Monday 11 June 2012

Make Your Own Face Cleanser

Three years ago, I blogged my last post. How sad is that? I've all but abandoned my blog. However, I do have an excuse! I put it down to time, money and laziness although I knew I would be back some day.


It's been a long time but I still have not lost my love for all things soapy! So many things have happened in the last few years. I look back on it now and it all seems a bit surreal to think that three years have since passed. I definitely don't think I will be blogging very often but it still feels good to be back.


Anyway, enough about dwelling on the past for me! Today, I have an exciting new tutorial. I remember the very first product I bought on Lush was their ever popular skin cleanser, Angels on Bare Skin.


Well, I've done some experimenting and I think I have come up with a recipe that does mimic their best-seller in a way. It's impossible to be sure unless I were to sneak into their manufacturing plant ninja style!


This is what I found has worked for me and I would be interested in you trying it out for yourselves and letting me know what results you have achieved.


So, without further ado, I present to you my tutorial for making your own Angels on Bare Skin cleanser!


Ingredients
Ground Almonds, Glycerine, Kaolin, Water, Lavender Oil, Rose Absolute, Chamomile Blue Oil, Tagetes Oil, Benzoin Resinoid, Lavender Flowers, *Limonene, *Linalool

Description (Lush AUS website)
Angelic, medieval cleansing wash with rose and lavender. Angels on Bare Skin is the Lush version of an expensive medieval skincare recipe. Rare, precious essential oils were first brought to Europe by the crusaders who encountered Arabian medicine. The church immediately banned them because their ability to alter states of mind was considered the devil’s work! But the final result was Cosmetics 1, Church 0. Rose oil and lavender oil were discovered to do wonderful things for the skin, too. Almost a thousand years later, you’d be hard pressed to find a better all round cleanser and exfoliator than Angels.

Angels on Bare Skin (Lush Dupe)

Makes: 400g worth of cleanser
Difficulty: Easy

236g ground almonds
76g glycerine
72g kaolin clay
12g distilled/purified water
4g fragrance/essential oils
Sprinkling of lavender flowers
  1. Combine the ground almonds in a bowl with the kaolin clay and mix well with a spatula or spoon.
  2. Add the glycerine and mix well once again. 
  3. Once the glycerine has been mixed in thoroughly, add the water a tablespoon at a time.
  4. After adding each tablespoon of water, check the consistency of your cleanser before adding more water.
  5. When you are finished, your cleanser should have the consistency of cookie dough.
  6. Add to the mixture your chosen fragrance and essential oils and combine well.
  7. Turn the dough out of its bowl on to a clean sheet of baking paper.
  8. Flatten the dough into a rectangular shape that is about a centimetre or two thick using your hands or a rolling pin.
  9. Sprinkle the dough with the lavender flowers.
  10. Finally, with the help of your sheet of baking paper, roll the dough into the shape of a log.
  11. Slice off a piece to use and enjoy!
You'll notice that I have not included the exact measurements for the essential oils that Lush uses. The reasons being that rose absolute is ridiculously expensive and I have no idea where to find tagetes oil! However, if that is something you are able to get your hands on, add it in to your cleanser to truly replicate the Lush original.

As for the lavender flowers, sprinkle in as much or as little of the lavender flowers as you like. I don't actually like having the flowers in the cleanser but have used them in this recipe for the sake of duplicating the actual product.

Depending on where you are, how humid it is, the different altitudes, you may find that your finished cleanser may be too dry or too wet. If the mixture is too wet, just sprinkle in a little bit of kaolin clay and mix it in until you are happy with the consistency. Alternatively if the mixture is too dry, add in a touch more water at a time until the mixture comes together like a dough.

Voila! I present to you a picture of what my finished cleanser looks like.




For this recipe, I had ground my own almonds but had neglected to remove the almonds skins. I would suggest using ground blanched almonds as the cleanser will feel much softer against your skin. Then again, if you do like a more exfoliating cleanser, leaving the skins on might work for you!


As always, if you do choose to republish this recipe on your site or use it in your classes, a credit back to my blog will be greatly appreciated :)


Take care and until next time!


The ingredients, description and picture of Lush's Angels on Bare Skin were republished from Lush AUS.