lotion making secret

For Christmas, I received kiwi scented lotion from Brooke and Micah and Jr. It smells awesome! I have wanted to capture the smell so I could have it longer that just that one bottle. It is one of those consumables that I don't use because as soon as I begin to use it, it is gone. But, I end up never enjoying it because I know the enjoyment will dissipate too quickly. It is a personal conundrum and I am getting over it.
The feeling reminds me of traveling. I would hate the beginning of a trip because I knew it would be over before I was ready for it to end. Sitting in our family van, leaving the driveway, knowing all too clearly that I would see that driveway again before I was ready to see it. I would almost ruin my adventure in the anticipation that it was going to end. So, I would tell myself, "Obviously, it will end! Why not enjoy it?" Then, in vain attempts at enjoyment in trying to experience everything, I would overdo it and forget to actually enjoy myself! Again, I repeat, I am getting over it!
Back to lotion, I decided to make the lotion recipe from my mom and use the kiwi lotion instead of baby lotion. WOW! It totally worked! The vitamin e skin care cream behaves like an unscented base (knowing that, I am going to try small amounts of essential oils next). Now, I have triple the amount of the good scent and even got to add a few extra ingredients.
I added 1 tablespoon each of vitamin e oil, castor oil, and solid cocoa butter and broke out the stick blender. (I mean, come on! A stick blender is just so fun to use and there isn't enough cooking reasons to use it.) After whipping it up to a nice, thick fluff, I began packing it back into the cream pots. What a messy situation; hands all covered in lotion as I scooped it in the containers. While doing this, I felt bits of solid cocoa throughout the mixture. That was not going to work! Argh, put all the lotion back into one of my many plastic, arthritis approved Folgers container and think of a solution. Ah ha!
It was so easy, and I was so glad to be using that coffee container! I got my big craft-use stainless steel stock pot and heated some water. Into that went the lotion in its container. Best part, the plastic container floated on the water perfectly and the depth of the stock pot kept it upright. I could stick blend up the mixture as it approached body temp.
Once the cocoa butter bits were melted, I prepped to pack the final pots. Even better: the temperature made it just thin enough to easily pour, plus it didn't stick to the container! The Folgers container and stick blender cleaned each other with a bit of dish detergent and water.
I love it when a problem turns into a new, better way of doing future projects.
All future lotion projects will now be done with my Folgers bain marie!

Skin care GONE WILD!!! Yahoo!

I have to sing the praises of witch hazel. What new mom doesn't use the stuff? I am expanding that repertoire with toner. I have made my own toner. Thank goodness I had the sense to only make a small batch to see how it fairs. It works, but is a bit on the harsh side. It might be because I put all the rest of my commercial toner with it in order to not be wasteful. My next batch will be better and I am thinking I will include some tea tree, lavender, sweet almond oil, vitamin e oil, and castor oil. I know, a toner with oils? Well, not too much but enough so the witch hazel isn't so drying. Do you have any ideas?

My previous post about lotions included the idea for adding vaporub. Today was the day!
Renée woke up with a touch of congestion (she is fine, just that rattly sound in the back of her throat from drainage). I don't have any baby vapo and decided it was time to make my own! Starting with the ratio of 2 parts lotion, 2 parts vitamin e, and 1 part jelly consistency stuff, I made Renée a soft mentho-rub. It is perfect and I loved that I controlled the vapo strength. Here's what I ended up with:
1 tsp lotion
1 tsp vitamin e
1/4 tsp vaporub
some squirts of sweet almond oil
I am housing the concoction in the Tucks container sent home with us from the hospital. Now, to enjoy the the sweetness of a metho smelling baby. Ahhh.

Great vats o' lotion!

During Mom and Sarah's visit, we made lotion. Mom found a recipe on the net for Family Dollar lotion: 2 bottles baby lotion, 2 vats vitamin e cream, and a petroleum jelly. That was the ratio we made and there are all sorts of other ratios online.
Now, upon hearing this concoction's ingredients, I floundered as I am not a petroleum jelly person. Hate the stuff. It is used to feed cats for hair ball treatment, not for skin. It is just so smarmy. Well, I am a convert now. I can't detect it.
Mike's family visited this past weekend. Rita & Suzanne liked the lotion and took a coffee can full of lotion home to share. When we go visit, we are going to swap our altered lotion recipes.
Now, to mess with the ingredients and make it more my own:

• replace the petroleum with vapo-rub to appease my love of menthol,
• add lavender,
• use non-baby lotion to up the adult smell,
• add lanolin,
• add vitamin e oil,
• add tea tree for anti-fungal foot softness.

What else would be good to add?