
• ¼ teaspoon cacao powder (optional)
• A small pinch of ground cinnamon (optional)
• 1 drop geranium essential oil (for oil control)
• 1 drop rose essential oil (for redness control and anti-aging qualities)
• 1 drop elemi essential oil (for smoothness and anti-aging qualities)
• 1 drop frankincense essential oil (anti-aging)
• 1 drop carrot seed essential oil (spf and anti-aging)

Loving Preparation - Creamy Winter Sunscreen Balm

1. Using your kitchen scale and the tare function, measure out and combine the carrier oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, beeswax, and vitamin E oil in the pyrex measuring cup and set it in a pan of water. Do NOT add the dry ingredients or the essential oils yet.
2. Bring the water to a simmer and allow the ingredients to melt completely. Stir well to mix.
3. Once everything is melted together evenly, remove from the heat and place on a kitchen towel to cool for a few minutes.
4. Now place the pyrex measuring cup on the kitchen scale, hit tare, and very slowly add the zinc oxide until the scale reads .1oz. This will give your balm an spf of 10. Mix until there are no lumps and the mixture is silky smooth.
5. If you want to "tint" your balm, now's the time to add in the cacao powder and the pinch of cinnamon and stir well to combine making sure there are no lumps.
6. Add the essential oils and mix well.
7. Pour into a 1oz tin and allow to cool completely before use!

To Use

• Your fingers will work fine as long as they are clean. Same goes for dipping a sponge or beauty blender into the balm.
• You can use a clean foundation brush to apply a nice thin even layer and buff it into the skin (this is what I do).
• You can also double the recipe and pour it into a squeeze tube for easy germ free use!

Allow the balm to soak in for a moment, dab off any excess, and then apply make-up as usual.

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