Adventures With The Sage

Collect Needed Ingredients:

Recipe:

Weigh everything except Sugar into a microwave safe container. Heat in short bursts until materials are liquid. Add sugar to the oils and mix well. Pour into molds. Allow scrub to harden. Once the scrubs are cool remove and package. Enjoy these fabulous conditioning scrubs!

Collect Needed Ingredients:

Recipe:

Weigh Melt & Pour Soap and Shea Butter into a microwave safe container. Heat in short bursts until the contents of the container are liquid. DO NOT LEAVE THE MICROWAVE OR GET DISTRACTED! Just a little friendly advice. Add the Polysorbate 20 and Sugar. Stir well. Pour into molds. Package and show off! Now wasn’t that easy?

Note: I added way too much sugar when I made this. Whoops. It made it really hard to mix. I added about 1/4 of hot water. This made the mixture nice, smooth and pourable. I just had to account for some drying time to allow the scrubs to remain solid.

I am so glad that these tubes are back in stock. I think I have been inspired to make the Chai Latte Lip Balm, Perfectly Coffee Lip Balm, Honey a la Lip Creme, Vanilla Twist Lip Gloss, and Orange Butter Lip Balm. I am a huge lip balm fanatic. Lip balm party in the test kitchen! Yummy. Colors and flavors galore. Try the Peach Flavor Oil or use the oil soluble colors. Make whatever you like. Come join me for this fabulous lip balm party. What do these tubes inspire you to make?

Here are the links for quick and easy ordering:

Oval Lip Balm Tubes

Slim Stick Lip Balm Tubes

I decided I would continue to test any way. I added my sugar and Polysorbate 20 and while it feels fine, it doesn’t smell so great. Do you know what burned Melt & Pour Soap smells like? It smells like raw shrimp that has been left on the counter for two days. Yeah, it is a charming scent. Just what everyone wants to smell like after a shower. Today, I would like to ask you to join me in the test kitchen for this toiletry tragedy. We can share some laughs and giggles through our gas masks!

Don’t miss tomorrow! We will head for the test kitchen to make this recipe properly. I hope.

Recipe:

Weigh Shea Butter and Olive Melt & Pour Soap into microwave safe container. Heat for one minute. Remove from microwave ignoring the smoke. As you notice the shrimp smell, wonder who in the building is having shrimp for lunch. Add the Polysorbate 20 and stir. Add the sugar and stir until you have a paste. Use and then head for your favorite Asian restaurant or fish market. Enjoy!

Note: This is a failed recipe. I learned that multitasking is great… when you are familiar with what you are making. I recommend for a batch this small, to watch the contents and  heat in VERY short bursts. Tomorrow, I will show this scrub as a success that is worth showing off.

I was participating in the Valentine Swap that Andee hosted, when I decided I wanted to make a Spiced Lavender Soap. Yum! With this blend, I am a convert to the Lavender Fan Club. This scent is not super strong like the potpourri pine cones sold in December. It is light and polite. It may even make some converts to the Spice Fan Club! I enjoyed this soap so much I just had to share with everyone. Join me in the kitchen to make a soap with an exciting scent blend.

Collect needed items:

Recipe:

Heat your oils gently until liquid. Mix lye into six ounces of water. Slowly pour lye solution into oils in the soap bucket. Using an immersion blender, mix until trace in reached. Add fragrance and color. Mix well. Pour soap into mold. Allow to sit for 24 hours. Remove from mold and cut. Stack the bars to allow the soap to cure. Longer curing time will result in a harder bar. Enjoy and thank for joining me in the test kitchen!

Once I had mixed the Dry-Flo into the lotion, I lined them up and labeled them. Then I put small amounts of the lotion on my forearm and rubbed it in. On my forearm, I really like the 8% usage rate. It felt nice and velvety, just the texture I was looking for. The 6% usage rate was nice and velvety and it also had a hydrating feel to it.

After I tested the lotion on my forearm, I tested it on my dry knuckles. To my surprise, 6% usage rate was my favorite. It made my knuckles have that soft, velvety texture as well as hydrated the dry skin. The 8% usage rate made my hands feel dry and powdery. The 8% usage rate did not feel as nice as the 6%. The 2% and 4% usage rates did not give as much of that velvety texture I wanted. I decided that due to the feel of the lotion on my knuckles, I preferred a 6% usage rate overall.

Here is the size of recipe I used.

Collect needed items:

Weigh all of the ingredients except Optiphen and the Dry Flo into a microwaveable container. Heat until all of the ingredients have melted. Using an immersion blender, mix until blended. Allow the solution to cool to 120 degrees Fahrenheit before adding the Optiphen. Stir occasionally while you are waiting for the mixture to cool. This prevents your lotion from separating.

Weigh your master batch of lotion into 10 gram increments. Add .2 grams of Dry Flo to test a lotion with 2% Dry Flo. Mix well. Weigh out another 10 grams of lotion and test another percentage. For a lotion with 4% of Dry Flo, add .4 grams of Dry Flo. Test as many batches as you would like and compare. Don’t forget to write down your notes. You may want to reference them later. Enjoy!