I checked out The Girls’ World Book of Bath & Beauty: Fresh Ideas & Fun Recipes for Hair, Skin, Nails & More
from the library because I wanted to get more recipes for home made beauty products which I could make with my daughters. The book presents many ideas of how to make home made cosmetics. It’s thorough, with recipes for hair shampoos and feet scrubs, and everything in between. The pictures of the girls are beautiful and even empowering. BUT… most of the recipes require ingredients that are relatively expensive and somewhat difficult to find (borax, glycerin, vitamin E, special oils, essential oils, etc.). You’d have to spend a lot of money to make all the recipes in the book (or even a few of them). So I think it’d be sort of a white elephant gift to give to a girl. That said, if I had the products at hand, I think we’d really enjoy it.
Having bought more oils and cosmetic ingredients, I checked out this book from the library again. I was hoping that Mika would be interested in doing some of the recipes with me, but so far the only one she’s wanted to make was glitter.
In any case, yesterday I decided to try the recipe for Lemon Meringue Body Lotion – planning to give some to my friend Lola if it worked out. Unfortunately it didn’t – I had the hardest time making the mixture emulsify (the key is to use a /large, deep/ bowl and then use the electric hand mixer on the highest speed), the oil kept getting solid as I was *slowly* pouring it into the water, and the end product was incredibly thick. I ended up adding much more aloe vera gel and water than the recipe called for – and now I have a lotion that is very soft, almost powdery to the touch, a little bith thicker than a regular lotion, but all in all it spreads well. It is too thick to pour from a bottle, however. That’s OK because I got to use a large (cleaned) ceramic jewelry box that I had bought for that purpose. It does take longer to absorb than my other lotions, but it’s not too greasy.
The only big problem is that it ended up with solid tiny pieces of wax, so it’s somewhat gritty. The pieces dissolve, but you still feel them. So I’m not going to give it to Lola after all. Instead I’m going to have to go through it. It’ll take me all summer.