Sunday 6 October 2013

Make Your Own Face Cleanser (Number Two)

Sheesh, I'm officially the world's worst blogger! Every now and then I come back and revisit my blog and I have to admit I really miss it. Time is not something I have on my side at the moment unfortunately. It's crazy to think I started this blog when I was a 21 year old studying at university and I'm now 26, working and getting married next year!

All you lovely people who leave me comments, please know that I greatly appreciate it. Although I don't often respond, I do love reading them. I know most of you will have questions about some of my tutorials so if you have one, please leave a comment below and I promise I will respond. I am tentatively thinking of blogging regularly but I never know with myself these days.

My last post was about a Lush all time favourite cleanser, Angels on Bare Skin. I've decided to go again with another best selling cleanser from Lush this time, Ultrabland. The Ultrabland cleanser reminds me of an old Lush product called Babyface. Anyone remember that? It was a solid cleanser bar which you melted in your hands and then massaged in to your face. The best way to remove it was with a warm wash cloth to get rid of the sticky residue. It was kind of messy but I love the way my skin felt afterwards, like a baby's bottom!

As you will see from my recipe, the cleanser is quite beeswax heavy. There is a reason for this; beeswax is not a natural emulsifier. To really make a stable emulsion, you would need to add some borax along with the beeswax or replace some of it with some emulsifying wax. I didn't because Lush doesn't and I wanted to stay true to their list of ingredients (this is a Lush dupe after all!). Therefore, I'm hoping that by using a higher percentage of beeswax in the recipe, I can create a somewhat more stable emulsion without compromising on consistency. I was really not sure if this would work but my current jar of cleanser is still fine and hasn't split. Hopefully, it never will!

When you use the cleanser, I recommend really wiping your face thoroughly with a wash cloth (repeating the process at least twice) to take everything off. Otherwise, the oily film will just sit on top of the skin and not go anywhere. Quite an unpleasant feeling let me tell you!

Ultrabland 100g
Ingredients
Almond Oil (Prunus dulcis), Rose Water (Rosa centifolia), Beeswax (Cera alba), Honey (Mel), Fresh Iris Extract (Iris florentina), Glycerine, Rose Absolute (Rosa centifolia), Tincture of Benzoin (Styrax benzoin) , Methylparaben, Propylparaben

Description (Lush AUS Website)
Almond Oil and rosewater lift away dirt, oil and makeup with ease.  Remove with a hot wash cloth for clean soft skin. Ultrabland is a multipurpose healing and moisturising balm, and it has been said that there are over 100 uses for it. Rose for reducing redness and inflammation, and beeswax for helping give the skin a protective layer. Parents can use Ultrabland for nappy rash, as well as flaky skin that can be common in young babies.

Ultrabland (Lush Dupe)

Makes: 200g of cleanser
Difficulty: Easy

96g almond oil
48g rose water
40g beeswax
6g honey
4g iris extract
4g glycerine
1g fragrance
1g  preservative

  1. Measure out the ingredients. Combine almond oil and beeswax in a microwave safe bowl or jug and heat on high in 1 minute bursts in the microwave. When fully melted, use a thermometer to measure when the temperature hits 70C. This is your oil phase.
  2. Combine rose water, honey and glycerine in a small saucepan and heat to 70C. This is your water phase.
  3. When both oil and water phases are 70 C, it is time to combine the two. Pour the oil phase in to a blender and turn it on low. Slowly, pour in the water phase through the hole in the top. The mixture will start to thicken and become a cream. You may have to scrape your blender down and mix again until smooth.
  4. Test the temperature of your cream with your hand (be careful!). It should be lukewarm at this point and cool enough to handle. Pour in the iris extract, preservative, and fragrance then turn the blender on low to mix well.
  5. When your cream is blended and smooth, pour in to a sterilised container and enjoy! 
Feel free to add any fragrance you like, I actually left mine unscented because the smell of the rose water comes through quite well in the cream. I also didn't have iris extract so substituted it with chamomile extract.

To make this recipe a vegan one, substitute the beeswax with candelilla, carnauba or macadamia wax. You will have to experiment with the amount though as these vegetable waxes are stiffer than beeswax and you will need less of it. I would also omit the honey and replace it with more glycerine.

There you go, I hope you like it. I'd love to hear if you've tried it out yourselves and what your thoughts are. Here's what mine looks like! Sorry for the poor lighting, I might take a better picture and replace it with the below when I have a chance.


The description and picture of Lush's Ultrabland were republished from Lush AUS. The ingredients were taken from Lush US.