Hand Cream al "Sangre di Drago"

I have been dealing with painful cuts in my hands and very dry patches of skin, mostly on my fingers, and this has driven me to try diverse hand creams with specifically designed active ingredients that could help cicatrization and eventually prevent these cuts from happening at all!

The first part was my own hand cream with ALGOMEGA. Now I have used the original recipe from Lola for a repairing cream, done with some adaptations to what I had, and I added a lovely active called "Sangre di Drago". This way I can test the efficacy of the active to my specific skin problem and then I can decide which I prefer. In the meanwhile I'm learning about the grease fall and how to make my own hand cream. I still have a third ingredient I want to try, who knows? Maybe I end up combining all of them!

Dragon's Blood in Dermascope

What's this "Dragon's Blood"?

So, "sangre di drago" is an hidroglicolic estract that comes from the Croton Lechleri, which is a tree from somewhere in South America.

It's completely natural, Ecocert certified, with no ingredients from petrol or animal origin.

This is what it does:

1› Skin Regeneration Capacity*: In-vitro, Wound healing on human dermal fibroblast wound induced showing very strong regeneration activity.

2› Anti-free radical activity: In-vitro. Measure of the anti-free radical activity compared with vitamin E and vitamin C. DRAGON’S BLOOD ‘s scavenger properties were comparable to vitamin C and much higher than vitamin E.

Among the uses of this ingredient, these are the most valued ones in cosmetics:

Anti-inflammatory and wound-healing effect, thanks to its high content in Taspine, and Polyphenols (catequins and proanthocyanidins). Stimulates the scab formation and regenerates quicker the skin by promoting the collagen production and fibroblast migration.

Supports skin repair and regeneration, fighting the effects of aging.

Improves the barrier function, acting as a “second skin”.

Proanthocyanidins have an important counteracting action against free-radicals, having a key role at delaying skin aging.

So this is the recipe (I'm not posting the original recipe by Lola, but an adaptation to the ingredients I had and wanted to use).

Phase A

Water to 100 (62.75)

Carbopol Ultrez 21 0.3

Xanthan 0.1

Glicerine 10

Allantoine 0.3

Phase B

Cocoa Butter 2

Shea Butter 2

Caprilico Caprico Triglicerides 4

Avocado Oil 4

Tocoferolo 1.5

Cetyl Alcohol 0.75

MGS ( Metilglucosio Sesquistearato ) 3

Abil Care 85 0.75

Phase C

Sodium Hialuronate 2

Panthenol 1.25

Calendula Extract 1

Dragon's Blood 4

Conservant 0.5

Perfume

First I prepared the Xanthan gel, mixing the gum with the glicerine and then adding a third of the water slowly.

On a different becker I put the rest of the water and added the carbopol. I let it hydrate for a few minutes.

I did mix both gels with the hand mixer, not paying attention to the bubbles that will later dissapear. I combined the gels adding the Xanthan gel to the Carbopol gel. Finally I added the allantoine and mixed a bit. It doesn't dissolve until we heat up the gel.

I prepared Phase B in a different becker.

I put both phases in a double boiler and took them up to 70 degrees. When the temperature was good (and you should check it with a termomether!), I added Phase B in Phase A and mixed for a good few seconds with my hand mixer.

Once the emulsion was good, I continued mixing with a spoon and put the becker ina cold bath to bring down the temperature to around 40 degrees.

I added the ingredients in Phase C slowly and mixed very well after each addition in order to make sure the emulsion was holding. When I added the dragon's blood the cream became a lovely beige, kinda an earth color that I do really like!

I finally perfumed with a sample of lavender and honey (I may go in a different direction with the perfume next time).

Time to try it!!