As fresh as a daisy

I love May for many reasons. One of them is daisies. They can be found in every garden and every meadow. It turns out they don’t just look beautiful and decorative in your garden lawn, they also have lots of practical everyday uses in beauty and skincare. Traditionally they are known for their qualities of reducing dark circles and puffiness under your eyes may also help heal bruises.

Since my garden lawn is full of these white beauties I decided to experiment and prepare an undereye cream using home-grown daisies and oil as one of the main components. My little girls were more than happy to pick the flowers for me on their day off school.

Below are two easy recipes I tried this Spring for the daisy oil and face moisturiser. It feels so good to be using pure nature on my skin!

Important note: Do not try these products if you are allergic to plants in the Asteraceae family.

Daisy oil

Ingredients:

• Fresh daisies
• Base oil (I used cold pressed rapeseed oil but sunflower or sweet almond oils are good too)
• Clear jar and a cooking pot

Method:

1. Pick as many or as little daisies as you like.
2. Place the flowers on a piece of paper and leave overnight. That will ensure that any insects that might have lived in the flowers will find their way out.
3. Prepare a clean jar and place your daisies in it.
4. Add the oil to the jar to cover the flowers completely.
5. Place the jar in a pot of hot water and simmer on the low gas for 4 hours.
6. As it takes quite a long time on the hob to prepare the oil, I recommend that larger amounts of oil are prepared at a time to reduce the energy consumption.
7. The daisy oil is ready and can be now used in home-made cosmetics. I used it to make the undereye cream with sage and peppermint oil which nourishes my skin beautifully (recipe below).

Face/under eye moisturizer

Ingredients:

• 15 tbsp of home made daisy oil
• 1.5 tbsp of cosmetic grade beeswax, yellow or white
• 1 or 2 drops of peppermint oil
• Sage extract (brew half a cup of fresh or 2 tbsp of dried sage in 5 tbsp of boiling water)

Method:

1. Melt the beeswax in daisy oil in a hot water bath.
2. Set aside once melted and combined. Let it cool.
3. Prepare your sage extract in the meantime.
4. Bring both mixtures to the same temperature.
5. Then start adding the oil/beeswax mixture to the sage extract mixing gently using a hand mixer. Add the peppermint oil, transfer into a clear jar and seal well.
6. Keep in the fridge.
7. Nourish your skin daily and use up within one month.