Soap Making: Berenice's Gardener's Soap

I've made this soap for my friend Berenice who recently moved house and finally has her dream garden. Hopefully this soap will make all the garden work a bit more enjoyable...

Ingredients:

350g Water

142g Lye

300g Trex

250g Coconut Oil

250g Palm Oil

200g Olive Oil

15g Powdered Pumice

15g Carrot Seed Oil

15g Tea Tree Oil

15g Eucalyptus Oil

This soap is nicely exfoliating with a thick rich creamy lather.

Cosmetic Recipes: Shampoo Bar

Unfortunately cold process shampoo bars leave too much residue in my hair. So this surfactant based bar is the ideal solution for travelling when liquid shampoos love to leave their bottles and mess up my suitcase.

Ingredients

Phase A

55g SCI

10g SMC taurate

15g disodium cocoampho-diacetate

3g cetyl alcohol

3g BMTS

10g coconut oil

2g oat protein

Phase B

2g panthenol

1g dimethicone

2g essential oil blend

Heat phase A until dissolved before adding phase B. The consistency is similar to hot process soap so it takes  persistence to get the mixture into your mould. This is enough to fill one muffin mould. :-)

Cosmetic Recipes: Facial Toner

Ingredients:

Heated phase

30g witch hazel

25g lavender hydrosol

29g water

1g aloe vera concentrate

3g sodium lactate

Cool down phase

3g honeyquat

2g panthenol

2g hydro oats

4.5g avocado extract

0.5g preservative

Combine the heated ingredients in a double boiler. Heat until they reach 70C then let cool down to 50C before adding the cool down ingredients.

Cosmetic Recipes: Make Up Remover

A. Water Based Make Up Remover

This is ideal for every day use if you don't use waterproof mascara or eye liner. It leaves a slightly oily but nourishing after feel.

Ingredients

10g olive squalane

10g glycerine

3g avocado extract

76.7g distilled water

0.3g preservative

 B. Oil Based Make Up Remover

This gets rid of even the most stubborn traces of make up but leaves your face feeling very oily.

Ingredients

59g castor oil

20g olive oil

20g sunflower oil

1g vitamin E

Tiger Balm Bath Salts

Today I finally had a reason to use the menthol crystals I bought last year. I have a chesty cough and my body is acking so I made some Tiger Balm Bath Salts to relax.

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups Salt (mixture of Epsom and Fine Sea Salt)

1/2 tsp Menthol Crystals

1/8 tsp Clove E/O

1/8 tsp Eucalyptus E/O

1/8 tsp Black Pepper E/O

18 tsp Basil E/O (Rosemary would be better)

a few drops of blue liquid colour

The menthol crystals provide a very cool feel so even though I usually don't tolerate warm water over my tommy I felt very relaxed in a tub full of hot water. Candles and relaxing music rounded of a perfect harmonious atmosphere.

Soap Making: Geeky Mouse

I've made this next soap for hubby to say thanks for all his help and support:

Made on 12th September 2010

Ingredients:

35g Water

13.5g Lye

50g Vegetable Fat

30g Coconut Oil

15g Olive Oil

5g Beeswax

1.5g Christmas Cookie F/O

1.5g Fudge F/O

We bought a new mouse a while ago and kept the plastic packaging as it's a perfect mould.

Soap Making: Cinnamon Cake

No calories in this cake:

Made on 12th September 2010

Ingredients:

105g Water

40.5 g Lye

150g Vegetable Fat (Trex)

90g Coconut Oil

45g Olive Oil

15g Beeswax

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp honey powder

10g  Christmas Cookie F/O

Soap Making: Experimenting with Colour

Over the next few weeks I'm planning to experiment a bit with soap colouring. I will make small batches of soap, each a different colour and without scent. Here's my base recipe:

Ingredients:

35g Water
13.5g Lye

50g Vegetable Fat (Trex)

30g Coconut Oil

15g Olive Oil

5g Natural Beeswax*

* I buy my beeswax from a local shop, it hasn't been bleached and smells absolutely divine:

Soap Making: Cherry Chunks

Hubby designed this soap - and as usual he has great taste!

Made on 2nd September 2010

Ingredients:

320g Water

122g Lye

710g Olive Oil

230g Palm Oil

60g Beeswax

5g Titanium White Powder

20g Cherry F/O (Soap Kitchen)

Red Soap Chunks (from a previous batch)

Soap Making: Rosy Cheek

I've made some gorgeous looking soap this week! I'm really pleased with how it looks and can't wait to try it out once it has cured.

Made on 1st September 2010

Ingredients:

350g water

130g lye

500g Vegetable Fat (Trex)

190g Coconut Oil

190g Olive Oil

60g Almond Oil

60g Beeswax

10g Rose Geranium E/O

5g Lavender E/O

10g Blue Liquid Soap Colouring (from Justasoap)

Purple Soap Chunks (from a previous batch)

Household Recipes: Soap Base for Laundry Liquid

I haven't used shop bought laundry detergent for the last year and love making my own. I'm very proud that I don't buy products from companies that spend more time on making up fancy words for ridiculous advertising campaigns and fake science rather than care for their consumers!

Here's the recipe for the cold process soap which I dilute into laundry liquid once it has cured for a while:

1000g vegetable shortening (Trex)

350g water

135g lye

More on how to dilute the soap base in time...

Soap Making: Illustration Explaining Saponification

I stumbled across this quite a while ago, but go back every now and then to re-read it:

http://www.canis-art.com/soaping.htm

It's very cute and informative!

Cosmetic Recipes: Facial Cleanser

I've made a very mild facial cleanser and I'm well pleased with the result.

Ingredients:

63g water

20g Plantapon LGC (anionic; The Soap Kitchen)

10g Disodium Cocoampho-Diacetate (ampotheric, OASN)

1g aloe vera concentrate

2g hydrolised oat protein

2g panthenol

2g glycerine

1 eighth tsp guar gum

Cosmetic Recipes: Conditioner

I made my favourite conditioner last weekend:

Oil  Phase:

50g BMTS

60g Jojoba Oil

10g Cetyl Alcohol

Water Phase:

20g Honeyquat

820g Water

Cool Down Phase:

20g Panthenol

20g Dimethicone

5g Vanila and Caramel F/O

I usually make smaller quantities (adding up to 100g) but I love this conditioner and dread running out. I shouldn't need to make any for a long time now.

Cosmetic Recipes: Cuticle Cream

My nails are still in pretty bad shape due to the acrylic nails I wore to Julie's wedding. I decided today to make some cuticle cream to help them grow.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp lanolin

1/2 tbsp apricot kernel oil

10 dps Myrrh E/O

10 dps Frankincense E/O

10 dps Lemon Verbena E/O

I only had one wee pot, so I also used some lip balm tubes as containers. I better label them properly.

Nail Art: Pinkie Pie - Water Marble

I absolutely love my new water marble:

Barry M: Matt White (never thought I would use white nail polish quite as often)

Barry M: Limited Edition Pink

Barry M: Grey

Barry M: Glitter

Nail Art: Starry Night

Here's my first go at a gradient/fading design using a sponge to apply the various colours/coats:

Barry M: Matt White
Barry M: Marine Blue
Barry M: Silver Sea
Barry M: Racing Green
China Glaze: Side-Saddle

Nail Art: Sunshine - Water Marble

I needed something bright to cheer me up after having been in hospital:

Barry M: Matt White

Models Own: Fluro' Orange

Models Own: Tangerine Queen

Nail Art: Winter is on its Way - Water Marble

It's been rather cold and rainy here today. No wonder my second nail design has a winter feel to it:

This is my first go at water marble. The colours I used were all by Barry M: Mat White, Racing Green and Vivid Purple. The camera unfortunately distorted the colours a bit: Racing Green appears as light blue and Vivid Purple as dark blue.


Here's a very helpful tutorial on how to tape up your fingers before marbling:

Nail Art: White Flowers on Green Background

I'm normally not a make-up or fashion girl, but lately I've become addicted to nail polish. After removing acrylic extensions which I wore for a friend's wedding, my nails were in terrible condition and needed hiding.

Luckily I remembered one make-up company - Barry M - whose products and ingredients are not tested on animals and a trip to the chemists revealed just how many beautiful nail polishes they have. I have since discovered that many more nail varnish manufacturers have adopted a cruelty free policy.

With inspiration from watching numerous you tube video tutorials, I set out to create my first design:

Considering that my hands always shake which isn't the best prerequisite for any type of delicate work, I'm quite pleased with the result.

I applied Barry M's "Racing Green" on top of my clear base coat. Unfortunately it looks quite black in the picture. The flowers are made using Barry M's "Matt White" and contain on each petal a blue dot made with "Blue Glitter", also from the same manufacturer.