Vanilla macerate and lip balm

The macerates are a particular contact process between virgin oil (as a solvent) and seeds, leaves or plant extracts (as a solid).

To create the vanilla macerate (vanilla infused oil)  I use 4 vanilla beans cutted into small pieces and 200 ml of sweet almond oil. The mixture stays on warm sunny place 4-6 weeks and should be daily shacked. It smells incredibly tasty, I love this smell! What a pity that we can't share the smell on-line...

The macerate has been successful used for the sugar scrub and lip balm.

Ingredients for the lip balm:

- 15 g shea butter
- 4g beeswax
- 30g vanilla macerate
- 6 drops of es.oil: sweet orange.

My natural deodorant: Al-, Zr- free

As a chemist I do not like the active ingredient in commercial antiperspirants:  aluminum chlorohydrate (in roll-ons and aerosols) and aluminum zirconium tetrachlorohydrex  (in solids). These compounds temporarily prevent perspiration just because they block the pores. Hmm... so the sweat stays inside of the skin. Maybe very effective but absolutely not natural.

That is why I prefer to create a product - the antiperspirant which disinfects the sweat, keeps the skin fresh and allows to breath. My product is not alcohol free, I use vodka with the idea: if you  practically can drink it – cannot be wrong for your skin.

So we let the skin to sweat naturally :) and help to keep it fresh.

For the deodorant  I use only these natural ingredients:

- 40% vodka 40 ml,

- dist. water 40 ml,

- glycerin 20 ml,

- 65 drops of naturally antibacterial es. oils: grapefruit, lemon, orange (respective: lavender,  tea tree, geranium).

I love giving gifts

I love giving gifts, special now when I have my own handmade products.
I love the process of thinking about the person, the planning and preparation. It is very pleasant to see the smile and reaction.
The presentation  of the gift also is very important. I found a nice way to pack my soaps and creams into handmade boxes.
A bit "an origami and decoupage exercises" and it looks lovely!
With my gifts I show that I care and would like to make someone happy.

Spicy cream for cold feet and "sleeping" hands

my different extracts

process...

The neighbours of my boyfriend are nice old friendly couple. Every Sunday we visit them and together drink morning coffee (without caffeine pffee :( but with tasty apple cake :)). The old man, 85 years  claims that his feet are always cold.
In my head is a spontan question: Is there some "creams" solution for? 

Searching, reading, preparation and finally today I create the Spicy cream for the cold feet.
Two weeks ago I made the special spicy extract: almond oil and ground pepper.

Spicy cream for cold feet

Ingredients for this hot Spicy cream:
5% - beeswax,
20% - cacao butter,
45% - shea butter,
5% - neem oil,
5% - hazelnut oil,
10% - ginger oil,
10%- well done own piquant extract,
es. oil rosemary, geranium, verbena.

First I am going to test on my feet and tommorrow on the feet of my boyfriend sure.

14/03/2013 Report ;):

My boyfriend often complaints that his hands numb while sleeping.
We tried daily before go to the bed use my Spicy cream as the hand cream and as the massage cream for hands. He told that feels better, it seems my cream helps to blood circulation not only for cold feet but also for "sleeping" hands. Good not know.
I made next portion and improve the smell of the cream. This time I added the es. oils:

- Black Pepper,
- Rosemary,
- Frankincense.

Need to say the neem oil has very special smell which I do not like. But the components that give off the offensive sulfurous smell are the ingredients that make neem oil so effective for the skin.
So the new combinations of the es. oils cover the neem oil smell better.

Solid cream

Today I made the solid cream  from the cacao butter, shea butter, apricot oil, stearic acid with es. oil cinnamon and clove. These ingredients guarantee a warm winter smell and pleasant efficient effect for a dry sensitive skin. I decide to use the stearic acid (octadecanoic acid)  instead of the beewax to make the skin softer.
Good to know that the stearic acid is one of many fatty acids that occur naturally in  many animal and vegetable fats and oils.The best application of the solid cream is on the wet warm skin, it means just after the bath. I have to admit that this solid cream melt very easy and gives special feeling of silky skin.
75% - cacao butter
23% - shea butter
2% - stearic acid
10% - apricot oil and es.oils: cinnamon and clove