Exfoliating Scrub/Body Polish

Exfoliating Body PolishDARLINGS!!

Here’s another lovely recipe for you to use, and this one is much easier than most!

I’m going to set this one at 8 oz of finished product, but you can do this in any amount.  Go crazy, you wonderful people!

This is a scrub that works for body and face.  You just use it on any skin you happen to have!

4 oz granulated sugar
4 oz sea salt (or table salt if you want…works just as well)
1 oz sweet almond oil (enough to moisten, but not enough to pool at the top of the mixture after you let it sit after mixing.  If it pools, add more salt, a tsp. at a time, until it’s not pooling.  You want it to look like sand at the beach, that has enough water in it to make a castle, but not so much water as to make that castle smoosh.)
10 drops fragrance or essential oil (your choice, but make sure it’s skin friendly!)

That’s it, baby!  I love this stuff.  When you use it, make sure your hands are wet.  Scrub away!  If your hands are wet, the granules will dissolve and you won’t be able to over-scrub and hurt yourself!

Enjoy!

Hand Lotion Bars

HandLotionHiya Lovies!

I know it’s late, but this is so great for winter skin!  Solid hand lotion bars are wonderful.  You hold one, and let your warmth melt it up a bit, and then you have the lotion to make your cracked, winter hands feel so much better!

Better yet, prevent the ugliness of cracked hands!

Here we go!

Figure your amounts for one oz. per bar.  I’m going to figure 10 bars per recipe.

5 oz shea butter
5 oz beeswax pellets (please don’t get a block…it’ll take you until June to melt it)
Melt the above gently until totally liquid.
1 Tbsp tapioca starch (or cornstarch, if you must)
10 drops fragrance or essential oil (whatever you want to smell like)

Blend the above thoroughly, melting in the microwave as necessary to get everything incorporated.  It needs to be liquid, but not scalding hot.  If it’s too hot, the starch will sink down and separate when you mold it.  So make sure everything’s well incorporated and not too hot to stay that way, then pour into your little 1 or 2 oz molds (there are tons on Amazon or WholesaleSuppliesPlus.com, if you need molds).

Some folks just let them solidify on the counter, but I put them in the freezer to prevent any separation.  In an hour or so (freezer time), they’re ready!

Enjoy!

Whipped Body Butter

Hey Kids!

Time for me to release my recipe for Whipped Body Butter!  I used to sell it, but I’m not selling anymore, so here it is, for the taking!

7 oz shea butter
2 oz sweet almond oil
1.5 oz tapioca starch (or cornstarch, if needs be, but I prefer tapioca starch)
15 drops of whatever fragrance or essential oil you want to smell like

Put it all in a glass measuring cup, mash it all up with your mixer (off), then start blending.  You should be using a regular electric hand mixer, like you use when making cookies.  Blend the junk out of it until it starts incorporating air.  Then keep mixing on high until it’s reached about double in volume.  Dip up a finger-full and test it on your arm.  If it’s too greasy, add a little starch, mix and test until it feels right.  Be careful, because too much starch will make it clump up and be too dry.  But get your own feel.  The above measures are the feel I like.

It’s pretty fabulous, I gotta say.

Enjoy!Whipped Body Butter

Stuff You Can Make Yourself: Fizzing Toilet Bombs

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Hey there, simmer down!  It’s not really a bomb!  It’s a cute little cleaning aid for a porcelain throne near you!

What do they do?  Well, you drop one of these cuties into the can/bog/terlet/whatever your favorite term, and let it fizz itself out.  Then brush out the bowl as usual.  No vinegar necessary.  I keep mine in a pretty dish in the bathroom, and they smell nice and fresh even just sitting there!  Here’s the recipe:

–1 1/3 cup Baking Soda

–1/2 cup Citric Acid (look in the canning section of your local grocery store)

–30 drops Lavender Essential Oil

–30 drops Peppermint Essential Oil

–30 drops Lemon Essential Oil

Combine oils first, then mix them with the baking soda.  Add citric acid last.  Whisk the heck out of it!

When you pick some up in your hand, you should be able to make a clump…a dry-feeling clump…by squeezing it in your fist.  Give it a very light spray of water if necessary to get it to a moldable consistency.  You don’t want it to feel cold or damp, you just want it to stick together.

I used some of my fancy guest soap molds to shape these beauties, but you could use a mini muffin tin, ice cube trays, or anything you like.  Press the mix into the mold firmly, brushing off the excess for a nice flat base surface.  Let it sit for a few minutes, then take a flat baking tray or plate, cover the mold, and flip them over together, so nothing drops out.  Carefully lift the mold, pressing the cavities if necessary to get the little guys out.  Give them a day to dry nicely, and you’ll be able to handle them, pile them in a dish, etc.

I love how my bathrooms smell since I started keeping these around.  Since they’re so handy and easy to use, the toilet gets cleaned more often, too! They are da BOMB!

Homemade MAKEUP? Uh…yeah!

makeupmain

If you’re like me, you have spent obscene amounts of money for that swirl-swirl, tap-tap, brush-brush-brush-brush-brush mineral makeup they sell on tv.

Well kids, not only did I find the recipe, but I removed the nasty, irritating bismuth and replaced it with skin-loving kaolin clay, which achieves the same results and is better for the face, especially if you have sensitive skin.

At the end of the recipe and directions, I’ll tell you a pretty weird secret for a method of using it (or any mineral makeup), which results in the greatest, most flawless coverage I’ve ever encountered.  Teaser, anyone?

Please excuse the less-than-professional pictures, by the way.  I had to do this alone, with makeup all over my hands, using my phone!  Hahaha!

Ok, here we go!

 

makeup1

 

Ingredients  (You can get all these ingredients at Wholesale Supplies Plus, online):

3 Tbsp Titanium Dioxide, aka White Pigment for Water.  (I use the water-soluble kind for this, not the oil-soluble)

1 Tbsp White Kaolin Clay

4 Tsp. Zinc Oxide

The rest is color:

1/2 tsp. yellow oxide

1/16 tsp. brown oxide

1 pinch red oxide (seriously, take it easy on the red!)

Blend very well…I like to use a mortar and pestle (or glass measuring cup and pestle in this case) to get rid of every last clump, and sometimes even run it through a fine sieve to make sure.

makeup2

This recipe is for the lightest of skin. You’ll adjust it until it matches your face, adding mostly yellow and brown. Red goes a really long way, so be sparing if you need more. I’ve found that the red that’s in the brown is enough for my adjustments. The general rule on color here is that yellow can be used more heavily. Brown is for tanness, obviously, and red is for the rosy tone, but if you put in more than a few grains at a time, you could end up looking very blushy indeed!

I test by simply dipping a finger into the dry mix and rubbing it onto my arm.  When I’m close, I’ll hold my arm to my face, and perhaps test a little on my jaw, to make sure.   This is the initial recipe, without any color adjustments (keep in mind, I’m on the darker side of white skin):

20150104_133337

 

Notice the coverage here, by the way.  Just dry, rubbed on with a finger, you can see how well it covers!

If you just need to go darker, use the brown. If it seems too blush, add some yellow. If it seems too yellow/sallow, add a few grains of red.  Be sure to mix-blend-mix-blend like a crazy person after each color addition.  Sometimes it takes a while for color adjustments to blend through the mix.

Don’t worry if you go a little too dark. Just add titanium dioxide (white pigment) to lighten.  For the final color check, move to the room with decent lighting, where you actually put on your makeup, or you may get a colorful surprise when you’re getting ready for work tomorrow!  Here’s what matches my face:

testtafter

Now, I know that some people add a drop of almond oil, but I don’t like to do that. During my testing, oil made the finish less airbrushed, and didn’t last as long on the skin, due to body heat.  It didn’t do anything for the coverage or the texture either.  Just skip any oily additions!

 

finished

The finished product is natural, hypoallergenic, and has an SPF of 25!  Store in a closed container, and keep it dry!

Bonus:  In the summer, when you get a little darker, just add some brown to match.  In the winter, as your tan fades, just add a little white pigment (titanium dioxide) to lighten.

 

Weird But Wonderful Application Method

Are you ready for my weird secret method of applying this stuff?  If you get good coverage and finish doing the swirl/tap/brush thing, by all means go for it!  But I have a combination of rosacea and melasma, so my skin can be any patchy combination of three colors.  Coverage is a real issue for me!  Here’s what works:

Monistat makes a product called “anti-chafing powder gel” or “chafing relief powder gel”.  I know…Monistat…but stay with me!  Mind over matter!

method1

Put a dollop in your palm, about the size of 2 or 3 peas. Tip out some of your powder foundation, maybe a half-teaspoon. Mix with your finger and then smooth it on like regular cream foundation.

method2        method3        method4

It may seem crumbly and dryish and strange, but I’ve never had a more flawless finish or better coverage.  No lotion or primer or anything under it. The gel takes care of all that!  Just a clean face and your fingers.  The amount shown, maybe 3/4 teaspoon in total, is enough to cover my whole face and neck.  This stuff lasts a long time!

That’s it!

Where you’ll spend around $50 or more buying the stuff off the tv, and end up having to mix that to your skin tone every day, here you have something custom-matched to your skin, excellent in quality and performance, and all for about $6 per recipe.  I love saying sentences like that!

Happy primping, ladies!

Stuff You Can Make Yourself: Tooth Powder

I’ve had a lot of requests for a natural alternative to toothpaste that actually works, and while I won’t be selling my tooth powder, I do think it’s easy enough for anyone to do at home.  I’ve been using this tooth powder for almost two years now, and my teeth and gums have never been healthier.  Best of all, my minor tooth sensitivity is gone–a result which I didn’t expect!  My dentist is very pleased, and said that if it had added fluoride, he’d endorse it in a heartbeat for me!  However, I’m glad there are no nasty chemicals, no sudsing agents, no fluoride except from your rinsing water.  It is a little weird getting used to brushing without foamy suds, but once you feel how clean your teeth are, I don’t think you’ll mind!

ToothPowder1

Each ingredient in this recipe has a purpose:

Powdered kaolin and/or bentonite clay is wonderful for drawing toxins and mildly scrubbing.  I really believe this ingredient has been the cause of my sensitivity going away.  It really helps purify your gums!

Baking soda…well, we all know how good that is!  People have been using it to clean teeth forever!  It acts as both a gentle scrubbing agent and an antiseptic.

Ground sage is one you didn’t expect, isn’t it?  Did you know that sage is a natural whitener?  Well, it is!

Table salt is also a well-known antiseptic and cleansing/scrubbing agent!  Best part about this one is that it dissolves so you can’t over-scrub!

Stevia powder is purely for taste.  I’d say to use sugar, but we’re brushing our teeth here…let’s don’t be silly!  I like the Truvia brand, myself, but do your thing.  Any sugar-free sweetener will be fine.

Peppermint essential oil–again purely for taste.

This recipe makes about 2 oz of powder, which lasts me a couple months.

2 Tbsp. powdered Kaolin or Bentonite clay.  Either will work well, and I like to use 1 Tbsp. of each!  Bentonite is gray and a bit more scrubby.  Kaolin is white and finer.  (Available in most health food stores.)
2 Tbsp. baking soda

1 Tbsp. ground sage

2 (scant) tsp. table salt

1 tsp. sugar-free sweetener of your choice

15-20 drops of peppermint essential oil

In a glass bowl or large measuring cup (don’t use metal), mix thoroughly, pulverizing any lumps made by the essential oil…you want that thoroughly distributed throughout the mix, not clumped at all!  If you’re nervous about it, you can run it through a sieve, and pulverize anything that doesn’t make it through, and mix again.  When it’s thoroughly mixed and smooth, store in an airtight plastic container (I use a little tiny 2 oz. tupperware-like container I found at the grocery store.)

To use:  Tip a little bit (maybe a teaspoon or so) into the palm of your hand (the hand that doesn’t hold your toothbrush!).  Wet your brush and dip it in the powder in your palm, and brush.  I usually get a good job done in about 3 to 4 dips.  Rinse thoroughly with water once or twice.  Note:  the clay and the sage will turn dark when wet, so don’t be alarmed when you spit!

A note on the taste:  It will taste rather salty while you brush, but you’ll feel the clean finish of the peppermint when you’re done!  Oh, and it doesn’t foam or get sudsy…you’ll just have to get over that one.  😉

Notes on other recipes you may have found.  Adding oil can make this seem like a paste, but it will prevent the clay from drawing impurities from your gums to full effect, and reduce the shelf life of your mixture.  I like to keep it a powder for these reasons.  Also, a coating of oil on your teeth can feel like smoothness, but it’s really just a coating of oil.  Eep!  Second, do NOT add cinnamon!  It is unduly harsh on sensitive areas like the inside of your mouth, and can be a serious irritant!

So there we are!  First recipe I’ve posted in quite a while!  Enjoy your new brushing method, and feel free to stand in front of the mirror afterward, running your tongue across your front teeth and pretending you’re in a tv commercial.

Everyone does it.

Mixin’ It Up!

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They say there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

I’m not a big fan of skinless cats, and it can’t be terribly comfortable for them either, so let’s have none of that.

There’s also more than one way to make soap!  My main method is cold process.  It allows me to use my slab mold and play with design and texture on the largest surface of the soap.  It makes for very fluid swirls and all manner of yummy looks.

Peep, if you will, the following examples:

 

ChristmasRosemaryVanillachocolateSpiced Apple

The only down side to the cold process method is the time it takes for these beauties to be cured and ready.  After I get ’em looking like what you just peeped, I must wait 4 to 6 weeks before they’ve reached a full cure!  Since 4 to 6 weeks is not now, and I’m a big, BIG fan of now,  I’m glad to say there’s a quicker method!

Hot process soapmaking is a different way to get the same product.  The lather, the fragrance, the cleansing qualities are all the same.  The look, however, is different!  I do hot process in a log or loaf mold, which makes a big ol’ hunk o’ soap that gets sliced into bars.  With this process, I can play with the design on the INSIDE of the soap, rather than the large surface area!  Peep on:

RosyCheekHPManly Grunting Man SoapDSCN1020[1]CocoNuts 

Number one awesomeness about the hot process method is the speed.  Once it’s cut and trimmed, it can be used immediately!  I like to give it a few days to firm up a bit, but it’s completely saponified during “the cook”.  I actually cook the soap through the cure before I add the color and scent, coconut milk or oatmeal or any other fun stuff.  I can even wash my pot with what’s left in it when I’m done!

There’s an element of mystery and fun involved too, because I never REALLY know what it’s going to look like until the next day, when I unmold and slice it!

Thanks to the hot process method, I’ve been able to keep my stock going through the mad holiday rush!  I plan to make both hot and cold process soaps for all or most of my recipes from here on out, rush or no rush!

You can see all the different “versions” of each soap in the product gallery on each item’s page, and take comfort in the fact that if something sells out, it won’t be a month or more before you see it again!

I love this stuff…

 

 

Stuff You Can Make Yourself: Bug Spray

skeeter

Well, it’s that time of year.  Skeeter weather.  Oh, we’re grilling and setting off firecrackers and engaging in all kinds of fun summery hijinx, but somehow the phrase “eaten alive” comes up more than one would hope.

So here’s my solution.  This recipe is different from my others, because the essential oils are what really make it happen.  And this time we’ll use a blend of three or more essential oils, which can be found in most health food stores.  Here we go!

In a small spray bottle, combine:

1 1/2 to 2 cups distilled water
2 Tablespoons witch hazel
1 Tablespoon rubbing alcohol (or absolute vodka, if you like)
2 Tablespoons sweet almond oil (or olive if it’s handy)
1 teaspoon eucalyptus essential oil
1 teaspoon lemongrass essential oil
1/2 teaspoon cedarwood essential oil

Shake before each use!

All those essential oils are great for repelling buggies.  You can replace the lemongrass with lavender or rosemary if you like, but I like the combination above.  The cedarwood will be the strongest, but that’s the more potent against the buggies.  Other good insect repelling essential oils include citronella and catnip (yes, catnip).

As with anything that goes in or on the body, pay attention to any allergies you or your family might have here!

Now go outside and play!

Stuff You Can Make Yourself: Dusting Spray

DustBunnies

Hey there Folks!

Note:  This is not a furniture polish!  This is a cleaning and dusting spray that will allow you to toss the cans of chemicals!

I recommend spraying this directly on your duster or cloth.  It won’t hurt your furniture if you spray directly onto the wood, but it’ll do it’s job better from the duster.

2 cups distilled water (tap is ok, but it has its own chemicals and buggies in it, so I always use distilled)
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 teaspoons olive oil (or sweet almond, which I prefer)
10 drops lemon essential oil

Pop all that stuff into a plastic spray bottle, and shake before each use, as the oils will rise to the top.

Not that anyone has time to dust, really, but this is great stuff!

Enjoy, and watch out for those vicious dust bunnies!

Stuff You Can Make Yourself: Dishwasher Detergent

dishwasher

Yes, you read that right.

Automatic dishwasher detergent isn’t as difficult to make as you might think.  I’ve been using mine for months now, and I’m very pleased with the results…and the cost!  A little bonus is that it keeps the dishwasher itself clean and the pipes/hoses clear of hard water buildup!

Here’s the recipe:

1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1/2 cup citric acid
1/2 cup salt (kosher, table, whatever you like)
1/2 cup of vinegar (not to be mixed in!)

One tablespoon per load.

Note:  A good resource for citric acid is: http://www.bulkfoods.com.  It’s a bulk/wholesale store that actually allows you to purchase one pound.

Back to the recipe.  Borax and washing soda are the cleaning agents.  Citric acid is probably the most important item, as it dissolves food particles and combats hard water, giving a cleaner rinse.  Salt is a scrubbing agent and also helps combat hard water.

The vinegar is your rinse aid.  Some people fill the little rinse aid compartment with vinegar, but I’ve found that doesn’t do as good a job as just pouring a couple “glugs” right onto the dishwasher door (about half a cup) before you run the machine.

One important thing about this recipe.  Citric acid causes this stuff to absorb moisture and clump like the dickens if you aren’t proactive about preventing it.  You can put rice in the toe of an old, clean stocking, tie if off and put it in your detergent mixture.  You can do the same with a couple silica gel packets–the kind you find in a new purse. I like to leave the mixture in the open air (don’t put a lid on your container) for 2 or three days, and give it a vigorous shake periodically, for good measure.  Once a few days have passed in the open air, you can cap it and store it under the sink.  (If you forget and it does clump up, run that stuff through a dry food processor or blender.  Good as new.)

Some people leave out the citric acid and add it separately to each load (1/2 tsp. per load), but that just kind of smacks of effort, if you ask me.  Hahaha.  No.  Really.  I’m lazy.

UPDATE:  I’ve given up on the clumping thing and have come up with a solution.  I put it in a big, shallow plastic container, and just let it form one big clump overnight.  Then I turn it out, and cut it into dishwasher tabs!  Perfect!!

You can adjust the recipe if you have super-hard water, or if your glasses seem cloudy.  I have ridiculously hard water, so I actually double the amount of citric acid in mine.

If you have cloudy dishes, first try using a little less or a little more in each load.  If that doesn’t make the difference, add more citric acid to your recipe.

Bonus tip:  To prevent etching on your glasses, don’t use the drying cycle!  Spots you can wipe off, but etching lasts forever!