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.