What Bath & Body Thing Have You Done Today?

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Made more DIY Lotion with a FO blend I made trying to dup a scent in a roller ball tube that a friend picked up in Hawaii. I used equal parts WSP Passionfruit Nectarine, Fresh Picked Strawberry and Green Apple. Calling it Lilikoi Berry, and it smells pretty heavenly! I also tried WSP liquid colorants for the first time. I used just 2 drops of purple violet to make the lotion just barely purple tinted, it’s just a shade away from white.
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Made another shampoo bar using the DIY BB hot pour recipe. This time I replaced half of the SCI with SLSa and subbed squalene for the RBO. The recipe as written leaves my hair oily on the second day. Hoping these mods help and I’m looking forward to trying it. I used my silicone moon cake mold for the first time.
 
Made another shampoo bar using the DIY BB hot pour recipe. This time I replaced half of the SCI with SLSa and subbed squalene for the RBO. The recipe as written leaves my hair oily on the second day. Hoping these mods help and I’m looking forward to trying it. I used my silicone moon cake mold for the first time.
Let us know how you like it! I have some oily-haired friends who would like a little more cleansing, so maybe this will be the ticket.
 
Made three batches of shampoo bars and forgot to take pics... Made my version of the Marie Rayma/Brambleberry Lush dupe - basically taking my shampoo bar and conditioner recipe, chunking up the conditioner bars and throwing it into the stand mixer when mixing up the shampoo bars. I've been testing different ratios of conditioner bar chunks over the last 9-ish months, and finally settled on roughly 11g conditioner chunks per 90g shampoo bar. This batch was six bars, so I don't expect that any bar has perfectly 11g of chunks, but the mixture seemed evenly dispersed so... close enough? They turned out cool looking with just a bit of silver mica in the shampoo mix and scented with NG Cracklin' Birch. Husband is excited to get a shampoo bar that doesn't smell like flowers for a change.
 
Finally achieving some work-life balance 😂 and have energy to do things in The Lyers Club (what I call my soap-n-stuff making room) in the evening. Last night's adventures, also without pictures:

Foot cream - much needed during sandal / barefoot season. My husband jokingly tells me my face looks 35 (I'm sneaking up on 50) but my feet look 135... good thing he's cute and smells nice.

Face cream - very much experimental. This is my second experiment with some tweaks and knowledge gained from the first experiment. I was really quite taken with the idea of Shark Sauce (I can't remember if it was this thread or another on the forum), but after shelling out some bucks for ingredients... it was not awesome sauce for me or my daughter. We broke out horribly from it. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole to see if I could find what ingredient was causing our issues and possibly formulate a cream instead. At the moment I'm playing with licorice root extract and niacinamide based on my daughter's dermatologist's recommendation to use a commercial serum that contains those two ingredients to help clear up the red spots on her face from past acne breakouts.

The first experiment I accidentally grabbed the N-Acetyl bag instead of the niacinamide - and it didn't really seem to do anything positively or negatively for red spots, but we also didn't break out. Doing some reading on formulating lotions/creams with those two ingredients I realized that I need to add them at a lower temp in the lotion making process. The batch I made last night was a tweak in the cream formula (swapped out the avocado oil and replaced with sweet almond oil hoping to improve the absorption rate), and then adding the Niacinamide at the correct temp. This cream also uses argan oil, zinc oxide, and the licorice root extract. I did swap out the essential oil blend this time too. First batch used 1% Frankincense which my daughter doesn't care for. We found an essential oil blend of myrrh, frankincense, lavender, and rosemary that she likes and is from a reputable company, so I used that also at 1%.

I tried it last night and based on feel, I like it a lot more than the first batch. I had some concern that the niacinamide would be grainy adding it at a cooler temp, but not the case at all. Also mildly amusing that for such a small batch size (4oz) I used a frother type mixer rather than a stick blender so it's got a whipped consistency until you smooth it out with your fingers. A bit of a struggle to judge if the cream is emulsified and stays emulsified, so I overwhipped it to make sure. Once I get the formulation to where we want it, I'll scale up the batch size to one that I can do with the stickblender. I would like to do one more formulation with the niacinamide and N-Acetyl combo if the niacinamide formula doesn't make us break out. I suspect what caused our breakouts was the sea kelp bioferment but haven't tested that theory. I'll be happy if I find a use for the niacinamide and N-Acetyl.
 
I was really quite taken with the idea of Shark Sauce (I can't remember if it was this thread or another on the forum), but after shelling out some bucks for ingredients... it was not awesome sauce for me or my daughter.

Interesting. I make the Shark Sauce for my granddaughter and it works so well for her that she no longer buys a commercial product (I forget which one she was using but it wasn't cheap). Her father has cystic acne and she, unfortunately, has inherited it.
 
I make the Shark Sauce for my granddaughter and it works so well for her that she no longer buys a commercial product (I forget which one she was using but it wasn't cheap). Her father has cystic acne and she, unfortunately, has inherited it.
That's awesome for your granddaughter! We were disappointed after perusing so many good comments on the internet - skin is weird 😂 I struggled with cystic acne from age 11 until well into my 30's. I saw several dermatologists with no improvement until I was diagnosed with gluten sensitivity. Once I got my diet under control, my skin improved dramatically. Now I occasionally get a "normal" pimple, but it's gone in two days. I'll take a normal pimple over the deep, painful cysts that took months to heal. If I'm not managing a GF diet, my skin shows it. Your granddaughter and her father have my sympathy, it's not easy to deal with.

Daughter has tried the face cream and said it is definitely less greasy feeling than the first batch, but commented on the weird mousse appearance.
 
I finally “perfected” a new lotion using a new butter called Illipe. I have dry skin and am always on the hunt for a good moisturizer. I was making a lotion with Kokum but this is much better. I remade it 6 times before I was satisfied. 😏 But now in addition to body lotion I can call some of the better results, hand cream and foot cream 😜
 
I have a friend who wanted some lotion and likes BBW In The Stars, so I made a several scent options with FOs I had for her to pick from. She picked the one with BB Sandalwood Vanilla, Driftwood and Amber and Candied Citrus (2/2/1 parts). It’s not exactly the same, but it does smell nice even though it’s not what I’d want for myself.
Anyway, here’s the fun part. I had to come up with a name for this blend and her name is Janelle. Her lotion is named Janelle #5. heheheheheeee 🤣

Side note, I’m really loving the WSP Stained Glass Liquid colors sample set. You only add 1-4 drops depending on batch size for just the slightest tint of color to lotion.
 
I made a first try at a basic and simple tattoo balm - just beeswax, cocoa butter and sunflower oil with a touch of FO. So far, DH likes it. I looked up a popular brand and they also used Shea butter, Calendula oil and Caranuba wax. I have the Shea, but I’d need to get the Calendula to infuse, and the Caranuba wax. I don’t know much about Caranuba wax - how much would I add to this balm (WSP says 5% in lotion) and what else could I use it for?
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Question: I searched for "liquid shampoo recipe" and only found shampoo bars on this forum. Are bars better for hair, than liquid? Or easier to make than liquid? I'd like to make my own shampoo: and just am looking for a place to start. Thank you in advance!
 
Question: I searched for "liquid shampoo recipe" and only found shampoo bars on this forum. Are bars better for hair, than liquid? Or easier to make than liquid? I'd like to make my own shampoo: and just am looking for a place to start. Thank you in advance!
If you search "shampoo" on Humblebee & Me, you'll find a few liquid shampoo recipes (I was just looking at her shampoo recipes this morning). Bars aren't necessarily better or worse; they're made with similar ingredients but without the water.
 

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