Lotions and Potions....

I love making my soap and feel that every single batch is an amazing and magical experience, even the ones that don't turn out as I expect....or perhaps especially those batches *smile*.
 
Something I haven't really be drawn to do and have even been a little afraid of up until now, is lotion making.  Why?  Well I certainly worried that I wouldn't be able to keep my area as sterile as I have read it needs to be; I am a kitchen soaper and know that, for soapmaking, as long as my bench and utensils are clean I am good to go.  I also didn't want to get involved in having to add preservatives to products (soap doesn't need any!) -  Which preservative to use?  How much to use?  How can I know the ph factor of my lotion so the preservative works.....?  You can see how my mind was working.  Thinking on all the negatives I could conjure up.

Well, yesterday I finally bit the bullet and made my very first emulsified lotion.  Basically, creams and lotions are an emulsion of oil and water, you see.  I decided to use my favourite soaping oils as a starting point and created Nourishing Skin Nectar featuring cocoa butter as well as rice bran, avocado and camellia tea seed oils combined with aloe vera juice.  I added a small amount of carrot tissue infused oil for its skin properties too....an added bonus was the lovely colour it added to my lotion.  Have a look:

I learned that lotions are rather easy to make and keeping my work area sterile is much easier than I expected.  Now I am working on a Balancing Skin Nectar recipe *smile*.

Enjoy your weekend!

Busy Week!

I have had a rather busy week - and not making soap!

My Mother-in-Law was taken ill and required emergency surgery, which she was not expected to survive....but survive she did.  She is tough, but we didn't realised just how tough!  Although she is still in her hospital's high care unit, she is slowly improving thank goodness *smile*.

So, now that I feel I can make soap I have made a batch a day for three days - Lime in de Coconut, Island Coconut and Creamy Fruit Salad.  The latter is one I will be introducing to my range as a teen facial soap, tailored to suit the oiliness and hormonal outbreaks of pimples that all teens dread.  Extensive testing by my own teens and their friends have shown that is really help clean, balance their skin and minimise the appearance and redness of these outbreaks.  Pics will be up very soon!

Have an awesome weekend and and even better week ahead......Tanya

New Body Butter recipe.....

I have been playing with my Whipped Body Butter recipe and love how this turned out!  Ingredients include avocado oil and cocoa butter.  I scented this with Rice Flower and Shea fragrance and it smells so soft and fresh *smile*