Lotions: A basic recipe (updated)

Making your first lotion is a very exciting moment! Watching oil and water come together in a creamy emulsion seems almost like a magical event! The basics…. Oils – you will want to choose an oil that offers some nice qualities. Something with a decent shelf life. And something not too expensive for your first...

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Lotions: Emulsification – what’s that then? (updated)

A few times I’ve mentioned using polysorbate 20 or 80 to mix your oils into water. But what are these ingredients? They are emulsifiers. (If it’s in bold, you know it’s important!) Normally, oil and water don’t like to mix. Water is polar, oil is non-polar, so the oil just floats on top of the...

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Water based fragrance spray

We’re going to learn all about emulsification tomorrow (the pre-cursor to lotion making! Yay!) but here’s a tutorial to give you some of the basics in the form of a fun, water based fragrance spray. Oil and water don’t like each other, so oil based and water based things don’t like each other. But we...

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Make-up remover: A water based formula with water soluble esters/oils

Reviewed and revised May 20, 2020. My favourite make-up remover is water based. I don’t wear waterproof mascara, so this is perfect for my needs. It leaves a nice slightly oily feeling on my skin but doesn’t leave that oily film on my eye lashes. The key ingredient in a water based remover is a...

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Make-up remover: Oil based remover

So you want to make an oil based remover. What are our goals? Something with glide Something cleansing Something emollient Fractionated coconut oil and shea oil are great glidy oils. Sunflower, safflower, soy bean – again, good glide. Avocado, hazelnut and grapeseed are “dry” oils, and not great with the glide, so save those for...

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