Category: Recipes & Tutorials

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Hand Sanitising Spray

We’ve had so many requests from people asking how to make your own hand sanitiser. The supermarkets and pharmacies are running out of stock due to COVID-19 awareness.

The best thing that you can do to keep yourself safe is to practice good personal hygiene, wash your hands well and try not to touch your face.

Sometimes it isn’t possible to wash your hands when you’re out and about, or maybe you’re concerned about that supermarket trolley or door handle. That’s where having a bottle of sanitising spray in your bag really comes in handy!

Making hand sanitizer spray is actually really easy (making a gel is a bit more tricky) One thing to be aware of though is the actual alcohol content in your isopropyl. You need a minimum of 60% pure isopropyl in order to be an effective sanitiser. If you have a 70% active isopropyl (as opposed to our 99.9% active isopropyl) you will need to use MORE than it states in the recipe.

Hand Sanitising Spray

Ingredients

60g Isopropyl (99%)
3g Glycerin
0.3g Allantoin
24g Aloe vera juice (reconstituted 100x aloe powder)
0.5g Lychee & Guava Sorbet Fragrance oil

Tools & Equipment

Mixing bowl
Spoon
100ml amber bottle
Mist sprayer

Instructions

  1. Combine allantoin and glycerin into a slurry. Make sure the powder has completely dissolved.
  2. Add the slurry to the aloe vera juice and mix
  3. Add the fragrance and isopropyl and mix together
  4. Pour into spray bottle

Notes

  • Allantoin is added to help soothe and protect your skin. Alcohol can be very drying on the skin. If you don’t want to add allantoin, just increase the aloe vera juice by 0.3g
  • Substitute any fragrance of your choice
  • Learn how to reconstitute our 100x Aloe Vera Powder by watching our YouTube video
  • If you only have Isopropyl 70% strength you will need to use 85g of isopropyl and reduce the aloe vera to 11.2 grams
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Basic Shampoo Bar

Myself and my family have been testing various shampoo bar recipes for literally months. We’ve had more than a few duds (a bar that turned to mushy goop as soon as it gets wet, or the bar with un-melted SCI noodles that look like worms to name a few)

But now we have it. The shampoo bar recipe that has passed the test phase and is ready to go out into the world!

As with all my recipes, I try to make them as accessible to as many people as possible, which means I don’t use lots of fancy ingredients that could be unaffordable to some people. I’m going to be releasing more shampoo bar recipes in the future with some of these fancier ingredients, but rest assured, this basic bar is perfectly fine and if this is the only shampoo bar you ever make, you’re golden!

Ingredients

Phase A
128g SCI – powdered (it’s very important you use the powdered SCI)
88g Cocamidopropyl betaine

Phase B
20g Coconut oil
12g BTMS-50
2g Stearic acid

Phase C
124g SLSa
8g Sodium lactate

Phase D
6g Natural silicone
2g Liquid germal plus
4g Fragrance or essential oil

Tools & Equipment

Hot plate
Double boiler or pot
Heat safe bowl
Scales
Spoon
6 x Handmade Soap Moulds
Dust mask

Instructions

  1. Setup a double boiler to a low heat. You want the water just below boiling, so it’s hot enough to melt what’s in the bowl, but not so hot that the water is boiling away and spitting out of the pot. To do this fill a pot of water about half way up (I start with boiling water so it doesn’t take long to get going), then place a bowl on top of the pot. If you’ve ever melted chocolate before, this is the exact same thing.
  2. Weigh the SCI and Cocamidopropyl betaine (Phase A) and put into the bowl to begin melting. Please be gentle when stirring so you don’t create extra dust, and make sure you wear a dust mask to avoid irritating your airways.

    Because this recipe uses SCI powder, it only takes a few minutes to melt and turn into a thick mashed potato like consistency.
  3. Next add Phase B ingredients. Leave to melt. Stirring as you go. The consistency will get thick and gloopy.
  4. Add the SLSa, and very gently mix into the paste. I like to fold it in as if I were baking. This helps to minimize the dust cloud.
  5. Once you have a really thick mashed potato consistency. Add the sodium lactate and mix well. I use the back of my spoon to really smoosh things down so I get rid of any little clumps of powder and get a nice smooth texture. It should be like really thick, smooth mashed potato
  6. Take off the double boiler and add Phase D. Mix well.
  7. Now scoop out some mixture and plop it into the mould. There isn’t really an elegant way to do this, just glop it and go! Try and smooth down the shampoo with the back of the spoon. I also found using a hot knife worked really well to smooth the bars – just like icing a cake!
  8. Pop the bars into the freezer for an hour or two. Then simply press the shampoo bars out of the moulds and set aside to harden overnight.

Notes

  • You can add colour to these bars using mica, or another cosmetic colourant. Start with 1/4tsp of mica added with Phase B
  • Choose any skin safe fragrance or essential oil blend you like!
  • We recommend using powdered SCI for this recipe. You can use the noodles, but it could take about an hour to melt instead of the few minutes it takes the powder
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Caffeinated Body Cream

REPOSTED 11 July 2019

This recipe was originally posted on our website waaay back in June 2015. Following some recent media coverage on how caffeine powder can be highly toxic and even deadly when ingested in large doses (which it absolutely is!), we thought we’d re-share the recipe and show the reason why WE sell caffeine powder.

Please be aware, that we don’t sell caffeine powder for the purpose of ingesting or making supplements. Our products should be used externally only!

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Following on from my post about why Caffeine is so wonderful I thought I’d share the recipe for my very first attempt at incorporating powdered caffeine into a cream. I have to say it’s turned out A-MA-ZING! I’m not sure if it’s because of the caffeine powder, or because of the oils and butters, but either way it’s my new favourite body cream. It’s left my skin feeling nice and soft and smooth and best of all it’s non greasy! If you’ve never made lotion before I’d recommend you read this post first to get a general idea of lotion making.

Ingredients
(makes 200 grams)

Water Phase
124g Distilled Water
4g Glycerine
8g Caffeine powder

Oil Phase
16g Cocoa Butter 
14g Organic Coconut Oil 
20g Apricot Kernel Oil 
10g Polawax

Cool Down Phase
1g Germaben II 
2g Vanilla Creme & Cocoa Butter Fragrance

Tools & Equipment
Double boiler
Thermometer
Two heat proof mixing jugs
Scales
Stick blender
2 x Cosmetic jars

Instructions

  1. Weigh all your water phase ingredients into a heat proof container and place in the double boiler.
  2. Weigh all your oil phase ingredients into a second heat proof container and place in the double boiler.
  3. Heat the oil and water until they reach a temperature of 70C and hold for 20 minutes. This ensures any bacteria and other badies will be heated out of your mixture. During this time the caffeine powder will dissolve into the water so it becomes clear.
  4. After 20 minutes of “heat and hold” combine the oil and water phases and mix with the stick blender, pulsing gently on low for 2-3 minutes. This is the stage that your lotion is emulsifying. The lotion will be a white watery texture. This is completely normal and it will turn into a creamy lotion consistency as it cools. Once your lotion has emulsified set aside for 10 minutes or so to cool, mix with the stick blender every few minutes.
  5. Once the temperature reaches below 45C add your cool down phase ingredients and mix well.
  6. Once the cream has cooled to room temperature spoon or pipe into jars then enjoy!

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Cocoa Butter Oatmeal Bath Bombs

Cocoa Butter Oatmeal Bath Bomb

Ingredients

Powders
420g (51.5%) baking soda
210g (26%) citric acid
130g (16%) epsom salts
14g (1.7%) white kaolin clay
8g (1%) colloidal oatmeal

Oils
12g (1.5%) cocoa butter
12g (1.5%) polysorbate 80

8g | 1% essential oil blend (3g lavender, 3g ylang ylang, 2g patchouli)

Extras
Dried cornflower petals
Dried rose buds
Witch hazel in a mister, if needed

Tools & Equipment

Bowl
Sieve
Whisk/Spatula/Spoon
Aluminium bath bomb mould

Instructions

  1. Sieve the baking soda and citric acid
  2. Add the rest of the powders and mix well, making sure to get all the clumps out
  3. Melt the cocoa butter and add to the powders along with the other oils
  4. Mix well, getting all the liquids fully incorporated and clump free
  5. Check the consistency of the mixture. It should be like wet sand, so when you squeeze it together it stays in shape. If it’s too dry spritz a little witch hazel and mix.
  6. Add a pinch of dried flowers to one half of the mould and fill until heaped with mixture. Heap the other half of the mould and press the two halves together tightly.
  7. Tap the outside of the mould gently to release the bath bomb and carefully remove from the mould.
  8. Set aside to dry and repeat until you run out of mixture.
  9. Let the bath bombs dry for a few days in a warm, dry place (away from moisture or humidity) Because these bath bombs have a high oil content they can take a little longer to dry compared to basic bath bombs.
  10. This recipe makes about six bath bombs.
  • You can substitute the essential oil blend for any blend or fragrance you like
  • You can add colour if you like – because this recipe has polysorbate 80 you can use any mica colour, or our ZeBomb!
  • You can substitute the cocoa butter for another butter such as shea or mango.
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Almond Milk, Oat & Honey Bastille Soap

I was excited to receive my copy of Milk Soaps by Anne-Marie Faiola. I have all of her books, which I refer back to quite a lot, to come up with inspiration and soap ideas.

I love using milk in soap, but in the past I’ve only tried goat’s milk, and more recently, coconut milk. So I was happy to see a huge variety of milks in this book. It gave me some confidence to expand my milk soaping imagination!

To dip my toes into the book, I decided to try out one of the more simple recipes. It’s a Bastille soap, which means at least 80% olive oil. While this makes for a luxuriously moisturising bar, it has the trade off of being a softer soap that takes quite a bit longer to cure. So patience is key!

If you’ve never made cold process soap before, please stop now and watch these beginner soap making videos by Anne-Marie

Basics of Cold Process Soap Making

If you’re ready to go, here’s the recipe!

Almond Milk, Oat & Honey Soap

Ingredients

Oils
528g Pomace Olive Oil
99g Coconut Oil
33g Castor Oil

Lye Mixture
215g Almond Milk (frozen)
86g Caustic Soda (lye)
1Tbsp Sodium Lactate

Fragrance
33g Oatmeal, Milk & Honey Fragrance Oil

Colourants
2tsp Titanium Dioxide (dispersed in 1Tbsp of water)

Additives
50g Colloidal Oatmeal
1Tbsp Honey

Tools & Equipment

Wooden Loaf Mould
Mixing Jugs x3
Hanger Swirl Tool
Chopstick
Stick Blender
Spatulas

Instructions

  1. Add all the oils to one of the mixing jugs. Heat in the microwave until the coconut oil melts.
  2. In the second jug, weigh out the frozen almond milk.
  3. In the third jug, weigh out the caustic soda.
  4. Slowly add the caustic soda, one spoonful at a time, to the milk, stirring continuously until all the caustic soda has dissolved. This can take some time. Once the caustic soda has fully dissolved. Add the sodium lactate.
  5. When the oils have cooled to around 40C and the lye mixture is around 25C, gently pour the lye into the oils.
  6. Insert the stick blender and alternate pulsing and stirring until you reach emulsification.
  7. Add the colloidal oatmeal and honey and pulse until fully incorporated.
  8. Pour roughly one third of the mixture into a mixing jug and add the titanium dioxide and mix in well with the stick blender.
  9. Add the fragrance oil to the remaining two thirds of the mixture and stir in well.
  10. Pour the fragranced soap into the loaf mould, saving a little bit to add to the top of the soap at the end.
  11. Pour the white soap into the mould in lines up and down the length of the mould, alternating between pouring from higher up and closer to the mould. Save a little soap for the top.
  12. Insert the hanger swirl tool at the side of the mould and push to the bottom. Make three or four circles inside the soap while moving the tool across to the other side of the mould.
  13. Using the remaining soap, pour alternating lines of white and uncoloured soap along the length of the mould.
  14. Insert the chopstick about 1cm into the soap and swirl it from side to side to create a nice pattern on top.

Cutting and Curing

Usually I un-mould and cut my soaps within 48 hours, however because this is a bastille soap it will be very soft. I would recommend waiting at least 5-7 days before un-moulding and cutting.

Once cut, let the bars cure in a well ventilated area for at least 6-8 weeks. Although, I would recommend a minimum of 12 weeks for this bar since it’s going to be quite soft. The longer you leave it to cure, the longer it will last in the shower!

Notes

You can substitute the almond milk for any other milk you have on hand.

I used Manuka Honey, but if you don’t have access to Manuka, then any honey will be fine.

You can substitute the fragrance oil for an essential oil blend of your choice.

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Coffee Candle… mmm Coffee!

I was browsing around the Salvation Army op shop last weekend, and came across this cute little coffee cup so I snapped it up for the grand old sum of $0.50.

Seriously, if you have any op shops in your area they are a treasure trove for cheap old cups and bowls which make perfect candle vessels! I try and stay away from thin glass, such as wine glasses, and pick the more solid looking items like tea cups or glass tumblers just to be on the safe side.

I also nabbed a set of tea cups and saucers for $2.00, bargain!

Not to be painfully predictable, but I decided that our fresh coffee fragrance would be the perfect scent for my newly acquired coffee cup.

You can use these instructions to make your own candle in the glassware that you have on hand. The biggest problem with using odd bits of crockery is trying to figure out how much wax you need to fill it. But if you use this formula it will make it simple.

How much wax do I need?

  1. Put your empty cup on the scales and tare the scale to zero.
  2. Fill the cup with water up to the point where you would make the candle to. I generally stop about 1cm from the top of the cup.
  3. Take note of the weight. In this instance, the weight of the water in the empty cup is 128 grams.
  4. Use a calculator (unless you’re a maths wizard) and multiply the water weight by 0.86. So for me, I would do 128 x 0.86 = 110
  5. That’s how much wax you’ll need to fill your cup! Easy peasy.

Once you’ve figured that out, tip the water away and dry your cup thoroughly… water and wax don’t play nice together!

Now onto the next big question…

What size wick do I need?

We have a handy little wick chart which has our wick sizing recommendations. You can find that here. Remember this is just a guide, and while it works most times, things like fragrance and colour load can alter the size wick you might need. The best thing to do before making a huge batch of candles only to find you needed a bigger wick, is to make a single test candle and burn it. That’s the only way to know for sure.

With that said, figuring out what size wick is generally pretty straight forward. All you need is a ruler.

Measure across the diameter of your cup and use our chart to pick the wick.

In our case, the diameter of my coffee cup is about 73mm which means I can use either a CDN-16 or an ECO-8 wick.

I went for the CDN-16 purely because that’s the container I found first. I use both brands of wicks all the time and they’re both excellent wicks.

Making the Candle

Now that you know how much wax you need (110 grams in my case.) Measure it out into a heat safe container. I use microwaveable plastic jugs which I picked up at the Warehouse for something like $2.00 each. I only use these for candle making. You don’t want to be putting these back in the cupboard to use when baking.

For the amount of wax that I needed, I microwaved first for 90 seconds, gave it a stir and checked the temp which was only around 50C, so it went back in the microwave for another 30 seconds, stir and temp check again, it’s up to 70C by now, so into the microwave for 15 seconds where it comes out bang on 83C – perfect!

Add your fragrance. I used our Fresh Coffee fragrance which I loooove. At a 5% ratio I used 5.5ml (110 x 5% = 5.5)

Once you’ve added the fragrance give it a gentle stir for a few minutes so that the fragrance fully incorporates into the wax. You’ll need to wait until the wax cools down to about 60-65C. If you pour when the wax is too hot you can get problems with a pitted top. You don’t need to watch the wax like a hawk during this time, just give it a stir every couple of minutes until you reach the right temperature.

In the meantime, you can stick the wick to the bottom of the cup. I use a wick sticker to make sure the wick doesn’t float up when you pour the wax, then use a wick holder to make sure the wick stays up straight and centred.

Once the wax is cooled, pour it into your wicked cup and wait for it to set. This usually takes a few hours, but for best results don’t burn the candle for at least 12 hours (overnight is best)

Trim the wick to 1cm

And there you have it. A super easy, and not to mention cheap, candle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wild Musk Bath Salts

I’m not sure what the weather is like around the rest of the country, but here in Tauranga it’s horrible! It is definitely the kind of weather that is perfect for soaking in the tub.

I’m usually a bubble bath kinda girl, but lately I’ve been using bath salts instead. The benefits of epsom salts are many. They can help to relieve muscle pain and inflammation, and can improve circulation. Himalayan salts are also excellent for aches and pains so adding both salts to your bath is like having a super charged soak! The addition of baking soda helps to soften and detoxify your skin. The macadamia oil adds a little luxurious moisturisation and the Wild Musk fragrance oil has a lovely “clean and soapy” aroma that I think is perfect for bath products. Feel free to substitute the Wild Musk fragrance for any of our other skin safe fragrance oils.

Bath salts are probably one of the easiest things to make.

Ingredients
(makes 5 stand up silver pouches)

2 cups of Epsom Salts
1 cup of Himalayan salt (finely ground – you can do this by whizzing them up in a food processor)
1/2 cup of Baking Soda
1Tbsp Macadamia Oil
7ml Wild Musk Fragrance Oil

Step One

Combine all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix with your hands to work out any clumps.

dry-ingredients

Step Two

Add the macadamia oil and fragrance. Mix well.

add-fragrance

Step Three

Spoon into our stand up silver pouches, or container of your choice. Add about half a cup to your bath, then relax and enjoy!

silver-pouches
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Avocado Lip Shine

This lip shine not only gives your lips a nice shimmer, it also provides some beneficial moisturising which can be sorely needed during these winter months.

Avocado oil contains a lot of Vitamin B which can help with skin damage,  skin protection, and cell generation. It also contains Vitamin A and Vitamin E which are both great for your skin too!

This recipe doesn’t contain enough mica to make a lip tint, but you can definitely add more if you want a lip colour as well as lip shine.

Ingredients
(makes eight (8) lip balm tubes)

8 Lip Balm Tubes
7 grams Beeswax
10 grams Cocoa Butter
20 grams Avocado Oil
5 grams Castor Oil
2 mini scoops Mauve Mica
1 mini scoop Bronze Mica
2ml Chocolate Flavour Oil (or any flavour of your choice)

Step One

Weigh out the beeswax, cocoa butter, avocado oil and castor oil into a heat safe container. I’m using one of our 100ml glass beakers (they’re awesome for this kind of thing!) I always chop my beeswax into smaller pieces, that way they melt a little easier.

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Step Two
Place in the microwave and melt using 30-60 second bursts. Beeswax has a high melting point, and can take a long time to melt. Be careful – because of the high melting point, the heat-safe container can melt or explode in the microwave if it gets too hot.

Step Three

Add the flavour and mica and mix well to combine. If you want to make a lip colour I suggest using approximately a total of 1Tbsp of mica.

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Step Four
Carefully pour into lip balm tubes. Fill to the top then wait a couple of hours for them to harden. You will notice that they will sink and get a hole in the centre. This is caused by the mixture cooling. To level off the tops you can gently go over them with a heat gun to melt the tops to make them nice and smooth.

These aren’t a rock hard lip balm so we suggest keeping them out of the sun so you don’t end up with a puddle of lip balm in the tube.

Avocado-Lip-Shine

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Rebatching Soap Scraps

I’m sure this is a familiar sight for any cold process soap maker – the container (or boxes in my case) of soap shavings and off cuts which are left over when you cut and tidy your soaps.

All of our bathrooms at work have my soap off cuts for hand washing, and you’ll more likely than not, find lumps of squished together soap scraps in most of my family’s homes – we haven’t bought soap in a loooong time! But after you’ve been making soap for any length of time, you’ll come to realise it is virtually impossible for you to use all the scraps up! Every time I make a new batch of soap the pile grows. I haven’t weighed all my scraps, but at a guess I’d say I have roughly 5kg of off cuts at the moment!

 

A small fraction of my soap scraps!
A small fraction of my soap scraps!

I can’t stand the thought of wasting, so that’s where the re-batching method comes in. Sometimes this is called triple milled or French milled soap. Re-batching is the process of taking pre-made cold process soap and “melting” it down to create a new bar of soap. Keep in mind that re-batched soap tends to look pretty rustic so don’t plan on doing any fancy designs or swirls as it just won’t happen!

How to Rebatch Cold Process Soap

I picked out about 600 grams of light coloured scraps and grated them. You could do more or less depending on how many scraps you have, or how long you want to grate soap for! I’m lucky enough that I have an old food processor that I use solely for my soaping projects so I didn’t have to go through the nightmare of hand grating all the little scraps.

grated-soap-scraps

Once you’ve grated all your soap, put into your slow cooker, or double boiler. I’m using my slow cooker this time because I have lots of things to do today and don’t want to stand around monitoring the soap cooking. The beauty of the slow cooker is you can walk away and not have to worry about a pot burning dry. The trade-off is that it’s a slower method than using a double boiler. If you want to use a double boiler that’s totally fine. The method is the same, you just need to keep an eye on your soap and stir more often.

Once you have your grated soap in your cooker, add water. The amount of water depends on how old the soap scraps are. If you’re rebatching relatively fresh soap (less than two weeks old) you may only need a couple of tablespoons of water. However, many of my soaps are at least two years old, so I’m using half a cup of water. Don’t worry too much about over watering, it just means your soap might take a little longer to un-mould, but the quality will be the same.

Give the soap and water a quick stir, pop the lid on the crock pot and walk away. I came back about 30 minutes later and gave the mix a stir. After about 45 minutes, I added some extra soap that I had cut up into chunks. This isn’t necessary, but I wanted to add some interest to the soap so it wasn’t just a plain brown bar. After stirring the chunks through, I left the soap to melt again. All up I had the soap cooking for around one and a half hours.

The soap is ready to be spooned into the mould.
The soap is ready to be spooned into the mould.

You can see the consistency of the soap is very thick. The original soap that was grated has melted down, and the chunks that I added half way through are left pretty much in tact.

If you want to add fragrance, add it in right before you’re ready to mould. Stir in well. I used 20ml of Kumquat fragrance in this batch as there wasn’t much smell left in the soap scraps.

Spoon the soap into your mould. Make sure you tamp the mould down hard to get rid of air pockets. Depending on how much water you used, you will be able to un-mould the soap after about three hours. There’s no need to wait to use the soap, as all the scraps are old and fully cured a long time ago!

Rebatched-Soap-Bar

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Swirly Melt & Pour Clamshell Soap

Melt and pour soap is a fun and easy way to make your own soap. You don’t have to worry about wearing safety gear or using caustic soda like you do with cold process soap. It can be a fun project to do with kids or adults alike.

These little soaps are poured straight into our round clamshell moulds, so once they’re set you can just close them up and they’re all ready to sell or give away. There’s also the added bonus of not having to wash a soap mould!

The round clamshells are easy to make guest size soaps. If pink isn’t your thing, try any of our other micas in your favourite shade. You can see the difference in colour between the clear and white soap bases. Even though it’s the same mica, it looks different. So combining both soap bases is a nice effect.

What you’ll need
(makes one clamshell – 2 x 50 gram soaps)

50 grams Clear Melt & Pour Soap Base
50 grams White Melt & Pour Soap Base
3 mini scoops Pink Honeysuckle Mica
5ml Forbidden Fantasy Fragrance Oil
1 x Round Clamshell Mould

2 x Heat safe containers
Isopropyl Alcohol

Step One

Chop and melt the Clear Melt and Pour Base in a small heat safe container. Because you are melting such a small amount of soap, you can microwave for about 20 seconds at first, then stir and use 10 second bursts stirring in between to slowly melt without burning. Make sure you don’t heat above 60 degrees C, anything higher than that can cause the soap to burn. Once the melt and pour is melted, add 1 mini scoop of Pink Honeysuckle mica and stir to combine.

Add 2.5ml of the fragrance oil. If the soap begins to harden, pop it back into the microwave for 10 seconds.

Step1

Step Two

Chop and melt the White Melt and Pour Base in a small heat safe container. Because you are melting such a small amount of soap, you can microwave for about 20 seconds at first, then stir and use 10 second bursts stirring in between to slowly melt without burning. Make sure you don’t heat above 60 degrees C, anything higher than that can cause the soap to burn. Once the melt and pour is melted, add 2 mini scoops of Pink Honeysuckle mica and stir to combine.

Add 2.5ml of the fragrance oil. If the soap begins to harden, pop it back into the microwave for 10 seconds.

Step Three

Once both soap bases reach 50 degrees (approximately, a few degrees out either way won’t matter too much), pour both soaps into the clamshell at the same time, start at opposite ends of the circle and slowly move the jugs around while you’re pouring – kind of like how a barista makes fancy coffee. The trick is to make sure your soap isn’t too hot otherwise the clear and white soaps will just blend together.

Repeat for the second soap in the clamshell. If you’ve found the soap has started to harden just pop back in the microwave for 5 seconds.

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Step Four

Once your moulds are full, spritz with isopropyl to get rid of any bubbles and leave to harden. This normally takes a few hours. You can speed things up by putting the soap in the fridge. Don’t close the clamshell up yet though as you don’t want to trap any steam as the soap cools.

Once your soap has cooled completely. Close up the clamshell and you’re ready to go! To use simply press down on the back of the clamshell and the soap will pop right out.

Step4

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How to Make Hydrosol

When essential oils are made through steam distillation it involves a process of steaming the plant material, cooling the steam, then eventually extracting the oil from the condensed steam. Hydrosol is the left over steam (distilled water).

Hydrosols are like essential oils but in far less of a concentration. Hydrosols can be used externally in skin care products, taken as a tonic or combined in a drink. They also make lovely additions to food such as Rose water.

What’s the difference between a hydrosol and infused water?

Hydrosol is produced from the steam that forms when distilling plant materials such as flowers and herbs. Hydrosols are not as concentrated as essential oils, so they tend to be more gentle on the skin. Infused water is simply soaking leaves, fruit, or flowers of a plant or herb in water. It becomes more tea-like if you boil the material in water.

How to make Rose Water (Hydrosol)

What you’ll need:
Roses from the yard are preferable, but since it’s winter and I don’t know anyone with winter roses, I bought mine from Flora & Flames
Distilled water
A pot with a lid
A  bowl
Ice

Step One:

Make sure your roses are nice and clean. Add them to the pot and cover with distilled water. I used approximately 100 grams of rose petals (around 30 roses) and 1 litre of water. These measurements don’t have to be exact, just make sure you have enough water to cover the roses.

step-1

Step Two:

Clear a space in the middle of the pot and place your bowl inside, this will catch all the hydrosol as it condenses.

step-2

Step Three:

Place the lid on the pot upside down and turn the heat on medium to low. You don’t want to boil the roses, just get a gentle simmer.

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Step Four:

As the water starts to warm up, you will begin to see steam on the lid. Once you see steam, place a sealed bag about half full of ice onto the lid. This will cool the steam as it hits the pot lid making the hydrosol drip into the bowl below. The ice will begin to melt in the bag, so you will need to replace the ice periodically. A steady production of condensation should be collecting on the lid and dripping into the bowl in the pot. However long you decide to allow it to distill, will determine how much hydrosol you’ll collect. I allowed my batch to cook for  about an hour, draining melted ice and replacing with new, as needed. You’ll know you’re done when the hydrosol no longer smells strongly of roses. If you continue collecting steam after this point you’re just diluting your existing hydrosol with plain water.

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Step Five:

Pour the hydrosol into a bottle and keep in the fridge. It will last up to three months if kept properly in the fridge.

 I used my rose water in a face mist. Just pour it into a bottle with a mister cap and spritz onto your face for a nice refreshing pick me up!

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Foaming Bath Truffles

Well it seems winter has well and truly arrived this week! Luckily here in Tauranga we usually don’t get hit with the worst of the weather, but I really feel for those of you in more southerly areas. My Mum lives in Christchurch and she sent a picture of the first snow fall this morning, brrr!

It’s the perfect time of year for a nice warm relaxing soak in the tub. Crumble one of these foaming bath truffles under the water when running the bath and enjoy a lovely fragrant and moisturising bath. These are different to regular “bath bombs” as they don’t contain any citric acid to give it a fizz, but they will foam and bubble giving you a more luxurious feeling.

Foaming Bath Truffles

(makes 8)

What you’ll need

75 grams Baking Soda
45 grams SLSa
15 grams Cream of Tartar
8 grams Cocoa Butter
5 grams Glycerin
3 grams Cocomidopropyl Betaine
4 mini scoops Roussillion Mica
3ml Ylang & Amber Fragrance

Lotus Wax Tart Mould

Mixing bowls
Scales

Step One:

Add Baking Soda, SLSa, Cream of Tartar and Mica to the mixing bowl. Mix well, making sure to get rid of all the tiny lumps. I like to use my hands to rub the mixture together so it’s a nice fine texture with no lumps.

Step-1

Step Two

Add the Cocoa Butter to a separate mixing bowl and heat in the microwave in 30 second bursts until melted. Be careful not to overheat the butter. Once melted add the Glycerin, Cocomidopropyl Betaine and Fragrance. The add the wet ingredients to the dry.

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Step Three

Mix the ingredients together until completely combined (I use my hands to mix) and the mixture holds together when squeezed. If your mixture seems a little crumbly, spritz with a little witch hazel or add more glycerin until you get the right texture.

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Step Four

Spoon the mixture into the mould and press firmly so it’s tightly packed. Set aside to harden. I left mine for about four hours, but you may need longer depending on the weather conditions.

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Step Five

Once the truffles have hardened, gently press the back of each cavity. The truffles should slide right out easily. If they don’t come out easily they may not be hard enough yet.

Step-5

Set aside to continue drying for about 24 hours then package up. I’ve used a cute bail jar to keep mine nice and dry when storing in the bathroom.

Truffles

Remember these aren’t bath fizzies, so you need to crumble them under the running water to ensure they melt completely releasing all the skin softening ingredients.