Recipe

Galens Cold Cream - 2000 Yrs Old Recipe

Add Step-by-Step Photos	Tuilelaith / All my dishes 1 year, 11 months ago This is a recipe based on a very old cold cream recipe. I think the oldest we have found. - This rich cream is based on a recipe first devised by a Greek doctor who lived almost 2000 years ago. It is rather different to commercial creams, and does a... More Prep:20m Servings:1	Tuilelaith
	donoteat cream

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Ingredients

4 tablespoons sweet almond oil (olive oil works too)

1 tablespoon grated beeswax

pinch borax (use this ingredient cautiously)

rosewater

Directions

Melt the wax into the oil and remove from the heat.

Stir the borax into a small cupful of the rosewater.

This helps emulsify the mixture.

You can manage without the borax, but the cream will probably be thicker as you will not be able to incorporate as much liquid.

Add the rosewater a drop at a time, stirring constantly.

When you think that the cream will not accept any more liquid (small beads of liquid will refuse to stir in), stop adding, and keep stirring very gently as the cream cools down.

Pot into a scrupulously clean jar.

This makes a wonderful cleansing cream if massaged into the face well before washing with a good handmade soap.

If you normally couldn’t even think about using real soap on your skin, this cream adds an extra oily layer that should prevent drying.

The other way to use this is as an overnight moisture pack on dry hands or feet.

Massage it generously into the skin then wear thin cotton socks on your hands or feet to prevent getting salve all over the bedding.

In the morning, you should find that all the cream has been absorbed leaving your skin feeling like new.

----MY NOTES:----

I use one of those hand held drink blenders to mix this, It gets it done much faster.

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Comments

stilldreamin 1 year, 11 months ago said:
Sounds very interesting!! I will have to try it!!

jenniferbyrdez 1 year, 11 months ago said:
Where's Omama?

sandygalesmith 2 months ago said:
Hmmm.. I may have to give this a try.

sitbynellie 1 month, 4 weeks ago said:
This is genius. I will definitely try this as I have very dry skin (time of life!)

Thank you for posting this great formula.
Susan

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Alterations

tuilelaith 1 year, 11 months ago said:
AD 200
Legendary physician Galen whips up winning pharmaceutical formulas, including cold cream, designed to help counteract the effects of contemporary makeup, which contained mercury. Like much of his work, Galen’s recipe is the basis of modern cold creams. Thankfully, the makeup of the time is not.

tuilelaith 1 year, 11 months ago said:
In France, this substance is still known as cérat de Galien (cream of Galen). An 1814 poem credited to "Dr. Russell" gives the following account of the benefits attributed to cold cream in that day:

WHEN a pot of cold cream to Eliza you send,
You with words to this purpose your present commend;
Whoe'er with this cream shall her countenance smear,
All redness and roughness will strait disappear,
And the skin to a wonder be charmingly clear;
If pimples arise, this will take them away;
If the small-pox should mark you, those marks will decay;
If wrinkled through age, or dawbing the face is,
'Twill be smooth in a trice, as the best Venice glass is;
All this and much more, could I spare time to write it,
Or my pen go as fast, as your lips would endite it)
You affirm of your cream: and I would not abuse it,
But pray tell me one thing--Do you yourself use it?

tuilelaith 1 year, 11 months ago said:
Cold cream was first developed by Galen, a 2nd century Greek physician, in his service as an

attendant in a local temple to Asclepius, the Greek God of Medicine and Healing. One of

Galen's primary roles was to tend to the Gladiators following "games." He developed a great

many healing treatments, cold cream among them.

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