Aloe vera is known to most people as bright green goop. I imagine that goo comes from an underground river like the one in Ghostbusters. As it turns out, that is not where actual aloe vera comes from. Not even close. Aloe vera is a cactus-like plant with long, meaty tendrils. The tendrils are full of snot-like goo that is (more or less) the aloe vera you’re familiar with.
I love to use cosmetic grade aloe vera juice as the water base (or part of it) in lotions and other concoctions for it’s healing wonders—the fresh stuff we’re making here is very hard to safely preserve, so you’ll want to save this fresh stuff for direct-to-skin application, keep it in the fridge, and not store it too terribly long (less than a week).
I used one of my favourite mason jar hacks; the trick where the blade of a blender screws right onto a mason jar and creates a handy little magic bullet like blending container. I split each arm of the aloe vera lengthwise with a knife, sectioned them off into 6″ lengths, and scraped the goo out of the leaf and into the mason jar.
I screwed the blender blade on, pureed the mixture, and then I pressed the mixture through a fine sieve. Et voila. Fresh aloe vera juice. Lovely! Keep in in the fridge and use within a week, it won’t keep well.
Hello!! Your blog is very useful, elegant and naural, and I read it frecuently.
Recently I began to make soaps (CP) and I want to try with Aloe Vera raw. I live in The Caribbean coast but here there are only aloe Vera raw (like your photos) (I saw in others blogs some things that names Aloe Vera Gel but I believe it is some kind of industrial product) Im not sure about if using Aloe vera raw, with the water, can rot the soap with the passage of time. Do you have knowing about it?
Thanks for share all this important things!
Please Excuse my deficient English… Im only speak spanish but read a little English..
Thanks agian!
Hi Ana Lora 🙂 A big thank you for reading! First off, I am super jealous of your climate! It is -2°C right now and that’s considered really quite warm for this time of year… we have a high of 6°Ç today 🙁 Yay? Booooo.
As for your question, I believe you should be fine. Soap dries as it cures (that’s why we cure it, so it doesn’t turn into snot instantly when we use it), and water must be present for mould. Think about milk soaps—they don’t spoil, and milk is very perishable. I’ve also made soaps with puréed cranberries and beets, and neither of those batches spoiled. I would not use 100% aloe vera purée (cut it with some water, as you mentioned) just to be sure. And yes, aloe vera gel is not the same thing as raw aloe vera—it’s a kind of suspicious bright green glop that is definitely not at all natural. And be sure you set your soap to age somewhere relatively cool and dry. Since you live somewhere hot and humid, that’s the only thing I can imagine causing problems. Where I live is dry and cold, so things don’t really mould here—they just go stale. Perfect for aging soap, lol.
Hope that helps 🙂 Good luck and let me know how it goes! Oooh—I had another reader tell me that aloe purée in soap turns it pink… let me know if that happens 😉
Thanks Marie!!!
I’ll be try the aloe vera soap in the next days! Thanks for your response, I really appreciate it!
Here we have 26-30ºC and 65% humidity…. I really enjoy it but I cant say the same about our Government… But anyway, some things are better than others when you live in the tropic ;P
Thanks again and I’ll send you some photos when I’ll make this mysterious soap!
Awesome, I look forward to hearing back & seeing photos 🙂 Enjoy that sunshine 😉
I was wondering about using the aloe powder that added to water would make aloe juice. Do you think that would work? Unfortunately, I’m not a fabulous grower of all things green. *sigh*
Hi Cynnara! I almost always just use the 200x concentrate powder to make my own aloe vera juice as I don’t have my own aloe plant 🙂 As a bonus, products made with it last much longer than stuff made with juice straight from the plant as the processed juice/powder is sterile.
I wonder if there is a way to make gel out of fresh aloe that would keep for at least some time ?
In my experience this can’t be achieved without a preservative, and even then I think you’d have to filter it quite finely to remove any plant debris. Fresh stuff loves to rot!
Hey Marie! You scared me in the first line when I misread “bright green goop” as “bright green poop” haha 😀
I’m planning on making a lotion some time soon, and I really like your shealoe one. The first time I made it I used aloe vera gel instead of the juice (I know, but it was all I had >.<) and it turned out alright, just very thick. That was fine with me though because I'm the type of person to put straight shea on the face. I actually quite liked the consistency, so I was wondering, can I use my fresh aloe plant's gel if I put lots of preservative? Or is that still just a very bad idea?
Honestly, there are way too many variables for me to say, and neither of us have the chemistry/microbiology knowledge to ensure that would be properly preserved. You can’t just double the liquid germall plus as too much preservative is also a bad thing; you’d probably be looking at including parabens, which are super strong, but beyond that I cannot offer reliable advice here. I really wouldn’t recommend it.
hey can u plss upload a picture of your mason jar blender plss..
i really wanna make one..
There’s a picture in this post 🙂
HI, Do you know if there are any side effects or cons of fresh aloe juice that’s passed its prime? Can it be bad for you or does it just lose all of its benefits?
It can definitely rot, grow mould, etc., which could lead to irritation, infections, and other less-than-desirable things.