Make Your Own Baby/Body Powder

Have you ever wondered what's in your baby powder?  I was at a baby shower recently and read a label on a name brand baby powder the mother to be received, wow...  what is all that stuff?

While browsing on Facebook I came across a recipe for natural baby powder and had to try it, so my tutorial today is a variation of that recipe.  That Facebook page I enjoy spending time at is Aromahead Institute, Andrea has lots of recipes and valuable information about essential oils on her page.

This recipe calls for ground Chamomile Flowers, mine were whole so I used my coffee grinder that's reserved for stuff like this.  They were kind of chunky, I highly recommend buying ground Chamomile Flowers, I got mine at the Bulk Herb Store.  I've made body powder for myself since with the Bulk Herb Store's ground chamomile and it's much nicer =)

After weighing out all the dry ingredients on the kitchen scale I whisked them together.  

It's a little messy!

I chose Lavender for an essential oil because it has a lot of therapeutic properties but most of all is calming.

Here again I tried for a 1% dilution of the essential oil to the 3 ounces of powdered mix equaling 12 drops of Lavender essential oil and stirred it in.

Then I added my homemade baby powder to a stainless steel powdered sugar shaker and made a label.

And my last photo is of three of the baby products I've made and have ready for the next baby shower.

The Baby Powder Recipe:

1 oz. Kaolin Clay

1 oz. powdered Chamomile Flowers

1 oz. Arrowroot Powder

12 drops Lavender Essential Oil

Where do you buy this stuff?

The Bulk Herb Store

Aromatics International

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Homemade Baby Bottom Butter

I'm gathering supplies today to make a Baby Bottom Butter, it's main function is to heal and keep away diaper rash.  

You might remember I told you last week that I'm soon to be 53 years old and want to assure you I'm not having a baby but we are expecting our first grand baby!  I also have a couple of younger friends who are expecting so I'm working on some natural baby products to give as baby shower gifts.   

I love mason jars and thought they'd be perfect for this project so I have them in a pan of boiling water to sterilize, boil for 10 minutes, let them cool so you can touch them and they're good to go.  Maybe I should add you'll need to dry them before adding the Baby Bottom Butter.

Next I'm melting the oils and beeswax in a homemade double boiler using a 2 cup Pyrex measuring cup.

After all the oils and beeswax have melted I wanted each jar to have an equal amount so I used my kitchen scale.  You can see in the photo they are starting to cool and will soon become solid.

It's time to add the gentle skin nourishing essential oils to the butters at a 1% dilution which would be no more than 15 drops total in each of my jars.  Baby skin is very sensitive so less is more with the essential oils.  I chose to use Lavender, Rosewood, German Chamomile and Helichrysum.

Can you see the German Chamomile essential oil?  It's a lovely royal blue color and smells wonderful!  In this photo I'm blending, blending, blending.  It takes a little work to get all the essential oils incorporated into the butters but it is so worth it - you'll have a nice finished product when the essential oils are all blended in.

Here it is!  Finished Baby Bottom Butter ready to give as a shower gift.

My recipe for the body butter came from Andrea Butje's Aromahead Blog and I used a few different ingredients because I didn't have everything her recipe called for.  Andrea is my instructor for the Aromatherapy Certification Course I'm taking online at Aromahead Institute.  

Here's my variation of the recipe:

1 oz. Beeswax

1 oz. Unrefined Cocoa Butter

1 oz. Palm Oil

2 oz. Fractionated Coconut Oil

1 oz. Baobab Oil

1 oz. Shea Butter

Remember to measure your ingredients on a kitchen scale and add your Shea Butter last to the melted oils and just stir it in.  Shea Butter can become grainy when over heated so I add it to my melted oils and just stir until it's incorporated.  

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and come back to see some of the other baby products I'll be working on.

Where do you buy this stuff?

The Bulk Herb Store
Aromatics International

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Handcrafted Essential Oil Face Lotion

I only have a little dab of my homemade face lotion left in the jar so I'm gathering supplies today to make a new batch, I hope you'll join me!

I thought I'd get a little more personal and give a some background information about myself today and why I make my own creams and lotions.

Our family moved to Arizona when I was 10 years old from Montana.  I'm now approaching 53 years old and my skin needs moisture, sometimes desperately.  Our climate here is hot and dry sometimes reaching high temperatures of 120+ degrees in the summer but with very low humidity.  Don't get me wrong about low humidity it's still hot, let's just say you won't be going out to check the mail box in your bare feet.   We also have very hard water in our town so the combination of climate and hard water are really a challenge for my families skin.  

About a year and a half ago I started making my own soaps, lotions and potions to see if I could get some relief from the dryness I was experiencing.  The store bought preparations just seemed to make things worse for me.  They were expensive, harsh and I felt like they made my skin even more dry.    Now that I've learned a little more about what goes into our store bought soaps and skin care products I'm pretty sure I'll never go back to using them.  

Enough talk, let's get started!  I measured out 1 1/2 ounces of unscented lotion base into a 2 oz. amber jar.  The reason I like amber jars is because essential oils need to be stored in dark containers preferably in a cool place to maintain their integrity.  

I've added all the essential oils and it's time to stir it all together.  Be sure to blend well, it takes a little time and effort but it's well worth it.  Did you know that German Chamomile is a royal blue color?  It changes the color of the lotion base ever so slightly.  

Here it is blended together, it smells heavenly!  I love the fragrance from this combination of  essential oils and it's as pure and natural as I could find.  For me, no fragrance oils or colors to be allergic to - yea!

I do make my own lotions and creams but did not for this face lotion.  I purchased a large quantity of unscented lotion base from Aromatics International for my Aromatherapy certification course and I really like it so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.  Most of my essential oils are also from Aromatics International, they are high quality pure essential oils.  Each essential oil they sell is tested using a Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometer device to determine the precise chemical constituents of the essential oil and the data is available to everyone on their website.  I also added links to each essential oil in the recipe so you can buy them if you wish and/or read about their therapeutic properties.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to make your own Essential Oil Face Lotion

1.5 ounces unscented lotion base

2 drops Neroli - Citrus aurantium var. amara

2 drops Rose Absolute - Rose damascena

2 drops Jasmine Absolute - Jasminum grandiflorum

1 drop Geranium - Pelargonium roseum X asperum

1 drop Sandalwood - Santalum paniculatum

2 drops German Chamomile - Matricaria recutita

3 drops Roman Chamomile - Chamaemelum nobile

1 drop Sweet Fennel - Foeniculum vulgare

1 drop Carrot Seed - Daucus carota

2 drops Lemon - Citrus limon

2 drops Lavender - Lavandula angustifolia

3 drops Frankincense - Boswellia carterii

Blend together well, store in a cool dark place and enjoy -

Where do you buy all this stuff?

Aromatics International

If you're not into making your own I have this Essential Face Lotion available in my Etsy store Life Scents in the 1.5 oz size.  Thanks for visiting my blog today!

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Homemade Pain Relief Salve

I'm gathering supplies today to make a homemade pain relief salve using essential oils.  

One of the class assignments for my Aromatherapy Certification class was to make a blend of essential oils using the Monoterpene family.  I was to pick three to five essential oils for their therapeutic properties and blend them into an ounce of jojoba oil.  The little amber bottle in the photo above is my finished assignment.

I've been using it with good results but thought it would be nice as a salve.  The oil drips and is easy to spill.  For this project I'm turning my essential oil blend into a salve.

All I really needed to complete the project was Beeswax to make the salve.  I made a homemade double boiler using a small sauce pan and a one cup heavy glass measuring cup.

The Beeswax is almost melted here.

After the Beeswax was melted I poured in my essential oil blend and stirred, then quickly poured the mixture into a 2 oz. push up tube and put the cap on.  The reason for putting the cap on the container is so the essential oils don't evaporate.

Here it is finished with the label I swiped off of the original oil blend bottle.

The essential oils in the recipe have changed a little due to the size of the container:

Frankincense 10 drops

Juniper Berry 4 drops

Orange (Sweet) 8 drops

Nutmeg 6 drops

Neroli 8 drops

If you've never made a salve before you'll need 2 ounces of the oil of your choice, a few examples would be Grapeseed Oil, Olive Oil, Jojoba Oil, etc., and one ounce of Beeswax.  Weigh out on your kitchen scale and melt together, let cool and you'll have a salve.

After my salve cooled and hardened I found that it was very difficult to apply so I had to go back and re-melt it.  When I did that I added one ounce of Trauma Oil that I had the herbs infusing for in a mason jar for another project.  Trauma Oil is a combination of Arinca Flowers, Calendula Flowers and St. John's Wart infused in Olive Oil.
For fresh quality dried herbs I shop at The Bulk Herb Store, the link is in the banner below and most of my essential oils for this project are from Aromatics International.

I hope you enjoyed my project.  Thanks for visiting my blog today!

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Foaming Hand Soap Recipe

I'm working away at my Aromatherapy Certification class and thought I'd share one of my home work exercises with you today -  Making A Liquid Hand Soap.

I have my supplies out and ready!  I had to deviate from the assignment ever so slightly by not choosing all my essential oils from the Esters chemical family.  Bergamot and Geranium have a significant percentage of Esters in their chemical make up and are two essential oils I've been studying so I'll give you a little background on them today.  

Some of Bergamot's therapeutic properties are:

• Antidepressant
• Anti-inflammatory
• Antiviral
• Central Nervous System Tonic
• Sedative

There is a CAUTION to consider when using Bergamot, it's phototoxic— direct sunlight or sun beds should be avoided for 12 hours after applying bergamot to the skin.  

Some of Geranium's therapeutic properties are:

• Anti-inflammatory
• Antibacterial
• Antidepressant
• Antifungal
• Astringent
• Cicatrisant
• Skin Healing
• Tonic

Recommendations and CAUTIONS for Geranium are not to use during early pregnancy.

As I'm looking at my data sheet for Geranium I see where I came up with my recipe idea!

If you'd like to go to Aromatics International's data page for Geranium you'll see the recipe too.

Sorry I was starting to get off topic...  I used Castile Soap and measured 2 ounces into my measuring cup.

Added in my essential oils and stirred to blend into the 2 ounces of soap.

• Geranium 6 drops
• Rose Absolute 3 drops
• Bergamot 8 drops
• Sweet Orange 3 drops

Poured my 2 ounce blend into my rinsed out foamer bottle while taking a picture.

I next topped off my foamer bottle with Distilled Water and gave it a good shake to mix everything.  This soap will need to be shaken each time before using it because water and essential oils don't stay mixed.  A small sacrifice to have a nice hand soap with therapeutic properties and scented just the way I like it!

Ready to go live in our bathroom.  

An alternative to Castile Soaps are using an unscented liquid soap refill of your choice.  My youngest son doesn't like the way Castile Soaps "feel" so I make the liquid foaming soap that stays in the bathroom that everyone shares using an unscented liquid soap I buy locally.   

I hope you'll give making your own liquid soap a try, it's easy and fun and goes a long way if you use a foamer bottle!

Most of the products I used to make my liquid foaming soap today came from Aromatics International.

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