Liquid Cleansers

So whats left to try? Oh my...

Liquid Soap
Face Wash
Toner
Body Wash
Surgar Scrubs

The list goes on. This truly is addicting...

Liquid soap...

Looks like marshmallow fluff or meringue. I melted down a bar of soap with some water and whiped it with my egg beaters. Works pretty good in the liquid soap pump. I am waiting to try it in the foaming pump, but I need for it to be emptied first.

Face Wash and Toner...

I brewed about a cup of my strong Japanese Green Tea - its not in leaf form but rather a powder so I'm wondering if I can use it as colorant in soap...

I didn't mind using the tea as toner, but I found the powder settled to the bottom of my container and clogged my spray bottle.

For the facewash I used 1/4 cup each brewed green tea and liquid castile soap. Added 3/4 tsp carrier oil, in this case I used avocado oil, 3 drops of Vitamin E oil and 8 drops of EO.

It woked fine as a face wash, but again with the clogging of the pump. I think next time I will need to strain it well, perhaps using cheesecloth? The colour was awful! And we ended up dumping it after a couple of weeks. 

We'll just try again.

Next up will be a sugar scrub, body wash, bubble bath, and of course experimenting with the face wash and hair cleaning solutions. 

Hair Cleansing Cream

As I've been researching the soap making industry, I've been learning a lot about the different chemicals which are added to our products. I've decided its better to try and eliminate some of these unnecessary chemicals we subject our bodies to. Apparently, shampoo is one of the worst offenders out there as far as chemicals. I really wasn't convinced that I could create something natural which could clean our hair sufficiently. So back to the computer - reading 100's of blogs and reviews on homemade hair cleansers.

Eventually this is what I tried...

1 piece of my homemade oatmeal soap (shaved) melted with 1/2 cup of water
The soap melted and combined with the water to create a nice clear solution.
I added the following...
1 Tbsp avocado oil (LOVE avocado oil)

This made it instantly creamy.

I also like that the little flecks of oatmeal were hanging around. 

Then I added 1 tsp baking soda, 30 drops tea tree oil, 20 drops of oil of oregano and 10 drops of peppermint EO.

I mixed this together. Although the mixture was nice a creamy, I thought it would thicken too much so I added about 1/2 cup more water.

I placed it into smaller containers and it was ready for use.

We follow with a diluted Apple Cider vinegar rinse - this leaves our hair clean and and the rinse leaves it soft and manageable.

It does thicken as it sits. We can either microwave it a just a bit to get it more runny, or we can add more water. But we find it's great to put the cream into these little containers and just scoop out a bit when you need it. 

We all have different hair types, yet this seems to work for all of us. Rob needs oil control, I need moisturizing and conditioning and Amy needs colour setting... works great for all of us.

Looks like we're almost out, so I will need to make some more... 

Body Butter

I love the feel of body butter on my hands. I finally found a recipe I was interested in trying.

6 oz coconut oil
2 oz cocoa butter
Peppermint EO

I melted the oil and butter in the microwave. I then placed it in the fridge. Seems a bit backwards, but the coconut oil is a solid and the cocoa butter comes in little pellets. You are not able to whip them as a solid, so I need to find an in between state.

As the mixture turned more opaque I began to whisk and place in the fridge. I did this until it started to cream nicely. At this point I added approximately 1/2 tsp of vitamin E oils. I also added a squirt of Aloe Vera gel.

I then took out my egg beaters.

It took a while, but eventually I got a nice creamy whiped body butter. It smelled great, minty, and looked good enough to eat (at least my husband thought so).

I scooped it into containers and its ready for use.

It could be the fact that it is currently winter, but I found the body butter returned back to a full solid state. It does  rub into your skin on contact, but it is no longer a creamy texture when you take some out. I also found the coconut oil made my skin look "wet" when first applied. Although my hands did not particularly feel greasy, they were damp until the oils had fully absorded.

I researched some more and discovered I could add some stabilizer to the body butter. I scooped everything back into my mixing bowl, and here's where I've lost track of all my amounts of additional add in's...

So basically I added a couple more squirts of Aloe Vera gel, 1 tsp avocado oil and a couple tsp of cornstarch. 

I really like the end result, although I was just told that cornstarch is not too great when the weather turns warmer and Arrowroot Powder would be a better choice as a stabilizer. I will try that next time.

Castile Soap - #4

This time I was searching for a nice basic castile soap. Castile is supposed to be one of the purest and most gentle kinds of soap. Of course, depending on your additives it will change the properties of the soap but a true castile soap is usually made from 100% olive oil.

I did switch mine up a bit. This is the recipe I followed.

30 oz olive oil
5 oz palm (I substituted with shortening)
10 oz coconut oil
5 oz canola oil
16 oz water
6.9 oz lye
EO (floral)

Turns out I ran out of olive oil at 21 oz and needed to quickly find something to substitute. I read that you can sub with canola, up to 40% max so I made up the remaining 9 oz with extra canola oil.

I covered this one with plastic wrap. I had some soda ash come to the surface with the oatmeat soap so I was hoping this would prevent that from happening. 

The soap turned out beautifully! I love the creamy colour, no additives there. The scent is almost non existent. I've learned its very hard to get good scented soap as many of the EO's do not retain their scents throughout the curing.

I have been resting this one for almost two weeks and have not yet tried it out. However, the PH level was between 8 and 9, so that is within the normal range.

I added a bit of Rosemary spice pods to the last little bit just for some variety. Curious to see how we like that.

My next goal will be to use the green tea macha powder I've received from my neices' mother-in-law, direct from Japan. As well as using some coconut milk in a soap.

Think luxury! Avocado coconut soap. Will be so good on the skin :)

Soap Batch #3

I've discovered I really enjoy the soap making process. I've been spending tons of time on line researching the different oils and what their benefits are. I've researched which ones go well together. In my quest to finding something great for our dry Calgary weather I came across avocado oil. This is supposed to be very nourshing for the skin. So off I go finding a soap recipe using avocado oil.

Here's what I came up with.

240 grams avocado oil
180 grams coconut oil
180 grams lard
86 grams lye
228 grams water
Lemon grass EO
Few drops of yellow colour

I love the shape and the scent. The colour did not take very well, which is OK. Next time I would look to add some green pigment, either through mica or some other soap safe materials. More research required!

However, my favourite soap so far. I love the way it smells, and I love the way it laters while using and most of all, I love how it does not seem to dry out my hands. Definately a keeper recipe.