diff --git a/components/gfx/platform/freetype/font_context.rs b/components/gfx/platform/freetype/font_context.rs
index 3fb35ab2dc9..c60c6bf5e36 100644
--- a/components/gfx/platform/freetype/font_context.rs
+++ b/components/gfx/platform/freetype/font_context.rs
@@ -13,9 +13,7 @@ use freetype::freetype::struct_FT_MemoryRec_;
 use std::ptr;
 use std::rc::Rc;
 
-use libc;
-use libc::{c_void, c_long, size_t, malloc};
-use std::mem;
+use libc::{self, c_void, c_long, size_t};
 
 extern fn ft_alloc(_mem: FT_Memory, size: c_long) -> *mut c_void {
     unsafe {
@@ -48,7 +46,7 @@ impl Drop for FreeTypeLibraryHandle {
         assert!(!self.ctx.is_null());
         unsafe {
             FT_Done_Library(self.ctx);
-            libc::free(self.mem as *mut c_void);
+            Box::from_raw(self.mem);
         }
     }
 }
@@ -60,19 +58,17 @@ pub struct FontContextHandle {
 
 impl FontContextHandle {
     pub fn new() -> FontContextHandle {
+        let mem = box struct_FT_MemoryRec_ {
+            user: ptr::null_mut(),
+            alloc: ft_alloc,
+            free: ft_free,
+            realloc: ft_realloc,
+        };
         unsafe {
-            let ptr = libc::malloc(mem::size_of::<struct_FT_MemoryRec_>() as size_t);
-            let mem: &mut struct_FT_MemoryRec_ = mem::transmute(ptr);
-            ptr::write(mem, struct_FT_MemoryRec_ {
-                user: ptr::null_mut(),
-                alloc: ft_alloc,
-                free: ft_free,
-                realloc: ft_realloc,
-            });
-
             let mut ctx: FT_Library = ptr::null_mut();
 
-            let result = FT_New_Library(ptr as FT_Memory, &mut ctx);
+            let mem = ::std::boxed::into_raw(mem);
+            let result = FT_New_Library(mem, &mut ctx);
             if !result.succeeded() { panic!("Unable to initialize FreeType library"); }
 
             FT_Add_Default_Modules(ctx);