New soapmaking stuff

Finally I did it. Ordered soap stuff from abroad, that is. A few different fats, e-vitamin and rosemary for preserving stuff and mineral colours. I also bought a surprise package of 10 different soap moulds and I got everything from Christmas moulds to basic square moulds. Have to try them next time!

I've been having soap making evenings for my friends at my home, and you wouldn't believe the urge I get when I look at other people doing soap... Cause naturally, I cannot do anything myself when I'm controlling and checking that the first-timers do everything right. The next day I have usually been very productive. :)

Whipped coconut lotion

I wanted to try to make a bit of a lighter lotion for summertime and wanted to use some aloe vera in it as well. I found a recipe for whipped coconut oil lotion with aloe vera which I decided to try. In recipe there was a liquid oil as well, I chose hempseed oil because it is supposed to be so darned good for skin, antiaging etc.

My recipe:

1,25 dl coconut oil, solid, not melted

2 tblsp aloe vera -gel

1 tblsp hempseed oil

5 drops of lavender essential oil

3 drops of tea tree essential oil

2 drops of liquid E-vitamine

a good dollop of lime-perfume oil

Mix the solid coconut oil with an electric whisk. Add aloe vera and liquid oil and continue mixing. Add the essential oils and perfume if you want to. Put in jars (glass, I heard that plastic jars should not be used with essential oils as they can do something to the plastic, but have not tested it :) ) and use to get lovely skin!

I thought I could modify this for summer by adding a tablespoon or two of zinc oxide to get a natural sun screen. Coconut in itself has already a SPF of 2-8 and hempseed SPF 6, but the natural SPF only protects against UVB-rays and zinc would help protect from the UVA-rays as well. Will try that as summer proceeds!

Tar soap

I love the smell of tar. It reminds me of Finnish summer, sauna, relaxing by the lake in the light summer evening with a can of Lonkero... Tar soaps seem to be disappearing (some EU-legislation that's come in the way) so I decided to try to make my own. I got a big bottle of tar as a Christmas present, 100% tar from pine tree. Googled a bit for a recipe but could not really find one, so I made up my own. Just cut the soap log, it was sticky as h**l but smells so lovely. Tar is a sticky thing in itself and a messy one, it messes everything that it touches, so next time I will just pour the tar from the jar (oh, that rhymes!) and not measure it with a measuring spoon or two...

190 g water
68 g lye

290 g canola oil
150 g coconut fat
30 g castor oil
30 g peanut oil

1 tbsp tar
11 drops of Savuyrtti-fragrance

Soap looks more like chocolate pudding

Interesting surprise when I cut the soap, whole soap had marmorized itself

Facial cream and lip balm

I made my first batch of facial cream and lipbalm a couple of weeks ago. I don't even know why because I really do not need facial cream, and if I feel a bit dry I dab on a bit of oil. Anyway, wanted to try and it was way easy and fun. I used olive oil in which I had infused some plantago major to add some healing power (antibacterial and it is used to heal wounds). I also dropped in some tea-tree oil to treat my acne-prone skin.

Facial cream
1 dl oliveoil (infusion of plantago major)
0,25 dl grapeseedoil
0,25 peanutoil
40 g coconut oil (extra virgin)
20 g beeswax
1,5 dl water
a few drops of tea-tree essential oil and rose perfume oil

Cook the water. Melt all the fats in water bath. Pour melted fats into a clean bowl. When fats and boiled water have about same temperature, pour the water into the fats, mixing with an electric mixer as you pour. When consistency is right, pour the mixture into cleaned (preferably sterilized) jars. You can at this stage drop in essential oils. When the cream has cooled down, close the lid and store in fridge. In a cold place will hold a month or two.

Lip balm
10 g beeswax
5 g coconut oil (extra virgin)
2 tbsp (18g) almond oil
(a few drops of peppermint extract, this was a food grade aroma and does not smell in the finished product, but I tried it anyway since I did not have any essential oils of the kind at home :( )

Melt the fats in water bath. Drop in essential or perfume oils of your liking, if you want to. Pour into sterilized jars. Put the lid on when cooled down.