All Natural Homemade Moisturizing Soap

Great super moisturizing soap that is good for all skin types, especially the sensitive skin crowd......

                                                                         

"Bumblebee Natural Soap"

This was a fun soap recipe to create.  My newest grandson, Keith, who is just 9 months old....and has lovely strawberry blond hair and fair sensitive skin, needed a super moisturizing soap that is 

gentle and won't dry out his skin.  Store bought commercial soap and soap products, YES, even the ones designated "for babies" can be very drying to skin.  

This recipe proved to be a great latherer, smooth and creamy with lots of bubbles, leaving the skin

feeling soft and moisturized. Really nice soap.   This bar smells amazing! Pure. 

 A synopsis of a few of the ingredients found in this bar......recipe to follow:

Avocado butter which is omega-fatty rich, and a great natural remedy for dry skin, made from the flesh of the avocado it is extremely moisturizing for the skin and hair.  It is a heavy butter that is affordable to use as you only need a little of it to go a long moisturizing way!!  I used it at 6.5% in this recipe.

Sweet Almond Oil is rich in vitamins A,D, E and contains linoleic and oleic acids. Natural emollient and moisturizer. Great oil choice for dry skin, cracking skin and skin just stressed from the dry elements of winter.

Vitamin E........ ahhh food for the skin!  Protects skin cells from free radicals, maintains skin oil balance, reduces skins water loss, promotes healing and treats various skin disorders.

Honey is antibacterial, antifungal and a natural humectant, which means it draws moisture from its surrounding and is a great moisturizer as it has the ability to  retain the water, also known to fight skin damage.  Rich and smooth in soaps.

RECIPE:

2 oz   Avocado Butter (6,45%)

1 oz   Sweet Almond Oil (3.2%)

1 oz   Shea Butter  (3.2%)

7 oz   Coconut Oil  (22.6%)

8 oz   Olive Oil  (25.8%)

12 oz  Vegetable Shortening, very moisturizing ( Crisco which is palm/soybean is what I used)

4.2 oz   Lye (sodium hydroxide)

10.2 oz  distilled water

1 TBL  Vitamin E added at trace

1 TBL   Honey, warmed and added at trace

1 TBL   Oatmeal, finely ground into powder in my coffee grinder! blended in at trace

1/2 tsp   Ginger at trace. (Optional ) Ginger is an antioxidant (meaning it inhibits free radicals), and has anti  infammatory compounds called gingerols. This is an optional ingredient that I used in the adult soap, not in the baby soap.

50 drops pure essential oil of choice ( optional ) for a very subtle scent ( added after the cook)

  

Total oil weight : 31 oz

Total batch with oil and water : 45.45 oz

It is always good to run any soap recipe you are doing through a lye calculator, they are free online.

Try  BrambleBerry.com  or  MMS.com

Note:  Good essential oils to use in a soap recipe for dry skin are lavendar, chamomile, geranium

           ylangylang,  sandlewood, rose, rosewood,  jasmine, patchouli, teatree.

Funny Note:  If you notice the bottom of the soap has a darker thin layer....this was my attempt at making a bumblebee stripe! ha!  I poured the hot soap into mold reserving some in crock pot, then added a little cocoa powder to vitamin E and stirred this into the soap hoping to make a dark bumblebee stripe!  By then the soap was a bit too set up to do it well.

thanks,     Anna

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Carrot Apple and Goats Milk Soap Recipe

                                   Made with raw goats milk, carrot puree, apple puree and honey

    I had a blast creating this soap recipe!  It's a great combination of oils, milk, honey, fruit and vegetable purees, and not as hard to make as it sounds.

    The carrot puree forms the bottom layer, the apple puree forms the top layer and is separated by
a light line of clove spice.  It smells divine. So fresh. The total batch weight was 50 oz, and to that
I only added .5 oz of Almond Biscotti fragrance oil from Brambleberry for scent, bottom layer
only.  I wanted the natural scent to come through.  Topped with a  dusting of cinnamon.

    This was done the cold process method.  For the carrot layer I used 7 oz of carrot puree and 6 oz of fresh, raw goats milk that I had frozen in ice cube trays, for a total of 13 oz liquid.

    For the oils I used Olive oil, Coconut oil, Cocoa butter, Palm/Soybean oil, Shea butter and 2oz of beeswax.  Total oils: 37 oz    This combination made a great lathering bar, light fresh scent, unique
color, with simply outstanding skin loving properties, here are a few.......

    Olive oil, moisturizing oil that allows the skin to breath, softens skin, won't clog pores.
    Coconut oil,  lovely, lovely coconut oil.  Ah....moisturizing, soothing, protecting.
    Shea butter, made from the nut of the Karite tree that only grows in Africa.  The beautifying shea butter battles skin thinning, helps in collogen developement, decreases wrinkles caused by sun, diminishes appearance of scars, stretch marks, cracked heals. It's a soother after shaving, high in Vitamins A and E.   A great addition to any luxury bar of soap.
    Cocoa butter, excellent moisturizer, has the ability to penetrate the upper layer of skin
reaching the lower layer to repair and moisturize, leaving your skin feeling SO good.  A strong presence of antioxidants that fights free radicals plus an abundance of vitamin E make cocoa butter irreplaceable.   In soap, it helps to make a harder bar.
    Honey, antioxidant, antibacterial, naturally moisturizing, beautiful honey!

    Just a quick overview!  If you have questions or would like step by step how to incorporate
purees into your soap, just comment below and I will be happy to oblige!
Enjoy,  Anna

 
 

 

Homemade Lotion

                                       Almond Biscotti Body Moisturizing Lotion......delish

I made this lotion today using Almond Biscotti skin safe fragrance oil from Brambleberry.com

Click here for recipe.     It came out creamy, luxuriently soft and smooth.  Great fall scent,
absolutely yummy.

Homemade Body Butter, Lotion with beeswax, free recipe

                            Homemade Chamomile Body Butter

UPDATED NOTE 2/25/15:   Please take note that this body butter recipe does not list

a preservative. Any product with water in it is a potential breeding ground for bacteria,

with serious complications.  This recipe is not intended for resale products, but as a

way for you to make a homemade body butter without chemicals. Please follow 

sterilization procedures if you try this awesome and fun project.

And remember to make an amount that can be used up within a couple weeks or please
add a preservative.

I was inspired by Louisa Shafia's post from lucidfood.com, to try my hand at homemade lotion.
This in itself is not a novel enterprise I know, but the fact that this lotion is made without any added stearic acid or emulsifying wax or preservative caught my eye.  Very easy, frugal to make this
gorgeous lotion at home.

Beeswax acts as an emulsifying (turning the oils and water into a combined product) agent.  No other emulsifier is needed.   It worked like a charm.  It came out the consistency of a beautiful body butter. Creamy, luxurious.  A very pleasing lotion with no chemicals or fillers.

My recipe is made with freshly brewed chamomile tea. The scent of the body butter is gorgeous. Not strong,  subtle and natural.  Very nice.  This recipe is SO creamy, absolutely lovely.  I've made this same recipe with plain, distilled water, with no tea, and added almond biscotti fragrance,  it was so warm and compfy, also made it with peppermint and loved it.  Just add your favorite essential oil and enjoy your own trademark lotion. If you make this with tea rather than distilled water it will have a shorter shelf life.

With no added preservative this will only keep a few weeks, longer if refrigerated.  I spritzed my containers with alcohol before filling them to get rid of any bacteria, and I used distilled water.  If I were going to sell this I would use a preservative in it, as any time you are dealing with water in a homemade natural product you are potentially dealing with bacteria and a preservative is a must. Optiphen is a good one, it is paraben, formaldahyde free.  Brambleberry sells it.


RECIPE:  Can be made in a blender or with a stick blender.  This recipe makes about 2 cups.

• 1 cup tea made with distilled water  (or just water if you don't want tea)
• 3/4 cup liquid oil: like almond, olive, grapeseed etc.  (I used 2/4 cup almond & 1/4 cup grapeseed oil)
• 3 Tablespoons beeswax  (if using solid bar beeswax, grate it)
• Optional :  Vit E for a longer shelf life: 1-2 capsules or 1 tsp
• Optional: an essential oil for scent at your desired strength

1) Spritz all your utensils, blender, and lotion containers with alcohol.
2)  Make tea, or have distilled water ready if not using tea.
3)  Melt beeswax and oil together in microwave or double boiler. Allow to cool a few minutes.
4)  Pour tea or distilled water and essential oil (if using) into blender, or into bowl if using
    a stick blender.
5) Turn on blender, (medium) slowly pour in your oil/beeswax thru the stopper lid. It thickens
     fast.  It's done when no more water is on top. If you still have water, turn up the speed of
     of the blender.
6) Scoop out and put in jars, keep uncovered until cool. Will thicken more as it cools.

Made with Almond biscotti scent, warm and yummy

Made with homemade rosewater and peppermint tea, fresh and natural

Made with Chamomile tea, subtle

                                                                                               

Enjoy, ..................Anna

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