Category: Cosmetics (Page 6 of 10)

I finally ran out of face cream, so I had to make some. I used this website for the recipe, as the last night face cream I made wasn’t that great. I just finished it, so I don’t know how I’ll like it – but I will report back after trying it for a while. This time I didn’t use any preservatives, so I’m keeping it in the fridge for now. That said, I’m going to Mexico soon, and if I take it it’ll be warm most of the time. Hmmm…
I changed the recipe in a few ways: by using water instead of rose water and orange essential oil instead of chamomile or lavender oil. More fundamentally, I used lanolin instead of lecithin – I misread the recipe. I’m pretty amazed it came out anyway, I hope it won’t separate.
The results were a very creamy and quite oily cream, pretty heavy and not terribly easy to spread. Still, it’s just for night use so I’m not concerned. Let’s see how it leaves my face after a few weeks.
*Later Note* Well, it did separate. So I added 1 tsp. melted emulsifying wax (I don’t have any lecithin), and re-whisked it. The results were a lighter, creamier cream – but I think that may have been from the extra whisking.
Thick Night Facial Cream
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. shea butter
2 tsp. beeswax pellets
1 tsp. emulsifying wax pellets
1/4 tsp. vitamin E oil
1/4 tsp. lanolin
1 Tbsp. distilled water
1 Tbsp. aloe vera gel
3-5 drops essential oil of your choice
Heat the olive oil, shea butter and waxes over boiling water, until they melt. Add the vitamin E oil and mix. Add the lanolin and mix.
Separately mix the water and aloe vera. Add to the oil mixture and whisk until it’s emulsified and it’s nice and creamy. Let cool and whisk in the essential oils.

I have a lot of roses. A LOT. Too many. And while I’m not particularly fond of roses, I thought I could at least use them to make rose essential oil. The real recipes for it require distillation or something like that, so I took the “cheater” way and simply mixed in the bruised petals from one rose with 1/4 cup sunflower oil. I put it in a tightly lidded jar and rested it in a dark place for a week. Then I added another rose, and so forth for two more weeks. Finally, I squeezed the oil from the petals into a strainer and discarded the petals.
The results are not too great. What I have left is not rose oil, but a mixture of oil, solids (so fine that I cannot filter them out) and water (the moisture from the rose petals, I assume); it’s not completely emulsified. Most worryingly, the perfume barely smells of roses (or plants, I can’t quite tell). Now, the fault may be with my roses. Even though it looks like the rose bush next to our house threw up, the resulting roses are not very aromatic.
Oh well, I planted some lavender and perhaps next year I’ll have enough to attempt lavender oil.

For some reason it seems that the lotions I’ve made several weeks ago are separating – as I squeeze them out of the container, water comes out! This has happened with two separate bottles of lotion, made at different times, from different ingredients. I don’t understand why it’s happening now. My concern is, of course, that the lotions have gone bad or are going bad. How can you possibly know when a lotion has gone bad? I’m afraid that the perfume would mask any off-smells.

Given that my last attempt at lotion making did not go very well and that I’ve used or given away most of the stock I had – I found myself wanting to give some to a friend, but having nothing available. So today I made (or tried to make) some more lotion, using yet another recipe. It didn’t come out perfectly either. I followed the instructions very closely, but made a few changes. I used beeswax pellets instead of shredded beeswax (can’t imagine it’d make a difference), green tea instead of chamomile tea, and skipped the potassium sorbate and cinnamon. Instead I added phenonip and cucumber-green tea essential oil. Now for the problems:
1) The recipe wouldn’t emulsify -or rather, about a third of it emulsified, but no matter how much I beat/blended it, the oil would not mix with the rest of the lotion. The consistency of the emulsified lotion, however, was wonderful: silky, smooth, creamy and light. I loved it – but I needed the whole bunch to be emulsified. Realizing that blending alone wouldn’t do it – I added a bit of melted emulsifying wax – and that, fortunately, did it.
2) Once the oil mixed with the rest of the lotion, the whole thing became very liquid. I blended and blended, mixed and mixed, and it made no difference. I finally added quite a bit of arrowroot, and I think that may have made a difference, but not a huge one.
So I’ve been left with a beautiful, silky, easy to spread lotion that is, unfortunately, quite thin. Still, I love the melt in your skin consistency and I’m definitely giving some to my friends (and keeping some for me!).
Here is the recipe that I plan to use next time.
Silky Body Lotion Recipe
1/4 cup apricot kernel oil
1/4 cup jojoba oil
1/4 cup beeswax pellets
2 Tbsp. emulsifying wax pellets
1 Tbsp. stearic acid
1 tsp. arrowroot powder
1 tsp. honey
1 cup brewed green tea, warm
1/4 cup aloe vera gel
1/4 tsp. citric acid
1 tsp. phenonip
fragrance oil
colorant (optional)
Melt together the oils, waxes, stearic acid, arrowroot and honey in a double boiler. Let cool a little, but not become hard.
Mix the tea, aloe vera and citric acid in a blender or in the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the mixed oils very slowly, mixing/blending constantly. Continue blending until it emulsifies. Blend for 2 more minutes, and then for 30 seconds at the time, until the lotion achieves the thickness you want. Add phenonip and mix again.
Divide the lotion in as many parts as you want and add fragrance and colorant to each, mix. Bottle.