Stumbling upon Internet I met an information, that some have cured their acne using Pond's Cold Cream. This cream is not being sold in my country and its "successor" Dove Deep Cleansing Cream is not in the stocks as well.
When I made a research on ingredients in order to figure why it is capable to fight acne, I've considered it is borax which is effective stuff within the popular cream. Along searching for composition of cold cream I've realized that I can't buy, but it is not difficult to make at home.
Cold cream, like other creams, has 3 (4) components:
- Oil phase,
- water phase and
- emulsifier (eg. beeswax + borax). Emulsifier serves as an agent, binding oil and water phase into one component.
So there is a possibility to make own "Pond's Cold Cream" which can be further improved eg. by choosing oils which are able to beat demodex itself. In general, it is not recommended to use sythetic (mineral) oil, one of the reason is mineral oil is not being absorbed by skin and stays on skin surface. On the other hand, you can also read that mineral oil (ricin/castor oil, olive oil as well) is used to suffocate mites and mineral oil was used within Pond's cold cream ingredients. I'm using the cream for about a month and since I'm very encouraged by its results, I decided to publish my findings. As I do not have weights, please take amount of parts as a rough guide. The basics parts are
- oil phase around 50 % and
- water phase around 50 %.
When using more water, it can be not possible to achieve emulsion using beeswax + borax. The amount of beeswax is around 10 % of the cream. Amount of borax: as much as possible (my guesstimate is 5 to 10 % of water phase, ie. 2 to 5 % borax content within the cream).
Instructions to make: you have to prepare oil phase by mixing oil with beeswax and you heat oil until beeswax melts down (temperature around 70 °C). Cold pressed olive oil is commonly used. Beside you prepare water phase, which you should warm to similar temperature; that will also allow you to dissolve more borax. If all the beeswax is melt down into oil, you can mix both phases together, stir hard. Not enough beeswax results into separating oil and water phase or visible bubbles. The product obtained should contain about 2 to 5 per cents of borax, ie. it is expected to be effective against mites.
As I hinted on beginning of my article, I didn't want to stay with this recipe. Many sources point out that success of curing eczema or psoriasis can be achieved using hemp seed oil. These skin diseases may have connection to Demodex as well. It is known that sea-buckthorn oil (SBT oil) is being used as acne/Demodex treatment. There is one dissadvantage of SBT oil: it appears to be dye (beta caroten), which is truly unnatural when seen on skin and it leaves your clothes colored.
Another enhancement of cream in my case was done using epsom salt, I guess you can dissolve around 40 % of the stuff in warm watter. I considered it to be bad idea to not add zinc oxide and sulphur, both of them into oil phase. You can read zinc oxide is easily soluble when solved into strong acid or strong alkali. So my understanding is olive oil is a medium helping us to dissolve zinc oxide more easily, because virgin olive oil leads charts as alkaline forming food. I use about 5 to 15 % of zinc oxide, and 5 to 10 % of sulphur within result. If using lower limits, it is such amount you can still apply cream and go outside your home.
Summary:
- Oil phase around 50 %, consists eg. of:
- hemp seed oil (expected to be against Demodex),
- SBT oil (against Demodex),
- lard, jojoba oil (penetrant),
- tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, , menthol, methyl salicilaty (wintergreen), camphor oil (against Demodex),
- cold pressed olive oil (in order to improve zinc oxide solubility),
- cosmetic vaseline, cosmetic mineral oil, ricin oil.
- Water phase around 50 %, following stuffs dissolved within:
- borax, as much as possible (ie. around 2 to 5 % of borax within cream),
- epsom salt, as much as possible (ie. around 2 % of sulphur within cream).
- Cream also contains 10 % of beeswax (necessary emulsifier), 5 to 15 % of zinc oxide and 5 to 10 % of sulphur (colloidal, powder sulphur); these should be mixed into oil phase.
Stir intensely for several minutes. I store the result in fridge and apply after I wash myself using sulphur soap. The advantage is that dried skin (caused by using sulphur soap) is no longer dried when cream is applied.
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