Wash Off Body Lotion

Sometimes you really cannot be bothered to moisturise after a shower. Way too tired, just want to go to bed, but your skin's dry! I am the worst at remembering to moisturise. I hardly ever do it and my skin hates me for it especially in winter.

We've had a relatively warm autumn here in Melbourne but the weather is now cooling significantly and I've been pumping the heater as if we're heading in to the next Ice Age. I really dislike the cold. Growing up on the equator has not done me any favours.

Anyway, I was playing around today with my butters and oils (as you do) and thought I would try making a wash off moisturiser. The texture is mousse-y, creamy and so much fun to use. It does go on quite thick but once you add a little bit of water to the mix, it spreads easier and is oh-so-silky on the skin.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! There is absolutely no grease left once washed off and there is  no need to use soap or body wash beforehand. It is a gorgeous mild cleanser and moisturiser all in one. I think I must have washed my hands with the stuff five times after my shower. It really feels that good!

If you're going to keep this in your shower or for longer than a week then I would strongly suggest you add a preservative.

Ingredients for Wash Off Body Lotion

Makes approximately 200g

80g Shea Butter
40g Rice Bran Oil
36g Glycerine
36g Cocamidopropyl Betaine
4g Glyceryl Cocoate
2g Fragrance or Essential Oils

1. Combine softened shea butter, rice bran oil and glycerine in a stand mixer with a beater attachment. Whip on low to combine then turn the speed up high until your mixture is light and fluffy.

2. Stop the mixer and add the cocamidopropyl betaine, glyceryl cocoate. Whip again on high until everything is smooth and your mixture is the consistency of a luscious cream.

3. Add your fragrance or essential oils and fold in the cream with a spatula.

4. Pour in to a tub or bottle and jump in to a hot shower with it!

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!

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.

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.

Chocolate Orange Mud Cake

A post about something un-soapy related today! It was my friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago and she requested that I bake her a chocolate orange cake. So, I scoured the internet for a good chocolate cake recipe and found one here from Exclusively Food.

Let me just say, the cake was amazing! It was perfectly chocolatey, dense but moist as well as having a delicious, chewy crust. Personally, I am not a fan of chocolate orange but everyone absolutely loved it and I have had requests to make more of this.

All I did was add the zest of one whole orange and I also substituted the water with orange juice. I then added a splash of Grand Marnier to kick the flavour up a notch but you can use any orange liqueur you like.

That was it! I followed the rest of the recipe exactly and was rewarded with a beautiful cake which I glazed and topped with candied oranges.



Do try this recipe, you will not be disappointed!

Mayonnaise Pack for Hair

I have good news! I got a job! Woohoo!! I'm working front office at a hotel in Melbourne starting Monday. *fingers crossed* I hope I do okay. Thank you everyone for your kind comments, they were greatly appreciated.

Nothing interesting has been happening apart from me getting a job and I've been enjoying my last few days of freedom at home. I've decided to post a recipe for those of you who like to lather mayonnaise on your hair or skin. The oil used is coconut oil because it is the only oil that is able to penetrate hair and make it stronger according to some research I did on the internet.

According to the Beauty Brains, coconut oil is similar to the natural oil secreted from our hair and its molecules are small enough to penetrate the cortex and make it stronger from within.

However, if you have a favourite oil to use there is no reason why you cannot use it instead of the coconut oil.

You will need a blender for this recipe or a very strong arm!

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk
1 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon of runny honey, warmed
1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
few drops of essential oils (optional)

1. Whisk the egg yolk in a blender or by hand then add the lemon juice/vinegar and warmed honey and whisk in thoroughly. Add the oil in the blender very slowly until all the oil has been added and the mixture thickens. Otherwise, whisk like mad non-stop while adding droplets of oil now and then until the mixture thickens. As you're whisking or blending, you will notice a change in the mixture as it becomes lighter coloured and looks more like mayonnaise than just thickened egg yolk. Add your essential oils at this point and stir to combine.

2. Slather the mayonnaise on your hair working your way from the roots to the ends. Cover with cling film and a towel. Leave it on for at least 30 minutes then shower and shampoo as normal. Don't forget to condition!

A lovely, luscious treat for your hair which can accompany a home facial for a truly indulgent and luxurious pampering session. Of course, if you don't want to go through all the trouble. Just heat a cupful of your oil of choice (don't burn yourself) and massage it into your hair. Couldn't be easier!

See you guys soon!