This foot scrub utilizes crushed grape seeds and mango butter to scrub away the old and bring in your radiant new skin!
In a bowl, measure 12 oz Mango Butter
Add 2 oz Crushed Grape Seeds and 1.6 oz coffee grounds
Next, add in .2 oz Optiphen and 3 mL Peppermint 1st Essential oil
Apply to skin and massage, focusing on rough areas, then just wash away with warm water.
This energizing foot scrub will pamper those winter feet and get them ready for summer sandals!
Looking for a gift idea for Mother’s Day? Treat her with a Melt & Pour Starter Kit and save 10% off your entire purchase! ( Just mention “Melt & Pour with Mom” at check out to receive the discount. Available at Otion store only, does not include Brambleberry.com purchases)
A Melt & Pour Starter Kit is $25.00 (before discount) and will include the following:
1 lb of clear base
1 lb of white base
And your choice of:
2 color blocks
1 milky way mold
1 2oz fragrance oil
Plus we’ll throw in:
1 dropper
Instructions
What she really wants for Mother’s Day is quality time with her kids, and this is a great way to spend time together while having fun and creating something!
These bath bombs are as easy to make as they are bee-utiful! This recipe makes about five 1.75 oz bee bombs.
First combine 3.5 oz Citric Acid with 7 oz Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate)
Then add 10 – 20 drops of fragrance. For this project we used 20 drops of Bordeaux Blend
Hand mix until smooth & fine, then spray with witch hazel to bind the mixture. Be sure to spay small amounts as you go: too much witch hazel will activate the sodium bicarbonate and “de-fizz” your bomb!
Once the mixture clumps in your hand it’s ready to be pressed into a mold. The more mixture you pack into the mold, the “fizzier” the bath bombs will be. Let the mold sit for about 20 min before releasing the bombs; this gives the witch hazel time to evaporate. The mold will release the bombs easily so be careful when turning it over to reduce crumbling.
Our next step was coloring our finished bath bombs with mica powders. For this project we featured: Copper Sparkle, Sparkle Gold, and Apricot Blush but you can use any colors you like!
Using a brush, tap the powder on the surface and into crevices. More powder means more color! Make them as bold or pastel as you like.
It’s as simple as that.
Now you and a bath bomb are ready for a luxurious summertime soak!
Our Dutch Cocoa Powder is the perfect addition to our Mother’s Day Chocolate Body Polish!
In a microwavable mixing bowl, melt together:
3 oz Aloe Vera Liquid
1.5 oz Apricot Kernel Oil
1.6 oz Emulsifying Wax
Add in:
.8 oz Cocoa Butter
.8 oz Shea Butter
1.8 oz Natural Castile Liquid Soap
Stir until completely melted together. (Popping it in the microwave for an extra 30 seconds is ok to make sure all of the ingredients are melted completely.)
Next add:
3 oz Dutch Cocoa Powder
5.5 oz Sugar
Now mix mix mix! (A metal whisk works best)
Not only does this Chocolate Body Polish smell like brownie batter, it’s a great moisturizer for your entire body. All the chocolaty goodness without the calories!
*If you don’t plan on using this within a week, you will need to add .2 oz of Optiphen to preserve it and inhibit bacterial growth*
Originally published in our April newsletter, this project is an easy way to help banish morning sleepiness and congestion. Simply stick them near your shower drain as you shower and feel the relief. Because you’re not soaking in them, like with a traditional bath fizzy, we’ve omitted any moisturizing goodies and over-scented them so they really hit your nose.
Ingredients:
8 oz Citric Acid
16oz Baking Soda
Eucalyptus Essential Oil
Lime Essential Oil
Midnight Blue LaBomb
Milky Way Guest Shells Mold
Witch Hazel (optional)
Step 1: Mix your citric acid and baking soda well, ensuring there are no clumps. Wear gloves! The citric acid can be irritating if you have any broken or sentistive cuticles or papercuts, and can scratch your manicure.
Step 2: Add 1oz of Eucalyptus and Lime essential oils and mix. This may be enough liquid to bind your bomb together, but if it’s not holding its shape when you squeeze it, spritz your mixture with witch hazel.
Step 3: Add 3ml of Ocean Blue LaBomb and mix well. Pop any clumps of colorant with your fingertips to make sure you have a smooth color.
Step 4: Pack into your molds! Be sure to press well all around, or your edges may crumble. Remember: the harder you pack, the longer it’ll fizz and fill your shower with sinus-soothing power!
Step 5: After 20 minutes, unmold your fizzies. Let them dry overnight before packaging them or moving them.
Enjoy!
Spring is here, and we’ve taken 25% off our spring cleaning classes to help get your home ready. Learn to make all natural kitchen or home cleaning products in either of these classes for just $30 when you sign up in April! Hurry over to our registration page to sign up now!
P.S. Even if you’re signing up for a class in June, as long as you register before 4/31/13, you’ll get the discounted price!
Tub teas are a fast and easy gift for a family member, or even yourself. They can be modified to use what you already have on hand, or you can use them as an excuse to (ahem) visit your favorite supply shop for more goodies!
This tub tea is blended with 4 essential oils to soothe your nerves, relax your muscles and rejuvenate your spirit. It’s the perfect blend for cloudy days, stressful days, tired days, or any day!
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Lavender Buds
1/2 Cup Egyptian Chamomile
1/2 Cup Calendula
1/4 Cup Baking Soda
3ml Hungarian Lavender EO
1ml Bergamot EO
1ml Ylang Ylang EO
0.5ml Geranium EO
5 Large Heat-Sealable Tea Bags
Step 1: Mix your herbs and baking soda together. The baking soda helps soften the water and absorb the essential oils, dispersing them in the water when you use your tub tea.
Step 2: Add your essential oils and mix well. Make sure all your tea has an even mix of oils on it!
Step 3: Fill up your bags about half way. Remember, you’ll have to seal them up! If you over stuff your bags, it may be hard to seal them.
Step 4: Seal the edge of your teabag with an iron. Use the “linen” or “cotton” setting for best results. It only takes one swipe of your iron across the edge to get a good seal, but be sure you seal the whole edge; you don’t want your tub tea falling apart!
Step 5: Tie up with a ribbon, raffia, twine, or anything else you have on hand for a perfect presentation.
To use, just drop in a bathtub of hot water and enjoy your soak!
We’ve had a misleading start to spring here in the Pacific Northwest. Mother Nature cooperated for our Easter festivities for about a full week of sunny, warm, blue skies with cherry blossoms and birds chirping. Sadly, we are now back to our notoriously wet weather.
The good news is that we never lack for colour here in Bellingham, even when the sun’s not shining! Bellingham Bay is always beautiful even in a storm, which inspired me to try and make a soap in all the gorgeous greeny-grey blues of a spring rainstorm over the bay. I would call the soap “Stormy Seas” and it would be beautiful!
Of course, even the best laid plans can go astray. Sadly, after about 30 seconds of mixing, this soap started to curdle and seize.
In the picture above, it’s formed a 1″ thick skin that’s almost completely solid! So what’s a soapmaker to do?
Step 1: Don’t panic. Seriously. Take 5 deep breaths. My initial instinct was to try and cram my soap into the mold in a panic, but that won’t work. In a seized soap, you won’t get an even mix of oil and lye and your soap is likely to separate, or have lye pockets in it. Not good!
Step 2: Grab your crockpot. If you don’t have one, you can use your stove like in this Soap Queen Hot Process Hero, but if your soapmaking space doesn’t have a stove (or you don’t have any soap-dedicated stainless steel pots) a crockpot is your best friend. (They’re also a snap to clean!)
Step 3: Pour, scrape and glop your batch into the crockpot and crank up the heat. All the lye and oil is still in the batch, it’s just not mixed properly yet. If it’s quite chunky and hard, break it up with a spatula. Don’t use a whisk; your soap will get stuck inside it!
Step 4: Add some color if you want. I find that liquid colorants work better than powdered colorants. For this batch, I used non-bleeding teal. Stir and chop the color into the soap.
Step 5: Keep stirring as your soap heats up. It will start to get smoother and less chunky. When the soap is a translucent paste, and there are no globs of oil separated out, it’s ready to mold.
Step 6: Glop your soap into a mold. I used our column mold. Whatever mold you use, be sure to frequently bang it on a hard surface to prevent air bubbles.
Step 7: Let it cool! Once your soap is all cooled down, it will technically be ready to use right away. But, there’s still plenty of excess water in the bars and the soap should be cured out for a week or two before using.
Step 8: Enjoy your rescued soap! It may not be what you planned, but you saved all your materials and will have lovely soaps.
I’m still not sure where this batch went wrong. Did I measure something incorrectly? Were my oils too hot? Did I somehow breathe soap gremlins all over this batch? I’ll never know. I’ve remade the same batch without any issue. I’ll be posting the results of the real “Stormy Seas” soap later this week!
We’ve got two soap bloopers to share with you on this prank-filled spring day! The first one is a soap that was originally planned as a Valentine’s Day hot process soap. We had a lovely ombre pink design in mind, and used Melon Red lab color and Lychee Red Tea fragrance oil. What we got looks more like a thick slice of ham:
What went wrong? The soap got too hot, too fast which caused it to dry out. Dry hot process is hard to color, resulting in white veins and chunks that look a lot like fat! The soap still smells divine, and is nice to use. If only we had a bacon fragrance!
Our second blooper is one we affectionately call “Wombat Poo.” Did you know that wombat scat is a cube? I’m not even kidding! This theory is that since wombats live in hilly areas, and use their scat to mark their territory, they evolved to have “markers” that wouldn’t roll down a hill. (You’re welcome for that bit of trivia.)
This rebatch-gone-wrong is made from shavings of a variety of leftover soaps from some Christmas projects, resulting in a purple-brown color. Scented with Champagne, it’s still a great soap, but would maybe be better suited as a gag gift than something for your grandmother.
Want to see or sniff these beauties in person? They’re on display and for sale in our store!
The sun is shining, and spring is around the corner! Dry, cracked lips, however, can last a lot longer than winter’s last snow. Sea Buckthorn extract is naturally high in vitamins A and C, and is often used in anti-aging preparations. In this balm, it helps soothe irritated, dry skin for a softer, more kissable pucker. Just think: would you kiss your mother with those lips?
Ingredients:
4 oz Jojoba Oil
4 oz Mango Butter
3 oz White Beeswax
2 oz Rice Bran Oil
0.3 oz (8 grams) Sea Buckthorn Extract
0.3 oz (8 grams) Honey Kisses Flavor Oil
Makes 13 push tubes
Step 1: Weigh out the oils, butter and wax into a heat-safe container. Microwave for 1 minute. Your oils will be warm, and your mango butter melted. There will be some small pellets of beeswax still solid; just stir with a spoon to melt them in.
Step 2: Add in your sea buckthorn extract and honey kisses flavor oil.
Step 3: Pour! I prefer to use this pouring container because of the long, thin pour spout, but any container with a spout will work well.
Step 4: Let it set! This balm takes about half an hour to set up, and then it’s ready to go. These would be a lovely addition to an Easter basket, or cute guest favors for the family this weekend!
