Making Cuticle Oil from Julie’s Cupboard 4

Last week, I finally was able to completely attack and get rid of the most of the paper monster residing on my desk. While I was cleaning my desk, I found many printouts with notes scribbled all over the paper. Upon closer examination, I discovered that these printouts were from February and the “What is in your cupboard? Challenge.” 😳 I’ll be spending this week tackling the projects from the “What is in your cupboard? Challenge” and sharing the resulting recipes with you. Today, we will start with Julie’s cupboard. She asked me for a recipe or two that would allow her to make a cuticle cream, hand cream or lip balm. Here are the ingredients in her cupboard. Olive Oil Hemp Seed Oil Avocado Oil Cod Liver Oil Shea Butter Beeswax Stearic Acid Epsom Salt Sugar Essential Oils- various Fragrance Oils- various Lots of Eucalyptus Smelling Stuff Grapeseed Oil Flavor Oils, everything from vanilla to chocolate, and all fruits in between After playing around with the ingredients, I decided that I would focus on making a cuticle oil that could be used in a lip brush pen. While Julie does not have a preservative, it is not necessary if you are using this product for yourself. If you are selling, then we recommend a preservative to help prevent the growth of yeast, mold and/or bacteria. I have included the preservative since I don’t know what will happen to the bottle once it leaves my hands. One of Taylor’s recent experiments had me dry-heaving once I saw the nasty growth of bacteria, yeast and mold. 😯 Let’s start with the Cuticle Oil! Collect needed items: Ingredients Beeswax Stearic Acid Shea Butter Olive Oil Hemp Oil Grapeseed Oil Avocado Oil Preservative (I used Optiphen.) Lemongrass Essential Oil Basil Essential Oil Lemon Essential Oil, USA Equipment Scale Mixing Container (Microwave Safe) Spoons Transfer Pipettes Containers for finished product (I used the Lip Brush Pens.) Recipe Total in the Final Product: Recipe in ounces: 0.14 ounce Beeswax 0.07 ounce Stearic Acid 1.06 ounces Shea Butter 0.53 ounce Olive Oil 0.53 ounce Hemp Oil 0.53 ounce Grapeseed Oil 0.6 ounce Avocado Oil 0.04 ounce Optiphen Preservative 0.015 ounce Lemongrass Essential Oil 0.01 ounce Basil Essential Oil 0.01 ounce Lemon Essential Oil, USA Recipe in grams: 4 grams Beeswax 2 grams Stearic Acid 30 grams Shea Butter 15 grams Olive Oil 15 grams Hemp Oil 15 grams Grapeseed Oil 17 grams Avocado Oil 1 gram Optiphen Preservative 0.4 gram Lemongrass Essential Oil 0.3 gram Basil Essential Oil 0.3 gram Lemon Essential Oil, USA Recipe in Percentages: 4% Beeswax 2% Stearic Acid 30% Shea Butter 15% Olive Oil 15% Hemp Oil 15% Grapeseed Oil 17% Avocado Oil 1% Optiphen Preservative 0.4% Lemongrass Essential Oil 0.3% Basil Essential Oil 0.3%Lemon Essential Oil, USA

Finished cuticle oil in the Lip Brush Pens. Weighing the ingredients. Melted cuticle oil ready to go into Lip Brush Pens. Lip Brush Pens ready to be filled.

Weigh all ingredients except the essential oils and Optiphen Preservative into your microwave safe container. Microwave using short bursts of time, stirring every 20 to 30 seconds until all the ingredients have been melted. Do NOT microwave until the mixture is completely liquid as the mixture will be too hot to handle. The Stearic Acid will be the last ingredient to melt and if you are patient, simply stirring will melt the Stearic Acid. Using a transfer pipette, fill your Lip Brush Pens and allow to cool. Try to not move the containers much until the cream has set to prevent accidental messes. The Lip Brush Pens do have a tendency to act like dominoes and fall over easily.

Yield: This recipe will fill 53 of the Lip Brush Pens with about 2 grams of cuticle oil.

Notes:

Due to the recipe, this cuticle oil will not have a clear or translucent appearance. It does rub into the skin easily and I’ve had two people simply hold out their hands and say one word. “More?”

I think you will love this cuticle oil as much as we do! If you want to reformulate this recipe to use other ingredients, you can always get our help and we can help you formulate a similar product with the ingredients you have on hand.

I chose the three essential oils that I did because I wanted a lemon and herb scent that would be appealing to all ages and genders. I’m not sure if I succeeded because my boyfriend told me that it smelled like something a girl would wear. I hope this scent is appealing to you, because I think I have a new favorite.

Enjoy!