I was busy experimenting yesterday, but it seemed weird to include them with the cocoa melts post. The gloom has finally lifted and Spring has come to Kansas. *grin* It’s been absolutely beautiful, although seems incredibly warm at 80 just because it’s been cold so often. It was too warm in the house for soap to set and I was too restless to make anything but experiments. In honor of the warmth and sunshine I decided to try and make a few summer ready items.
The first is a lemon sugar scrub. This smells like fresh squeezed lemons, perfect for some iced tea or lemonade, and has no kitchen cleaner-type notes to it at all. *happy sigh* I found a recipe for a sandal scrub during all my research and made a few changes to it. There’s brown sugar and granulated sugar for the main scrub, and although the brown sugar doesn’t do magnificent things, it softens the scent of the mixture and made it look awesome, in my opinion.
It’s thought that Lemon EO (essential oil) has a lot of antiseptic properties, helps clear grease and dead skin, and may even help to fight headaches while it’s helping to heal small blemishes or cuts (although I’d advise asking a doctor before using it on wounds of any type). There are a ton of possible aromatherapy benefits too, with relieving depression and fatigue being key ones, which is why I thought it’d be the perfect EO for a summer scrub. There’s Aloe Vera in the mixture too, so you get that soothing and moisturizing feel from it. I’ll test it for a few weeks, since I can only exfoliate every few days, but the first test was fantastic. If I closed my eyes I could almost imagine that I had a tall glass of lemon tea in my hand while I reveled in a warm summer rain. (I was in the shower and it’s kind of hard to have a fantasy that doesn’t include rain when you’re in there. *cracking up*) The exfoliation is super soft and the sweet almond oil left my skin smooth and moisturized. It sounds like such a crock, I know, but I tested it on one arm and compared them after the shower, and literally the tested arm looks so much healthier and I don’t have any dry spots yet, almost a whole day later. It may be close to time for a happy dance.
The second experiment is an energizing or refreshing gel. This one I have some mixed feelings about. I’m not sure how sellable it would be, because it looks and feels…weird. I can’t think of any other polite descriptions; I just keep coming up with juvenile and gross comments. *laugh* The main ingredient is Aloe Vera, so it’s great for the skin, and it has Peppermint EO and Wintergreen EO to give some zing. The EOs are also thought to be great for aromatherapy; comforting, uplifting, relaxing, and not to mention that they help with congestion. I admit now that I was just excited to be experimenting and adapting some recipes that I found, and failed to think through a few of the ingredients. I added EOs and oils to suit my interests, and what not, but the original recipe for this gel called for cornstarch, and that’s such a toss-away ingredients when looking at bath recipes that I didn’t give it any thoughts. Yeah, you know that I face palmed when things went wrong, and you all ready know something went wrong because it’s just my destiny for something to go wrong. *grin* Anywhatsit…I added the cornstarch to my own version of the recipe and happily started to stir. Then I got my small whisk and beat the crap out of the mixture. Then I brought out the big gun – the electric whisk. I know that this little bad boy can send bath whip from my stove all the way to my kitchen table (I wish I could say that only happened once *blush*), so I figured this mixture had met it’s match. Let’s just give that a big, fat nope. Let’s just make that italic to emphasize that the cornstarch beat me. Nope. This fun little mixture turned into a super thick, gelatinous cloud that can stay in form for the first few attempts to rub it in. That’s some serious witchy superpowers there! *grin* I forgot to mention that I never could get the cornstarch to fully incorporate either, so there are pockets of white floating around in this blob. I know the benefits of the ingredients, so I was able to set aside my nose-wrinkling over the texture and used it twice so far. I like how my skin feels afterward, although it’s not as refreshing as I expected. At first. Take a shower and rinse it off, and be prepared to dance a little. Or maybe that’s just me and my super senses from my Fibro. *laugh* Once heat hit those mints came back to life and had some zing. I loved it, truth be told. *grin* I love when products surprise me like that (not when they surprise me by having gelatinous superpowers though…meh).
See, the blob doesn’t even fall off of the spoon. There was too much shadow (and I’m too clumsy to be able to snap a pic with my other hand) for the shots of the blob staying put when held upside down and completely sideways to come out.
Top it all off I tried to cut my coffee soap loaf and package it. Doh! The frosting was extra soft and stuck to the bag, while the bar tried to melt where I touched it as I cut and packaged it. Although the grid paper helped to get somewhat even cuts, I need to work on improving that a bit more still. The different sections aren’t totally equal. I set aside this project to finish once it gets a little cooler again.
Top it with fiddling with the cocoa melts and getting the rest of my supply order, and I’m feeling pretty happy with myself. Although today will be a review and research day, I can tell. That whisking…whew!
I hope you have a wonderful and pampering Tuesday!
Georgia's Pampering 