More body butter tonight

Had another go at making body butter tonight and this one's sooo much better. Used less hard butter and more oils to try and get it a bit lighter. I've also used some different oils - apricot kernal oil and jojoba oil. They are both really moisturising but quickly absorbed by the skin so it doesn't leave it feeling too greasy. Might up the butters a little bit though to make it a little firmer but over all, really happy :)

Hand whipped and super fluffy

New things to play with :)

So excited that my delivery of new ingredients has arrived today (after not receiving it yesterday when the delivery driver tried to deliver it to the wrong house. Grrr)! They are so pretty:

The oils at the back from left to right are jojoba oil (supposed to be very similar to the oils naturally produced by our skin so very easily absorbed for deep moisturisation), blackcurrant seed oil (good for strengthening nails and softening cuticles - wonder if someone may be interested about my plan for this ;) ) and carrot oil (a natural colourant which is also rich in vitamins. Will only be using in small amounts though - don't want to make anyone orange :) ). The bottle on the far right is coffee bean essential oil. It smells AMAZING!!! Possibly some choca mocha soap... I'm also waiting on some coffee butter to go with it, which as well as smelling beautiful is supposed to feel lovely on your skin.

The packets in front are (from the left) apricot, banana, strawberry, mango and honey powders which smell yummy. I am planning to have a go at making face/hand/foot masks as they are really rich in vitamins and try them as another possible natural colourant for soaps. Watch this space...

Sweet like chocolate

I managed to obtain some organic, unrefined, virgin cocoa butter which is the most amazing product. Cocoa butter comes from the same cacao beans of chocolate. Most is just the oil by-product from the chocolate industry but this is the whole bean meaning it looks and smells just like chocolate! Anyway decided that the first think I was going to make with it was some more bath melts. They are the same as before but with the dark cocoa butter and fragranced with sweet orange essential oil (which sadly I don't think I used enough of as all I can smell is chocolate - could be worse :P ).

I love mango butter :)

Had a go at making a whipped body butter which is mainly cocoa, shea and mango butters and it is soooo good (if I don't say so myself). It is so moisturising but not at all greasy which you may find with some body butter. I fragranced it frangipani absolute (very similar to an essential oil but extracted from the plant in a slightly different way) which is so beautiful - very floral but without being too sweet like rose, but at the same time not as intense jasmine (that's just my opinion :) ).

Mango Butter

Frangipani

Two more today

Taking advantage of Paul being away and made two batches of soap last night which I've unwrapped and sliced tonight. 

The first is made of coconut oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, sweet almond oil, olive oil and castor oil so hopefully will be super moisturising. It also contains aloe vera juice and cucumber puree which gives the beautiful green colour and make it really soothing.

The second is made of olive and coconut oil, cocoa butter, shea butter and my new favourite product - mango seed butter. I love the feel this soap has but hope that it doesn't become too hard. The sunny yellow colour is from an annatto seed infusion (the same thing as they use to colour Cheddar and Red Leicester cheese). I used May Chang (aka Litsea) essential oil which is a beautiful cross between lemon and lemongrass - really lovely. Also got to try my new crinkle cutter which is my new toy :) I don't know if you've noticed but I really love this soap. Just got my fingers and toes crossed that it doesn't get too hard....