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!