Even though butters are so good for our skin, and provide excellent moisturising properties; I personally find straight body butters a little on the heavy and greasy side. That’s why lotions are so great! You get the moisturising benefits of oils and butters, but adding water cuts down the greasy feeling.

Very Basic Lotion
(makes 100 grams)

Oil Phase
20 grams of oil (sunflower, soya, apricot kernel, rice bran are all good oils to use)
5 grams of emulsifying wax

Water Phase
75 grams of water

Cool down Phase
Fragrance
Preservative

1. Measure your oil phase ingredients into a heat safe container.
2. Measure your water phase ingredients into a separate heat safe container.
3. Heat both containers until they reach 70 degrees Celsius and hold for 20 minutes. This ensures any bacteria is heated out of your mixture.
4. Pour your oil phase into your water phase ingredients and mix with a hand blender for 3 or 4 minutes. Your oil and water will now emulsify together.
5. Leave to cool until 45 degrees. You can keep mixing during this stage if you like.
6. When the temperature reaches 45 degrees add your cool down phase ingredients.
7. Pour into your bottles, but wait until completely cooled until you put the lid on your jar as you don’t want condensation to drip back into your lotion.
8. Enjoy!

If you would like to learn more about lotion making I thoroughly recommend checking out Susan’s blog at http://swiftcraftymonkey.blogspot.co.nz/

Download her lotion making tutorial at this link for more advanced recipes https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1020026/introductiontolotionmakingthingie.pdf

 

Infusing oils is a great way to incorporate the medicinal properties of herbs into your soaps and skin care products. It’s easy to do yourself at home, and if you grow your own herbs you can make infused oils with plants dried straight from your garden!

There are many different herbs you can infuse that are beneficial for our bodies. These are some of my favourites.

1. Rosemary helps relieve an itchy scalp and dandruff. It is also thought to encourage hair growth. This is stimulating and invigorating herb.
2. Calendula (marigold) is healing and used commonly for sunburns, itchiness, rashes, inflammation, and slow healing wounds.
3. Lavender is calming, healing, and anti fungal, it promotes the growth of new cells, and is useful for skin inflammation.

The best oils to use in an infusion are olive, sweet almond, or jojoba as these have a long shelf life. They’re also a staple in many soap makers recipes.

There are a couple of different ways you can infuse your oil, (my favourite is the fastest way as I have no patience to wait 6 weeks for the herbs to infuse in the sun!)

What you’ll need

• Dried herbs
• Oil (Olive, Sweet Almond, or Jojoba)
• Vitamin E oil (optional)

The ratio of oil to herbs is approximately 10:1. So if you have 250ml of oil you would use 25g of herbs. Depending on the herb this can be alot, so I tend to just eyeball the amounts. As long as the herbs are completely covered by the oil then you should get a nice infusion.

Do not wash the herb or use any water in any way, don’t use a wet jar or wet spoon for mixing either. Water can cause your herbs to grow mildew!

Method 1: The Slow Way – Solar Infusion

In a clean, sterilised glass jar add your dried herbs and cover completely with the oil of your choice. Gently stir the mixture making sure that all the herbs are well covered with oil. Screw on the lid.

The herbs are infused into the oil by heat, so place your jar in a warm spot but out of direct sunlight.

Leave the oil steeping for 4-6 weeks. Check on it every few days and give it a gentle roll back and forth. This helps to release the herbal properties and keeps everything well covered.

After six weeks the oil will be ready to strain. To strain, pour the oil from your jar into a jug, through strainer that has been lined with a cheesecloth (or if you’re like me and don’t have any cheesecloth, use a coffee filter). You don’t want to only use a regular strainer as you’ll get small bits of herb in your oil.  Squeeze the cheesecloth/filter to get every last drop! Pour the oil into prepared bottles or jars and add a couple drops of vitamin E oil to help preserve your infusion. Keep this oil in a cool, dark place. Most infused oils generally last for a year or longer depending on which oil you used.

Method 2: The “If You’ve Got All Day” Way – Stove Top Infusion

Fill your jar with the herbs and oil as described in method one. Place the herb filled jar in a sauce pan that has been filled about ¼ full of water, simmer for 4-8 hours. Remove jar from saucepan and allow to cool. Strain, bottle and keep in a cool dark place.

Method 3: The Quick Way – Double Boiler Infusion

Place the herbs and oil in a double boiler and bring to a slow simmer. Slowly heat for 30-60 minutes. For a stronger infusion, keep the heat nice and low for a longer simmer time to help release medicinal properties. Strain, bottle, and store following the instructions above.

Make sure you label your finished infusions with the date, type of oil and herb used. Now you can use the oil in your soaps and skin care products to make them a little more special!

Sweet Almond Oil Infused with Lavender

250ml of Sweet Almond Oil
25 grams of Dried Lavender Buds

Step 1:  Measure out the oil and lavender into a heat safe glass jug.

Step 2:  Put the lavender into the oil and stir well until combined. Place your jug into the double boiler on a low heat and leave to infuse for 30-60 minutes, stirring every so often.

Step 3:  Place a sieve over a clean jug and pour the oil and lavender into a cheesecloth, or in this instance, a coffee filter. If you pour directly into the sieve you will get small bits of lavender in your oil which you don’t want. Wait for the oil to filter through then squeeze the filter to make sure you get all the oil out of the lavender. Add a drop or two of Vitamin E and stir.

You can use the oily lavender buds in another project if you don’t want to discard them, but you must use them the same day to avoid contamination.

Step 4:  Fill your clean, sterilised jar and screw the lid on tight. Label, and store in a cool dry place ready to be used in your soaps and body treats. Enjoy!

For some people, (especially those in the United States!) Valentine’s Day is a BIG deal. It’s often expected of you to spend a fortune on overpriced flowers and other romance themed gifts.

Personally, I think the best gifts are those that have some actual thought and effort put into them. I personally prefer wild flowers picked by a roadside than a bunch of expensive roses from a florist.

So with that thought, I’ve got a recipe for an easy massage candle that will be ready to use within 24 hours. It’s an inexpensive handmade gift that can be used again and again, but really only requires minimal effort to make. Make it the day before and enjoy it with your partner on Valentine’s Day, or any other day for that matter!

Ingredients
(makes 1 x 6oz Metal Tin)

1 x 6oz silver tin
1 x CDN14 wick
50g Soy Wax GW464
23g Shea Butter
22g Cocoa Butter
10g Coconut Oil
10g Sweet Almond Oil
3ml Angel Fragrance Oil
(or any other skin safe fragrance oil)

Directions

Combine the soy wax, coconut oil and cocoa butter in a heat safe jug.

Microwave for 30 second bursts, stirring in between. For this single candle I only needed 2 x 30 second bursts to melt the wax and oils enough. Once your cocoa butter is almost melted just keep stirring until the cocoa butter is fully liquid. You don’t want to overheat the cocoa butter as it can damage it’s skin loving properties.

Once your cocoa butter is fully melted. Add the shea butter. You don’t need to microwave it, just keep stirring until the shea butter is completely melted. Note, if you add the shea butter in small chunks it will melt faster!

Add in your sweet almond oil and skin safe fragrance then stir well.

Dip the metal tab on the bottom of your wick in the wax mixture and press into the centre of the tin. Use a skewer, pencil, or whatever you have laying around to keep the wick standing straight in the middle.

Slowly pour the wax mixture into the tin. Try to pour in the centre of the tin so you don’t get drips down the insides.

Put aside to cool. Once the candle has hardened trim the wick to 1cm.

Directions for Use

1. Light the candle and let burn for about 15-20 minutes, or until a pool of melted wax, large enough for your use, forms around the wick.
2. Extinguish the flame and pour the melted wax onto your hands. Don’t pour directly onto the skin unless you have tested the temperature of the wax first! You don’t want to burn your partner with hot wax!!
3. Rub into the skin and enjoy the massage!