Sunday, December 4, 2016

Winter's here; Whipped Lotions & Soap

Snow is finally falling in northern Wisconsin.  Despite have a gloriously warm pre-winter season these past few weeks, the furnace has been running, burning up the LP.  Yesterday, however, Paul made sure everything was ready to get the wood-furnace set for the season, considering temps are expected to plummet this week :(
Last night = our first wood heat of the year.
It gets SUPER TOASTY HOT!
But DRY!!!

Therefore, this afternoon, the humidifier was set up.
Also, since my lotion containers are just about empty, the afternoon was whittled away whipping up a new batch of lotion.

I've made lotion bars in the past, but once I cooked up my first whipped lotion recipe last summer, the lotion bars were all but forgotten; although I still have one of my cocoa butter bars left (it is wonderful for my elbows, knees and heels).

As a reminder...
Simple recipe for whipped lotion
120g (~1/2 cup) coconut oil
120g (~1/2 cup) Shea butter
4g beeswax
1/2 tsp Vitamin E
Melt oil, butter and beeswax together.  

Mix, add vitamin E, and then chill in fridge for ~30 minutes.

Whip to desired consistency...
Within a few minutes, it takes on a frosting appearance.

After whipping for about 10 minutes, a thick and creamy texture is reached; ready to pour.
This small batch fills 3 of my larger and smaller containers;  each container receives some fragrance (the rough measurement:  5mL or 1/8 - 1/4 tsp).


Since I was in the kitchen and had my ingredients readily available, a 2lb batch of soap was cooked up as well.

This batch used my simple master-batch recipe:
240g Coconut Oil
280g Olive Oil
280g Canola Oil
240g Yogurt/Water half-n-half (frozen)
113g Lye

At the completion of cooking, 1/4 ground oatmeal and 1Tbsp honey were added.  Additionally, it was enhanced with some Hazelnut Cappuchino fragrance.  The light exfoliating nature of the oatmeal is my ALL-TIME favorite!!!

Switching gears...

My quilting and crocheting world has been quiet, but while cleaning up some photography files, this image of our rooster, Sunset, inspired me to make up a color-card.  I haven't jump on-board Bonnie's mystery En Provence (yet), however Andee seems to agree that these colors may just work out.

Happy Sunday!

3 comments:

Kevin the Quilter said...

AMY! It has been FOREVER since we have been in contact! Your lotions look really luxurious! Christmas gifts! I agree with Andee....I think Sunset's colors would make an amazing mystery quilt color combo! Belated happy bday to your daughter!

Andee said...

Yes! I think they would be awesome as En Provence..and different from all the rest! Let's do it! Love seeing you branch out into lots of stuff besides quilting..life is too busy!

The Joyful Quilter said...

While I really like the color card that you came up with, your lotion looks good enough to dive into!!