Make Your Own Face Cleanser

Three years ago, I blogged my last post. How sad is that? I've all but abandoned my blog. However, I do have an excuse! I put it down to time, money and laziness although I knew I would be back some day.


It's been a long time but I still have not lost my love for all things soapy! So many things have happened in the last few years. I look back on it now and it all seems a bit surreal to think that three years have since passed. I definitely don't think I will be blogging very often but it still feels good to be back.


Anyway, enough about dwelling on the past for me! Today, I have an exciting new tutorial. I remember the very first product I bought on Lush was their ever popular skin cleanser, Angels on Bare Skin.


Well, I've done some experimenting and I think I have come up with a recipe that does mimic their best-seller in a way. It's impossible to be sure unless I were to sneak into their manufacturing plant ninja style!


This is what I found has worked for me and I would be interested in you trying it out for yourselves and letting me know what results you have achieved.


So, without further ado, I present to you my tutorial for making your own Angels on Bare Skin cleanser!

Ingredients

Ground Almonds, Glycerine, Kaolin, Water, Lavender Oil, Rose Absolute, Chamomile Blue Oil, Tagetes Oil, Benzoin Resinoid, Lavender Flowers, *Limonene, *Linalool

Description (Lush AUS website)

Angelic, medieval cleansing wash with rose and lavender. Angels on Bare Skin is the Lush version of an expensive medieval skincare recipe. Rare, precious essential oils were first brought to Europe by the crusaders who encountered Arabian medicine. The church immediately banned them because their ability to alter states of mind was considered the devil’s work! But the final result was Cosmetics 1, Church 0. Rose oil and lavender oil were discovered to do wonderful things for the skin, too. Almost a thousand years later, you’d be hard pressed to find a better all round cleanser and exfoliator than Angels.

Angels on Bare Skin (Lush Dupe)

Makes: 400g worth of cleanser
Difficulty: Easy

236g ground almonds
76g glycerine
72g kaolin clay
12g distilled/purified water
4g fragrance/essential oils
Sprinkling of lavender flowers

1. Combine the ground almonds in a bowl with the kaolin clay and mix well with a spatula or spoon.
2. Add the glycerine and mix well once again. 
3. Once the glycerine has been mixed in thoroughly, add the water a tablespoon at a time.
4. After adding each tablespoon of water, check the consistency of your cleanser before adding more water.
5. When you are finished, your cleanser should have the consistency of cookie dough.
6. Add to the mixture your chosen fragrance and essential oils and combine well.
7. Turn the dough out of its bowl on to a clean sheet of baking paper.
8. Flatten the dough into a rectangular shape that is about a centimetre or two thick using your hands or a rolling pin.
9. Sprinkle the dough with the lavender flowers.
10. Finally, with the help of your sheet of baking paper, roll the dough into the shape of a log.
11. Slice off a piece to use and enjoy!

You'll notice that I have not included the exact measurements for the essential oils that Lush uses. The reasons being that rose absolute is ridiculously expensive and I have no idea where to find tagetes oil! However, if that is something you are able to get your hands on, add it in to your cleanser to truly replicate the Lush original.

As for the lavender flowers, sprinkle in as much or as little of the lavender flowers as you like. I don't actually like having the flowers in the cleanser but have used them in this recipe for the sake of duplicating the actual product.

Depending on where you are, how humid it is, the different altitudes, you may find that your finished cleanser may be too dry or too wet. If the mixture is too wet, just sprinkle in a little bit of kaolin clay and mix it in until you are happy with the consistency. Alternatively if the mixture is too dry, add in a touch more water at a time until the mixture comes together like a dough.

Voila! I present to you a picture of what my finished cleanser looks like.

For this recipe, I had ground my own almonds but had neglected to remove the almonds skins. I would suggest using ground blanched almonds as the cleanser will feel much softer against your skin. Then again, if you do like a more exfoliating cleanser, leaving the skins on might work for you!


As always, if you do choose to republish this recipe on your site or use it in your classes, a credit back to my blog will be greatly appreciated :)


Take care and until next time!


The ingredients, description and picture of Lush's Angels on Bare Skin were republished from Lush AUS.

Chocolate Orange Mud Cake

A post about something un-soapy related today! It was my friend's birthday a couple of weeks ago and she requested that I bake her a chocolate orange cake. So, I scoured the internet for a good chocolate cake recipe and found one here from Exclusively Food.

Let me just say, the cake was amazing! It was perfectly chocolatey, dense but moist as well as having a delicious, chewy crust. Personally, I am not a fan of chocolate orange but everyone absolutely loved it and I have had requests to make more of this.

All I did was add the zest of one whole orange and I also substituted the water with orange juice. I then added a splash of Grand Marnier to kick the flavour up a notch but you can use any orange liqueur you like.

That was it! I followed the rest of the recipe exactly and was rewarded with a beautiful cake which I glazed and topped with candied oranges.



Do try this recipe, you will not be disappointed!

Mayonnaise Pack for Hair

I have good news! I got a job! Woohoo!! I'm working front office at a hotel in Melbourne starting Monday. *fingers crossed* I hope I do okay. Thank you everyone for your kind comments, they were greatly appreciated.

Nothing interesting has been happening apart from me getting a job and I've been enjoying my last few days of freedom at home. I've decided to post a recipe for those of you who like to lather mayonnaise on your hair or skin. The oil used is coconut oil because it is the only oil that is able to penetrate hair and make it stronger according to some research I did on the internet.

According to the Beauty Brains, coconut oil is similar to the natural oil secreted from our hair and its molecules are small enough to penetrate the cortex and make it stronger from within.

However, if you have a favourite oil to use there is no reason why you cannot use it instead of the coconut oil.

You will need a blender for this recipe or a very strong arm!

Ingredients:

1 egg yolk
1 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon of runny honey, warmed
1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar
few drops of essential oils (optional)

1. Whisk the egg yolk in a blender or by hand then add the lemon juice/vinegar and warmed honey and whisk in thoroughly. Add the oil in the blender very slowly until all the oil has been added and the mixture thickens. Otherwise, whisk like mad non-stop while adding droplets of oil now and then until the mixture thickens. As you're whisking or blending, you will notice a change in the mixture as it becomes lighter coloured and looks more like mayonnaise than just thickened egg yolk. Add your essential oils at this point and stir to combine.

2. Slather the mayonnaise on your hair working your way from the roots to the ends. Cover with cling film and a towel. Leave it on for at least 30 minutes then shower and shampoo as normal. Don't forget to condition!

A lovely, luscious treat for your hair which can accompany a home facial for a truly indulgent and luxurious pampering session. Of course, if you don't want to go through all the trouble. Just heat a cupful of your oil of choice (don't burn yourself) and massage it into your hair. Couldn't be easier!

See you guys soon!

Cirque du Soleil

I caught Dralion yesterday here in Melbourne! It was amaaazzzziiiinnnnggg!! I wanted to get myself a souvenir but I couldn't decide on what to get :(. There was a really nice cirque du soleil jacket but it was 80 dollars and way too expensive. Below is the youtube video of the hoop diving. How good is it? Goodnight, everyone!

Strawberry Cream Bubble Rolls Tutorial

My first attempt at trying to roll bubble mixture to resemble a swiss roll did not turn out well. However, I tried again with a different recipe and I have to say being quick is really the key here! I waited too long and the mixture became a little dry and crumbly on me although it still managed to hold together in the end.

Ingredients:

First, you will need your favourite bubble recipe. I used this recipe although I had to substitute it with other ingredients as I didn't have Cocamide DEA or Glycerine handy. I suggest you follow the recipe as is posted by Bath and Body Supply because the pictures provided of the mixture sure look good! Basically, you want a good dough-like bubble mixture.

For these cream rolls, you will also need a red colouring agent and strawberry fragrance oil approved for cosmetic use. I used red food colouring although any safe, water soluble colour will do. Optionally, you can decorate with small candy flowers, sprinkles or hundreds and thousands.

Instructions:

First, mix up your batch of bubble mixture INCLUDING the fragrance oil but MINUS the colouring and divide equally into two bowls (Bowl A & Bowl B). Get a damp (make sure it isn't dripping wet) washcloth and lay it over Bowl A to prevent the mixture from getting too dry. Drop a couple of drops of your red colouring into Bowl B to achieve a lovely pastel pink and knead it in well until the mixture is uniformly coloured.

Lay a sheet of wax paper over your work surface, a good one to use is a large, heavy wooden chopping board. Quickly spread the pink mixture out on the wax paper and push outwards with your fingers until you have a rough rectangle that is about a centimetre thick. Still working quickly, spread the uncoloured mixture on top of the pink mixture until you have a rectangle of equal size and thickness. You may need to knead it again a few times or add just a couple of drops of glycerine to get it pliable again.

Now, here's the fun part. If you have ever rolled sushi with a sushi mat, you are going to do the exact same thing here with your bubble mixture and wax paper. Now this is a little hard to explain so I have included this link on how to roll sushi. The steps you want to pay attention to are step 4 and 5. If you have any questions, I will gladly try and answer them.

After you have rolled it up into a tight swiss roll, you are ready to cut immediately with a sharp knife and dip the top of each swiss roll in hundreds and thousands. Leave it on the wax paper to dry for a couple of days before wrapping it up and keeping it in a cool, dry place. Crumble one or two under hot running water and enjoy oodles and oodles of sweet smelling bubbles!

I hope this tutorial was helpful and that you make beautiful strawberry cream bubble rolls!