The other day, I used the last of my cold cream and the last of my face wash. I saved the empty containers for a new diy beauty project. Over the past few months, I've seen a lot of buzz about cleansing milks and cleansing balms. I've read about them in articles pinned on Pinterest and Ruth Crilly from A Model Recommends (check out her blog at www.amodelrecommends.com and her youtube channel: A Model Recommends. she's great and talks a lot about great products) talks about cleansing balms used with hot cloths. A few years ago, a read a post from another blog that I follow (Kimberley's Cup) where the blogger wrote about the wonders of oil cleansing and how much it changed her skin. The idea of cleaning my face with oil sounded very wrong; it went against all that I understood. However, I love a great experiment and I tried it. The concoction, a blend of olive oil, castor bean oil and essential oils did a phenomenal job at removing makeup/goo and left my face super soft. Over time, my skin cleared up and the texture was greatly improved. It turns out, that the idea of stripping dirt and all oil off of your face does more harm than good! When I began reading up on cleansing balms, the idea was very similar to the oil cleansing method, so I thought I'd try another fun experiment. Disclaimer** I am not a professional maker of cleaners. This is just an experiment that I tried. If you try this for yourself, do so at your own discretion.
I decided to make a liquid cleanser and a cleansing balm using basic ingredients. For the cleansing liquid, I used essential oils (lavender, orange and grapefruit), pears soap and water.
I recycled an empty soap bottle to contain the mixture. I needed a mug to melt the Pears soap and a funnel to pour the liquid into the bottle.
I began by splitting the soap bar in half. I set the other half aside to use in another batch. Then, I cubed the remaining half. I really should have split the bar into thirds, the end result was thicker than I wanted. The soap bottle that I was re-using had a 7.5 oz capacity, so I measured 6 ounces of water and poured it into the mug. Then, I added the chunks of soap and placed the mug in the microwave. I heated the water in 30 second increments until the chunks of soap had melted. Once the soap was a liquid I gently stirred the water and soap mixture. Using a funnel, I carefully poured the mixture into the bottle. I then added 8 drops of lavender essential oil and I added 10 drops each of the orange and grapefruit essential oils. After securing the pump to the bottle, I tipped the bottle upside down and back up a few times. This gentle motion helped to blend the essential oils into the soap. I set the bottle aside and allowed it to thicken throughout the day.
The end result was a super thick soap. After using the soap a few times, I've added more water and, with the pump off, microwaved the blend for another 30 seconds. Next time, I'll use less of the bar for the mixture. The soap now resembles thick raw honey. It can be pumped with ease and it makes my face super smooth after washing; I really love it! I have enough bar soap to make 3 bottles of the mixture. I should add that I bought the soap at the Dollar Tree, so it cost less than $0.35 to make.
Obviously, you would use the soap in the same manor that you would use as the soup directed, avoiding the eye area. This soap is great for cleansing the face, but not great at removing eye makeup.
This is what I'm calling my "Beauty Balm." This was so ridiculously easy to make! I simply took 1/2 cup of coconut oil (room temperature), 2 1/2 tablespoons of castor oil, 6-8 drops of lavender essential oil and 10-12 drops each of orange and grapefruit essential oil. Then, I gave it a little stir to blend it. Next, I used my hand mixer and I whipped the blend for 3 minutes. It looks like butter cream frosting and it made enough to fill an empty Noxema jar! This is great to smooth on at night and use with a warm, damp wash cloth. This will be amazing at removing eye makeup; which is why I didn't add peppermint or eucalyptus essential oil, both of those could irritate my eyes.
Update: I had to dilute the liquid soap even more. The soap was too thick, I re-bottled it in a 16 oz. bottle, I also had to add more water to thin it out. Now, it's a thinner consistency, as it had been the first time I made it. It works nicely, now.
So, aside from being sleep deprived and zooming all over the state, this is what I did over the week. I wasn't able to blog due to terrible exhaustion. It's been a very busy week, but I have found a lot of things that inspired me. I am hoping that this rush of inspiration will fuel me enough to be very creative between now and October. I had to take a break from the quilt project so that I might do other crafts, but I'll return to that soon. Tonight, I will pamper myself with a facial, hot cider, pumpkin baklava and British television. I am a shameless Anglophile, after all. I hope to post about all my crazy projects soon. Until next time~ Toodahloo!
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