Ever wondered which ingredient makes up the largest percentage in lotions? Water! If you look at the ingredients list on product labels, you will notice that water is almost always listed first, meaning it is the most predominant ingredient in the product. And, it is also 'free' and readily available. So what all are you paying for?
For less than a dollar and using common kitchen equipment, I want to show you how you can make a 12 oz batch of moisturizing lotion. That's even cheaper than your Wal-mart petroleum-based generic brand. Best of all, it is easy and fun!
Skin care lotion is nothing more than an emulsion of oil and water. As an introduction to this wonderful and useful craft, let's make a simple lotion with just olive oil, water, and emulsifying wax. Here's what you need to make approximately a 12 fl oz batch.
For more information on homemade skin care, check out our website blog at Wabi Sabi Baby.
For less than a dollar and using common kitchen equipment, I want to show you how you can make a 12 oz batch of moisturizing lotion. That's even cheaper than your Wal-mart petroleum-based generic brand. Best of all, it is easy and fun!
Skin care lotion is nothing more than an emulsion of oil and water. As an introduction to this wonderful and useful craft, let's make a simple lotion with just olive oil, water, and emulsifying wax. Here's what you need to make approximately a 12 fl oz batch.
For more information on homemade skin care, check out our website blog at Wabi Sabi Baby.
Step 1: Tools and Ingredients
Tools:
- 1-cup glass measuring cup
- 2-cup glass measuring cup
- saucepan just large enough to fit the 1-cup measurer
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup emulsifying wax, available at some craft stores or online.
- 1-cup glass measuring cup
- 2-cup glass measuring cup
- saucepan just large enough to fit the 1-cup measurer
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup emulsifying wax, available at some craft stores or online.
Step 3: Melt Oil and Wax
Combine the oil and e. wax into the heatproof 1-cup measurer and melt the mixture in the water bath.
Step 4: Heat Water
Fill the 2-cup measurer with water and heat it in the microwave on high for 2 minutes or until it boils. Alternatively, boil water on the stove and pour it into the measurer.
Step 5: Combine
When the oil/wax mixture has melted, pour it into the water. Your lotion should now have the consistency of skim milk.
Step 6: Cool Slightly and Pour/Package
Let it cool slightly, stir with a spoon or chopstick and pour the lotion into a bottle while it's still warm and pourable. Otherwise, it would be hard to get the lotion into its container and you might have to use a funnel. If you're using a wide mouth jar, then this is not an issue.
Step 7: Shake Well
Leave the cap off to let it cool completely, but occasionally cap the lotion and give it a quick shake to help blend the mixture.
Step 8: Ways to Customize
As is, this plain, scent-free lotion is great for babies and people with sensitive skin. But this recipe is very forgiving and you can easily vary it. Here are some suggestions:
- Substitute 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the water with glycerin to make a hydrating lotion.
- Substitute or combine the olive oil with other oils such as almond oil or coconut oil
- Add essential oils. Use 1 - 5 drops per fl oz of lotion
- Substitute 1/4 to 1/2 cup of the water with glycerin to make a hydrating lotion.
- Substitute or combine the olive oil with other oils such as almond oil or coconut oil
- Add essential oils. Use 1 - 5 drops per fl oz of lotion
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But good suggestion. I hadn't heard that about grapefruit seed extract, so I think I'll be looking into it more!
It's waaaay easier to find too.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/travelpower/add9/
I look at the soda aisle in Safeway and think that the whole thing could probably be reduced to one 3 foot wide case - like a spice display, with 4 oz bottles of the flavorings for each and every flavor, and each and every brand of those flavors in the store.
You aren't using gas to drive them home either. Groceries become much lighter. So much so, that if I stop in the grocery store on the way home every few days - I walk everywhere - and buy a sack of groceries in my canvas bag, I never have to get groceries in a vehicle. I do have Safeway make a delivery every once in a while for bulky items like detergent, paper towels,...
I love being Eco Friendly, but I'm not an Eco Nazi. This is just so much easier, cheaper and convenient. Oh, and the garbage service doesn't have to pick up pound of recycling from me, clean it, process it and ship it to a factory to be re-manufactured and driven back to the store full of water.
Buy one 4oz bottle and make I think I have to look at my notes again, 11 LITERS of soda from filtered water out of the tap. I also have 6 different flavors of syrup mixed in my fridge in Snapple bottles. I can have a Cream soda, Grape Soda, Diet Cola, Orange Soda, or Root Beer at anytime, and it is all stored in my fridge in 6 snapple bottles and 2 liters of plain soda water. The fridge cooling costs money also. I refill the soda bottles when hey run out. My charger does something like 110 liters of soda before I refill (not replace) it. I'll write an instructable soon.
If you want a head start. My soda charger is from Soda Club (google them) and I buy my soda flavor concentrates from Prairie Moon don't buy their soda siphons and chargers. The chargers are disposable and only make one or two liters. Their syrup concentrates are delicious. I make them with Equal, but you can make them with any sweetener, and as sweet as you like them. I use half the recommended sweetener and it is perfect for me. I never expected to LOVE grape soda. hahaha.
1 4oz bottle of syrup makes 42 15oz sodas. That is 18 or 19 liters. You mix it all though so you could get more. One bottle of concentrate is 2.49 if you buy 24 at a time - think of all the flavors! It is shipped in a box smaller than a shoe box.
Soda ClubSoda Club says 90 Billion bottles and cans for soda in the US last year.
I keep any glass bottles I get. The Snapples for soda syrups and jam and jelly jars for almost anything. My Indian cooking spices come in plastic bags. I transfer them to a jelly jar when I get home.
I have to leave! I can't edit. but you will find the info.
That's enough gas to make 120 liters of soda, but enough flavoring? It'd all be so simple if Prairie Moon's site said simply how many liters of flavored soda could be made from one 4oz bottle of their flavoring, but instead they give the recipe to make 1 gallon of syrup from the 4oz bottle, and then say 3oz of syrup make 10oz of drink. So by my calculations, each 4oz bottle makes 12.62 liters of pop. That 6-pack then could make 75.72 liters of pop. So this first round would cost $129.92 and make 75.72 liters of pop with gas to spare. It'd be $29.98 (including shipping) for another set of 2 gas canisters that can make 120 liters of soda.
Based on the numbers above, I'd conclude that (ignoring the initial equipment costs) each liter of pop costs $0.395 in flavoring and $0.249 in gas. y=(.395+.249)x+70 would graph the cost of this system on the y axis (.395+.249 is .644), liters on the x axis. y=.65x would graph the costs of buying 2 liter bottles of soda at the store for $1.30 each (madhops0620's price assumption). There's such a small difference in price-per-liter that the two graphs won't intersect until around 11666.6 liters, and given the little difference all the rounding I've done has probably affected that number by a few hundred liters one way or another.
Maybe I've totally screwed up the calculations, or this system becomes much more economical when gas canisters and flavors are bought in larger quantities. I was hoping to find that it was more economical to make one's own soda. An instructable on DIY flavor mixing, carbon dioxide collection, compression, storage, and instructions to build the water charging unit out of parts found around the house would of course upset the balance in favor of the homemade soda.
Regardless whether the system saves money, the other reasons SFHandyman lists resonate for me. if I drank more pop and had a larger kitchen I'd consider it.
$0.395 flavoring per liter
$0.249 CO2 per liter
$70 initial equipment cost (sodaclub starter kit minus cost of its included 2 cans of CO2)