When I was pregnant with my second child I became somewhat obsesssed with creating the perfect face cream for myself. I tried lots of different experiments and, only when I had the perfect combination of ingredients did I feel I was ready to have the baby (some people get all their curtains washed, I meddled with oils in the kitchen!). Anyway, I have relatively dry skin and this is the only moisturiser I use. It is really simple to make with a few basic ingredients that can be bought online or in your local supermarket. It is also cheaper than store bought stuff, and the bonus is you know exactly what you are putting on your skin.
Ingredients:
3 tbsp liquid oil. I mix this up, but keep them light (caster oil, for instance, makes a very sticky cream). I usually use 1 tbsp olive oil, one tbsp of avocado oil and one tbsp of jojoba oil. However to make it lighter and more cheaply, 3 tbsp of olive oil male a lovely cream that is full of vitamin E. I sometimes swap the olive oil out for sweet almond oil if I have it on hand.
1 tbsp organic beeswax
2 tbsp water You can use tap water here, or I sometimes use perrier water if I have it on hand. Or you can use rosewater.
1/8th tsp bicarb of soda
1/4 tsp lecithin (can be bought online easily - it's an emulsifier, and you will find it in the list of ingredients on the back of your favourite chocolate). I use an amount the size of a pea!
Few drops vitamin E (optional, but it does help to preseve the cream so useful especially if you are in a very hot climate)
Few drops of gentle essential oil. I used to use geranium until I developed an allergy. Now I just use lavender oil. If you are making it for hands/body and NOT the face you can add in some citrus and maybe tea tree but I would not recomment using those on your face. These are again optional but help to preseve it and give it extra skin conditioning properties.
1) Add the oil, beeswax, bicarb of soda and lecithin and melt on a double boiler until there are no chunks of beeswax. Use a metal bowl if you have one to speed up the colling down later. If not a perspex bowl is fine.
2) Add the water and stir (it will immediately cool some of the oil but a quick stir and the mix will be homogenous again).
3) Take off the heat and with a spoon or mini whisk beat it until it thickens up and goes opaque.
4) Add the vitamin E and essential oils, stir, and spoon into a 50ml jar (you can use one saved and thoroughly cleaned from a store bought moisturiser).
5) You can use straight away but I usually leave it to fully cool down. This usually lasts me a good couple of months as you only need a tiny amount. I have never bothered to refrigerate and have never had it go bad, but if you are in a hot climate (I wish - I'm in the U.K!) you might want to keep it cool.
I also used this, with lavender, on my babies bottoms in lieu of nappy cream, and I also use it on cuts and scratches as the vitamin E and lavender are great for healing in a non-stingy way!
Showing posts with label handmade gifts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label handmade gifts. Show all posts
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Orange and Tea Tree Solid Shampoo Bar
I used to make all my shampoos and soaps but have been a bit slack over the last few years (mainly due to having small children). But, I figured I had some oils that needed using up so why not get myself back into it. My first port of call was a conditioning shampoo bar. The castor oil brings conditioning proerties whilst the cocoa butter and olive oil help to give it a lovely lather. You can swap out the smaller quantities of oil but the coconut oil, olive oil, caster oil and cocoa butter are pretty much essential to having a lovely shampoo bar. Just adjust the receipe on an online soap calculator if you want to swap anything out. I have chosen orange and tea tree to give the bars freshness but you could swap out those oils or fragrances for anything you fancy.
You should always wear gloves and eye protection when working with lye (until it is mixed in with the oils it is very nasty - the stuff that goes down drains to unblock them) however when mixed with oils it is neutralised, especially, as in this recipe, when there is additional oil to give extra conditioning and skin softening properties.
Also, most importantly, mix the Lye into the water, NOT the other way around, and use a stick blender for a faster trace (trace is when you can lift up the blender and as the soap mixture falls off of it it takes some seconds to disperse itself back into the pot). Be careful not to splash yourself with soap mixture as you will end up with red patches (I know this from experience)
Silicone loaf tins/moulds made great soap moulds, or you can make them inexpensively out of wood. As this is my first time making this I have gone for a little over a kilo in total weight, which will make enough bars to keep us going for a while and leave us with some left over to give to friends. Handmade soaps make pretty gifts whether wrapped in greaseproof or brown paper, or tied up in an organza bag.
Ingredients:
285g water
99g sodium hydroxide
150g coconut oil
200g pomace olive oil
150g caster oil
50g sweet almond oil
50g cocoa butter
50g avocado oil
50g beeswax
50g wheatgerm oil
5 teaspoons fragranc/essential oils
1) measure out your oils and put on a very low heat to melt.
2) meanwhile, measure out your water and, in a seperate container, the lye (sodium hydroxide).
3) Mix the sodium hydroxide into the water (preferably outside or by an open window - the fumes are nasty!) and give it a quick stir then walk away. Hold your breath while you are mixing these, if you breath the fumes in they are nasty (again, I've done this).
3) When the oil has melted leave it to cool down
4) When the oils and lye are around the same temperature (room temperature or, if you have a thermometer, anything up to 38 degrees C) pour the lye mixture into the oils, again being careful not to splash. The mixture starts off looking like this:
5) With your stick blender mix the two together until the soap mixture reaches trace (you can do this with a hand mixer or even a wooden spoon but it takes AGES that way!). Once trace has been reached it will look like this:
6) Pour into your mould, cover with a try/board and then a towell to insulate it. I've used one 1kg mould and had enough left over for three 5x5 cm moulds.
7) After 24 hours cut into bars and leave them for a good 4 weeks until you use them (they become more mild over this time).
8) Enjoy!
You should always wear gloves and eye protection when working with lye (until it is mixed in with the oils it is very nasty - the stuff that goes down drains to unblock them) however when mixed with oils it is neutralised, especially, as in this recipe, when there is additional oil to give extra conditioning and skin softening properties.
Also, most importantly, mix the Lye into the water, NOT the other way around, and use a stick blender for a faster trace (trace is when you can lift up the blender and as the soap mixture falls off of it it takes some seconds to disperse itself back into the pot). Be careful not to splash yourself with soap mixture as you will end up with red patches (I know this from experience)
Silicone loaf tins/moulds made great soap moulds, or you can make them inexpensively out of wood. As this is my first time making this I have gone for a little over a kilo in total weight, which will make enough bars to keep us going for a while and leave us with some left over to give to friends. Handmade soaps make pretty gifts whether wrapped in greaseproof or brown paper, or tied up in an organza bag.
Ingredients:
285g water
99g sodium hydroxide
150g coconut oil
200g pomace olive oil
150g caster oil
50g sweet almond oil
50g cocoa butter
50g avocado oil
50g beeswax
50g wheatgerm oil
5 teaspoons fragranc/essential oils
1) measure out your oils and put on a very low heat to melt.
2) meanwhile, measure out your water and, in a seperate container, the lye (sodium hydroxide).
3) Mix the sodium hydroxide into the water (preferably outside or by an open window - the fumes are nasty!) and give it a quick stir then walk away. Hold your breath while you are mixing these, if you breath the fumes in they are nasty (again, I've done this).
3) When the oil has melted leave it to cool down
4) When the oils and lye are around the same temperature (room temperature or, if you have a thermometer, anything up to 38 degrees C) pour the lye mixture into the oils, again being careful not to splash. The mixture starts off looking like this:
5) With your stick blender mix the two together until the soap mixture reaches trace (you can do this with a hand mixer or even a wooden spoon but it takes AGES that way!). Once trace has been reached it will look like this:
6) Pour into your mould, cover with a try/board and then a towell to insulate it. I've used one 1kg mould and had enough left over for three 5x5 cm moulds.
7) After 24 hours cut into bars and leave them for a good 4 weeks until you use them (they become more mild over this time).
8) Enjoy!
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