My amazing home made wrinkle cream!

[goatlady]

Been thinking about this for a few days and FINALLY figured out it's most probably the natural alum in the grape leaves that is doing the skin tightening. I do know if you put a grape leaf in a jar of home made pickles it will make them crisp and keep them crisp. The commercial pickle makers use powdered alum to achieve that "cripsness". Any type grape leaf will do the job.

[Summerthyme]

Goatlady... you may have hit on it. For sure, olive oil is an amazing natural moisturizer... I know pregnant gals who got HUGE, but used olive oil consistently on their bellies and had NO stretch marks when they were done.

There isn't any resveratrol in the LEAVES of the grapes that I know of... and I've researched it quite thoroughly. It is present in the skins of dark red and purple grapes, though. I make a resveratrol tincture from Japanese Knotweed- the plant with the highest concentration known, which grows as a weed (actually, considered an invasive weed) everywhere around here.

Not to drift this too far, but if you read of using Knotweed TEA for resveratrol (it's a potent anti-viral, and one of the herbal meds I use for influenza), don't bother. It's simply not soluble in water. It is highly soluble in ETOH, and quite soluble in DMSO, but not in water...

FWIW

Summerthyme

[Amy]

This sounds like an awful lot of work-

can I just start drinking lots of wine?

Sugaree, I like the way you think!

[PatrioticMe]

Been thinking about this for a few days and FINALLY figured out it's most probably the natural alum in the grape leaves that is doing the skin tightening. I do know if you put a grape leaf in a jar of home made pickles it will make them crisp and keep them crisp. The commercial pickle makers use powdered alum to achieve that "cripsness". Any type grape leaf will do the job.

I bet you are right about the alum.

However, when doing my research the reason I went with muscadine leaves as opposed to grape leaves is because I read that the muscadine leaves do have more of antioxidant properties than regular grapes. Also more of the blood vessel improvement than grapes.

So my thought was that if it has more blood vessel improvements, it is bound to be better at creating more blood flow to the face to lessen wrinkles, and even those tiny little red lines we get on our face as we age.

Not mention as our skin absorbs the cream, maybe we are also getting the benefits of some antioxidants in the body as well to improve over all health.

[PatrioticMe]

I would think you could put it in a pint jar, add the cost of the olive oil and probably figure three to four dollars for shipping. Does that sound like $6-7 to you?

The recipe I posted doesnt make a pint jar full, only an amount equal to a normal sized "moisturizer jar", which an empty one I had on hand is what I sued, it's about the size of a large jar of store bought vaseline.

[Summerthyme]

One thing- any of the homemade creams or salves usually do not have preservatives. You don't want to make or keep more on hand than you can use up in a month or so... and even then, it's best to refrigerate it.

A pint of cream would be more than a year's worth for almost anyone using it as a face cream... you might use that much as hand cream and general body cream, I suppose.

Summerthyme

[PatrioticMe]

One thing- any of the homemade creams or salves usually do not have preservatives. You don't want to make or keep more on hand than you can use up in a month or so... and even then, it's best to refrigerate it.

A pint of cream would be more than a year's worth for almost anyone using it as a face cream... you might use that much as hand cream and general body cream, I suppose.

Summerthyme

Do you think adding a tad of alcohol to it would help preserve it longer? I know alcohol is a drying agent which sort of defeats the pourpose. But what do you think? Or even a bit of vinegar.

[goatlady]

supposedly essential oil of Rosemary, a few drops in your size jar acts as a "natural" preservative. I was thinking of maybe opening and adding a 400 IU gel tab of vitamin E to the mix - after its cooled for a bit of added nutrient. I found a whole bunch of "wild" grape vines 2 days ago in my woods - since this is Arkansas I'm betting they are muscadines, but they have already dried nicely on top of the piano. Did you crush your dried leave or use them in the oil mostly whole?

Never mind - I just re-read the recipe about using crushed dried leaf. Duh!!

[Summerthyme]

The only thing I use in my salves and creams to preserve them is either Vitamin E (which basically only prevents rancidity) or essential oils... the higher the essential oil content, the slower they will mold.

Creams (emulsions- think "mayonnaise") spoil faster than salves, simply because of the air which is incorporated into them during the production process.

I'm not sure you could add enough vinegar without ruining the salve to make a difference. A bit of citric acid *might* help (and wouldn't be a bad idea- the skin has an "acid mantle" which helps protect it, and one of the reasons soaps dry out the skin is because they are very basic.

Summerthyme

[PatrioticMe]

when the actual muscadine fruit comes in next summer, I will make this with the fruit as opposed to the leaves, and see if that makes a big difference. because I know you are right, in that the leaves are the last on the list for healthy products of the grape/muscedine.