My mother-in-law turns 85 this weekend and so my wife and I are traveling north to visit with her family and celebrate the birthday. Like a number of people my MIL's age, she suffers from dryness in both her hands and feet. So my wife suggested, since I have a 4-pound slab of shea butter occupying space, that I make here her mom a nice lotion or cream she can apply to soothe her feet and/or hands. So I came across a fairly easy recipe for a cream which incorporated a number of quality oils and ingredients and set forth. The cream I eventually wound up with consists of the following: • shea butter • aloe vera gel • lanolin • Jojoba oil • sweet almond oil • avocado oil • essential oils: peppermint, sweet orange, vanilla I had my wife put the product to the test all week, applying to both her feet and hand. She works hard gardening all the time, so her hands really appreciated the cream. The scent of the cream has peppermint in the forefront, but not overpowering nor medicinal-smelling. It absorbs fairly well, and my wife said it left both here hands and feet feeling great. Great! On to the packaging! My MIL loves anything 'French'—perfumes, jewelry, whatever. Anything regarding old-world French aristocracy she finds fascinating. So I used the 'French' theme in my faux label for the cream. I used the blue velvet from the woman's dress in the medallion as my backdrop texture on the label, bordered with gold foil. The metallic look and richness of the velvet made it appear pretty 'classy.' I am happy with how the cream turned out, and my 'French' label seems to work—although my French is terrible. That's okay...my MIL can't read nor speak it, so I'm safe... J'espère qu'elle aime le cadeau! A peek at the cream in a nice-sized 8oz tub. Easy-to-hold unbreakable container with no hard edges that can be painful on older fingers...
Man, I first thought that you were reusing a commercially produced container! It looks 100% professional and you hit "high end" right between the eyes. If your cream is half as good as your label, your MIL is going to be quite pleased! SO... how long are you going to wait before telling her it's DIY? Forever?
We celebrated my MIL's birthday today. Absolutely gorgeous day at Lake Tahoe. Small gathering of my MIL's 2 children and spouses. Nice cake, courtesy of my talented wife. My MIL, Marie, appreciated the cream—she really liked the peppermint scent and said the cream "...really felt good..." as she rubbed it into her hands and feet. My sister-in-law did the same. I now have requests coming from my wife's sister for another order. I may skip the label on her order.
Very nice! One tip though; you might want to add a preservative. Lotion will get moldy quite quickly, especially when dipping hands in a tub.
