Need a seasonal pick me up bath? Here are some recipes for you to try.
Spring/Summer Morning Baths
This blend will gently wake you up and refresh you. Add these essential oils (EO) to a tablespoon of carrier oil:
3 drops of lemon EO
3 drops of grapefruit EO
2 drops of lime EO
Winter Reviver
These oils have antidepressant qualities that help beat the winter blues. Add to a tablespoon of carrier oil.
4 drops of rosemary EO
3 drops of bergamont EO
3 drops of rosewood EO
Cold Fighter
To help clear the respiratory tract and combat infection. Add to a tablespoon of carrier oil.
4 drops of marjoram EO
3 drops of eucalyptus EO
2 drops of jasmine EO
Source: Home Spa...Pamper Yourself From Head to Toe by Chrissie Painell-Malkin, page 24.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Natural Body Products Book
When I was taking a class from Lori Nova at DeAnza College, I was looking at some of her books before class started. I came across a book title," Natural Bodycare...Recipes for health and beauty " by Julia Meadows.
The book goes in to great detail about ingredients, equipment, hand and footcare, glossary of terms, packaging and more. It has great recipes on dusting powders, lotions, creams, body milks, infused oils and perfumes, scrubs and exfoliants. I really like this book for the information, but my main complaint is about some of the ingredients. For example, the basic body lotion asks for 2 tbsp of monostearate, 2 tsp of isosteroyal lactylate, 1/2 tsp of modified lecithin. My main question is what are these ingredients and where can I get them? And they are not easy to find and you cannot just walk into your local grocery or health food store for these. I am still on the hunt for them.
But overall, I think it is a great book your body products library. I must warn you that this book maybe out of print. So, you may have purchase a used copy from someone on Amazon.com or on an auction through Ebay.
The book goes in to great detail about ingredients, equipment, hand and footcare, glossary of terms, packaging and more. It has great recipes on dusting powders, lotions, creams, body milks, infused oils and perfumes, scrubs and exfoliants. I really like this book for the information, but my main complaint is about some of the ingredients. For example, the basic body lotion asks for 2 tbsp of monostearate, 2 tsp of isosteroyal lactylate, 1/2 tsp of modified lecithin. My main question is what are these ingredients and where can I get them? And they are not easy to find and you cannot just walk into your local grocery or health food store for these. I am still on the hunt for them.
But overall, I think it is a great book your body products library. I must warn you that this book maybe out of print. So, you may have purchase a used copy from someone on Amazon.com or on an auction through Ebay.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Classes in the Fairfield, Napa & Sacramento areas
If you live the Fairfield, Napa or Sacramento area and are interested in taking classes on making your own natural body products, then check out Joan Morais's website at http://www.joanmorais.com/. For your convenience, a link has been placed to the right under "Classes Taught by Others".
I have never taken a class by this lady, but I did see a segment she did on a Sacramento area television station. After seeing her demonstration I wanted to learn more about making own own bath products. I wound up taking a class from Lori Nova. And I eventually, purchased her ebook on Lotions.
I have never taken a class by this lady, but I did see a segment she did on a Sacramento area television station. After seeing her demonstration I wanted to learn more about making own own bath products. I wound up taking a class from Lori Nova. And I eventually, purchased her ebook on Lotions.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Essential Oils vs. Fragrance Oils
If you are wondering whether to use essential oils or fragrance oils here are some articles you may want to read:
(1) http://blogging.owlpublishing.us/bathgifts.html/?p=108
(2) http://cmgifts.wordpress.com/2006/10/16/aroma-oil-vs-essential-oils/
(3) http://iblogs.com/pupywypoge/2007/02/22/fragrance-oils-vs-essential-oils-a-never-ending-debate/
(1) http://blogging.owlpublishing.us/bathgifts.html/?p=108
(2) http://cmgifts.wordpress.com/2006/10/16/aroma-oil-vs-essential-oils/
(3) http://iblogs.com/pupywypoge/2007/02/22/fragrance-oils-vs-essential-oils-a-never-ending-debate/
Monday, April 16, 2007
Storing Essential Oils
According to authors Susan Worwood and Valerie Ann Worwood of their book titled, Essential Aromatherapy...A Pocket Guide to Essential Oils and Aromatherapy ,
that when storing essential oils (EO)that you should:
(1) EO should be kept in a dark, glass bottle to protect the contents from light exposure.
(2) If the EO is stored in plastic, the plastic may fractionally dissolve leaving microscopic particles in the EO.
(3) There is a plastic - PET - which is biodegradable, but it does not have any effect on the EO. But, the authors do not recommend keeping pure EO in them. Only acceptable way you can store EO in a plastic container if it already has been diluted with a carrier oil.
(4) EO are volatile, which means they evaporate. Make sure the caps/lids are kept on tight at all times.
(5) Always replace lids on either EO or diluted EO in order to prevent evaporation and oxidation.
(6) Keep EO in a cool, dry place. And make sure that there is no damp or direct heat near your EO that means that your bathroom is not a good place to store your pure or diluted EO. The reason why? Bathrooms get damp and hot when used for bathing on a regular basis. Cupboards are the ideal place for storage.
(7) EO are flammable which means that can easily catch fire. Do not dispose of a tissue that you may have wiped up a spill of EO. Or do not place that tissue in a bin with other materials that may catch fire. Also, do not leave the tissue in direct heat like near a sunny window because that cause the tissue to catch fire.
that when storing essential oils (EO)that you should:
(1) EO should be kept in a dark, glass bottle to protect the contents from light exposure.
(2) If the EO is stored in plastic, the plastic may fractionally dissolve leaving microscopic particles in the EO.
(3) There is a plastic - PET - which is biodegradable, but it does not have any effect on the EO. But, the authors do not recommend keeping pure EO in them. Only acceptable way you can store EO in a plastic container if it already has been diluted with a carrier oil.
(4) EO are volatile, which means they evaporate. Make sure the caps/lids are kept on tight at all times.
(5) Always replace lids on either EO or diluted EO in order to prevent evaporation and oxidation.
(6) Keep EO in a cool, dry place. And make sure that there is no damp or direct heat near your EO that means that your bathroom is not a good place to store your pure or diluted EO. The reason why? Bathrooms get damp and hot when used for bathing on a regular basis. Cupboards are the ideal place for storage.
(7) EO are flammable which means that can easily catch fire. Do not dispose of a tissue that you may have wiped up a spill of EO. Or do not place that tissue in a bin with other materials that may catch fire. Also, do not leave the tissue in direct heat like near a sunny window because that cause the tissue to catch fire.
Buying Essential Oils
According to authors Susan Worwood and Valerie Ann Worwood of their book titled, Essential Aromatherapy...A Pocket Guide to Essential Oils and Aromatherapy ,
that when purchasing essential oils (EO) that you should:
(1) Shop around.
(2) Essential oils should be contained in dark bottles with the Latin name on the bottle. If the Latin name is not on the bottle, then is should be catalogued or at least have a company brochure listing the Latin name. For example, Whole Foods carries the Simplier brand of organic essential oils. Near the display there is a pamphlet produced by the company which gives all the details of each oil.
(3) An expiration date should be on the bottle. Normally, oils should last two years, unlike oils from the citrus family ie lemon are said the deteriorate and lose their value quickly.
(4) There is a complication when using the term "Essential Oil" on a label. The legal definition used to describe all sorts of the things which are not truly a plant essence extracted from a plant. Some people will try to maximize profits by selling bottles of a liquid purporting to be an essential oil when it is actually was man made.
(5) Another problem is that the bottle correctly indicated that the EO on the label and not the particular oil stated. It may be a combination of some other oils blended to together to create that particular scent or an oil that smells similar.
(6) Labels may say that they particular product is "natural" or "pure". This may be accurate but it can be misleading because the substance inside the bottle is indeed natural, but is not the natural substance the label leads you to believe. For example, it may say carnation but to the trained nose it could be something completely different.
(7) If a whole range of EO are being sold at the same price in the same size bottle. Normally, EO are sold in milliliters and are a variety of prices depending on how much the of the plant the manufacturer has to extract to create that size. Some oils will need more of the plant than others which means the higher the cost.
(8) Pure, undiluted EO should be sold in dark bottles, such as brown, green, mauve or blue. Blue and brown are the most common colors. If the oils are sold in clear bottles or even worse plastic, the company is not aware that these types of bottles let the light in which damages the product. So it is best to avoid purchase oils from this company.
(9) The bottles of EO should always have dropper tops which allows for measurement. This is a practical feature and also for safety. For the practical side it helps with the proper measurement when adding to your bath products, but EO evaporate and deteriorate when exposed to air so bottles with out the dropper tops will accelerate this process. As for a safety feature, the dropper tops will not allow children to drink from them. Often the scent will smell so good that they will think it is good enough to drink such as lemon might considered for lemonade. Once consumed they will find out that is not. If a child accidently has consumed a large quantity of oils, proper authorities such as CDC, a proper aromatherapy practioner should be contacted for further advisement.
that when purchasing essential oils (EO) that you should:
(1) Shop around.
(2) Essential oils should be contained in dark bottles with the Latin name on the bottle. If the Latin name is not on the bottle, then is should be catalogued or at least have a company brochure listing the Latin name. For example, Whole Foods carries the Simplier brand of organic essential oils. Near the display there is a pamphlet produced by the company which gives all the details of each oil.
(3) An expiration date should be on the bottle. Normally, oils should last two years, unlike oils from the citrus family ie lemon are said the deteriorate and lose their value quickly.
(4) There is a complication when using the term "Essential Oil" on a label. The legal definition used to describe all sorts of the things which are not truly a plant essence extracted from a plant. Some people will try to maximize profits by selling bottles of a liquid purporting to be an essential oil when it is actually was man made.
(5) Another problem is that the bottle correctly indicated that the EO on the label and not the particular oil stated. It may be a combination of some other oils blended to together to create that particular scent or an oil that smells similar.
(6) Labels may say that they particular product is "natural" or "pure". This may be accurate but it can be misleading because the substance inside the bottle is indeed natural, but is not the natural substance the label leads you to believe. For example, it may say carnation but to the trained nose it could be something completely different.
(7) If a whole range of EO are being sold at the same price in the same size bottle. Normally, EO are sold in milliliters and are a variety of prices depending on how much the of the plant the manufacturer has to extract to create that size. Some oils will need more of the plant than others which means the higher the cost.
(8) Pure, undiluted EO should be sold in dark bottles, such as brown, green, mauve or blue. Blue and brown are the most common colors. If the oils are sold in clear bottles or even worse plastic, the company is not aware that these types of bottles let the light in which damages the product. So it is best to avoid purchase oils from this company.
(9) The bottles of EO should always have dropper tops which allows for measurement. This is a practical feature and also for safety. For the practical side it helps with the proper measurement when adding to your bath products, but EO evaporate and deteriorate when exposed to air so bottles with out the dropper tops will accelerate this process. As for a safety feature, the dropper tops will not allow children to drink from them. Often the scent will smell so good that they will think it is good enough to drink such as lemon might considered for lemonade. Once consumed they will find out that is not. If a child accidently has consumed a large quantity of oils, proper authorities such as CDC, a proper aromatherapy practioner should be contacted for further advisement.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
New Botanicals at Juniper Tree
I was at Juniper Tree over the weekend to purchase some supplies for an upcoming class. I noticed that they added two new botanicals. The first one is purple tulip petals which sell for $1.40 per ounce. I know that sounds like alot, but I figure you can get more bang for your buck by cutting the petals into smaller pieces. These petals are a very pretty and would look good in your bath salts.
The second botanical is something that I never saw before. It is called "Orange Velvet". It is a very unique flower petal that is orange with a velvet brown trim. This would be interesting to add to your bath salts. The price for this particular item is 70 cents per ounce.
Since you will be adding only a pinch to your bath salts, an ounce or two will last you a long time.
The second botanical is something that I never saw before. It is called "Orange Velvet". It is a very unique flower petal that is orange with a velvet brown trim. This would be interesting to add to your bath salts. The price for this particular item is 70 cents per ounce.
Since you will be adding only a pinch to your bath salts, an ounce or two will last you a long time.
Monday, April 2, 2007
How to Make Your Own Bath and Body Products The Easy Way
Here is an article about making your own bath products that I thought you would enjoy reading:
How To Make Your Own Bath and Body Products The Easy Way
by: Katherine Durkes
If you think about making your own spa products - such as lotions, body washes, and exfoliating scrubs - you probably think it sounds difficult. It probably brings to mind lots of weird ingredients, chemicals, and slaving away over a hot vat of goo for hours.
After this article, you'll know that nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, using my method (which I call The Easy Way), making your own bath and body products takes less time than going to the mall, and you get twice the quality of skin care.
The Two Ways Of Making Products - Hard and Easy
There are two ways to make your own bath and body products - The Hard Way, and The Easy Way. The Hard Way means investing a lot of time in books and trial-and-error in your kitchen, and a lot of money in ingredients. Often, you need patience and perseverance as you attempt to make a basic lotion or liquid soap, but it doesn't come out as well as you'd hoped. Heck, you didn't even get to the fun part, which adding the scent and color!
The Hard Way Takes Time and Practice
The Hard Way is what is taught in soapmaking classes, websites, and books. It can be fun and rewarding because of the natural ingredients and the high-quality products that result. Shea butter lotions... aloe body washes... If you are prepared to invest the time and money, and you have a lot of patience, The Hard Way does pay off. You get wonderfully moisturizing products in your favorite fragrances - even hard to find ones - that are much better than Bath and Body Works.
The problem is, The Hard Way is often incredibly discouraging to beginners. As they pour their failed body wash down the bathtub drain, most beginners start to wonder if it's really worth the trouble. Sooner or later, they go back to the mall and pay too much for what is essentially drugstore-quality products in fancy bottles and scents.
Beginners Can Master The Easy Way
The Easy Way of making bath and body products is, well, easy! With The Easy Way, you get all the benefits - the natural ingredients, the high-quality skin care products, and your favorite scents - for only 10% the work. The Hard Way is like baking a fancy Julia Child cake recipe, but The Easy Way is more like making a cake mix.
The Easy Way uses professional unscented product bases (also called "cosmetic bases") that are specially manufactured for this purpose. These bases are made with natural ingredients, such as shea butter, avocado oil, aloe, and goats' milk, so you still get high quality skin care, the same as if you had made the bases yourself with The Hard Way.
Quickly Make Lotion, Shower Gel, Shampoo, Scrub
You can get unscented bases for almost any liquid product you can think of: body lotion, massage cream, bath oil, shower gel, bubble bath, salon-quality shampoo and conditioner, body scrub, hand soap, and face wash.
Customize High Quality Unscented Products With Your Own Ingredients.
To these basic products, you add your own fragrance, color, and other special ingredients, such as silk proteins and botanical extracts. You can even experiment with natural anti-aging ingredients such as carrot seed oil, green tea extract, and collagen. These ingredients are what makes your products unique!
Just Like The Professionals
If you compare three bottles of shower gel from Bath and Body Works, The Body Shop, and Origins, you will see a lot of similarities in their first few ingredients. That's because they're all taking a basic body wash and making their own improvements on it, just like you can with The Easy Way.
Free 8-Page Report Gets You Started
There's no need to reinvent the wheel (or a basic body wash.) If what you want is to quickly and easily create your own bath and body products, The Easy Way is the method for you! If you want to get more information, I have written a quick 8-page PDF with a recipe and photos. To read it, just send a blank email to productreport@excellentlivingguide.com, and it will be emailed to your inbox. You must be able to receive attachments over 1MB (it's 1.1MB.)
About The Author
Katherine Durkes is an experienced teacher of bath and body. She runs a popular website on how to make bath and body products, as well as the Yahoo Group "Home Bath & Body." Her first e-book, "The Fast Guide To Making Bath Bombs (& Fizzies)" has over 10,000 downloads and has been featured on About.com and in Ready Made Magazine.
Source: http://www.articlecity.com/articles/women/article_2439.shtml
How To Make Your Own Bath and Body Products The Easy Way
by: Katherine Durkes
If you think about making your own spa products - such as lotions, body washes, and exfoliating scrubs - you probably think it sounds difficult. It probably brings to mind lots of weird ingredients, chemicals, and slaving away over a hot vat of goo for hours.
After this article, you'll know that nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, using my method (which I call The Easy Way), making your own bath and body products takes less time than going to the mall, and you get twice the quality of skin care.
The Two Ways Of Making Products - Hard and Easy
There are two ways to make your own bath and body products - The Hard Way, and The Easy Way. The Hard Way means investing a lot of time in books and trial-and-error in your kitchen, and a lot of money in ingredients. Often, you need patience and perseverance as you attempt to make a basic lotion or liquid soap, but it doesn't come out as well as you'd hoped. Heck, you didn't even get to the fun part, which adding the scent and color!
The Hard Way Takes Time and Practice
The Hard Way is what is taught in soapmaking classes, websites, and books. It can be fun and rewarding because of the natural ingredients and the high-quality products that result. Shea butter lotions... aloe body washes... If you are prepared to invest the time and money, and you have a lot of patience, The Hard Way does pay off. You get wonderfully moisturizing products in your favorite fragrances - even hard to find ones - that are much better than Bath and Body Works.
The problem is, The Hard Way is often incredibly discouraging to beginners. As they pour their failed body wash down the bathtub drain, most beginners start to wonder if it's really worth the trouble. Sooner or later, they go back to the mall and pay too much for what is essentially drugstore-quality products in fancy bottles and scents.
Beginners Can Master The Easy Way
The Easy Way of making bath and body products is, well, easy! With The Easy Way, you get all the benefits - the natural ingredients, the high-quality skin care products, and your favorite scents - for only 10% the work. The Hard Way is like baking a fancy Julia Child cake recipe, but The Easy Way is more like making a cake mix.
The Easy Way uses professional unscented product bases (also called "cosmetic bases") that are specially manufactured for this purpose. These bases are made with natural ingredients, such as shea butter, avocado oil, aloe, and goats' milk, so you still get high quality skin care, the same as if you had made the bases yourself with The Hard Way.
Quickly Make Lotion, Shower Gel, Shampoo, Scrub
You can get unscented bases for almost any liquid product you can think of: body lotion, massage cream, bath oil, shower gel, bubble bath, salon-quality shampoo and conditioner, body scrub, hand soap, and face wash.
Customize High Quality Unscented Products With Your Own Ingredients.
To these basic products, you add your own fragrance, color, and other special ingredients, such as silk proteins and botanical extracts. You can even experiment with natural anti-aging ingredients such as carrot seed oil, green tea extract, and collagen. These ingredients are what makes your products unique!
Just Like The Professionals
If you compare three bottles of shower gel from Bath and Body Works, The Body Shop, and Origins, you will see a lot of similarities in their first few ingredients. That's because they're all taking a basic body wash and making their own improvements on it, just like you can with The Easy Way.
Free 8-Page Report Gets You Started
There's no need to reinvent the wheel (or a basic body wash.) If what you want is to quickly and easily create your own bath and body products, The Easy Way is the method for you! If you want to get more information, I have written a quick 8-page PDF with a recipe and photos. To read it, just send a blank email to productreport@excellentlivingguide.com, and it will be emailed to your inbox. You must be able to receive attachments over 1MB (it's 1.1MB.)
About The Author
Katherine Durkes is an experienced teacher of bath and body. She runs a popular website on how to make bath and body products, as well as the Yahoo Group "Home Bath & Body." Her first e-book, "The Fast Guide To Making Bath Bombs (& Fizzies)" has over 10,000 downloads and has been featured on About.com and in Ready Made Magazine.
Source: http://www.articlecity.com/articles/women/article_2439.shtml
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Book: Crafts and Craft Shows
Have you ever gone to a craft fair and thought you would like to sell your crafts by this method? How would you get started? What do you need to know? Well, I found a book titled, Crafts and Craft Shows...How to Make Money by Philip Kadubec, gives you a honest look at making money at craft shows. It covers marketing yourself and your product, pricing your product, selecting your shows, business operations, booth set up and displays, dealing with customers and overview of the craft business.
Even though I never intended to start selling my bath product in this particular way, this book really opened my eyes to what is all involved in selling craft products in this manner. I would strongly recommend this book if you are interested in starting your own crafts business.
If you are interested in reading this book, I found this book at my local library. The print date is in 2000, so I am not sure if it is still in print for you to purchase, but you probably can ask your local bookstore to see or check out Amazon.com.
Book: Crafts and Craft Shows...How to Make Money by Philip Kadubec. Published by Allworth Press, New York in 2000. ISBN: 1-58115-060-1.
Even though I never intended to start selling my bath product in this particular way, this book really opened my eyes to what is all involved in selling craft products in this manner. I would strongly recommend this book if you are interested in starting your own crafts business.
If you are interested in reading this book, I found this book at my local library. The print date is in 2000, so I am not sure if it is still in print for you to purchase, but you probably can ask your local bookstore to see or check out Amazon.com.
Book: Crafts and Craft Shows...How to Make Money by Philip Kadubec. Published by Allworth Press, New York in 2000. ISBN: 1-58115-060-1.
Classes I Recommend
If you are interested in learning in making other bath and body products, I recommend taking Lori Nova's Making Natural Perfumes, All Natural Baby Products (products can be used on adults too!) and All Natural Spa Facial Products.
These classes are offered at her studio in Point Richmond, if that is too far for you, she does teach these classes through DeAnza College's Community Education (http://communityeducation.fhda.edu).
If you are interested in any of her classes, I recommend signing up early because they do fill up fast. For example, I wanted to take her Making Mineral Make-up class at DeAnza College on 3/31. I was going to sign up on 2/28 and I called before sending my check and the class was full. So, it is best not to wait until the last minute. I know that is hard sometimes because you find out about the class at the last minute.
I will be venturing out to her location to take some of her other classes which she does not teach at DeAnza. And I will report to you on my experience.
These classes are offered at her studio in Point Richmond, if that is too far for you, she does teach these classes through DeAnza College's Community Education (http://communityeducation.fhda.edu).
If you are interested in any of her classes, I recommend signing up early because they do fill up fast. For example, I wanted to take her Making Mineral Make-up class at DeAnza College on 3/31. I was going to sign up on 2/28 and I called before sending my check and the class was full. So, it is best not to wait until the last minute. I know that is hard sometimes because you find out about the class at the last minute.
I will be venturing out to her location to take some of her other classes which she does not teach at DeAnza. And I will report to you on my experience.
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