Rosehip Body Scrub

Just looking at this photo makes me think of a crumble topping for a baked fruit dessert, but even though this contains some food ingredients, it’s not so much something you’d want to eat, but more something you’d want to rub all over yourself..

This is a ‘dry-ish’ body scrub that is made to be shaken out of the container and used as is. It contains powdered rosehips (from a health food store), a blend of brown and coconut sugars from the supermarket), epsom salts, and a refreshing blend of essential oils in a skin-smoothing oil base. If it weren’t for those last ingredients on the list, one could indeed be tempted to taste.

This is an experimental formula that has performed quite well. Of course, there is room for improvement so a few more batches are in order. The next batch is going to include some Fall-themed spices to match the look.

Pumpkin spice, anyone?

What's Chemical Free?

The term ‘chemical free’ seems to be increasingly popular in the green beauty world, but this term is meaningless.

Here’s a short film I put together last year that (hopefully) explains .

Testing Solubility

I’ve been making and testing numerous formulas and ingredients that have to do with essential oils this year.

A lot of this came about when I was asked to put together and teach a course for Tisserand Institute. (The course – Essential Formulation – is closed now but will be offered again in 2020).

The Institute made me aware of how many people are under the mistaken understanding that essential oils can safely be added directly to a bath - that they will somehow ‘dissipate’ all by themselves into the water. But as we all know, oil and water don’t mix and essential oils are, well, oils.

So that’s what I’ve been working on: getting essential oils to play nice with water – preferably without too terrible much fuss. The keyword here: solubility. Making oils solubilize into water seamlessly.

Sounds more straightforward than it is, but this kind of work is my kind of fun!

Balm Ingredients

As Fall begins to take hold in my Northern part of the globe, balm-making becomes an increasingly frequent activity at the LisaLise lab. There’s something soothing and comforting about balms - be they cleansing balms, beauty balms, massage balms, lip balms, or special-use balms.

Pictured is today’s project: a soothing balm with handcrafted botanically-infused oils and a selection of vegan waxes. This is partly to test out the waxes, but also to try a few different combinations of infused oils.

Orange Peel Infusion

This was a little test infusion to see if orange peel could overpower the inherently vinegar-y smell that vinegar has. I chose organic oranges for the job as the thought of infusing something that might contain pesticides isn’t the most appealing to me.

Eight oranges were washed, dried, carefully peeled, added to a container of vinegar, and allowed to brew for about a week. Just opening the lid of the container was enough to confirm that orange peel can indeed overpower the vinegar smell and transform it to a fresh, vibrant orange scent with a lovely sunny color.

Next up: testing this solution in a few products.

Instructions on making vinegar infusions for cosmetics are included in this E-book if you want to give this a try.

Make Your Own Preservative Free Natural Cosmetics With 21 Ingredients

Lavender 'Perfume'

A lovely young lady (who happens to be the daughter of a steady client) put in a request for her own personal lavender perfume not very long ago.

When I say young, I do mean quite young. Her age hasn’t reached ‘double digits’ yet. Formulating a ‘perfume’ for someone under 10 years of age takes a little thought.

The young lady loves the scent of lavender, and even though lavender essential oil is quite well tolerated, it is still a very concentrated ingredient. One might be tempted to use a hydrosol/hydrolate, but lavender hydrosol just doesn’t have the same scent as the essential oil.

After careful deliberation, the ‘perfume’ was duly formulated to be extremely mild and skin friendly, yet offer the fresh scent of lavender she loves. The look on her face was a clear indication the brief had been met.