This dry winter air is really damaging my skin. Lately my hands have been so dried that the skin splits at the slightest thing. My hands are currently a mess of scars, scabs and cuts. I've had a bag of cocoa butter sitting neglected in a drawer for ages, so I thought it's about time I used it. Looking at recipes online, they all used beeswax, which is definitely NOT vegan (however much some may like to kid themselves). So I went without. There was a vegan recipe online somewhere, but I couldn't find it, so I winged it. Here's my recipe, which is way quicker than the ones I found:

• 1 tbsp unrefined organic cocoa butter
• 1 tbsp cold-pressed, unrefined, organic coconut oil
• 6 drops of essential oil of your choice (optional)

First melt your cocoa butter in a double boiler.

As soon as it has melted, turn off the heat and mix in the coconut oil. The cocoa butter should be hot enough to melt the coconut oil. Combine well.

Remove the hot water from the saucepan you used for the double boiler, and fill with cold water, adding ice if desired. Fill enough water so that the bottom of the bowl touches the cold water. Keep mixing with a balloon whisk or electric hand whisk.

Keep an eye on it, because as soon as it starts to thicken, you want to take it off the cold water. Unfortunately, I was too busy taking photos to pay attention.

Whoops! At this point I had to replace the water in the pan with hot water and sit the bowl over it again until it melted to the right thickness.

Okay, once you get a thick consistency, sort of like thick cream, take the bowl off the pan of cold water and add your essential oils, if using. I used a blend of the following. I was hoping for mandarin as the top note, geranium as the middle and ylang ylang as the base note, but all I can smell is cocoa butter, so for scenting purposes it was useless. However, the therapeutic effects of the oil are more important, right?

Once you've added your oils, whisk whisk whisk! And you should end up with something like this:

Very nice and fluffy, a bit like angel delight. Then just leave it in the fridge to set for half an hour or so and you're all done!

The cream is quite rich and does feel oily as it melts onto your skin. However, the greasiness does not last long as it absorbs very quickly. I keep some of this in the kitchen, so every time I wash my hands, I massage a bit onto my skin and so far, my hands feel much softer and moisturised.

For my next batch, I'd like to do a lighter lotion for my face, using different essential oils. So I am going to buy some emulsifying wax and maybe some glycerine. I will let you know how it comes out!