Yureka! A Sugar Scrub That Turns Into Lotion!

My interest started when I saw an image of a fluffy sugar scrub that didn´t look like what I was using at all.

Mine didn´t hold together long enough to take a picture unless it´s on a spoon.  How could this be?  I started reading about it further and little by little, I learned about an emulsified sugar scrub.  I started here:
http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.com.es/2013/01/facial-scrubs-emulsified-scrubs.html

I´ve been using an oil with sugar scrub for months and love how my skin feels afterwards.  It´s a different story for the sink and tub however; I´ve even slipped while trying to exfoliate my heal while standing (that was silly of me).  Well, that´s in the past now ever since I´ve started using this emulsified sugar scrub.  An important ingredient is an emulsifying wax (E-wax) which is commonly used in making lotions and creams in order to keep the oils and water from separating.  So imagine having the E-wax in the sugar scrub.  Once you start rubbing the sugar concoction onto wet skin, it creates lotion! Bye, bye to oily tub residue, and say hello to well hydrated skin without the need for lotion application after the shower.

The recipe I used is adapted from  http://www.soapalooza.com

620 grams olive oil
100 grams coconut oil
  50 grams shea butter
100 grams e-wax (Polawax)
  80 grams stearic acid
  50 grams beeswax
    2 kilos white sugar
  20 grams fragrance oil (honeydew melon)
  10 grams preservative (Sharomix)
 

Heat the oils, butter, both waxes and stearic acid on low until completely dissolved.

Pour into a heat-proof glass bowl with the sugar and stir well.  

Why the glass bowl?  It helps cool the batter and it´s easier to see if the mixing is thorough enough.
Once the bowl feels warm to the touch (below 50ºC), add the scent, skin-safe colorant (if using) and preservative.  I used a bit of green food coloring to match the honeydew melon fragrance oil. The final product is pourable at this point to get it into jars.  It will firm up some more so that if you tilt the jar, the dough will not budge but pliable enough to grab some to take with you to the shower.

Making Creamy Goat´s Milk Lotion

Wow! I was super excited seeing how this lotion came to be that I wanted to share my experience in making it.  It turned out better than I imagined; creamy and feels divine on the skin. 

I remember watching a video many months ago on the making of goat´s milk lotion but I wasn´t in my lotion phase at the time and left it at that since I was more into soaping.  Now that I have too much soap and am taking a breather, I started looking into lotions.  Today I came across the same video by Susie at
http://www.oursimplefarm.com

I watched the video twice to make sure I had it clear of what to do.  I had just about everything I needed so I used the lotion calculator  http://www.sbwave.com/lotion/  to come up with a comparable recipe to make 500 ml worth of lotion.

25 grams e-wax
20 grams stearic acid
35 grams sweet almond oil
25 grams shea butter
20 grams avocado oil
184 grams goat´s milk
184 grams bottled water (I didn´t have distilled water)
4 grams Sharomix preservative
5 grams rose fragrance oil
1 gram Vitamin E

I weighed out the oils, the stearic acid and e-wax into a heat-proof glass container;  the goat´s milk and water goes into another container.  My scale only has whole numbers for the grams so they are not as accurate as I would like.

Each glass container gets heated through in a hot water bath before combining their contents together.   I made sure all of the stearic acid and shea butter has melted.

Once it´s warm to the touch, I added the scent, preservative and Vitamin E oil.  

At first I hand mixed it and then used the stick blender to make sure everything stays emulsified and to also "fluff" the batter into the creamiest of creams.

A very straight forward recipe and the result is a sublime cream for face or body!

Update:
The lotion thickened up even further the following day, so the pump didn´t work as well.  It would be better in a cream jar or tub.  I like a thinner lotion; will make the next batch with more water or reduce the e-wax since I am partial to the pump bottles so I won´t risk contaminating the lotion.

Making Whipping Cream Beauty Soap Bars ( Cold Process )

The same video but on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McaiutbewYE

Update:  The lather test after almost a year later (July 2013 - May 2014). 

While uploading the photos, I must have clicked on something wrong and unknowingly deleted the Youtube video that was here.  I replaced it with a link and directly uploaded the video onto Blogger.

I didn´t really care for the strong aroma as a facial soap, hence, they sat wrapped up in my box for soaps.  When I realized I didn´t do a follow up on the lather test.  I took one into the shower and I just love it! It lathers great and gives a rich and creamy feel. For some reason the strong floral scent is pleasant in the shower since it wasn´t right there in my face but rather a subtle perfumed steam.

This recipe is a keeper.  I´ll just have to keep in mind the concentration of the EO or FO used.

Making Green Tea Sea Salt Spa Soap Bars ( Cold Process )

Making HP Goat´s Milk Honey Oatmeal Soap ( Hot Process )

The look is more rustic than with cold process soaps but there´s a satisfaction in using something homemade within days of making it.  This is a great project for a cool week-end because being around the crock pot in the Summer isn´t too appealing.  Much like baking, it leaves a wonderful smell and warmth in the home.

I realized (or is it realised?) that I misspelled "celsius" in the video and I´m blaming myself for using ºC too many times.

Making HP Cream Soap with Recipe ( Hot Process )

Making cream soap is quite interesting to me because you get to see the texture changes from combining the acids and oils with the lyes go through their stages in the process of converting into this creamy soap that looks good enough to eat.  I am including the recipe, the video of the process and the follow-up photos.  I hope someone out there finds it helpful.  I wished I had something like this when I was in search of information on cream soap without having to sign up or register in order to get access to tried recipes. So here is my tried recipe; it might not be up to par to some but it´s good enough for me and for anyone looking to start.

 

Day 8 of  "rotting"

Day 16 of  "rotting" (in container shot)

Day 16 of  "rotting"

Day 23 of "rotting"

Day 32 of "rotting"

Making Whipped Shea Butter Soap

What better way to dress up a plain looking piece of soap from a silicone cupcake mold than to top it off with some whipped soap.  I really do need to look into making a video instead; between remembering to include all of the ingredients, taking off the gloves to grab a camera and proceeding, all the while fearing the batter would harden on me, resulted with only a few photos to show for.

My recipe is approximately:
44% palm oil in solid form
30% shea butter in solid form
19% coconut oil in solid form
 5% castor oil
 2% olive oil

After dissolving the lye (calculated with 5% superfat) into the water, I left it in the fridge to chill.  Then I proceeded to whip up all of the solid oils together until it resembled whipped cream.

(If I stopped at this point, it could be a fantastic body butter!  Alas, I couldn´t save any aside since I already had the lye measured out for the entire batch of oils.)

Continuing on...
Drizzled in the cold lye solution while slowly whipping.  Once incorporated, I drizzled in the liquid oils.  The batter wasn´t as fluffy but glossier.  It looked good enough to eat because it resembles a lot like cream cheese frosting.  Some cream fragrance oil was added, calculated to about 1/5 ml per cupcake.

I scooped out the batter into a prepared disposable piping bag and piped the cupcake soaps.

(A product side note:  the Rubbermaid Spoontula is a must-have fabulous tool in the kitchen!  I´m using my older one for soaping and I have another one for foods.  Make sure it´s the version with the deep red colored handle.)

I think next time I will use a wider opening tip for piping.  It was difficult towards the end squeezing out the batter.

A Precursor to the Best Anti-Wrinkle Eye Cream

I´ve been quite happy using a facial serum after washing my face at night but sometimes it gets too messy when working around the eyes.  My face serum had so many different oils because I couldn´t decide which to keep and which to leave out; it turned out to be a mixture of argan, neem, avocado, wheat germ, almond, apricot kernel, coconut, rosehip, lavender and vitamin E.
Lately, I´ve been using the serum on most of my face but I tend to go for the lotions to dab around the eyes.  I think it´s time for me to try and whip up an eye cream.  This might be the precursor to an even better eye cream down the road and the journey starts here for me.

DIY Recipe:
  2 gr. Argan oil
  2 gr. Rosehip oil
  2 gr. Tamanu oil
  2 gr. Coconut oil
  2 gr. Avocado oil
  2 gr. Apricot Kernel oil
  3 gr. Emulsifying wax Cetearyl Alcohol/PEG-20 Stearate
16 gr. Rose water
  8 gr. Glycerin
  2 gr. Vitamin E
  2 gr. Hyaluronic Acid (1% concentration)
1/2 gr. Coenzyme Q10
1/2 gr. Collagen
   2 gr. Bulgarian Rose essential oil (0.3% concentration)
0.50 gr. Germall Plus


Everything seemed to go well except it stayed too wet.  So I decided to reheat the mixture in order to incorporate 5 gr. of melted beeswax in order to get a salve-like texture.

I´ll try this for a month or so to see what adjusting I would need to make to this recipe.  I did try some on the back of my hand; the cream needs massaging in but once it´s absorbed, the skin looks beautiful and healthy with a slight sheen.  There is a slight tacky sensation and it could be either the hyaluronic acid because it was viscous or it was the coenzyme Q10 because when I felt the yellow powder between my fingers, it felt a bit sticky.

Update:  In hindsight, I shouldn´t have added the beeswax; it´s too stiff to use around the eyes and I notice the granules of beeswax (I think).  What I´ve been doing is combining this with some oil serum on my palm before applying onto my face.  My skin feels nice after applying; just the form it´s in now isn´t up to par.  I´ll continue to play with the recipe once I finish this batch. 

Beeswax in Sweet Almond Oil Lotion

I located a lotion recipe via Pinterest that uses beeswax instead of an emulsifying wax (I had used cetearyl alcohol before) and I wanted to try this version out.  I haven´t had too much luck with beeswax in lotions; the lotions tend to separate over time.  I have also tried soy lecithin as an emulsifyer without much luck either, but that will be for another post.

So here´s the recipe from Wisebread.com:
1 oz. beeswax (I used yellow pellets)
   1/4 cup coconut oil (the yummy smelling kind)
1 1/4 cups sweet almond oil
1 Tbs. grape seed oil
1 Tbs. vitamin E oil
   1/2 cup hot distilled water
1 ml Germall plus (I try to use a preservative if there´s water involved just to be safe)

I placed the beeswax and the oils in a double boiler to melt the wax and get everything to the same temperature.  Vitamin E went in towards the end to minimize any deterioration.

Once all the wax was melted, I took it off the heat and while whisking the oil, I carefully drizzled in the hot water.  I then stirred and stirred; I also placed a cold water bath under the bowl to help it cool.  It turned gelatinous and off white once it started to cool.  I added the Germall once the temperature was below 50ºC.  When the bowl felt lukewarm, the texture was like sweetened condensed milk.

It was too runny for a jar or a pump dispenser.  I was just going to store it in an empty plastic bottle until I looked over to the stick blender.  "Why not?" I thought to myself.  So I poured the batter into a wide mouth beaker and stick blended the cream.  It turned whiter and somewhat thicker from the air that had been incorporated into solution and it held up quite well as you can see on the spoon below.  It´s still too runny for my liking but at least now, a pump dispenser is an option.  I think less oil would work out better because as it is, it leaves the skin shinier than I would like.

Before and after mixing with the stick blender.

I can see this as the perfect after-shower-lotion, definitely; the oil barrier will help hold the moisture in the skin even better.  If you can get a delicious smelling coconut oil, there´s no need for any other fragrance or essential oil.  The original recipe included an optional 15-20 drops of essential oil.

Update: Since the making of this lotion which I calculate to have about 80% oil,  I´ve located a lotion calculator (link is at the sidebar) which suggests only using up to 25%.  Hence, the shininess on the skin;
it wasn´t necessarily greasy since I used mainly almond oil.

Marseille Inspired Soap

In Spain, all of the Marseille soaps that I have encountered have a unique smell to them and I thought that´s what they´re supposed to smell like.  The scent is added to laundry detergents, softeners, dish washing soaps and even shower gels.

So when I got into soaping, I read up on the coveted Marseille soap.  It turns out, the true Marseille soap is unscented.  There are a couple of requirements though.  The oils used need to be only vegetable based and at least 72% of it needs to be olive oil.  I have also read that Mediterranean sea water was sometimes used and some artisans would add essential oils from local flowers and leaves found in the Southern region of France like lavender and azhar.  I´m convinced that´s how the characteristic aroma came to be in Spain.  When the Marseille soap was introduced into the Spanish market (I couldn´t find a more accurate time frame, but I am estimating it to be after WWII), it was already perfumed.  The soap industry continued to produce soaps with this perfume and slowly the aroma became ingrained into the population´s recognition for the Marseille soap.
Here I am, with some knowledge of soaping and some on the history of this soap, working out a recipe that could replicate the "Savon de Marseille" right here in the Canary Islands, Spain.

72% olive oil, infused with orange and lemon zests
10% coconut oil
13% palm oil
 5% sweet almond oil
NaOH
distilled water and sea salt (to imitate mild sea water)
rose essential oil
lavender essential oil
lime essential oil (to further accentuate the citrus zest)
pine essential oil (I figured there must be some pine in Southern France also; I used equal parts for each essential oil, fearing too much pine will make it smell like floor cleaners.)
olive leaf powder (to help it attain the green color I´ve seen in photos of this soap)

It started out greener but turned slightly light brown as it cured.  I am guessing the orange specks are from the zests not completely ground with the stick blender; I didn´t remove the zests from the olive oil.  The top photo was taken with sunlight and the bottom photo was taken in the kitchen with fluorescent lighting.

It has a wonderful citrus floral aroma and I am very happy to how close I got to the target scent.  It is a firm hard bar with creamy lather and the pH tested to be about 8.5

The olive leaves were ground superfine using an electric coffee grinder so it is not scratchy at all.  As a side note, the olive leaves are blessed and were used in Easter mass 2013 in Jaen, the capital city of Andalucia Province, the largest olive oil producing region in the world. No kidding. It´s really incredible to stand there and turn 360º to only see olive trees or their specks in the distance.

Yummy Almond Joy Lotion

I wanted to blog on my soaping trials but I have recently deviated to lotions.  Since I have so many soap bars curing, I am taking a break and decided to use the oils on hand for lotions and creams.  I have this jar coconut oil that just smells so delicious that I am always tempted to eat it up; it´s that good.  I wanted a lotion with this aroma so I can enjoy it daily.

 In a double boiler, melt
30 grams emulsifying wax
     (I used cetearyl alcohol / PEG-20 stearate; it is considered safe in food and cosmetics.)
      http://www.naturalwellbeing.com/learning-center/Cetearyl_Alcohol
40 grams of coconut oil
10 grams of sweet almond oil

In a separate pot, heat 1 1/4 cups of distilled water

While these two are heating, measure out in a small mearuring cup the following additives:
5 grams of Vitamin E
3 grams of Germall Plus liquid preservative
     (It´s paraben free but I´ve read both good and not so good things about this
      preservative.  If in doubt, don´t use it.
      If not using it, store your lotion in the fridge and use it up within a few weeks.)
1/2 ml almond flavor oil
     (this was a last minute decision because the coconut smell reminded me of Almond Joy;
      it smells like the almond extract but without the alcohol; found it in the baking section)
10 grams of glycerine

Once the oils/wax are melted and the water slightly boiling, remove both from the heat.  While whisking the oil solution, slowly drizzle in the hot water until all is incorporated.  The mix will turn milky white.

Keep stirring until the mix is below 50ºC.  I set the stirring bowl over another bowl with cold water to help cool it faster.  Add in the additives and continue to stir.

Put it in a clean jar and let it cool before placing the lid on.  It´s fluid enough to put it in a bottle with a pump dispenser.  I have a bottle of this near the kitchen sink.  Don´t throw away those alcohol gel dispenser bottles; there´s no need to clean it because it´s already sanitized.

Next time I´ll consider adding some chocolate aroma to it to complete the candy bar experience.