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.