13.A more complete home-made natural protection – The sun and sunburn naturally

As this ‘recipe’ version contains considerably more ingredients, I am going to list them in a traditional ‘cookbook’ fashion:

• 2 tablespoons of coconut oil;

• 2 tablespoons canola oil;

• 2 tablespoons avocado oil;

• 2 tablespoons sesame oil;

• 6 tablespoons lavender hydrosol;

• 6 tablespoons aloe vera gel;

• 6 tablespoons shea nut butter;

• 6 tablespoons beeswax, grated;

• 1 teaspoon borax powder;

• 1 teaspoon vitamin E powder or 2 gel capsules.

Mix the grated beeswax with all four oils and the shea nut butter until the wax melts, once again taking great care to make sure that the oils do not come to the boil. Next, warm the aloe vera and lavender is a different pan before adding the vitamin E and borax powder and mixing the whole as thoroughly as possible.

Once the latter mixture is smooth and there is no evidence of lumps or clumps, mix it with the oil, wax and butter and whip or whisk the whole lot together until you have a reasonably light, creamy textured solution. Allow the mixture to cool before storing it in an airtight container which you can keep in the fridge.

As in the previous example, this mixture will keep for a number of weeks but this recipe makes a really healthy amount of natural sunscreen, so you may need to preserve the solution for more than just a few weeks depending upon how often you use it.

In this case, adding a few drops of a natural preservative like grapefruit seed extract will enable you to keep the refrigerated solution for up to 12 months, although you should of course keep an eye on the mixture to check on its stability every now and then.