Making Liquid Soaps Issue

 

 

 

 

 

        

   Letter from the Editor

We finally have a catalog.  Yeppers, it is at the top of this page.  Much thanks to Candy Snyder in Maybel, Colorado.  Many people who do not live at a PC as we do have been asking for a catalog all year.  Thanks to Candy, Mabel White's Christmas is also been compiled.  This book is a collection of Mabel articles that have been written over the years that cover everything from what tree to pick to buying bargains after the season is over.   Candy does not know it yet, but we are going to commission her with running the Mabel Calendar.  That is, as long as she quits planting her birthday in there.

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Making Body Lotion

For 2010 Updates for Making Lotion Easy with Deborah Dolen please click here

This is a very important article for those who cannot find fragrance free lotion.  These simple instructions give you a Bath and Body Works type lotion.

Mastering lotion making is probably the most rewarding in all of the toiletry products.  One reason it is, beyond soap, one of the most used. Making lotion has also been one of the few areas I consistently failed at until I read a simple article one night.  I did not believe it could be that easy and was about to trash the instructions.  I just saw no complicated ingredients.  Then decided to give making lotion one more chance.  I have always like the Bath and Body works sweet almond oil based products, but they can be $10 a tube.  You can make your own for under $2 including a nice reusable bottle.  Other sources seem to sell inferior non-oil based lotion, or worse, with mineral oil and alcohol!

Then came Saturday and I made the best lotion on the planet in less than 5 minutes.   The recipe basically said to heat ¾ cup of your choice oil with 2 teaspoons of steric acid (to help keep things firm) and 1 teaspoon of beeswax.  You really do not even need the beeswax.  Heat for a few minutes until everything is melted.  I used a glass-measuring cup because plastic ones melted in previous attempts.  Then the recipe said to heat ½ cup of water with ½ teaspoon of Borax (the Mule Team water softener) until boiling. 

I boiled the water and borax in the same plastic pour mouth bowl I intended to whip the oil in.  While everything was still hot, the recipe said to slowly add the oil to the water while mixing it with a hand mixer.  Keep mixing until cool.   At this time you can add vitamin e oil, a little color, fragrance, whatever you consider great stuff!  When the lotion seems well mixed, funnel into pretty plastic lotion bottles.  I made my lotions match the color of the cap.  I hate to label everything, so matching caps seems to help me greatly these days.  

If you are going to take longer than a month to use this, I recommend putting Vitamin e and a touch of Germaben II to body products; they will tend to form black little microbes after a few months.

Summary:  ¾ cup of oil and ½ cup of water can make you the best lotion and crème you have ever had. You will need a little steric acid for the oil part and a little Borax for the water part.  Beeswax is non-essential, but an Emulsifying Wax, such as "Polawax" in the oil part--is very essential to make it all come together and creamy.  In fact, with Polawax you can use more water and less oil altogether.  The melting point of Polawax is approximately 126 F. The recommended usage levels are 2-25%, usually 3-5% for lotions and 5-10% for creams.  Click here to buy Polar WaxEven 6 ounces of the most unique oils can be purchased for under $2.00 and if your lucky, under $1.  To see what oil is right for you click here.  

For 2010 Updates for Making Lotion Easy with Deborah Dolen please click here

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Making Crème’s

With crèmes you can make lemon kitchen scrubs, rose hand crème, peppermint foot crème and many other variations.  Crème is basically ½ cup of oil, such as coconut and ¼ cup of pure melted beeswax.  Here you want to heat the beeswax in a glass-measuring cup until melted and then take out to add the oil you prefer to use.  This is also the time you would add any colorants, vitamin e oil, fragrance or what have you.  Be prudent.  After adding the remaining ingredients, heat again for 30 seconds or so until melted. 

I like to whip mine with a hand blender when it comes out, but conventional methods dictate just stirring, Pouring your creation into a wide mouth jar is important to allow to cool.  Again I recommend a tad of Germaben II if you plan for long-term storage.  Keep in a cool dry place. EmulSoy.

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Making Carrot Oil

If you want to really know what we are doing these days, we are making our own carrot oil.  Why?  No one really sells it, and if they do, it is cost prohibitive. The other reason is that we just love it to go into our lotion, hand crème, soap and even lip balm.  

How do we make it? It started when we got a dehydrator and decided to see what dehydrated shred of carrots looked like.  Then we stuck the crisp carrots into a food processor and made powder.  From there we made lots of beautiful orange carrot oil by putting about 10% into any carrier oil and shaking it often until used.  We strain the oil when we want to use it in a recipe, although over a few weeks most carrot particles do seem to disintegrate into the oil.    

To make carrot balm for lips and hands, we use 1/2 part melted SoyWax™ to 1/2 part carrot oil.  We also use a little melted honey, beeswax and vitamin e oil to our balm.  To make in lotion we use all carrot oil in the basic lotion recipe above.  To make cold process soap, we actually mix lye with canned goats milk instead of water--which gives it a great orange color anyway, and then use the carrot oil as part of any oil the soap recipe calls for--which is usually 40% of most recipes.  The remaining percentage would most likely be vegetable lard and a little palm kernel oil or Shea butter to make the soap hard and shiny.  Melt and pour soap  would be the most challenging to obtain color.  Here you can only add four tablespoons or so per cup of melt and pour soap base.  For more color carrot powder should be mixed in, along with a few teaspoons of vitamin e oil and honey to help as a preservative.      

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Making Liquid Soaps

Again you can pick a plastic bottle with a color cap and color your product to match the cap.  So, if you are after tangerine, for example, pick a tangerine cap.  These are re-useable, so the investment in the actual bottle should not be an issue.  I make this for my dispenser at my sink and stir in very well ½-rubbing alcohol of the soap mixture to give it an antibacterial edge. Please note too much essential oils can cause plastic containers to break down.  

Having allot of melt and pour soap base on hand, this recipe is great for my household.  Basically 4 ounces of grated melt and pour soap base, (I shred it in my food processor) melted in a large glass measuring cup in the microwave with 1 cup of water for a minute or so.  I take it out and stir it, only to melt a few more minutes.  Do not over cook the soap, it smells just awful if you do.  When the mixture is melted you can add several drops of essential oil, a little vitamin e oil, and a teaspoon of whatever other oil you like such as sweet almond or olive.  Mix very well.  I also add a little vegetable glycerin to help suspend things and keep color, but it is not necessary.  Adding fragrance oils will cloud the product and that is fine if that is one of your goals. What is in my kitchen?

Tangerine Oil DeWaxer-Degreaser in a Glass Bottle

Grass Dish and Hand Soap with Green Color and Cap

Peppermint Antibacterial Hand Soap with a Pink Color

Lavender Dish and Hand Soap with a Lavender Cap

Aqua Kitchen Hand Lotion with an Aqua Color and Cap (Juniper)

Lemon Kitchen Soap Scrub in a Hinged Glass Mason

 

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Vacuum Salts !

We discussed vacuum beads in a recent issue of Season's but we could not help further the validity of dropping heavily scented bath salts into the sweeper.  Decadent, but not expensive we find 1/4 cup of large salts into a vacuum bag does the trick and should last through several vacuuming excursions.

We also found scents like Gardenia and Fresh Cut Grass are very long lasting, and of course we really go nuts over our new fragrance oils, Downy April Fresh and Irish Spring.  We also feel the presence of salt itself may help deter microorganisms that usually thrive in a vacuum bag, but we have no scientific data to support that claim.  If you do not want a lot of noise, you can just sprtiz a used fabric softener sheet and put that into the vacuum filter.

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Coconut Oil Miracle

The last year the entire Mabel staff has been plagued with thyroid issues.  Either under active or over active.  It is too bad we just cannot share.  Interesting, we do not live anywhere near each other.  One of our writer's in Nebraska had to have her thyroid removed.  She did an intense study of the entire condition and found Coconut oil to be helpful to not only either thyroid conditions, but the necessity for the body to have fatty acids in general.  This may be one reason, we suspect, the popular low fat diets deprive people of basic fats that are good for the hair as well as the body.  It may also demonstrate what happens to our bodies when we do not get enough fatty acids.  Here is what she had to say...

"Coconut Oil seems to be one of the most powerful of all oils when ingested.  I was watching the Larry King Show on CNN the other night. He was interviewing Dr.Weise. They were talking about both types of major thyroid problems, over-active and under-active.    

Dr. Weise said that there has been a two year study that concluded that people should use three teaspoons of Coconut Oil a day.

The Study showed that after doing this daily for one year the person that did this had their Thyroid in a perfect balance and the people who were given a placebo, (the thought they were taking the oil), Thyroid stayed the same or their condition got worse."

That was written months ago and Judea and her husband swear by taking 3 teaspoons of coconut oil a day.  Bill has his thyroid but says it does give him much more energy.  In fact, they say any kind of coconut products are good to incorporate into a daily diet.  We are all for it, since we love Thai food here in Florida. Judea is passionately writing an entire e-book devoted to the Healing Properties of Coconut Oil and Recipes that subscribers can find in their personal library, 2003 section, by August 18, 2003.  
    

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Oils that Heal

There is little doubt that essential oils and herbs play key roles in preventative care and general healing.  Oils that do not get as much attention are the carrier or "fixed" oils used in everything from bath oils, to lip gloss, to lip and healing balms, and then, finally into lotions.  Shampoo and soaps are actually made of oil. In fact, almost all skin care products are made with oil.  Since I am most concerned with what oils I do use in my products, so I will isolate the ones I feel are most beneficial and for what purpose.  This is such an in-depth article it is posted in our Health Section.  Comments are always welcome.  

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Oriental Pistachio Ice Cream

Some things are great to have at least once in a lifetime.  Green Tea and Red Bean Ice Cream would be them.  Recently at a Korean Restaurant we pigged out on both and it was wonderful.  We decided we could make the ice creams at home as we do our coconut ice cream.  One thing led to another and we were making a pistachio looking item with Green Tea, Coconut in the Middle and Red Bean on the End.  We do not want to get into a big recipe here, but if you have some imagination, the green tea is brewed gently into the cream before becoming Green Tea Ice Cream, along with honey and the red bean is, you won't believe this, tiny red beans or kidney beans in a sugar syrup stirred into cream as it becomes ice cream.  Red Bean Ice Cream is considered a real treat in Korea. 

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Making Irish Spring Soap

This can be made with either the melt and pour process method or cold process method.  Beyond needing Irish Spring fragrance oil, we use two colors when making this soap. 75% green and 25% natural white or non-colored soap to marble into the green.  To get a great color we simply do not stir the two colors together.  They naturally marble.  

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Did You Know?

  • The purpose of adding a little lemon juice or dried goat's milk upon trace while making cold process soap is to reduce the alkalinity.