I love Christmas!

My love of chemistry was acknowledged by my friends and family this Christmas with this amazing test tube set and beaker from my best friend, and a fantastic pH meter from my mom and husband. I may have to break my ban on shopping on Boxing Day because I need some calibration fluid so I can use the darn thing (I could make some, but I'm scared I'll mess the machine up for good!).

My mom made me a lovely grey coloured blouse with pewter buttons, and my husband bought me many books and the game Crafting Mama for my DS. We did such a great job hiding my mom's presents around the house, we found five of them stashed away that we had to give her throughout the day! I gave Raymond an ice cream maker - ironic coming from the lactose tolerant girl, although he's been looking up soy and non-dairy based ice creams - and some clothes. (Damn, my husband's gorgeous!)

We had a great dinner - Raymond made turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and Brussell sprouts (ick!) and green beans and roastie potatoes and it was awesome, although we ate so much, we couldn't have our Christmas pudding! Next year - we eat early and less so I can have some pudding!

So how was your Christmas? Mine was awesome!

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Merry Christmas to all...

Merry Christmas! I'm taking the day off to make merry, jingle a few bells, open some presents, and spend some time with my friends and family. I'll be back on Boxing Day with more cosmetic chemistry fun, but for now I'm off to eat my mom's amazing Christmas cake, enjoy some Christmas pudding, and help my husband prepare Christmas dinner (we're actually having turkey this year! It's a first!).

Indulge me for a moment, if you will.

A huge thank you to all the readers of this blog - you inspire me to create new things, to research different topics, and to continue to expand my knowledge of this amazing craft we call bath & body products.

A massive thank you to those of you who participate in the comments and e-mails - you, too, inspire me to think outside of the proverbial box and learn new things.

And a thank you that is too large for any mere adjective to convey to those of you who have donated to my youth groups. You've allowed us to continue to offer our youth groups, and even expand them! You have no idea how much your support means to us, but more importantly, how much it means to the youth who attend our groups. They're shocked, amazed, and thrilled that people they haven't met care so much about them! They've gained an appreciation for the supplies we bring and they're learning all about the kindness of others. You've given them so much more than money - you've given them a chance to learn about generosity, kindness, and selflessness, three things that will serve them well as they become amazing adults. Again, I can never thank you enough, so I hope these words will suffice.

A very Merry Christmas to you and yours. Hope Santa is kind to you this year!

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Last minute project ideas!

Only 2 more days to go until Christmas, so if you don't have your presents made already, it might be too late. Or is it?

If you're looking for some last minute, easy to make, no fail presents, here are a few ideas for you...

Lotion bars: Give yourself an hour to weigh, melt, and mould, then pop them into the freezer to set quickly.

Whipped butters: These are always welcome under the tree, and your giftee will thank you when they feel the lovely meltiness on his or her skin.

Solid scrub bars for the body (click there for the original recipe, click here for modifications and lists of other recipes) or for the feet: Again, weigh, melt, mould, freeze. If you don't have all the ingredients, you can make something with a butter, an oil, some e-wax, some cetyl, your scrubby bits, and leave out all the fancy stuff.

And package it all in something really cute! Click here for a list of all the places I've found great templates for packaging (scroll down a bit). And don't forget the adorable labels!

Sorry for the short post, but it's chaos around here right now and I haven't had time to do any serious researching or experimenting for a few weeks! 

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What interests you?

Sorry I haven't had time to write up the posts on disodium cocoamphodiacetate but this week went crazy on me. Look for those posts shortly! 

I've been working so hard on the various e-books for the last few months that I kinda feel a bit lost on what to write about next. I like to have a theme - esters, surfactants, hair care products, and so on - and I feel like I don't have one right now, with the possible exception of the posts on substituting.

Is there a topic I should explore further? Is there something I haven't covered? Is there something I have covered but you'd like to see an update? Do you want to see a blast from the past?

The one exception is other emulsifiers - I don't have time to acquire them, so I can't really write about them with any degree of knowledge other than the book learnin' - but if you're interested, look for more about emulsifiers in the new year. And let me know which ones interest you!

Let me know what you'd like to see next!

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Presents for bath & body crafters!

With all the running around I've been doing running various groups, trying to get my own crafting done, and finishing up the lotion book, I didn't get time to write the post I wanted to on disodium cocoamphodiacetate, so I thought I'd put together this list...

Crafty types can be hard to buy presents for as we can make pretty much anything we want (although I still haven't figured out how to crochet an Xbox 360 game!) People can't really buy us those gift baskets filled with lotions and bubble baths because the first thing we do is turn it over, look at the ingredients, and make comments about what surfactants or oils we'd use instead. It's hard for our loved ones to know exactly which butters and oils we really want, and it's hard to give someone a list with C12-15 alkyl benzoate on it and expect them to know where to find it!

Here are a few ideas for the bath & body crafter in your life. The good thing is that you can never have enough of these items!

• Pyrex jugs - even though I have 2 in every size, I could use more! 
• Spoons - a 25 pack from a local restaurant supply store will do nicely.
• Funnels - I generally need about 40 of these, but 6 in different sizes will do just fine. 
• An apron - I'm constantly wiping my hands on my clothes - it's such a bad habit! - and this will protect my favourite Dalek stencilled shirt. 
• An easy to use paper towel rack - something I can use with one hand while balancing a jug in the other. 
• Spatulae - I can never have enough spatulae, and I would love to have more of the fancy ones and fewer of the dollar store stiff as a board ones! 
• Somewhere I can store my bottles and not take up too much room. But I think this one's just a fantasy because they're just so hard to store! 

What crafty goodness have you asked Santa for this year?

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20 days until Christmas - for those new to bath & body products

If you're new to bath & body creation and , but still want to give a few of your homemade presents this year, here are a few ideas!

BATH SALTS
These are easy peasy and you can make a ton of them for not a lot of money! All you need is one colour, a fragrance oil, some Epsom salts, and some containers or cellophane bags, and you've got yourself a present! Considering I pay $7 for 3 kg of Epsom salts at my local megamart, and considering I generally give out packages of 100 grams at a time, you can make 30 packages for $7! Yay!

Click here for the hand-out on bath salts.

If you want to use different salts, make sure you aren't using 100% Dead Sea salts. They're hygroscopic, meaning they draw water from the atmosphere, so you can end up with a bag of 100% cement! I'd suggest using up to 10% Dead Sea Salts with the rest being fine sea salts or Epsom salts.

And you can include something like lavender flowers to make the bag look lovely!

BATH TRUFFLES
These are adorable shaped solid oil products you can throw in your bath. Again, they're super easy to make and easy to package!

Click here for the post on bath truffles.

WHIPPED BUTTERS & LOTION BARS
Whipped butters and lotion bars are great products for beginners - they don't contain water, so you don't need a preservative, and it's easy to make them from oils and butters you might find in the supermarket or health food store.

Click here for the post on whipped butters, and click here for the start of the series on lotion bars.

If you're interested in seeing more, click here for the entire "Back to Basics" series, all of which are suitable for the beginning formulator!

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21 days until Christmas - teen girl products!

Any product suitable for an adult woman is suitable for a teen girl with a few modifications, but I thought I'd focus on a few mineral make-up ideas in this post! These would be suitable for younger girls who like to play with make-up as well because they're all very sheer! I try to encourage the teen girls in my groups to go light on the make-up so as to not hide their pretty faces (yes, I've turned into my mom!), and I always encourage them to choose lighter colours with some sparkle and shine.

LIP SHIMMER STICKS
I love these lip shimmer sticks. They behave as lip balms and the little bit of colour appeals to the teens. (For an explanation for why I'm using the ingredients I'm using, click here.)

LIP SHIMMER STICK BASE
8% candellia wax
9% beeswax (I was going to use carnauba, but I ran out!)
18% shea butter
12% mango butter
52% liquid oils (28% castor oil, 10% fractionated coconut oil, 7% squalene, and 7% jojoba)
1% Vitamin E

Melt everything except the Vitamin E in a double boiler until melted. Remove from the heat, then add the Vitamin E. Mix well. Remove a tablespoon at a time to make 2 lip balm tubes.

You can choose the liquid oils you like. I chose castor oil because it offers awesome shine, fractionated coconut oil because it has a long shelf life and is very light, jojoba oil because my skin seems to like it, and squalene because it is light with a long shelf life, and my skin seems to like it. I chose shea and mango butter because I had a ton of it around and, again, my lips seem to like those butters. Although I think my choices have nice long shelf lives, I still included Vitamin E just to be on the safe side. (Again, click the link above for more information on the ingredients!)

A lip balm container will hold about 7.5 ml or 1.5 tsp, so if you mix up 1 tbsp of lip balm, you should get 2 tubes - one for you, one for your giftee! I find between 5 small scoops (0.15 cc or 1/32 tsp) and 8 small  scoops of mica will create a really lovely colour that will leave a light shine on the lips.

If you have a colour you really like for a blush, for instance, you can use that colour blend to make your lip shimmer. Make up the colour, then add between 5 and 8 small scoops to 1 tbsp of lip balm!

As a note, you can use your favourite lip balm recipe to create these lip shimmer sticks - just follow the instructions for adding colour! I just thought I'd share my favourite recipe. 

GLITTER POWDERS
I love making silver or gold glitter powders for Christmas time. A little sparkle adds to the festive atmosphere! (The original post can be found here with an explanation of the ingredients!)

GLITTER POWDER BASE
58.3% Micronaspheres or treated sericite mica
41.7% Dry-flo or another translucent filler

Add your favourite glitter or micas to create a shiny product!

Gold shimmer: To 0.5 grams of base, you'll want to add 1 scoop light beige mica of some sort and 1 scoop sparkle or sunpearl gold. To make a full sifter container, you'll want to use 4.0 grams of base to 1/4 tsp oriental beige mica, 1/4 tsp sparkle gold mica.

Silver shimmer: 4 scoops sunpearl silver mica or any other silver, 1 scoop black satin mica. Or 4 cc sunpearl silver mica to 1 cc black satin mica. Add at 1/2 tsp to 4 grams of base.

You can add any micas you want to this at about the same ratio. Mix together your micas until you achieve the colour you want, then add 1/2 tsp to about 4 grams of base.

Join me tomorrow for fun creating gifts suitable for someone new to bath & body!

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22 days until Christmas - products for teen boys

We have a number of teen boys in our youth programs, and I'm making them little kits to thank them for their hard work in helping us set up at the library, things like moving chairs and tables, moving the video game equipment, keeping the younger ones in check, and so on. This year, I'm giving them my favourite body wash, a shaving bar, and a fragranced body spray!

BODY WASH
I've said this before, but I love formulating body washes. It's easy to tweak your favourite recipe and try it out in the shower that day, so you know right away if you like it! I'm giving the boys bottles of this recipe, which is my favourite out of all the combinations I've made so far! I figure teen boys can use all the acne fighting power they can get!

MOISTURIZING BODY WASH WITH ESTERS AND WHITE WILLOW BARK
12% cocamidopropyl betaine
16% BSB or other surfactant of choices
12% C14-16 olefin sulfonate
30% warm distilled water
10% aloe vera liquid
5% PEG-7 glyceryl cocoate
5% myristamine oxide
3% polyquat 7
3% glycerin
2% cromoist
2% panthenol
0.5% preservative (liquid Germall Plus)
0.5% white willow bark
up to 2% Crothix

Mix the surfactants together well, then add the rest of the ingredients (except the panthenol, preservative, and white willow bark) and continue to mix. Try not to get too many bubbles. Heat a little water and dissolve the white willow bark into it. Add the panthenol, white willow bark, and preservative. Mix again.

We scented these with a lime-eucalyptus essential oil blend - 2 parts lime to 1 part eucalyptus - and left it uncoloured. I'm so happy with this one!

If you don't have PEG-7 glyceryl cocoate or myristamine oxide, feel free to use another water soluble moisturizer (like PEG-7 olivate) or leave it out and add 10% of your favourite surfactant in their place. (Click here for all the posts on surfactants.) I've chosen C14-16 olefin sulfonate because I like it for oily skin, but you could use a surfactant more suitable for dry skin in its place. Just don't change the cocamidopropyl betaine - I consider this essential!

SHAVING BAR
My husband loves shaving bars, so I thought I'd share them with the boys this year (they're growing up so fast!). I'm using 5% cocoa butter, 5% babassu as I don't want to introduce too much oil to their adolescent faces, and I'm switching out the shea and fractionated coconut oils for non-comedogenic esters, specifically 10% C12-15 alkyl benzoate. This will offer nice slip and glide, and it will keep the fragrance on their faces a little longer. I figure it's two great things in one!

SOLID SHAVING BAR
60% Incroquat BTMS (or 30% BTMS, 30% Incroquat CR)
10% cetyl alcohol
10% butter of choice - 5% cocoa butter, 5% babassu or another hard oil
3% cationic polymer like honeyquat or condition-eze 7 (polyquat 10)
5% oils of choice
2% hydrolyzed silk protein
2% panthenol
2% dimethicone
2% cyclomethicone
2% hydrolyzed protein
2% fragrance or essential oil

Weigh into a heat proof container the Incroquat BTMS, cetyl alcohol, butter, cationic polymer, oils, silk protein, and hydrolyzed protein and place into a double boiler until they melt. Add the panthenol, dimethicone, cyclomethicone, hydrolyzed protein, and essential oil, mix well, then put into a mould and pop into the freezer or fridge until solid.

As a note, these are best made in 33 gram (1 ounce) to 45 gram moulds. They last forever, and making them larger only makes it annoying to swipe across your face!

FRAGRANCED BODY SPRAY
The boys pay a fortune for these products, so why not make them a few in their favourite scents. I have a few Axe fragrance oils, so I'm using those for these body sprays! Here's the most recent post I've written on this topic, which includes anhydrous and water based versions.

Here are a few more ideas suitable for the teen boys in your life!

Join me tomorrow for some gift ideas suitable for teen girls!

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23 days until Christmas - kids' products

I don't have any children in my house, but I have dozens of them at the library and on my caseload at work, and I like to make them little packages this time of year! Here are my three favourite things to make for kids! (As a note, consider making these items as presents for your kids to give away! It's so much fun seeing them colouring and fragrancing the bubble bath!)

BUBBLE BATH
Find me a kid who doesn't like bubble bath and I'll show you a kid who doesn't like to have fun!

I like to use my general recipe for bubble bath, but I've started adding up to 5% cocamide DEA to maintain the foam and bubbles for a longer period of time. If you choose to use this ingredient, make sure you remove 5% from the water phase. And if you want this recipe to be thicker or think you might use a very thinning out type of fragrance oil (like one containing vanilla), consider adding 10% aloe vera. It won't do much for your skin, but the electrolytes will thicken the mixture nicely.

BUBBLE BATH RECIPE
36.5% water
30% Amphosol CG
22% Bioterge AS-40
6% BSB
1% glycerin
0.5% to 1% preservative
2% fragrance oil
Colouring, if desired

Mix your surfactants together until well blended, then add the water and blend well. Add the glycerin, preservative, fragrance oil, and colouring and blend well (but don't be overly zealous in your mixing, as we don't want to generate a ton of bubbles). Let it rest for a bit - say an hour or so - and check the viscosity. If you are happy with it, bottle and label it. If you aren't happy with it, then add 1% liquid Crothix and stir well. If you still aren't happy with it, add another 0.5% Crothix. You can go up to 2% Crothix, but ensure you stir very well in between additions.

As a note, this is a great project to make with kids. You can make the product from scratch with them, or create a base they can colour, fragrance, bottle, and label. Here are my suggestions from last year on making bubble bath with kids or youth! 

FIZZING BATH SALTS (aka Fairy Dust)
Wanda's niece looks forward to receiving her package of Fairy Dust every year, and this Christmas will be no exception. You can make these for adults in your life - we use peppermint essential oils for the foot bath version and regular fragrance oils for the bath version - and use any liquid colouring you like. We're using cosmetic grade glitter until it's sparkly and pink (although we chose purple to go with the bubble bath).

FIZZING BATH SALTS
57% Epsom salts
28% baking soda
14% citric acid
1% fragrance or essential oil

Weigh all the ingredients, except the fragrance oil and colour, and stir well. Add the fragrance oil and colour and mix well. I like to package these in 100 gram batches in cellophane bags. Throw a few spoonfuls in the bath and watch it fizz and release lovely scent!

As a note, bath bombs and fizzy salts can be a great way to toilet train your kids! If they use the toilet properly, they get to throw in a tiny bath bomb or fizzy salt and watch the fun!

MELT & POUR SOAPS
I don't make CP soap, but I love making melt & pour soaps! These are popsicle soaps Wanda made for her nieces. I don't know if you can see it well in this picture, but there's a layer of white in the middle to give it a Creamsicle kind of feel. I do suggest using the same scent for all three layers or choosing a complementary scent as it can get a bit overwhelming if you have a cacophony of fragrances emanating from the one soap! We didn't fragrance these as Wanda's brother is scent sensitive, but I think using tangerine or orange for the orange layers with non-discolouring vanilla would be awesome!

This is a chocolate mold I found at my local chocolate making shop (Scoop & Save in Langley). Chocolate molds work great for melt & pour soaps: They tend to be a lot cheaper than soap molds (these ones were $3.25) and you can generally find shapes you wouldn't find in soap molds.

Click here to find the hand-outs I've used with my craft groups!

Join me tomorrow for some ideas for presents suitable for boys tomorrow!

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23 days until Christmas!

Today kicks off my family's official holiday celebration schedule. We don't start the Christmas season until December 2nd, the day after my mom's birthday. As a just-about Christmas baby myself (December 21st), I'm very aware of the annoyance of having one's birthday get lost in the Christmas chaos. So in our family, we don't start carolling, wassailing (whatever that is), decorating, or adorning ourselves in Christmas cheer until the 2nd so my mom's birthday is celebrated properly! (Although part of me thinks this might be a ploy by my husband and mom to keep me from singing carols in October! Did I mention how much I love Christmas?)

Because it's such a busy time for me with all the groups and classes and trying to find time to make presents myself, this post kicks off a series of tutorials and recipes you might have missed and ones I love to give as presents. I'll be interspersing these posts with things that come up in your questions or comments, or things that I think about while formulating in the workshop.

Join me in a few minutes for a few recipe ideas for products you might like to give to kids!

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A sneak peek at my plans for upcoming posts...

I've been in the workshop a lot in the last week while making Christmas gifts, and I got to thinking (which can be a dangerous thing for me!).

One of my favourites is a body mousse I found on the Dish forum, one of the first recipes I tried! It has six ingredients - water, oil, emulsifier, stearic acid, glycerin, and preservative - and it feels just lovely! I did tweak it, using olive oil instead of whatever was suggested at the time, but I've kept everything else the same. Many times I've thought of using cetyl alcohol instead of stearic acid, adding an ester or two, switching out the oils, but I've never done it because the recipe is just so perfect the way it is!

This desire to get back to basics inspired the series and e-book by the same name back in the summer (click here for the back to basics round-up of links), but I haven't done it with lotions in ages! So coming up in January, I'll be posting the six ingredient challenge and I hope you'll play along! The challenge is to make a really great lotion using only six ingredients. I'm not counting water, 'cause it's necessary - but hydrosols, watery extracts, and aloe vera will count - or preservative, mainly because I don't want anyone to leave it out in the hopes of getting an extra ingredient in there. Fragrance or essential oils won't count either.

I figure this is a great way to get to know what our ingredients bring to the party, what they offer by way of skin feel, thickening power, emulsifying action, and so on. I'll set out the rules for the first post in early January, and I think this will be a very interesting experience! I'm not offering fabulous prizes or anything, but there will be a lovely feeling of satisfaction when you've made something really awesome and shared it with others!

I'm dying to do this now, but I know we're all swamped with the holidays coming!

The second thought was to challenge myself to use ingredients in a different way. My husband came up with the idea of Iron Chemist. Each week he'll go into the workshop and choose one ingredient I must use that week (with the exception of preservatives, because that wouldn't be very interesting!).

The rules? I have to make at least two, but preferably three, products using that ingredient. I'll post the ingredient at the beginning of the week, and post the recipes at the end of the week. I'd love it if you played along by making a product and sharing your recipe (and pictures, if you have them). Again, there aren't any fabulous prizes to be won, but you will get the satisfaction of challenging yourself to try something new.

I haven't really done any challenges in a while, so I figure this will be great fun! If you have any other ideas for challenges - a new product, a duplicate product, and so on (remembering that I have access to only the supplies I have!) - comment away!

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31 days until Christmas!

To celebrate the coming holiday season, I have decreed December shall be the month of tutorials, recipes, and gift ideas. So I pose this question to you - what interests you? What do you want to make?

Do you have a new oil or exotic ingredient you'd like to use or do you want to see some variations on some of the oldies and/or goodies? Do you want some ideas on kits you can put together or stand alone products? Are you a newbie who needs some directions to recipes you can make for the first time, or are you an experienced bath & body creator who wants more ideas for products?

I'll still be offering helpful hints, chemistry fun, and whatever else pops into my head, but I love knowing what you want to see next.

Let me know in the comments! (Tomorrow's supposed to be a snow day, so I have some time to do some writing and experimenting in the workshop, so get those comments in as soon as you can!)

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Christmas in Swift's workshop!

All this reading about things that might irritate, hurt, maim, or kill you, I'm feeling like I need a break from the maligned ingredients series. I need something wonderfully uplifting, so for me that means Christmas! And I realize this is early, but nothing annoys me more than to see holiday related tutorials showing up a few days before or even the day of said holiday! I need time to get supplies and motivation! 

I'm a Christmas baby (my birthday's December 21st) and nothing gets me happier than the sight of a glass of egg nog and some Christmas pudding with custard. (I'm lactose intolerant, so drinking egg nog is right out, even with Ultra Lactaid. And don't suggest soy nog - it's an abomination! I'll just enjoy my egg nog tea for now!)

And I love making Christmas presents of all kinds, but I'll focus on my Christmas toiletries!

So what am I making this year? Here are a few of my favourite bar recipes...

Black cocoa butter scrub bars! I am in love with this stuff. The bars melt more quickly than those made with regular cocoa butter, but they look like giant chocolates. I'm melting a little regular cocoa butter over top as a drizzle, and I'm packaging them in cellophane bags with a label stating DO NOT EAT!

I'm also making shaving bars for both my male and female friends. I love these things!

Foot scrub bars with some nice minty foot salts and a lotion bar for an adorable foot care kit!

I love bars because we don't have to worry about packaging all that much. We can use cellophane bags and cute twist ties or ribbon with a nice label and we're done! Here are some ideas for non-container packaging.

I like to use Chinese take out boxes a lot. My husband asked me why women seem to like these boxes - they're cute is really the only answer I can give! 

Here's a post from last year on Christmas presents you might like to make. I love the sushi candles, and don't forget how lovely a heated flax bag can be (and how easy to make) when coupled with a few other bath & body products! And here are a few ideas for Christmas jewellery and beaded snowflakes.

42 days until Christmas!

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