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.