DIY beauty care – white lily

White lily flower can be a secret weapon in your beauty care routine. Washing with white lily juice is said to give a woman lifelong youth and beauty. Maybe it’s true. Maybe not. I don’t know. But what I do know is that for many years I’ve been using white lily in my daily DIY beauty care and it works for me perfectly. Thus, Sweetheart, I’d like to share my little secrets with you.

White Lily – the Princess of the Flowers

If a rose is a Flower of the Flowers, the Queen, than white lily is the Princess of the Flowers. The Rose has an affinity to the sun, the White Lily to the moon. It’s instantly recognizable for its show-white color, trumpet shape, and divine scent.

Magical properties are also attributed to the white lily: its bulb protects against charms, sorcery and spells. And if you pick lilies when Venus and the Moon are in Taurus or Libra then you can brew excellent love potions.

White lily legend

According to Greek legend, the Greek god Heracles had a burning desire for immortality. The milk of the goddess Hera was said to confer this immortality. So, Heracles stole up to the sleeping goddess of women and drank from her breast. While he was doing this, a few drops of milk fell to the ground and are said to have grown into lilies.

The Louvre Museum in Paris houses the mummy of a young Egyptian woman with a white lily on her chest. From the same flower, the Egyptians prepared the fragrant oil famous in antiquity, which Hippocrates speaks of in his “On the Nature of Woman”.

Since the Medieval Era, Lilium candidum has been associated with the Virgin Mary and is why it has another “official” name – the Madonna Lily. White lily carries a great deal of symbolic value in many cultures all over the world but these are different stories.

Lilium candidum – White lily or the Madonna lily

Botanically, pure white and very fragrant Lilium candidum belongs to the true lily family – Liliaceae.

White lily is a flower of excellence. It has large pure white, trumpet shaped flowers with a strong and sweet scent. Between 5 and 20 of these flowers cluster around a stem about 1.20m high. Lilies are bulbous plants where all nutrients are stored.

In 827 AD, the Benedictine monk Walahfrid Strabo, who loved gardening and had vast knowledge about various herbs and their medicinal uses, described lilies in his famous poem the Liber de cultura hortorum:

O radiant Lily, how with the paltry art of my sober muse. Can I bring you worthy praise in song and verse? Your shimmering white is the reflection of snowy lustre. The sweet scent of your bloom a reminder of the woods of Sheba.

White lily has been cultivated since antiquity, for at least 3,000 years, because this graceful flower gives an opportunity not only to admire, but also to benefit. The flowers and bulbs of the Madonna lily are edible: they have a pungent taste and are also a charming and tasty garnish.

Lily’s constituents

The white lily beauty benefits and medicinal value comes from its richness in linalool, benzoic acid, vanillin, phenethyl alcohol, essential oils, flavonoids, mucilages, saponins, and other phytochemicals.

DIY beauty care – white lily

In DIY beauty care, homemade white lily cosmetic products are used to soften, moisturize, and soothe the skin. Also, its divine aroma reduces stress and helps promote relaxation.

C’mon, don’t be lazy; make your own white lily beauty products. After all, homemade cosmetics are much more effective than the purchased ones, and simple recipes make them very affordable.

White lily alcohol tincture

White lily vodka tincture is a must-have product in your home beauty arsenal. Once you made it, you can keep it for months (in an airtight bottle and a dark place though) and use any time you want it. It’s also a base for your other homemade beauty treatments. In fact, I put a few drops of it almost in my every cosmetic. And not only that: smelling it is my little daily pleasure that makes me feel good.

How to make a white lily tincture

Recipe:

• You’ll need any 0.5-0.7 liter dark glass and airtight container, which is to be filled with lily petals.
• Collect petals from 7-9 lily flowers or more, depending on how much tincture you want to make. Take the petals only from the completely opened lily flowers.
• Place the petals into the container and pour vodka till it covers the flower petals by 1-1.5 cm.
• Put the container in a dark place for 5-6 weeks (preferably in a place where it is cooler). Periodically shake.

Your white lily tincture is ready. You can store it in a dark place for many months and use when it’s needed. You may filter and press the wet lily petals through the cheesecloth and keep the tincture without the petals. It’s optional. But I always leave the lily petals in the tincture and use for cuts, abscesses, and abrasions simply by applying to a sore spot or making a compress.

How to use a white lily tincture

Wipe your face with a cotton swab dipped in this tincture in the morning and evening for 3-4 weeks. Take a break for a week or two and then repeat.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Before using, the tincture has to be diluted with clean water in the 1: 3 ratios. But don’t add water to the entire tincture you made, because you’ll need it for later or another recipe. Just take a small portion of it, let’s say 50 ml and add 150 ml of water. For a while, it’ll be just enough.

White lily whitening  cream

If you have a light sprinkling of undesirable freckles on your nose, apply this cream every evening and soon your skin will be smooth and pure white. Also, this whitening cream is an excellent prevention of wrinkles. For oily skin, this remedy can be used as a rejuvenating mask.

How to make whitening cream

Recipe:

To prepare the whitening cream, take equal parts by weight of crushed white lily petals, honey, white beeswax, and garlic or onion juice. For accuracy, you may use a pharmacy scale.

• Place all ingredients in an enamel (or heat resistant glass) bowl.
• Then make a steam bath: put the bowl into a bigger pot filled with water and put the water to boil.
• Stir the mix constantly until a homogeneous mass is obtained
• As soon as the mass is homogeneous, remove it from the stove, cool it down and place in a jar.

How to use whitening cream

Use it for a month and then take a break for a week or two.

White lily nourishing cream

This nourishing face cream is great for any type of skin but it’s especially good for the dry skin. Your skin will get more than just hydration: it’ll get nutrients.

Take 2 tablespoons of white lily petals, 1/2 teaspoon of rose water, 1 tablespoon of honey, 30 grams of lanolin. Preparation is similar to the whitening cream. The only difference: rose water is not added immediately, but at the last moment of the process, when the cream is almost ready.

White lily body lotion

This homemade 100% natural white lily body lotion is perfect to heal skin dryness and chapping. It cares for the skin gently. It’s always a pleasure to apply white lily body lotion after taking a bath or shower: you are sublimated, nourished and delicately scented.

How to make white lily body lotion

The process of making white lily lotion starts with making white lily tincture. I’ve already described it and assume you have it. The rest is simple:

• Make 5 cup of rose water (actually, it’s just rose tea): put 1 tbsp. of dry rose petals or 2 fresh rose flowers in a small teapot, pour about 0.5 cup of boiling water, cover, and wait until the tea cools down. Then squeeze through cheesecloth. You’ll get less than 0.5 cup of rose water.
• Make about 0.3 cup of freshly squeezed cucumber juice: grate 2-3 cucumbers and squeeze through cheesecloth.

In any dark glass and airtight container (could be a bottle) mix 0.5 cup of white lily vodka tincture, rose water and cucumber juice you made, 1 tbsp. of glycerin (you may use olive oil instead of glycerin), and 1 tbsp. of lemon juice. Shake for 5 minutes. Keep refrigerated for about a week.

White lily in olive oil

Oil extract of white lily will normalizing the sebaceous glands, has a rejuvenating effect, makes the skin elastic, silky and smooth.

Place 5 white lily flowers in a transparent glass bottle, pour 0.5 liters of olive oil, close the bottle tightly and put on the window. Let it stay on the window for a month, shaking occasionally (in fact, the more the merrier).

Apply to your face and body occasionally, especially after a warm bath or shower.

Beautiful and fresh, lily flowers can be a secret weapon in your beauty care routine. And they smell divine.

Argan oil is made by cold pressing from the seeds of Argania, the argan tree, which grows only in one place on the planet – in the northern Africa, mainly in Morocco. Moroccans call argan oil “liquid gold” not because of its price (in Morocco, it’s affordable for all) but because of its incredibly healing, anti-aging and soothing power.

To summarize:

Homemade white lily cosmetics are much more effective than the purchased ones,  and simple recipes make them very affordable.