Is anyone interested in skin care?

[kiah]

Hi Ladies,

Just wondering if anyone would be interested in recipes for skin care? Eg. moisturisers etc.
I own a small home run business making natural (and semi-natural for those who want it) skin and body products.

It's actually quite easy and VERY affordable to make your own skin care products. You can make a very simple moisturiser using 5 ingredients - or more for luxurious products.

You can use organic ingredients if you wish, add vitamins, honey, lovely plant oils (or animal oils like emu oil if you're into that), essential oils, floral waters etc.

The only catch is, you have to use an effective preservative unless you plan to refridgerate and use your creams up within several days....but look around because there are some natural (VERY EXPENSIVE) and semi-natural (cheaper) and chemical - eg. parabens (cheapest) preservatives available.

A basic moisturiser contains...
water
oil
emulsifying wax
stearic acid, and
a preservative.

Of course it can be 'jazzed' up, you can even add things like cocoa butter, mango butter, shea butter....the list is endless!!!

It's a great way to save money, have fun and look after yourself naturally :)

I'd be more than happy to share some formulas if anyone is interested.

Kiah

[Serephina]

I'm interested! I'm been meaning to learn how to make my own creams for ages.

[kiah]

Great!

You can adjust your basic cream recipe to suit any part of the body. Eg. more expensive plant oils to suit facial skin, something a little thicker for the body and for the feet - add some peppermint or eucalyptus essential oils mmm mmmm.

A very basic formula could be....

78.5% Water (or try rosewater, lavender floral water or any other floral water)
10% Olive Oil (or maybe jojoba oil, rosehip oil, grapeseed oil, apricot kernel oil etc.)
5% Emulsifying Wax - this is what 'holds' the water and oil phases together)
5% Stearic Acid - this thickens it and adjusts the pH
.5% Apple Cider Vinegar - this also helps the pH, tho you can use citric acid if you don't like the smell.
1% Preservative - I use Optiphen Plus or Optiphen ND (both are paraben and formaldehyde free).

You can buy supplies from several places....
newdirections.com.au
escentialsofaustralia.com
oilsandsoap.com.au
there are also a few NZ suppliers, I'll try to track down their websites

I will post the steps later on, and also about 'tweaking' the formula and some nice additives.....my children want some attention before bedtime :)

Kiah

[Serephina]

Thanks Kiah!

I've been planning to get some things from new directions anyway so I'll just add a few extras to the order. I'll let you know how it goes :)

[Barefoot]

Is this a good time to mention urine again LOL its not just for gardens.
Synthetic urea is in many commercial skin products.

I am a fan of jojoba oil and virgin coconut oil personally.
Jojabo oil (its actually a wax rather than an oil) mimics sebum, the naturally protective secretions of your sebaceous glands and can be very good to hepl clear acne.

[kiah]

Lol, yes Barefoot. I was going to say not all 'natural' ingredients are necessarily good to use, eg. urine, but synthetic urea is! Eveything is a chemical, whether it comes direcly from nature or is man made - poison ivy is 'natural' but you prob wouldn't want to smear it on your face! :D
I love Jojoba Oil, it seems to behave well for all skin types, and they often use it in 'oil-free' moisturisers, because it isn't really an oil. Virgin Cocnut Oil smells soooo delicious, I use it in lip balms and my body butters and creams but I find if I use it on my face I end to get a few little pimples :(
You can do a google search to find out which oils will suit your skin the best, I have combo skin which gets very dry yet oily in the T-Zone and is sensitive to some ingredients which can cause breakouts (even more so if I'm hormornal!). So for me, jojoba oil (wax), grapeseed oil and apricot kernel oil work great, and I usually add some tea tree oil, lavender oil and patchouli oil in tiny amounts.
Generally for your face you would use less than 1% of essential oil as they are quite strong and you don't want anything overpowering.

[kiah]

Preparation

It's very important to use sanitise the area and utensils you will be usng, you cannot sterilise your area or utensils if you are working from home, it's impossible unless you are working in a sterile lab.
I use stainless steel cups and bowls - plastic and glass tend to develop tiny scratches over time and bacteria can grow there, I boil my utensils prior to use to kill off as much bacteria as possible in a large pot. You can use a bleach solution and soak your utensils also.
I also line my table tops with baking paper and place my clean, dry cups, spoons etc. on them.
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z130/kiahstephens/SDC13567.jpg
You will need a reliable scale, which can measure .01gm. They are available on ebay for about $12 (I think??)
Tie your hair up so you don't find lovely strands of hair in your creams later on ;)
You can waer some disposable gloves if you have some, otherwise just try not to touch the raw ingredients with your bare skin. The aim is to try to limit as much bacterial contamination as possible to prolong the shelf life of your product, poorly preserved and contaminated products can damage cause problems for you - esp if you get some in your eyes! :O

[kiah]

Process

There are usually three phases to making cream
Phase A - The oils/waxes
Phase B - The water and water solubles
Phase C - The cool down - fragrance, additives and Preservative.

So let's take our 'Basic' Formula as above -

78.5% Water (or try rosewater, lavender floral water or any other floral water)
10% Olive Oil (or maybe jojoba oil, rosehip oil, grapeseed oil, apricot kernel oil etc.)
5% Emulsifying Wax - this is what 'holds' the water and oil phases together)
5% Stearic Acid - this thickens it and adjusts the pH
.5% Apple Cider Vinegar - this also helps the pH, tho you can use citric acid if you don't like the smell.
1% Preservative - I use Optiphen Plus or Optiphen ND (both are paraben and formaldehyde free).

Your formula will always need to add up to 100%.
This is easy if you are making batches in 100gms, you just change the '%' sign to 'gms'. Eg. If the formula calls for 5% Emulsifying Wax you will use 5gm's of Emulsifying Wax.

You will need two double boilers for making this - one will hold Phase A and one will hold Phase B.

Phase A - Measure out oil, emulsifying wax and stearic acid and put into one heat proof container eg. your stainless steel cup/bowl. Place this on one double boiler.
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z130/kiahstephens/SDC13568.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z130/kiahstephens/DSC00433.jpg

Phase B - Measure out the water (use distilled or filtered water, as this has had the hard minerals removed and is generally 'cleaner' than tapwater) and apple cider vinegar/citric acid and put into another heat proof container. Place this on the other double boiler.
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z130/kiahstephens/DSC00434.jpg

Bring both pots of water to the boil. The waxes in Phase A will need to completely melt. It generally only takes about 5 minutes.
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z130/kiahstephens/DSC00435.jpg
If you are making a large batch it's a good idea to bring the water phase to boiling temp and hold it there for 20 mins to kill off any bacteria.

Then remove form heat and combine Phase A and Phase B, it will now turn a milky white colour and be very runny.
Mix with either a clean stick blender or you could use a fork and mix fast!
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z130/kiahstephens/DSC00436.jpg

You can put the bowl/cup into a larger bowl of icey/cold water and continue mixing, this will thicken it up.
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z130/kiahstephens/DSC00437.jpg

As it cools, add your preservative. Allow to cool fully before bottling so you don't get a build up of condensation in your bottle or jar.
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z130/kiahstephens/DSC00438.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z130/kiahstephens/DSC00439.jpg
You can buy clean jars and bottles from the suppliers I listed above. If you can help it, try not to re-use jars as I mentioned before plastic and glass can get tiny scratches which can harbour bacteria.

Always start out simple first to see how it all comes together, then have a play - adjust percentages, ingredients etc.

My current face cream includes...
Chamomile floral water
Jojoba oil
Apricot kernel oil
emulsifying wax
stearic acid
organic green tea extract
vitamin B5
Manuka Honey
Apple Cider Vinegar
Essential Oils - Lavender, Tea Tree and Patchouli
Preservative.

and it costs me a lot less than store bought! The best part is it doesn't contain mineral oils, alcohols, artificial fragrances, colours, parabens or formaldehyde!

Please feel free to ask any questions and I'll try to answer them asap, if you need to to post a tutorial in photographs I can also do that if it helps :)

I *think* I have covered everything, but I do have a bit of a scatter brain! :lol:

Have Fun!

Kiah

[magical1]

Hey

Thank you so much for sharing this info.

I recently had a herbalist stay at our house for a couple of weeks. Amongst all the amazing things he makes is a healing cream. You can watch him doing this on YouTube.

Part 1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngyQPPl23S8&feature=channel_page

Part 2.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sHYRE4eR2s&feature=channel_page

[kiah]

Hi Magical1,
Thanks for the link, interesting. Just remember that if you use any citrus essential oils in leave on products, like bergamot, you should avoid sunlight because they increase sensitivity to the sun light. Citrus oils are fine though in rinse off products - soaps, scrubs, washes etc.

If you really want to avoid preservatives you can make balms - which are water free (anhydrous) - you can basically just use oil and beeswax (or soy/carnauba/candellia wax for vegans) or add some shea butter. Use vitamin E as an anti-oxidant to prolong the shelf life of the oils and avoid rancidity.

If you're using water, or products near water, they really should have a preservative - just because you can't see the mold doesn't mean it's not there, unless (as I said earlier) you plan on using them up within several days and keep them refridgerated. It's important to get your measurements exact when using water and preservatives, but balms you can sort of throw a pinch in here and there, but be careful with some essential oils, don't use too much - some can be irritating in large amounts, and on certain areas of the body eg. menthol or peppermint essential oil near the eyes or other mucous membrane areas!!! :D

[Barefoot]

I used to tell the ladies that the best way to get rid of stretch mark after pregnancy was to rub fresh morning urine over their bellies.
The ones brave enough or open minded enough to try this were amazed at the results.

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/urine.htm
http://www.longhaircareforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19503&page=18

[amalie]

Did anyone have any suggstions for NZ suppliers??? I really would like to try this!!!

[kiah]

http://www.aromaticsandmore.com/

try that one :)

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Kiah, would you be able to talk me through the process for extracting caledula properties into oil, and then making it into a soft cream please?