Homemade Cosmetics, Beauty Products, and other delicious-smelling nice things.

[Petra]

Anyone here have any recipes for creams, oils, baths, face masks, soaps, and other scrummy girlie things?

I'm thinking about making some for the various female friends and family I have, for Xmas.

:girl: :nail: :curtsey:

[LianaLi]

I'll ask my friend what books she has on the subjects. They were good ones. We did a girls night out, where we stayed at her place, did manicures and pedicures, and made our own hand creams (lotions are too messy), salt and sugar scrubs, and bath salts. They're actually insanely easy to make. The bath salts that you put into the bath to make it smell nice are just one third baking soda mixed with two thirds salt. And then I think you added water until it was just beginning turn into mush, and added whatever scents/essential oils you wanted.

Notes from my experience making that stuff: It's fun! But then I'm an arts'n'crafts kinda girl, so making anything is fun for me.

Sandalwood does NOT last long as a scent. :( Much to my disappointment, since I can never find any store lotions that are JUST scented sandalwood. I'll have to look into the chemistry of WHY sandalwood loses its scent so rapidly, but needlesss to say, it does. I made a cream scented with just sandalwood, and it lost scent in less than three hours. And that was in a closed container! The biochemist in me says it probably just breaks down too quickly.

Oh, and if you're making sugar or salt scrubs- use large grained salts, like sea salt, or turbino sugar. You want the large grains, like the ones they use in bath and body shop. We didn't think about it, and used just table salt and sugar, and wound up with fine grained scrubs, that I think would just dissolve when you used it. Actually, my friends made the scrubs. I didn't try making one, because I knew from the granule size that the stores used the turbino sugar/sea salts. I'll ask my friends how theirs turned out and get back to you.

Oh, and if you're making a cream, here's a test that my friend discovered that we didn't know about. So, the oils to make lotions come in a wide, wide variety. My friend discovered two skin types- those whose skin soak up heavy oils really well, and those who soak up light oils really well. As it turned out, I soaked up light oils like apricot and sunflower, but heavy oils just sat on my skin, not getting absorbed. Heavy oils, like grapeseed oil, absorbed into other people's skins really well. To test for this, you just take a light oil, put a drop of it on your skin, and smear it around. Do the same with heavy oil. See which one "disappears" first- that's the one most like your skin's natural oils, and it should be the oil you use for your lotion. The one that just sits on top of your skin, and leaves that oily residue shouldn't be used for your lotion.

It was cool to watch this kinda chemistry in action- and it explained alot for people who just had oily skin after using lotion. Apparently, the majority of industries just use light oil in the products, so people whose skins absorb the heavier lotions well don't have as many lotions and products to choose from. But I digress. Good luck with the presents!

Oh, and a website to start with:
http://www.herbalaccents.com/skincarerecipes.htm

-Liana

[SharonDee]

You probably already know about these but I didn't want to miss a chance at being thought of as a "helpful Murkan". :kssmyass:

Homemade Cosmetics (http://www.stretcher.com/stories/970922a.cfm)

and

Homemade Cosmetics Recipes (http://www.kitchencraftsnmore.net/bath8.html)

and finally

Kirsten's Homemade Cosmetics Page (http://users.resist.ca/~kirstena/pagehomemadecosmetics.html) where I found a picture that I just knew you'd appreciate:

http://users.resist.ca/~kirstena/photodryherbs.jpg


:D

Disclaimer: These links may or may not contain pop-ups. My trusty Firefox hid them from me if they did. (Good Mozilla; there's a good boy!) :dalmation:

[Petra]

Thanks! :bow:

This will be something Zoe and I can do together, and I'm really looking forward to playing mad scientist with this stuff!

I'll go over these links with Zoe and we can choose what we think is best for who. This is gonna be so much fun! :D

Muchas gracias!


(yes, Firefox rules and the pic is great! :cool: )

[LadyShea]

I have a recipe for sea salt scrub, I actually sold quite a bit of it, then I got into other things.

Um, it's not exact though, you okay with some ratios?

[Petra]

I have a recipe for sea salt scrub, I actually sold quite a bit of it, then I got into other things.

Um, it's not exact though, you okay with some ratios?

Yes. YES!

Do you mind posting the recipe?

Ratios are good. :yup:


Thank you, sugarbabe! :)

[livius drusus]

I've made several rather lovely hand care products. Calendula Cuticle Salve is one of my faves, and is a great present for any nail biter because it soothes rough patches, painful nailbeds, hangnails, etc. It can also be made with Red Clover blossoms, but I've never tried that.

Calendula Cuticle Salve

1/2 cup dried calendula flowers (ca 1 oz)
4 oz jar of petroleum jelly (finally a use for it after all these years, luna! :giggle:)

Put the flowers in a 1 cup glass bowl and add the petroleum jelly. Put the bowl in a saucepan containing an inch of water. Put the saucepan on low heat until the jelly melts, stirring several times during the process. Remove it from the heat, cover, and allow to steep overnight.

The next day, drain off any liquid that might have accumulated on the jelly, put the saucepan back on low heat and allow it to melt again, stirring occasionally. Pour the mixture through a stocking or really fine strainer (a chinoise would work), straining the spooge into a pretty jar. Press on the mixture with a spoon to be sure you collect as much of it in the jar as you can.

Allow to cool. Cover the jar and store at room temperature.

[LadyShea]

2 parts oil (I used Almond oil)
1 part glycerin soap
Essential oils of your choice (don't use synthetic frgarance oils, the fragrance doesn't last)
Coarse sea salt
Vitamin E oil

Cut up about two cups of the glycerin soap into slivers or little chunks, then melt slowly using a double burner. Eyeball judge how much soap there is, or pour it into a glass measuring cup, then back into the pot; use double the amount of oil. Slowly pour in the almond oil and stir constantly over the heat until they are well mixed (when they stop separating). If you wish to use dye, add it now. I used vegetable dyes.

Pour mixture into a big bowl and let cool slightly but do not let it set

Start putting in your sea salt in tiny fractions of the oil/soap mixture and mix it throroughly before adding more. If you put in too much, it will clump or your scrub will be too dry, so experiement. I used a spoon for the initial mixing, then my hands to break up any glycerin clumps. When it's the consistencey you like (I like mine a little more oily, like a suspension, but you can make it drier) add the essential oil a few drops at a time to your desired fragrance and add some vitamin E oil from the drugstore for added skin nourishment.

I bought all my ingredients from a Canadian wholesaler I found online, much cheaper then the craft store, and they carried all the ingredients in big sizes so I had enough to experiement with.

[Petra]

This is great!

Thank you so much. I'm printing out all these great recipes in this thread and in those links. I had no idea there was so much I could do just in my own kitchen - which is not a place I generally like to be.

I'm going to spend the afternoon hunting down some of these ingredients - something tells me I'll have to start acquiring them now as some look expensive - and I'd better get myself some old pots from a thriftshop so I don't ruin my good pots and pans.


I might try and make some nice candles too.


Zoe is so going to love this! I'll try and teach her some basic science as we cook this stuff up.

And I just spoke to my friend who designs and makes clothes for the various markets around the country - she makes some really funky stuff - and she said that if I make too much, I can always sell it through her market stalls and make myself some pocketmoney. So, if these recipes work out for me and are not to expensive to make for anything beyond Xmas presents, then I may very well consider making up a few dozen pottles for sale each week. That'd be cool.

(I can't move too far away from another invention idea I have though, which I'll tell you about another day. ;) )


So, once again - mille gracie! A thousand thank yous! :bow:

(Even to liv - even though she teased me - cheeky bleeder, she is! ;) )

[LadyShea]

Hey luna, candles and soaps are fun too. I also ordered lip balm base, melted it down, added my choice of flavorings, and put it into chapstick tubes...that was fun too and the bases really are great :) You can buy lotion bases too, then just add your own coloring and fragrances. I bought some cheap pans at the dollar store.

Google "Wholesale essential and carrier oils" to compare prices. These looked cheap here (http://scents4less.com/carrier_oils.htm)

[Petra]

double post. sorry.

[Petra]

Thanks! The carrier oil info is good, even though I cannot purchase online. But the desriptions of them are useful. :)

I've now got Zoe, and when I told her what we are going to do this weekend, she said "Cool. Oh, you know why ladies where perfume and make-up though, right? It's because they are ugly and they stink!"

Ahhh, yes - that's my girl!

:D

[Julie]

Canadian wholesaler online you say??? You don't happen to have a link still do you? I've been wanting to give soap making a try as well as lotions and whatnot (Hey why not I've tried everything else so far!!)

[livius drusus]

I don't know if they're Canadian or anything, but Majestic Mountain Sage (http://www.the-sage.com/) is a great resource on soap making. They have everything from a lye and fragrance calculators (http://www.the-sage.com/calcs/index.html) to a massive catalog (http://www.thesage.com/catalog/fullcat.html) of products (I could surf the molds alone for a month). One way or the other I think you'll find it useful, Julie. :)

[LadyShea]

Julie I am sorry, I can't find that company again and all my stuff is in storage. Basically I did what I always do, start Googling and compare prices until I find the best value. Some starting off terms for searches "wholesale carrier oils" "Wholesale melt and pour soup"