What's the best way to keep hard lotion long term?

  Question via email:

I was wondering, after I've made lotion bars, what's the best
way to keep them?  Should I freeze them if I don't intend on using them
right away?  Are they ok just at room temp?  I made some with shae
butter, beeswax and grapeseed oil.  Any advice is appreciated!

Answer:

No need to store them other than in parchment paper, and if it's an indefinite period of time, 

stored in a dark place. 

If you don't plan to use them for several months, you could simply refrigerate

them (wrapped), although I'd only do that if it's really warm in your area.

Can expeller-pressed coconut oil from Tropical Tradition be used to make hard lotion?

photo source

Question via email:

First let me say that this is the absolute BEST lotion I've ever used!  I have very dry heels and eczema on my hands.  I cannot believe what one use of your hard lotion has done for my skin.  THANK YOU!!!

Now I'm thinking I'll make my own and had a question about the coconut oil.  I buy expeller-pressed coconut oil from Tropical Traditions and wondered if you thought I could use it in making hard lotion.  I can't wait to make this for Christmas gifts next year!!  I also am highly anticipating the bug lotion.

Answer: You can certainly use any type of 76 degree coconut oil with the same great results. I've personally used Tropical Traditions' coconut oil; it makes a wonderful lotion bar with the scent of coconut oil coming out even stronger in this high-quality coconut oil.

Repeat Customers Receive Free Add-on

Attention buyers:

The second (and subsequent) time you visit MadeOn to make a purchase, make sure to mark yourself as a "repeat customer" on this follow up page (it pops up right after your order is placed):

Then you'll see this page. Choose an add-on! It's that simple.

Zinc (aka Zit) Stick: to be or not to be?

Some of you may have seen my plea for guinea pigs in early February:

I ended up with 50 zinc testers.

Turns out, acne doesn't have an easy answer, like I had hoped. Here's an example of the survey results:

Although some people were helped by the zinc stick, it's not something I want to pursue unless there's a real demand for it. On the other hand, there's potential, as a few testers have run out of the sample and are asking for more. 

So here's what I plan to do: if there's enough of a demand, I'll offer it for sale at a reduced price for awhile (email me if you're one of those demanding it). I'll also add it as a free sample add-on for repeat customers (email me if you're not familiar with how this works). Fair enough?

In the meantime, those of you who struggle with acne need to check out Crunchy Betty's e-book, Food on your Face.  I read it last month and the introduction alone should have prepared me that not all skin can be dealt with in the same way. Crunchy Betty is the expert when it comes to acne, blemishes, pimples and oily skin. She offers a variety of solutions, from a baking soda wash, to easy toners, and even a few natural make up hacks that include food (I'm anxious to try the activated charcoal and aloe vera gel for a natural mascara). She also has a section on the oil cleansing method, which I've dabbled with and believe works well. She also suggests a zinc supplement (confirming my belief - zinc is good both outside and inside the body). There's much more. Sound intriguing? Click here to view more details

(Full Disclosure: After purchasing and reading her e-book, I decided it was a great one to share, and I've also added myself as an affiliate to promote Crunchy Betty's book.)

So there you have it: acne doesn't have an easy answer (or we all might have actually enjoyed jr. high!), but with Crunchy Betty's e-book, and the opportunity to keep using the zinc stick for free, maybe we'll conquer a few more pimples. 

If you have any ideas or success stories, do share below!

New!! Coffee Soap to get rid of Kitchen Odor on Hands

Everything's perfect: your 40 clove garlic chicken is in the oven, roasted onions, jalepeno peppers and carrots on the side, homemade lemon meringue pie cooling on the counter. Everything's perfect, except for your hands. "P.U.!" After juicing lemons,  preparing raw meat, chopping garlic, and slicing onions, there isn't a perfume in the cabinet that can mask the odor coming from your hands.

Enter coffee soap.

Coffee soap is made with goat milk (nourishing for the hands), healthy oils, and.... coffee! Both brewed and ground, the coffee works to exfoliate the skin and remove kitchen odors from the hands. Although it doesn't smell like coffee, our coffee soap also leaves out added essential oils and fragrances to leave your hands smelling naturally clean.

Does it work?

Read the survey results.  We had 14 people test it for us:

Christie: "My husband usually wears gloves when he chops garlic and such, he didn't this past week and just washed his hands with the soap instead and it completely removed the smell!"

View it here:

 Finally, Coffee Soap comes recommended by the Coffee Soap testers:

Order it here

Blossoms of the Valley Bible Verse

Song of Solomon 6

I went down to the orchard of nut trees 
To see the blossoms of the valley, 
To see whether the vine had budded 
Or the pomegranates had bloomed.

Valentine's Day Customers: A Special Message for You

DIY Valentine's Day Ideas

DIY VALENTINE’S DAY

Here's a thought: skip the dinner out, call off the babysitter and stay home on February 14th. Here's a more relaxing Valentine's Day idea:

• Pick up a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store deli, steam up some vegetables, and add some crunchy French bread. That's dinner.

• Set up the kids in another room with Dick Van Dyke on Netflix or Brady Bunch on Hulu (free on Hulu.com!) 

• Replace Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and try a Bollywood video instead (they’re my new fav). They’re exotic, most are clean, and they count as a chick flick. Try this one: Jab We Met. (You'll either love it or hate it, but reading the subtitles forces you and your love to stay awake and engaged... which makes the next suggestion last even longer...)

• Plop your husband's feet on your lap and start the foot massage. Don't go dry with this foot rub... use the Beesilk or Au Chocolat, and I promise he'll let you watch another Bollywood.

• Finish off with a flavorful wine (Oak Knoll’s Niagara white wine from Oregon is our honeymoon wine that we love). A big bar of Toblerone chocolate is a delicious accompaniment. 

Valentine's Day: DONE. (xoxo!)

Agloves: Another Helper for Working Hands

It's the job of the Beesilk bar to clear up cuts and wounds, and get your hands soft and ready to do the work you need to get done.

But what the Beesilk bar can't do is keep your hands warm while out in the cold. That's when I recommend Agloves because they not only ward off the nip, but they keep you connected when using your iPhone or iPad. As you know, the touch-sensitive screens won't work with regular gloves. The Agloves solve that. They are knitted with actual silver to pull the natural electricity from your fingers and give a clean touch-sensitive response for your screen. 

I can now exercise outdoors and be able to switch through podcasts on my iPhone without having to take off my Agloves. The touch is localized enough that I can stop and type a text while out on the walking paths. I needed these on Park Days when we lived in cold, dry Colorado (I needed an iPhone back then, too).

Jonathan, 14, sports the Agloves Sport for his iPadMy 14 year old grabbed the gloves and put them to use first, and my 12 year old quickly pointed out that the "Ag" in Agloves is the chemical element symbol for Silver (thus the name Agloves - clever, eh?). Even my tech-savvy husband was impressed and put them through the "man test" (1. it must work. 2. it can't look feminine).

What I love is that these gloves are classy to use out on the town, for men or women. They fit well. Don't let the size options intimidate you - the small/medium fits my hands and even my husband's hands, just right. And their marketing is brilliant: "I (g)love you" it says on the package. Doesn't that sound like a Valentine's Day gift for the taking?

A few more bragging points about Agloves and then I'll tell you how I found them. They were awarded "Audience Choice Award 2011" at the world's largest consumer electronic show in Berlin, they won "Best New Product of the Year 2011" from the Stevie Awards, and INC. Magazine chose Agloves as the Best Touchscreen Glove. 

The story behind how Agloves began is a fun read (a mom-daughter start-up) and the mom of the pair connected with me via my website with a business question. Then I checked out her products and found so many similar connections between MadeOn and Agloves: both help the hands get the job done, both started by a mom with a need, and both are affordable.  I asked Jennifer if I could pass along a discount code for MadeOn customers and she was happy to comply.

Here's a coupon code for 15% off, one use per person, which expires March 31, '12: "MADEON"

Agloves offers a 90 day test to see if you're happy with them. The gloves I have are the Bamboo Agloves (light colored), made with bamboo and are 87% antimicrobial, and the top-selling Agloves Sport (black), which are heavier, thicker, with a tight cuff to keep the heat in. In California, I'll put both to good use and frankly, it will depend on what color coat I'm wearing, but for those of you in a colder climate, go for the Sport. If going green is more important to you, go for the Bamboo. 

Love at First Sight Lotion Sightings

First, a YouTube subscriber pointed out what showed up in the middle of my YouTube video:

Then a favorite customer emailed me a photo of her son's Beesilk Jr:

This week my soapmaker, Rosemarie, included this cute heart-shaped goat milk soap in the box:

Finally, I remembered a sighting on my Pinterest board, made by Amy of Amy's Finer Things:

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Tips and Tricks when making Lotion for Gift-giving

Have you tried any recipes in the Gift Giving edition of My Buttered Life e-book? Although I write the book with my own ideas, mixed with plenty of research and experimentation, I get a lot of Aha! from the people who buy the book and give me feedback. 

Here's an example. This email came from Christy: 

Hey Renee! I just wanted to say thanks for the great e-book (gift giving)! I made a batch of the Chocolate Peppermint lotion bars for my family to try and we love them! My daughters and I decided to do some for Valentine's teachers gifts.

I loved the ramekin idea and was able to score some on clearance at my grocery store. :) I have found that it isn't even necessary to make them in one size and store/give them in a bigger one. They pop out fairly easily from the original size, especially after you use it a couple times. 

One trick I tried tonight was to put the ramekin on my scale and measure ingredients right into it, using the proportions from your recipe. I then put the ramekin in my toaster oven at about 250 deg until everything was melted, cooled a few minutes and stirred in the oil. It worked GREAT! and no extra pan to clean up. It takes a bit longer to cool and harden, because of the ramekin getting hot, but that wasn't a big deal for me. 

Anyway! Just thought I would share an alternative technique with you! Especially great for when you only want to make one bar, because you can get the quantity exactly right. 

Have a blessed night!

Christy VanderWall

I asked a few questions about the ramekin, and here's her follow up:

Once you get them out of the ramekin the first time, they come out pretty easily...especially after you use them a few times. They either fall out on their own, or just require a little tap on the bottom. Now, I will say that my first round was done in some square ramekins, which are tapered on the sides - not straight up and down. So, that might be helping them come out easier. I made a couple round/traditional ones tonight and will have to see if the same is true for those.

Thanks again for the fun recipe! We are planning to do some chapstick for the girls classes as well, instead of candy for valentines day!

There you go! Christy has figured out a way to delete the "clean up" job involved in making lotion. If you have ideas you've tried with success, don't hesitate to share them with us! Email me through the contact page.

How to Clean Beeswax

This morning I was asked this question about cleaning beeswax:

I am seeing on a couple blogs that you can get beeswax from a

bee keeper and clean it yourself using pantyhose and a double broiler.

Is this safe?

Here's my answer:

Yes it is, although I haven't used panty hose. It's a messy project but

the easiest way to do it is to use two crock pots (assuming it's something you plan to repeat).

Melt the wax in one, and then pour through a paper-towel-lined metal sieve

into the other crockpot (which is kept hot).

When all the beeswax has been pouredthrough, use a turkey baster to pull the melted,

clean beeswax from the one crock pot into ice cube trays. You now have 3/4 oz cubes of clean

beeswax.

I used this system for awhile because you can save a lot of money buying

directly from the beekeeper. After awhile, it may become too much of a

hassle, and you do have to be aware of the hot beeswax (it's flammable and

doesn't need a flame to ignite it, only heat, but I've never, ever had

beeswax ignite on me.)

I prefer the paper towel method because you can throw away the paper

towels when finished (I'm not sure how you'd clean the pantyhose; you'd

have to purchase more pantyhose for future beeswax cleaning projects).

I've also tried using coffee filters, but the beeswax doesn't go through

the paper well at all, and also it cools too quickly, blocking the paper

pores.

The Gift of Frankincense

As January 6th celebrates Epiphany (the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus) it’s appropriate to focus on one of the gifts, Frankincense.

Frankincense is a resin that comes from the bark of frankincense trees. Using a steam distillation process, frankincense essential oil is produced from the tree resin.  Because it comes from the bark of the tree, the scent is slightly woodsy with a touch of lemon. It worked beautifully with the essential oils of myrrh and cinnamon this past Christmas when I whipped it into shea butter and coconut oil.

Another way to enjoy it is in its bark form. If  you happen to have friends who travel to Ethiopia, talk them into getting you a bagful of frankincense bark chips to throw on your open fire. Your house will smell divine.

 Frankincense Tree (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

3 Ways to Kick the Cold, Including a Homemade Vapor Rub Recipe

I woke up the other day with the scratchy throat, stuffy nose and foggy head that made me wish time could stand still... just long enough to get over the incoming cold that was about to take residence in my body. 

 As a mom, sneaking in an extra ten minutes of sleep time is do-able, but sometimes we need another boost to get back on track. I was thrilled that a few tools worked wonders this week:

1. Have you tried those packets of Emergen-C fizzy drinks, with 1000 mg of Vitamin C? They seem to work well for our family, but for our family of 10, the $8 for a box of 30 servings adds up. Instead, I buy pure vitamin c powder and put 1/4 tsp into hot tea. It's only 5 cents a serving and it's a healthy way to combat the cold season. I buy ours at the Dr. Clark Store.
2. Heat: in the form of a hot water bottle, or a heating pad, or my absolute favorite, a wool corn warmer  made by a special customer and friend last month. It's great for aching muscles and cold feet.
3. Homemade Vapor Rub : you can make this as strong as you like, and what I suggest below for essential oil amounts is quite strong (use care and discretion if using on children). This recipe was inspired by Crunchy Betty's recipe here.  I fatted mine up a bit to make a thicker salve by adding shea butter. 

Homemade Vapor Rub

•      1.5 oz shea butter
•       .5 oz almond oil
•        .25 oz beeswax

Melt the above ingredients. Remove from heat and add:

•        ½ tsp peppermint essential oil
•        ¼ tsp eucalyptus essential oil
•        ¼ tsp rosemary essential oil

 Go ahead... kick the cold out of the house so you can focus on more important tasks!

Oh, the Tangled Web...

No matter how hard I tried to fix it, the problem seemed to only get worse.

Do you have a daughter with hair like this?

Have you worked in conditioner, washed it out, only to have the tangles back by the end of the day?

Have you ever spent $30 on a hair brush designed to fix your problem, only to find it didn't?

Have you had the knot develop so badly that even your hairdresser couldn't detangle it, and had to resort to cutting it out?

Have you ever felt the mixed emotion of embarrassment and relief to find that the solution was right under your nose? 

When my hairdresser suggested I rub olive oil into her hair, I grabbed our hair butter instead. I rubbed (too much) hair butter in her hair and the within 10 minutes her hair was completely detangled. Not only that, but two hours later, it remained detangled. 

I have since found that I only need a small amount of hair butter to rub through my hands and finger into her hair (too much makes the hair look greasy). A few minutes of combing and the knot detangles... the comb cuts through her hair like... butter :) 

It's such a relief to have a happy, tangle-free daughter.