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Majestic Court 5, St. Mary's Street
Mellieha
Malta

LisaLise offers online education of natural plant-based cosmetics via e-books and courses

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A look inside the LisaLise natural cosmetics lab with free formulas, DIY how-to's, ingredients tips, sneak peeks, and more.

Filtering by Category: In Progress

Introducing LisaLise Club

Lise

Here’s a peek in my lab from a while back but it’s pretty typical of what the lab looks like at almost any given time. There are almost always more than a few ongoing projects.

My passion for working with natural ingredients in a multitude of ways has grown exponentially with the passing of time. Being interested in so many different aspects of working with plants has brought me down all sorts of interesting new paths of discovery (some call these rabbit holes) resulting in an ever-growing to-do list.

Some might call it stubbornness, but it isn’t often I will say no to a challenge. Perhaps because of this, I am regularly commissioned to create the kinds of products others claim can’t be done. (spoiler alert: they generally can be done). This translates into a great deal of research, experimentation, and testing.

My formulations come about via

  • Researching and working with all manner of botanicals (sourcing, wildcrafting, processing)

  • Handcrafting extracts of all types (dry extracts, tinctures, glycerites, infusions, macerations, distillates, etc)

  • Creating bespoke ingredients (emulsifiers, botanical colorants, multi-medium extracts, etc)

  • Creating stable cosmetics that include all manner of food items as ingredients

  • Researching and working with applied Hurdle Technology

  • Testing the limits of both ingredients and methods

There always seems to be heaps of interesting things on my plate.

For the longest time, folks have been asking when I will be sharing more about the numerous different aspects of my work. I’ve discovered it is quite difficult to prioritise what to focus on when everything is both fascinating and interesting!

Then it occurred to me that it would be possible to accommodate ALL of these requests by creating a membership space where there was room for everything. This is how the idea for LisaLise Club was born.

It has taken a bit of time and loads of hard work, but has finally come to fruition.

I am thrilled to pieces to announce the launch of LisaLise Club.

Want to know more? Please click the picture below to see what the Club has to offer you!

I hope you’ll be joining us for a lot of botanical formulating fun.

Coffee Glycerite

Lise

Here is a peek at a batch of coffee glycerite - inspired by a lovely client. I have been making several batches and trying out some different infusion methods to see how much I can maximize the result.

Since a lot of the components of coffee are oil soluble, infusing the beans into a water-soluble ingredient such as glycerine can be more or less successful. I am zeroing in on a few additional steps/methods and expect to be able to share the information in a coming project.

Meantime, I can reveal that this smells absolutely divine and makes me want to bake and eat ice cream all at the same time.

You Can Too

Want to make your own glycerites and use them in a series of self-preserving cleansers? There’s a bundle offer in the shop that has you covered! Click the picture below for more information

Spicy Ointment

Lise

Here’s a peek at the ingredients of an ointment I put together not long ago. The inspiration came from fire cider.

If you are not familiar with fire cider, I can reveal it is a spicy, strong, multifunctional immune boosting cocktail of herbs in a vinegar base. If you want to make your own (it’s super easy!), please visit this page for more information.

Fire cider is a great tonic to have at hand and can be used in any number of delicious ways. (It is the only vinegar I use in my salad dressings now).

So how did fire cider inspire me to make a spicy ointment? Blame my feet. A ‘warming, pain-relieving, soothing, spicy ointment’ was something my feet decided I should try, so I did.

Pictured above: several handcrafted macerations with spices and oils. To mention just a few of the spices included: ginger, cloves, black pepper, nigella seed, coriander seed, fennel, chili, turmeric, and cinnamon. How do all these combine? To my delight, beautifully! The fragrance of the final product even has full husband approval.

Although the result is a fabulous foot-friendly ointment that does everything I hoped it would do, it comes with requirements. I learned (the hard way) that it is imperative to wash hands thoroughly immediately after applying. Do not even think about rubbing anything even remotely close to your eyes. Do not consider applying to lips (too late — I did and it took about a nanosecond before I was removing it again).

Do Tell

Have you ever made a spicy ointment? Which spices did you use?

The book below shows you how to make several spicy lip balms with your own spice-infused oils.

Working with Oats

Lise

This is a sneak peek of something I have been playing around with for a while. It may or may not work, but at this moment in time, I am on a path of discovery and not so concerned about a specific result as I am about exploring a few possibilities oats may have to provide apart from their already well known fabulous skin-loving properties?

What if we can take advantage of some of avena sativa’s natural components to do additional things?

I know this may sound utterly boring to most people, but this kind of work really floats my boat, and may I draw your attention to the ‘moon-like’ shape in the bottle? I’m convinced that is a smile. I think these oats like working with me.

More to come.

PS: Oatmeal is a wonderful addition to many bath products. The book below has several formulas featuring oats.

Solid Skincare

Lise

Here’s a peek at something I have been working on since last Fall. This is a solid serum/stick/balm that contains a very short ingredients list.

One would think a short ingredients list is equal to easy peasy, but sometimes achieving perfection with very few ingredients is much harder than expected. I have been testing the limits of the chosen ingredients to try and make them all play nice together and stay that way.

The ‘stay that way’ part has been the biggest challenge, but it’s getting there.

Just a few more batches, and I think this will be good to go. When it’s ready, I plan to add the formula to an upcoming publication.

Handcrafted Equipment

Lise

This is a bit of work-in-progress, handcrafted equipment that I will be revealing more about in not too terribly long.

That piece of bent wire at the top is a makeshift attempt at a holder/positioning device. I decided to photograph it after noticing how interesting it looked on the table. If you are equipment savvy, you have probably already spotted the function.

More to come!

Hint: it has something to do with the book you see below (which is also available in Spanish)