Many an Oriental restaurant offers inexpensive wooden chopsticks to diners. Next time you go for such cuisine, you might want to bring home a pair of those chopsticks.

Here\’s why: With the weather cooling off, my hands are getting chapped and dry. I need hand cream; and I make my own! Maybe you\’d like to try it , too. My \”recipe\” is derived from the formula for Basic Waterless Wax Formula, on page 76 of Better Basics for the Home.

I use 1/4 cup of grape seed oil; 1-2 tablespoons of jojoba oil; 2-3 tablespoons of  natural beeswax beads; and 1 teaspoon of bleached carnauba wax.

I put all the ingredients in an 8-oz Pyrex measuring cup, and set the cup in a 1-quart pot half-full of water. I let it \”cook\” over low heat until the waxes have melted, stirring now and then.

Here is where chopsticks comes in. A wooden chopstick is a great stirrer for anything you\’re whipping up that has wax in it.

After the waxes are melted, I pour the contents of the Pyrex cup into a coffee cup; and beat the liquid with a fork until it emulsifies. I don\’t leave it in the Pyrex cup for this step because the Pyrex holds the heat too well; and it takes forever for the mixture to cool and thicken. Meanwhile I\’m killing my wrist.

The entire process, from measuring the ingredients to cleaning up afterwards, might take 45 minutes. It seems like a long time in today\’s rushed world, but if I went to the store and bought hand lotion, it would take about the same amount of time.

This hand cream keeps for 3-4 months. I think it\’s well worth the effort.