Cactus Cream

What better way to experience the wonderful healing benefits of our native Cactus, or Opuntia, than as a cream?  We are busy on a line of Cactus-based preparations for an upcoming trip to the Medicine of the People Conference in Northern New Mexico.  The Opuntia cactus has so many uses I could spend all day talking about them.  You can see a short blurb here on Cactus on my other Blog dedicated to Texas Herbs.

I made a wonderful antioxidant cream today featuring the innards of Prickly Pear pads.  The Goo can be used similarly to Aloe Vera.  It is both mucilaginous, and has some astringency.  It is chocked full of anti-oxidants, anti-inflammatory compounds, is soothing, emollient, and has a wonderful hydroscopic nature.

After scooping out and staining the Opuntia goo, we added a hydrosol of Orange blossom, Local Raw Honey, some homemade Colloidal Silver, and Fresh Rosemary Extract to preserve the fresh goo.

Here you see the oil component of the cream--a blend of our native Sunflowers and Jojoba Oil being added to the Prickly Pear Goo.











This blend of oil had some additional beeswax added  as an emulsifier, which we then blended together

Voila, CREAM!!!











Next we poured them off into some Smaller Containers, and will soon Label!


Be looking soon for other posts about Cactus Cordial, Cactus Cleanser/Mask, and Cactus First Aid Powder








In bodycare, it seems cactus is becoming the new fad.  Here are some links http://www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com/Formulation-Science/Skincare-line-using-prickly-pear-seed-oil-debuts
http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/botany/botany_map/articles/article_23.html
http://www.makingcosmetics.com/Prickly-Pear-Extract-p989.html