In a world where I had as much time as I wanted to make homemade presents for everyone, I would. However, life is fast paced. Time seems to whirl by. It's Monday and then it's Friday and then it's Wednesday. Does that happen to anyone else?
I fully intended to make some homemade soap this year. There is a lady who lives in my town that makes soap out of goat's milk and it is the best stuff. There is another person around here who makes olive oil soap. It's pretty great soap, too. I wanted to try making both kinds. I made neither.
I had a friend years ago that made and sold an entire line of hand creams, lotions, cosmetics, bath salts, etc. I wanted to learn to make all of that also. I moved away and never had a chance.
This week, I am posting all of the things I wanted to make and didn't. I will be able to come back to this and find the instructions and links for all of these great homemade toiletries. Have any of you ever made any of these?
Homemade Lip Balm
Melt shortening in the microwave, or over hot water, then add sweetened or unsweetened Kool-Aid drink mix using enough drink mix to color the lip balm and add flavor. Some flavors to try: strawberry, raspberry, watermelon or blueberry.
Homemade Bath Salts
Start with about 4 cups of sea salt or kosher salt. Mix in several drops of an aromatic bath oil (available at bath and beauty stores) and, if you wish, dried fragrant plants, such as lavender or eucalyptus. Pour into a jar for yourself or to give as a gift. Use a few spoonfuls of salts per bath; to keep herbs from floating, spoon the mixture into a spice sachet
Homemade Hand Lotion or Cream
Almond Hand Cream Recipe
Ingredients:
1/4 cup of beeswax
1/2 cup of almond oil
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1/4 cup of rosewater
Directions:
Heat 1/4 cup of beeswax slowly in a double boiler. Add 1/2 cup of almond oil to the melted beeswax. Stir in 1/2 cup of coconut oil. Mix in 1/4 cup of rosewater and stir until thoroughly mixed. You can buy rosewater, or make your own by simmering 1 cup of fresh rose petals in one and a half cups of distilled water for 10 minutes and then straining the flowers from the water. Pour the hand cream into a container while it is still hot, as it will become firm as it cools.
Homemade Toothpaste
Mix together:
~2 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil (I buy this from Mountain Rose Herbs - $121 for a 5-gallon bucket.)
~3 Tablespoons of Baking Soda
~5 drops Peppermint Essential oil
~5 drops Spearmint Essential Oil
~a pinch of Stevia powder
Homemade Shampoo
- *Rosemary/Sage Herbal Shampoo*
4 oz of castile soap (there are different scents available, choose the one you want),
1/2 ounce of rosemary (stimulates the hair follicles and has been known to prevent premature balding),
1/2 ounce sage (it keeps things from spoiling and also acts as an antioxidant),
1/2 ounce nettles (contains nutrients that help the hair grow and is a blood stimulator),
Few drops of Lavender oil (helps to control itchy scalp - Mix the herbs in a jar and seal it tightly, including the lavender.
Boil 2 cups of water.
Add 3 tablespoons of the herbs into the water and then remove from heat.
Allow it to sit for about 30-45 minutes.
Strain the mixture into a clean bowl.
Next add about 2 ounces of the mixture into a a clean 8 ounce plastic bottle (you can use an old shampoo bottle)
Add in the castile soap.
Close the bottle and shake well
.
Homemade Soap
A small plastic dishpan, about 10" x 12"
A glass or enamel 2-quart saucepan
1 can of lye (sodium hydroxide), 12 ounces
6 pounds of lard
Plastic gloves [really; use eye-protection too]
Water
A glass or enamel 2-quart saucepan
1 can of lye (sodium hydroxide), 12 ounces
6 pounds of lard
Plastic gloves [really; use eye-protection too]
Water
1. Pour 3 cups of very cold water (refrigerate water overnight first) into the 2-quart saucepan.
2. Slowly and carefully add the lye, a little bit at a time, stirring it with the a wooden or plastic utensil. (Use plastic gloves for this; test them for holes first.) Do not breathe the vapor or lean over the container or have children nearby. Above all _use no metal_. The mixture will get very hot. In olden days, a sassafras branch was used to stir, imparting a fragrance and insect deterrent for mosquitoes, lice, fleas and ticks.
3. Let cool at least one hour in a safe place. Meanwhile, the unwrapped lard should be warming up to room temperature in the plastic dishpan.
4. Slowly and carefully, pour the lye solution into the dishpan with the lard. The lard will melt. Mix thoroughly, at least 15 minutes, until it looks like thick pudding.
5. Let it set until the next morning, then cut it into bars. It will get harder after a few days. Then package.
2. Slowly and carefully add the lye, a little bit at a time, stirring it with the a wooden or plastic utensil. (Use plastic gloves for this; test them for holes first.) Do not breathe the vapor or lean over the container or have children nearby. Above all _use no metal_. The mixture will get very hot. In olden days, a sassafras branch was used to stir, imparting a fragrance and insect deterrent for mosquitoes, lice, fleas and ticks.
3. Let cool at least one hour in a safe place. Meanwhile, the unwrapped lard should be warming up to room temperature in the plastic dishpan.
4. Slowly and carefully, pour the lye solution into the dishpan with the lard. The lard will melt. Mix thoroughly, at least 15 minutes, until it looks like thick pudding.
5. Let it set until the next morning, then cut it into bars. It will get harder after a few days. Then package.
If you wish to make soap based on olive oil, use about 80 ounces. It may need to harden for a week.
(NOTE: in the comments below, Darlene said that this is a bad recipe. I am looking for one that would be safer if anyone has one.)
20 comments:
I agree - if only there was more time! I think the hardest thing is finding time to shop for the unfamiliar ingredients in these kinds of recipes (like beeswax or a can of lye). I know that's what often holds me back from trying things like this out.
Your recipes sound really interesting. I just made homemade bee balm and its really neat to do those things. I think I am going to post my recipe in the next few days. I love homemade products and I want to try out the recipe for the hand cream that you posted.
This is me too! I have been wanting to make bath products for years! Here it is again almost Christmas and I haven't ordered any of the stuff I need...boo!
Great recipes! It's a fantasy to just make all homemade stuff like this. It sure is more comforting to know what goes in it. No Yellow Dye No. 5.
My days seem to fly by too, but I seriously want to find the time to make some of these! I've heard of people making their own soaps and lip balms before, and was always intrigued but needed a recipe. Thanks! Hope your weeks slow down enough for you to enjoy the holiday season :)
I made homemade after shave for Christmas gifts for the men in our family. My husband loved it! It was not harsh and irritating like a lot of commercial products. I even recycled hot sauce bottles and printed my own labels. It was a lot of fun for the kids and made a great gift! I'll have to check out some of your links.
visiting via Homemakers Mondays
www.acomputermom.com
You brough so many memories to me. When I was in high school we had a class called household economics. Our teacher gave us a recipe for homemade soap. I still have this paper. All these are very helpful. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the great collection of homemade bath stuff. I've been meaning to make up some condition for myself for a while but there's always so many other things to do...oh well, will get around to eventually :)
Tiffany
www.noordinaryhomestead.com
This is awesome - just what I needed to see as it's that time of year again. Thanks for the ideas!
Oh wow this is so cool! I had no idea that you could make ANY of these at home! SO impressed Kristen. These would definitely make some great gifts.
I see perfect Christmas presents in the making!
Great roundup you have here. Thanks for finding these for all of us.
I can understand! I have so many projects I want to start...but not the time to do them all! I'm really intrigued by the thought of making my own soup. I hope to give it a try sometime in the next few months. Many of these items could be great gifts too! Thank you so much for sharing. I hope you have a wonderful Monday!
Time does seem to just magically disappear, especial during the Holidays. I love everything here and I am a bath nut, so even if I could make them, not sure how many I could part with :)
ahhhh, time.... so who has any to spare these days - sure wish I did but like you, am saving these for when I do, great idea
So creative! I love these. Would definitely enjoy getting any of them as gifts. Okay, maybe not the toothpaste as that would be weird. But absolutely the bath stuff
Great ideas for christmas. I love homemade gifts.
I know exactly what you mean about the days flying by. Where do they go? I love making homemade gifts. I usually make homemade soap for fun. Great ideas!
Mayday, Mayday! You do NOT want to use the soap recipe as written! IT HAS WAY TOO MUCH LYE in it! 12 oz of lye will make a soap that will burn you because there's not enough fat to bind with the lye to make soap, leaving behind free lye.
I went out to
http://www.thesage.com/calcs/lyecalc2.php
and used the lye calculator.
You only need between 12-18 oz of water. The higher amount of water will give you a little more time before the soap "traces". The lesser amount will let it come to trace more quickly and is used if you don't need to do anything else to it. (Like adding colors/herbs, etc.)
The range between 0-4 are NOT recommended. As you can see approximately ONE HALF of a can is TOO MUCH LYE! You NEED a scale to measure the lye because there's not much difference between too much lye and not enough. In this case, 0.67oz (just over 1/2 an ounce) is the difference between WAY too much lye and too little lye.
0 6.66
1 6.59
2 6.53
3 6.46
4 6.39
0% to 4% excess fat range: Proceed with caution! We do not recommend this unless actual saponification values are known and used.
5 6.33
6 6.26
7 6.19
8 6.13
5% to 8% excess fat range: This is the range we use most often.
9 6.06
10 5.99
9% to 10% excess fat range: Creates a softer soap because of the amount of excess fat.
It's true, our great grandmothers didn't use a scale. But they made their own soap from homemade lye that they tested, used a different METHOD to make the soap (which boiled out any unsaponificated lye) and then let it sit. They had watched their moms/grandmoms for years make soap, so by the time they were making it on their own, they KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING.
Sorry to rant, but boy is this "recipe" dangerous.
There are MANY good recipes out on the net for making soap. There are many tutorials available. The key to knowing if a recipe is good or bad is this: run the amount of oils through a lye calculator and CHECK THE RESULTS. Like this one fails the test. It shows WAY less lye than the "recipe" calls for. So I KNOW it's a bum recipe. It would take approximately 5.5 pounds of lard to 1 can of lye!
And what made me suspect this recipe. The 1 can measurement! I found a similar recipe in a book on making your own items. Thankfully, I ran it through a lye calculator, but had to add the extra lard to make the recipe work. And thankfully, I found the mistake BEFORE I made the soap or tried to use it.
Don't mean to sound like an expert, but as a former paramedic, I can tell you, chemical burns are NASTY!
Lye is safe to use - provided you use common sense and KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Read the safety precautions. FOLLOW THEM. Keep kids and pets AWAY from lye and the lye water. KEEP and OPEN bottle of vinegar near you. It will neutralize the lye instantly. Wear CLOSED-TOED shoes. Wear LONG pants AND shirt to go with gloves and goggles.
I don't want to leave a link to another blog without permission, but if you'd like a good soap recipe, go to Chickens in the Road blog and look at her soap recipes. She's one of many people that has good recipes.
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