Health and Beauty: Make Your Own Shaving Soap (easy!)

Image Source: Amazon.com

Thanks to our blog reader, Linda for e-mailing this recipe in!  It looks super duper simple so if you can tolerate glycerin soap you're good to go on this one!


Home Made Shaving Soap/Cream
(direct from e-mail from Linda)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 teaspoon of sunflower oil or other oil (I usually use olive oil)
• 1/4 cup of unscented glycerin soap shavings (I grate a bar down)
• Double boiler or a bowl placed inside of a pan (makeshift double boiler)
• A holding place for the shaving soap (I use 1/2 pint wide mouth mason jars for this)

1. In your double boiler, melt soap until it's all liquid.

2. Stir in the sunflower oil/other oil.

3. Move the mixture into a holding vessel as soon as everything is mixed together as the mixture sets up very quickly.

Use as regular shaving soap.

Thanks again for sending in the recipe, Linda!  We appreciate it!

Enjoy all!

Health and Beauty Thursday (early): How to make your own all natural body wash

Thanks to Life Blessons For Use of the photo

This tutorial does double duty in that it shows you how to make your own liquid castile soap (saves you some money from having to shell out 13.00 for a refill if you want to go through a little trouble :).  And yes, you use a commercial bar of castile to do it, so there isn't a month span of time on this tutorial or something ;).

Go HERE where Life Blessons shows you how to make your own all natural body wash/liquid castile soap.

Enjoy!

Make it Monday: How to Make Soap (hot process method)

My Currently Curing Calendula Castile Soap :)

Ever wanted to know how to make REAL soap (like with lye)?  Yeah, so did I.  I really wanted to get to the point where I knew what was going ONTO my kids as well as going into them and the thing that was costing me an arm and a leg to do THAT was soap.

Anyone who has ever bought a bar of hand made soap knows that it costs ABOUT 10.00 for one and if you wash your kids, that can get expensive.  So, I went looking into how to make my own just because of the cost for one and to be able to put into the soap what I wanted for the skin conditioning benefits (without the added fragrances and dyes so common in hand made soaps out there) for two.

I found out that there were two methods for making hand made soap.  One is called "cold process" where you do all the soap voodoo steps and then cut and cure the soap (to let the lye mellow out) for about a month.  I didn't really LIKE this method.  It's not that I minded curing the soap...actually with the hot process soap method you should cure the soap too just to get the bars to dry and harden up a bit.  No, I just plain didn't like the idea of RAW soap, with active lye still in it, sitting around my house with two kids that climb like monkeys.

So, I went with the second method I found which was "hot process".  Basically you MAKE cold process soap in your crock pot but where the cold process leaves off you continue on and cook the raw soap to force the soapification process and in the cooking of said soap you cook out the lye.  I liked that idea much better.

I heard a lot of horror stories about making your own soap with lye, so before I link to the tutorial that taught me how to do it, I wanted to share some insights.

1)  Be sure you have a GOOD scale for this as in a digital one.  Everything in soap making is measured by weight, not volume, so be sure to weigh liquids AND solids on your scale.  I actually set mine to grams just because my scale only went to tenths and not to hundredths on weight.

2)  Do not be scared to use lye, but by golly do NOT take it lightly either!  Lye is really caustic and when you mix it with water you create some nasty and very toxic fumes.

Some different sites I found sort of blew off working with lye and basically said to keep some vinegar right near by (it counter acts the lye to help you avoid getting chemical burns) and just to not breath in the fumes and no big deal.

Me?  I measured my lye out in a gladware container, slapped the lid on to transport it and after I shook the lye into the water (I went out on my deck to do this too...yes paranoia is not a bad thing when working with chemicals), I threw the chopstick I used for stirring the lye (grab a throw away pair from the store when you're walking by the sushi counter the next time you go :) and the gladware container directly into the dumpster.  When done with ANYTHING that came in contact with the raw soap, including my rubber gloves, I immediately doused them in vinegar before I even attempted to wash them in the sink.  I also made sure I had a left over glass jar with a tight fitting lid to put the lye water into to transport it BACK into my house so that I didn't worry about tripping over anything (like a kiddo) and ending up with someone in the burn ward.

3)  Trace is not as scary as some people think.  "Trace" is the point that you have to watch for before cooking the soap and does exactly what it is called.  As you are dragging your stick blender through your soap watch for a "wake" after the stick blender.  It'll get thicker to the point that the wake actually stays instead of immediately sinking back into the soap.  I found that this is the "thick trace" stage.  The soap will look pretty much like liquidy pudding (imagine stirring a thing of pudding until it's liquid again and you'll get the idea).  If you're looking for "thin trace" stage (which doesn't really apply to hot process soap making that I can see) you'd want to add things into the soap when the wake of the blender is there but still disappears.

4)  Make sure you have a good mold.  I ended up using the toddler shoe box I'd made for my melt and pour soap (just took the toddler shoe box, lined it with parchment paper all the way around and used that) and it worked SLICK.  Hot process soap turns out like mashed potatoes in consistency and you sort of mush and jam it into the mold, so it's not like you have to worry about it leaking or anything, which was a double bonus for me :).  I'm so happy I have a mold that'll work for future use too!  

Don't let me scare you off of soap making though with my lye paranoia.  Actually it didn't take very long (from start to finish it was ABOUT an hour and that's because I was careful with measuring things fifteen times and kept stopping my stirring to check my computer to see what their trace pictures looked like) and it was VERY fulfilling to know that I have soap that in approximately 3 weeks (curing the bars to harden them) I'll know EXACTLY what is in the soap that is coming in contact with my kids.  For a LOT cheaper than I could buy it for (1/3 a container of lye made 15 bars of soap...none too shabby).

So, if you are ready to try your hand at soap making, you can go HERE where Soap Making Essentials.com shows you how to make your own hot process soap (for recipes check out their soap recipe section :).

Enjoy!

Health and Beauty Thursday: Make Your Own Chocolate Milk Bath!

I made the following mix as part of a "chocolate themed" spa basket for my sister-in-law last year and she continues to rave about it to this day.  She especially loved the chocolate milk bath because it smelled spectacular and left her skin super duper soft.

So, if you'd like to make a chocolate milk bath mix for the favorite chocoholic on your list go HERE where Allfreecrafts.com (a seriously awesome site that I used a lot when making my own home spa products) shows you how to make your own chocolate milk bath (and yes, it's cheap to make too).  They even have a printable label for your creation if you want to be super lazy!  Always a nice perk ;).

Enjoy!

Health and Beauty Thursday: Make Your Own Hand Sanitizer

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know a lot of you are like, "But where is the spa recipes?" and you will see more of those on Thursdays, but I also wanted to cover other health and beauty types of applications on Thursday too, so I changed it up a bit :).

Today I wanted to go over how to make your own hand sanitizer.  Why?  Well because cold season is upon us and I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not relishing the idea of being sick all winter long.

So, here's a couple of neat recipes to try.

E-How shows you how to make your own hand sanitizer HERE with a vodka base (and no vodka doesn't have a scent and yes it is recommended you use the cheap stuff for this).

If you have the materials you can try a recipe that dates back to the good old Black Death.  The Vinegar of Four Thieves dates back to grave robbers who used the concoction while robbing the graves of plague victims to stop themselves from succumbing to the illness (yeah disturbing I know).

Bulk Herb Store has a great little history of the concoction and also a recipe for it if you want to try it.  They even sell the herb mixture pre-ground if you want to go that route.  It also makes an excellent insect repellent from what I understand, so double bonus.

Enjoy!

DIY: Calendula Oatmeal Honey Soap (Melt and Pour Method)

So, one of the areas I've decided to "expand my knowledge" the last little bit is soap making.  Why?  Well because the sticker shock on a good hand made bar of soap will curl your hair that's why!!!  Ahem...well anyway...I figured if I was going to try my hand at this relatively new area of expertise I'd start with melt and pour soap making.

I've made melt and pour soap before, but the stuff I got from Michaels and made was...well...not great honestly.  After a month the stuff had released enough moisture that the bars of soap I'd made literally curled in on themselves and never sat flat after that and only about 3 bars of the like 10 I had made actually held any scent after that time.  So, I wanted to make sure that THIS time I did it right and with the right materials.  So, I got my nerd on and started researching how honest to goodness lye soap was made (which I will experiment with later and show the results of such), but right now with how busy I am I just didn't want to mess with the lye and the sheer clean up involved.

So, I went and got myself a GOOD melt and pour soap base (like the stuff people on Etsy use for their melt and pour soaps to SELL type of good) from Country Soap Shack on Etsy (which is incidentally my favorite supply shop pretty much).  I got two different types, the Shea Butter Base and their own unique blend (which I haven't made yet...still waiting on some herbs to come in the mail).  Mind you if you are REALLY looking for 100% real true all-natural soap, please get the lye and do it the hard way as even though this stuff is a LOT better than the stuff you'll get at the store there are still different additives to make it so the soap will...well melt and pour :).

So, anyway, here's the recipe I came up with after much thought for my first attempt at my own unique recipe for soap.  Now mind you if you use this recipe and make a ton of money on Etsy I want at least a thank you out of you *laugh*.

Calendula Oatmeal Honey Soap

Materials:

The Hardware:

• 1 large microwave safe measuring cup or bowl (I used my 4 cup liquid measuring cup)
• 1 soap mold (you could make one like I did or you could be smart and try to find something like a plastic container like I ended up using because my nifty mold was way too big...I'll show you in a minute).
• Measuring Cups and spoons
• 1 Chopstick (TRUST me this is the best mixing friend you'll ever have for melt and pour soap)

The Software:

• 1 lb Melt and Pour Soap Base (honestly I really DO recommend getting the good stuff, but you can get the cheap stuff at Michaels in Anchorage for about 6.00 if you wait for the 50% off 1 item coupon to pop up).
• 1/8 cup finely ground quick oats (I used my good ol' coffee grinder for this.  If you do not own a 1/8 of a cup measure, like me, just put 1/4 cup of quick oats into your coffee grinder, grind it up and just use the powder produced...it'll be close enough trust me)
• 1/4 cup finely ground Calendula petals (once again the good ol' coffee grinder)
• 2 Teaspoons honey (I used local)
• 1 Teaspoon Sweet Almond Oil  (you could also use Vitamin E)

Step 1:  Grind your oatmeal and calendula petals (remember to measure your calendula petals AFTER grinding them or you'll have way too little).  Once you get it all ground up, place it into another container (I used my 1 cup liquid measuring cup) and mix well with your fingers.  You want the oats and calendula petals to incorporate the same in your soap, so be sure to mix them well before hand.  Set aside.

Step 2:  Melt your soap.   Put your soap into your microwave safe bowl or measuring cup and place in the microwave.  Put on 1 minute on high.  Check it and stir it with your chop stick and then put it back into the microwave in 30 second increments until everything is well melted.

Step 3:  Add your liquids.  Add your honey and sweet almond oil and stir well with your chop stick to make sure it is incorporated throughout the soap base.

Step 4:  Add the oats and calendula mixture and mix well with the chop stick and then pour into your mold of choice.  Okay, so the nifty little rig I put together above (a toddler shoe box lined with parchment paper) I took one look at once my liquid got out of the microwave and I thought, "Man that's wayyyy too big" so I quickly grabbed the plastic rubbermaid container I keep my essential oils in and turned it into a quick mold.  Plastic molds work GREAT for this job by the way because once the soap is set it's way easier to start manipulating the plastic to give up the soap than if you did this in say a metal container of some sort.  You could also use the bottom of a couple card board juice jugs (cut off about I'd say 4 inches up or so) or even an empty frozen juice container or something.  You want something that will hold a liquid and not melt from the heat of the soap, so just keep that in mind.

As the soap is cooling you might want to stir it a few more times with the chopstick to try and get more of the solids to incorporate into the soap.  Me?  I stirred it like twice and went and cooked dinner.  So, after about 2 hours sitting in the mold, I un-molded the soap to find...

Isn't it pretty?  Please ignore the writing on the paper beneath.  I ended up using the paper with the allergist number scribbled on it as my landing zone when my son kept stealing and eating my paper towels (don't ask).

After you unmold it, cut the bars.   Since my container was about 6 inches by 6 inches (about) I cut my big chunk into four bars and I got four good sized bars of it.  I used a good old Oxo bench scraper for this job, but you could use a nice big sharp knife too.  Just to warn you.  Cut STRAIGHT down so you don't beat up your soap too bad.

For full effectiveness let the bars "cure" for about 2 weeks.  It'll allow everything in the bars to mingle and mellow out.  But, you CAN use them right away since they don't contain raw lye, which is the benefit of melt and pour soap.  So far, the few little pieces I cut off the bars to make them more "square" worked really well and left my skin soft and my son didn't complain about me using it on him (which is saying something) and with the EXCEPTION to you having an oat allergy in the family somewhere, this recipe should do VERY well for sensitive skin and eczema, which is what I was aiming for all along.

Enjoy!

DIY: Home Made Hair Detangler

 This is so insanely simple to make and it works great (tried it out on my daughter this morning...too bad she wasn't feeling good this morning and didn't make it to school, or I'd have a perfectly preened daughter for a change ;).

If you want a quick and easy hair detangler/leave in conditioner it can't be any simpler than this.  Ready?


Home Made Hair Detangler (from Budget 101).

• Take 1 1/4 cups water
• Mix in 3 Tablespoons Conditioner of choice (I used an all natural one)
• One Empty Spray Bottle (I used an empty I had lying around).

Pour all items into spray bottle (use warm/hot water to make this mixing of the fats to water easier) and shake the bottle until everything is combined.  And done!  I KNOW how great is that!

P.S. I find it so funny that I planned this blog post last night (thus the tomb-like quality of the photo...sorry) and woke up this morning to find that A Delightful Home had the exact same thought in mind...and had found the same recipe *laugh*.  What are the odds of THAT happening on the internet?

Enjoy all!