Susanne's Crafty Corner: Cosmetics

Other stuff I've made (with recipes!)

Mother's Day Basket

Mother's Day Basket


Mother's day was coming up again and what could I better give then the results of an out-of-hand hobby? Besides, my mom is one of those people who already have everything; very annoying if you have to get something for them!

Anyway I made a little basket with all kinds of stuff. This particular basket has a wascloth, flower dusted bath salts, lotion/massage bar, cream and rosemary soap. The soap is described on this page, descriptions and recipes of the rest you will find below. I think that such a basket can also be made for men, think about shaving cream in a nice steel mug, a bar of soap etc.


lotion/massage bar Lotion/Massage Bar

This lotion annex massage bar can be used after a shower or to massage someone with. I used this recipe:

75 ml beeswax
75 ml coconut oil
37,5 ml grapeseed oil
37,5 ml hazelnut oil
15 drops of rosemary EO

Combine all ingredients in a double boiler until molten, then add rosemary eo. Pour in cupcake tins and let harden completely. This recipe makes enough for 3 small cupcake tins.

cream Skin Loving cream

In this cream I combined hazelnut oil - which is supposed to be great for older skin - with coconut oil and jasmine oil. The jasmine oil I used isn't the expensive kind, but the kind sold in eastern stores as a hair and skin oil. Smells very nice so I didn't add any other fragrance.

1/8 teaspoon borax
60 ml aloe vera juice
50 ml jasmine oil
50 ml hazelnut oil
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon beeswax

Dissolve borax in the aloe vera juice, warming it a bit might help. Melt the beeswax with the oils in a double boiler, bring this mixture almost to boil. Remove from heat and slowly add the borax-juice mixture. Allow to cool completely while whisking. I also added a bit of sodiumbenzoate as a preservative.


Flower dusted bath salts Flower Dusted Bath Salts

Looks convincing, aye?! It's all in the name... You see these "bath salts" were supposed to be bath bombs. The recipe I used was this one;

 1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup salt (fine sea or epsom)
1/2 cup citric acid
2 T light oil of choice
water
FO or EO

One of the keys to this recipe is the order that you mix things in. Add baking soda, salt and cornstarch together. Then remove 1/2 cup of mixture, and add to that the 2 T of oil and the food coloring. Mix that well, and then incorporate it back into the bigger batch. Then, add to the mix enough teaspoons of water to give it the feel of wet sand (stir after you add each teaspoon of wetting agent, to disperse it better). Then last of all, add the citric acid, and stir it in really really fast, so that it won't fizz. Pack it tightly into the mold of your choice, pop it out after 3 or 4 minutes, and let it air dry for a day or so.

Well, I think the "feel of wet sand" got me here. Once I added the citric acid the stuff started fizzing away. No way to save it! The only thing I could think of was throwing in some more cornstarch and salt and putting it in a couple of jars I just bought. Left the little bags of silica gel in, perhaps those will take care of a bit of the extra moist. I'll keep you updated when I try making bath bombs again!


Shaving soap Shaving soap #1

My little brother seems to be getting allergic to more and more stuff, so I thought I should try making him some shaving cream. I used:

100 g grated (homemade) castille soap
240 ml boiling distelled water
2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoons almond oil
1 teaspoon borax
15 -20 drops EO

Dissolve soap in boiling water and put in blender. Add the other ingredients and mix till fluffy. Add the fragrance and pour slowly into mugs. This recipe is enough for 2 mugs, you'd better take plastic or steel mugs since other materials might be nasty when they fall in the shower.

I tested this soap on my legs and it feels nice. I also let my boyfriend test it; he has a rather heavy beard and is prone to damaging his skin while shaving. His comment was that this shaving soap is useable but that more expensive commercial shaving soaps provide better "slip" between the razor and skin. I'll experiment with adding more oil and perhaps a bit of kaoline to improve this.


Lipbalm Lipbalm

This lipbalm is exactly according to my wishes: solid enough to be used in a stick and greasy enough to keep my lips soft for hours. I used beeswax, sweet almond oil, petroleum jelly, a bit of old dark red lipstick for a bit of color and a few drops of peppermint oil. I really wouldn't know the exact combination since I found the mixture to be too waxy and first. I re melted it and added a bit more almond oil and petroleum jelly.

I used old containers I had lying around to pour it in: 1 from a lipstick, 1 from emptied lipbalm and a little clear plastic jar. I cleaned these thoroughly before use off course! The sticks I filled up with a little throw-away dropper, the jar I just poured.

The little jar I sent together with some petitgrain cupcake soaps to a girl in America who I met through the internet: Craft swap! She knitted a really wonderfull devil hat for me. If that description got you curious, just click here!



bath bonbons Bath Bonbons (or Lotion/Massage Bar)

These bath bonbons I made with a bit left from a new recipe for lotion/massage bars.You already know how they would look since I used the same cupcake tins as with the lotion/massage bar you can see above. This recipe gives a much softer bar that melts more easily, therefore it's also perfect for bath bonbons. You just put 1 or 2 in the tub and enjoy! I poured these into small bonbon tins I found in the secondhand store. This is the recipe I used (in volume):

25 % beeswax
25 % coconut oil
25 % cocoa butter
10 % sunflower seed oil
7,5 % grapeseed oil
7,5 % hazelnut oil
EO (I used summerflowers)

Combine all ingredients in a double boiler until molten, then add EO. Pour in tins and let harden completely.


Susanne's hevanly body butter Susanne's heavenly body butter

I accidently created this recipe when trying to figure out a day cream. This is much too rich for that, but soooooo good on your body: it sinks right in and leaves a soft and smooth feeling. Really love this stuff! I call it a butter more because of the consistency then because of the ingredients, it becomes a very thick and stiff cream.

Water phase:

31 % neroli (or rose) hydrosol
3 % glycerin

Oil phase:

20 % grapeseed oil
25 % hazelnut oil
8 % beeswax
6 % coconut oil
6 % cocoa butter

1 % preservative of preference
borax at 1/20 part of amount of beeswax

Melt the oil phase in a double boiler and warm the water phase in the microwave. Dissolve the borax in it. Whisk the oils while trickling in the water phase. Add your preservative as soon as the temperature permits it and then switch to the stickblender for about 20 -30 seconds.

Scoop it in wide mouthed jars, don't ask how I know.... I made a few jars of this butter for folks to try last weekend: raving reviews! My father-in-law has all chapped and dry hands with eczema. He does have a salve from the doctor but because it's petroleum based it's so greasy he can't touch a thing when using it; not handy during the day. He loves this
butter on his hands because it makes them soft without being too greasy to the touch. Also got an "order" from my mom and a couple of other people who like it very much.


Susanne's Body Mousse Susanne's Body Mousse

I so love this stuff... The texture of this body mousse is very fluffly but still firm. Spreads well and leaves a film on the skin. This film can be made more powdery then greasy by subbing 1 % of the water by Dry-Flo AF. I mixed it in with the fragrance and preservative. I also used rooibos tea for liquid once which was very nice. If you use non-deoderized cocoa butter, the scent comes through very nicely. Combines extremely well with fragrances like coconut, vanilla, fragipani, neroli etc. Ok the recipe:

water 64 %
glycerine 2 %
Powdered coconut 3 %
cocoa butter 18 %
coconut oil (infused with vanilla) 5 %
ewax 4 %
stearic acid 2 %

germaben II 1 %
Fragrance 1 %

Weigh all ingredients. Combine the water with the powdered coconut until completly dissolved. Then add the rest of the ingredients (save the fragrance and preservative). Heat until completely melted, you can do this in the microwave or double boiler. Whip the mixture well with a hand held electric whisk until the mousse begins to "fluff up". Add preservative and fragrance. After that whip as much air in it as possible until the body mousse has cooled down completely. Bang the mixing bowl on a surface a couple of times to get the largest bubbles out that would collaps in time anyway. Pour in jars and let sit overnight.


Fizzy Shower Scrubbies Fizzy Shower Scrubies

 I tried to make a "conditioning body bar" inspired by a topic on The Soap Dish. Goal was to make a bar to use under the shower after your soap. Using it would bind the ewax with the oils to lotion so you wouldn't have to cream up after showering. I tried the suggested recipe with 58 % cacao butter, 10 % coconut oil,  20 % ewax and 2 % fragrance.

Well, it worked but the bar was way too soft. I molt it down and added stearic acid which made it even worse: now it was soft and terribly waxy on the skin. I didn't throw it out yet because the ingredients weren't that cheap for me.

On HCS there was a topic about bath brulee and someone had the idea to use it as scrubby under the shower. I decided to use the botched conditioning bar to try that out. This made the recipe:

Citric acid 17 %
cacao butter 25 %
coconut oil 10 %
ewax 10 %
stearic acid 5 %
bicarbonate of soda 33 %

Molt down the conditioning bars I made, removed from heat and left to cool until just warm. Added colour and fragrance. Whilst the stuff was cooling, I mixed the citric acid and bicarbonate of soda together in the bowl, ensuring any lumps were broken up.

Once the mixture had cooled but is still completely liquid, added the citric acid/bicarbonate of soda mixture and stir thoroughly (if it starts fizzing and expanding the cocoa butter is too hot, so try a little first), then spoon into ice cube tray moulds and cool immediately in the freezer or ice box. Don't
actually freeze them, just ensure they are very cold and completely solid.

Press out of ice cube moulds as you would an ice cube and leave at room temperature.

After I fetched them from the fridge I noticed cracks in the tops of some of them, just like with those creme brulee thingies. They work nice as scrubby under the shower, not as terrible as the recipe without the citric acid and sodium bicarbonate. Rather nice actually! The cubes are for single
use and crumble while scrubbing releasing fizz and lotion.

No need to lotion up afterwards, would have been overkill.The stearic acid still leaves a tiny bit of waxy drag so I would ditch it completely. Also upping the citric acid and sodium carbonate for more "fizz"wouldn't hurt IMHO as well as adding a tiny scrubby element. Wouldn't take sugar or salt though as I don't know how this would work with the ewax forming up a lotion. I think the following tweak will be rather satisfaying for me:

Citric acid 17 %
cacao butter 33 %
ewax 10 %
bicarbonate of soda 35 %
jojoba spheres or other scrubby 5 %

Once I tried this I'll post about it!



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