Envelope Sachets Project from Martha Stewart

Looking for an inexpensive party favor to give out at your friend's bridal shower? Better yet why not have this as one of the activities. Even if you are not hosting a bridal show this would be a great gift to make for your kids teachers for an end of the year present. If you are creating these for your kid's teachers and your kids are old enough, you may want to get them involved and help you make them.

To get started, you should read the instructions on how to make these beautiful envelope sachets from Martha Stewart's website. You can usse Martha Stewart's heart or butterfly templates, or make your own pattern. Graph paper is good for creating a grid design (such as the one shown at top left). Working on a cutting mat or piece of felt, lay your template over an envelope. If you are a crafter who makes their own cards, you may have the tools to make your own envelopes with pretty and unique papers.

Lavender Dream Soap Recipe

I would say that lavender is one of the top scents to scent bath and body products. I am not sure why that is but I bet that it is because it is a very relaxing scents. If lavender happens to be your favorite scent you may find that this cold process soap recipe called Lavender Dream Soap from David Fisher from About.com would fit the bill.

For this recipe you it will take 30 minutes to prepare your ingredients and 30 minutes to cook for a total time of 60 minutes.

The ingredients for this cold process soap recipe you will need to purchase for this recipe are 6.8 oz. palm oil, 10.2 oz. coconut oil, 1.7 oz cocoa butter, 10.2 oz. olive oil, 1.7 oz. castor oil, 3.4 oz. sunflower oil, 4.9 oz. lye, 11.3 oz. of distilled water, 2 TBS of lightly ground lavender buds, .4 oz. orange essential oil, .4 oz. patchouli essential oil and .8 oz. lavender essential oil.

The combination of orange, patchouli and lavender essential oils really sounds like a nice blend. I bet that is what the author meant by "Dream" in the title of the soap.

The Distinction between Cocoa Butter and Refined Cocoa Butter

According to forever young on the Ulitmate Cosmetic forum:

"The definition of cocoa butter is the extraction of fatty acids from cocoa seeds. There are different categories in extracting that includes filtered, centrifuged, deodorizes through steam vacuum, degummed, bleaching, and neutralizing. The extraction of cocoa butter should not include any germ fat or shell fat that occurs in the whole cocoa beans.

These are the types of extraction of cocoa butter:

Press cocoa butter
Expeller cocoa butter
Solvent extracted cocoa butter
And refined cocoa butter

In preparation to extracting the type of cocoa butter, there are authorized treatments with analytical values that comply in every extraction. During manufacture there are specific essential composition and quality factors to be looked at to attain the resulting cocoa butter. The color, odor, and taste have designation to every type of cocoa butter produced. In every manufacture of cocoa butter there is a quality checker to look at specific identification and quality values of every butter.

In the process of extracting cocoa butter there is a specific melting point, refractive index, levels of free fatty acids, and unsaponifiables matters. According to the code of international practice of general principles of food hygiene, there must be practice of appropriate methods in extracting the butter with good manufacturing practice. It must contain no products that have objectionable matter. There must have excellent ways of sampling and examining with no amounts of microorganisms hazardous to health.

In the case of refined cocoa butter, it is manufactured through a three stage apparatus with a flow rate of 2,000 kg/hour of cocoa butter. The contents of free fatty acids are up to 5 percent in weight. It has been thoroughly processes to extract the fatty acids from the cocoa seeds. The difference between cocoa butter and unrefined cocoa butter is how they are processed well.

The different types of extracting cocoa butter from the seed itself show different treatments that result to a specific butter. When shea butter is exported to the buyers, the products are labeled with names according to how they are processed. You may not worry on how they are extracted; as long as these products will continually help your skin problems everything will be fine."

For more information on this subject, visit Solidytrade.com.

Watermelon Body Scrub Recipe

To me, watermelons are the official symbol of summer. I love going to the local arts and wine festivals or the county fair and buying a large watermelon drink from vendor. When I saw this recipe for a Watermelon Scrub by Allison B. Kontur of Bath Body Supply I was immediately reminded me of my favorite summertime fruit. If you love watermelons as much as I do, then this body scrub would be perfect body product to make. And since Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start to summer, why not create this summer treat right now.

"Brewing" your own scent

Are you overwhelmed with all of the perfumes in the marketplace? Or do you find that the perfumes available give you headaches? Then you may want to consider creating your own. But you are wondering how to get started blending your own essential oils to create your own fragrances. Right? There is alot of info out there but here is a basic start to blending your own essential oils to create your own unique scent.

When making your own scents, you should always remember that perfumes have three basic structures or layers, namely: the base notes, heart or middle notes and top notes. Top notes are the first smell that you'll notice and it is also the first one to evaporate. Top notes handle the first impressions. It creates the mood and the one that immediately captivates. Meanwhile, the heart notes or otherwise known as the middle or coeur notes. These scents appear later and last longer. They give character to the perfume. The final layer is the base notes which lasts the longest. They slowly come out blending with both the heart note and the top note. Make certain that you don't put natural essential oils and absolutes as top notes. They are basically complex compounds that sometimes already contain middle notes and even top notes characteristics.

So care should be taken when you start mixing or blending different kinds of essential oils. Ideally, top notes are made from citrus oils like bergamot, lemon, mandarin, orange, etc. Conifer oils such as cypress, fir, pine, spruce, etc. can also be used. Also popular top notes oils include mint oils, cardamom, basil, chamomile, juniperberry, ginger, petitgrain and rosemary. When it comes to middle notes, probably the best oils to use are floral oils and absolutes such as caraway, black pepper, cinnamon, clary sage and clove bud.

Oils from elemi, coriander, galbanum, sweet marjoram, geranium, lavender and nutmeg are also great middle note materials. Palmarosa, thyme and violet leaf absolute have also been used before and their blending capabilities have proved to be quite effective. Wood oils like cedarwood, gaiac, linaloe wood and sandalwood are great as base notes. So are resin oils like frankincense and myrrh. Perfumers also use labdanum, patchouli, oakmoss absolute, vetiver and even vanilla as base notes for their perfumes.

When making your own perfumes, it is always, always important to know your materials. Essential oils for example have different characters, behavior, strength and weaknesses. Each characteristic should be considered and their effects studied closely. You need to know the effects of the essential oils and perfume blends on your skin. You need how to understand how the mixture will react when diluted or when it is set over time. You need to be prepared and know or at least have an idea on how the mixtures will react. It is, therefore, perfect advice that you write down all the processes that you undertook, from measurements to blending procedures. And as important as the actual steps are, one needs to take regular breaks. Not only will this help in raising creativity but it will help make you safe from some harmful effects of prolong exposure from oils.

Remember that you are working with essential oils. These oils are highly concentrated and give off very strong smell. It is, therefore, possible to become sick if you spent too much time working on them especially in unventilated areas. And also, there's also a limit to how much scent or perfume your nose can take.