Definitions (Creams & Lotions)

There are three main types of creams and lotions. They range from 'heavy' to 'light' and their differences are basically as follows:-

Heavy Cream. A heavy cream is almost always a cleansing cream. It is designed to help in the removal of make-up and is the highest in oil content. It tends to sit on the skin a long time, so is unsuitable as a general moisturising cream as it is slow to absorb and leaves an oily appearance. It has good skin-softening ability and as such is often described as a 'night cream' or 'cold cream' (a term originally refering to the oils, not the temperature). Heavy creams are generally packaged in jars as they are too thick to dispense from a bottle.

Cream. A cream is a lighter product and generally a good face, hand or body cream. It tends to have a higher water content and is loaded with emolients, so generally is described as a 'moisturising cream'. Easily absorbed into the skin, it offers an excellent 'vehicle' to enable skin-friendly oils with many properties to be absorbed to their benefit. This is the most common type of cream generally used and they come in a wide variety of textures, some more suitable for certain uses than others, i.e. generally a body cream will have a slightly lighter texture than a face cream. Light creams are generally packed in jars as they are thick enough to remain a semi-solid.

Lotion. A lotion has an even higher moisture content, which makes it easier to dispense from a bottle. Again, they are generally used to apply moisture to the face, hands and body, but they are far more viscous and therefore quicker and easier to apply than a cream, so they tend to be used as light moisturisers, suitable for 'all over body', or as carriers for products such as sun screens.

More about... It is worth mentioning that there are a great many recipes you may find, which claim to be for creams and lotions, but which don't have any water content. It is generally understood that a cream or lotion is an emulsion of oil/s and water. There are also a great many which appear to have both oil and water in their ingredients, but no 'emulsifier'. Again, it is generally understood that to be effective, any water-and-oil formula must have some form of emulsifier to bind the ingredients together, otherwise the ingredients cannot work effectively, so for the purposes of this website, we are only going to be concentrating on proper, stable emulsions, which have the familiar appearance of a cream or lotion. They are not difficult to make so there is no reason for the home-user to settle for less effective recipes.

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