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.