Homemade Melt and Pour Chapstick

Would you believe making your homemade lip balm is very easy to make that you can make it in your very own kitchen? Believe or not it is. Just take a look at this Homemade Melt and Pour Chapstick tutorial from Gluesticks.  I just takes a few ingredients which some can be purchased at your local grocery store.  If you have never made your own lip balm before I must inform you about something.  One of the ingredient calls for 20-24 drops of essential oils or scents. When I saw the word scents, fragrance oils came to mind.  You do not want to use fragrance oils on your lips.  You can use candy flavorings but please do not think that you can use extracts in the baking aisle of your local grocery store.  The reason why is they have alcohol which will evaporate over time.

Elemental Swirl

When The Soap Queen heard of Amy of Soapworks announced her Element Swirl Soap Challenged, she could not wait to jump on board.  Her Element Swirl utilizes several soap making skills including two in-the-pot-swirls, a mica vein and a psychedelic top swirl.  All of these techniques combined to create a textured-looking soap with one-of-a-kind ruptured, uneven layers.  Looks pretty cool, don't you think? You too can make this soap too. It is an advanced project so for those new to cold process soap making should practice your soap making skills before you try this alone.

Summer Soother Rice Milk & Chamomile CP Soap Recipe

Here is a recipe that contains no palm oil, chamomile and uses rice milk as ingredient sin this cold process soap recipe from Wholesale Supplies Plus.  The recipe s called Summer Soother Rice Milk & Chamomile Soap.  This recipes makes 40 ounces of soap.

Bronzing Lotion Bars - DIY

I follow this guy named Roger Howard on Facebook.  And he often posts some interesting recipes.  Here is one for Bronzing Lotion Bars.

To start: Place 2 cups of coconut oil in a small saucepan or double boiler. Add 1 cup of very finely ground coffee (the finer the better). Simmer on low heat, stirring often, for several hours until the oil takes on a dark color. Strain through cheesecloth or old t-shirt and let cool. Use this for the coconut oil in the recipe below.

1/2 cup coffee-infused coconut oil
1/3 cup beeswax
2 tablespoons (or more) of Zinc Oxide - optional
15+ drops essential oil (not citrus) – optional
dark mineral makeup for extra bronzing-optional- to color (start with about 1/2 tsp)

How to Make:

Combine all ingredients except essential oil in a quart size glass mason jar and carefully place this jar in a small saucepan of water on the stove.

Turn the burner on and bring water to a low simmer. Stir ingredients constantly until they are melted and smooth.

Add essential oils and stir until mixed.

Carefully pour into molds or whatever you will be allowing the lotion bars to harden in. I used these silicon flower molds, though any mold would work.

Allow the lotion bars to cool completely before attempting to pop out of molds. These could be made in different shaped molds or made in a square baking pan and then cut into actual bars. 

Fire and Ice Candles - Ice Candle Tutorial

It is has been a long time since I posted a candle making tutorial.  But when I saw this picture of an ice candle on Bath Alchemy, I wanted to share.  Te me it almost looks like a rose.  What do you think?  Anyway if you want to make an ice candle then check out this tutorial for Fire and Ice Candles - Ice Candle from Erica at Bath Alchemy.