Today we’re blending up a gentle Lavender Aloe Cream Facial Cleanser, featuring fragrant lavender hydrosol, soothing aloe vera, and gentle Cocamidopropyl Betaine. This lotion-like cleanser is brilliant for dry skin, offering great cleansing without being harsh. You can easily customize the scent and adjust it to work with the carrier oils you have on hand. I’m loving it as a stand-alone cleanser morning and night, and I hope you will as well!
I’m pretty darn excited to finally share a formulation for a liquid shampoo! I’ve had a lot of requests for a non-soap liquid shampoo over the last few years, and here we are. This one stars a surfactant blend that kicks off oodles of dense, thick lather, leaving your hair feeling all kinds of clean and silky. There are some conditioning goodies for manageability and panthenol + silk for added shine and bounce. It’s also cold-processed, so making it is as easy as measure, stir, and wait!
I first developed this cream last autumn under the title “ultra gel cream”. When you look at the ingredients you’ll know why—it’s pretty darn “ultra”. It is positively packed with things that are bomb-diggity awesome for the skin, helping to brighten, hydrate, soothe, and heal. I was a bit on the fence about sharing it as it does contain a lot of somewhat fancy to straight-up fancy ingredients that not everyone will have… but it’s also awesome, and I think people who do have (or purchase) the ingredients will love it. I’ve also had a lot of requests for anti-ageing products & products for more mature skin, and I think this lovely serum more than qualifies!
We’re doing a bit of calorie-free “baking” today with some downright delicious Chocolate Ganache Fizzing Bath Biscuits! These fun, fizzy bath treats were inspired by a request from Bethany + some LUSH products I’ve been ogling for a while. When I first started work on these I didn’t think I’d end up with some delicious bath cookies, but I love how they’ve turned out! They’re like the lovechild of a bubbly bath bomb and bath oil, filling your tub with bubbles and suds and transforming the bathwater into a rich, velvety treat. Oooer. Prepare to fall in love!
This decadent Intense Hand Rescue Cream became an instant favourite of mine while it was still warm in the beaker. It’s thick and rich, with a very luxurious skin feel and stunning slip. It’s also loaded with all kinds of great-for-skin goodies like colloidal oatmeal, ceramides, allantoin, shea butter, and glycerin. I’ve been applying it to my hands and body constantly as crap-tons of handwashing and dry weather continue to do a number on my skin. I hope you love it as much as I do!
Today’s DIY is ultra-simple; I designed it to be a safe and easy way to add essential oils to baths with some added bubbles. Putting essential oils in baths is really common, but can be problematic if not done properly. Essential oils are oil-soluble, so without some sort of emulsifier or solubilizer they won’t properly mix into bathwater—they’ll float on top, where they can contact the skin in high concentrations. Combine high concentrations with the magnifying heat of a hot bath and that can be bad news for your naked body 😬
Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care is now available at booksellers all over the world!