A Favorite Lotion Recipe from Mountain Rose Herbs

photo credit Mountain Rose Herbs Blog

This is by far my favorite lotion recipe yet. It's called Silky for a reason! This lotion is so soft and luxurious - and smells heavenly (if you like the smell of roses). I can't say enough about the wonderful texture! When I read the recipe I was delighted to discover I had all the ingredients on hand, having purchased the Aphrodite Oil earlier this fall as a special treat for myself. The only ingredient I was missing was the Peru Balsam essential oil so I substituted Lavender as the article suggests. I made a half batch since I was running low on jars, but am ready to make this again. It's yummy! Click here or on post title for the recipe. As always, ingredients may be purchased by visiting Mountain Rose Herbs.

I mentioned I had all ingredients on hand, but I rarely follow a recipe as written. Instead of Grape Seed Oil, I used my own infused Calendula Oil (see earlier post). For more information on Carrier and Essential oils - see Know Your Ingredients on the upper right sidebar. I've compiled a handy resource that lists commonly used ingredients, their properties for skin care and such, as well as what they blend well with. As always, your comments are welcome!

Making Rose Water

About mid July, I looked out the kitchen window at the abundance of wild roses in my yard and started thinking about the rose water I use in my lotion recipes. I began collecting petals every day until I had enough to try the steam distilling method. This is about a week's worth of petals - they stay fresh in the fridge. Here's what you do (the post title links to a great YouTube video too):

Start with a large pot and put a heavy bowl upside down in the middle - it has to be heavy or it'll float. I'm using the mortar from my grandfather's mortar & pestle. Start filling petals around the upside down bowl to about the top of it - way more than in this photo. Then add distilled water - no measuring here, just so the petals are floating but don't go above the top of the upside down bowl.

Next, put a small bowl on top of the upside down bowl like this. The distilled rose water will be collected in this bowl.

Put the top on - inverted. Bring the water in the pot to a boil and add ice to the inverted top. The steam from the boiling water rises, condenses when it hits the ice cold top and drips into the bowl - voila rose water!

It's hard to see in this picture, but the petals are very pale from being boiled and there's a splash of rose water in the bowl. With as many petals as I had, I made three batches.

Here's the end result - steam distilled rose water to use in culinary and skin care recipes.

Another way to do it, although it's not steam distilled so not as potent, is to boil the petals, strain them and use the water for facial toners, etc. Here's a YouTube video showing this method and my strained water left over from steam distilling. If I add some vegetable glycerin and aloe to this in small batches it will make a lovely face toner. Looks like I'll have enough to last a lifetime! 

Oh yeah, the house smells great too!

Making Calendula Oil from the Garden!

Earlier this year I learned about Calendula, an amazing flower that can be infused in an oil and used in lotions, salves, etc.  A few friends of mine have pretty bad eczema and they say that Calendula oil has been the only treatment that's worked!  (For more on the healing properties of Calendula, click on the post title to visit a Mountain Rose Herb Blog post). This spring I found some plants at the local co-op and put them in my flower bed - wow, what a prolific flower!  Every day, around noon, I pick 3 or 4 flowers and add them to my drying rack.

I keep them in my basement where there's a dehumidifier running all summer. I've been drying for several weeks and finally have enough to start an infusion. Here's the dried flowers ready to add oil. 

Several recipes call for EVOO but I chose sunflower oil that I buy in bulk at the co-op. 

Now it's just a matter of 4-6 weeks in a sunny window, then I'll strain the flowers out and use the oil for my lotions. It's been a great DIY summer, made steam distilled rose water too, but that will be another post...

Homemade Herbal Remedies

What a fun adventure this is becoming! As it turns out, I'm really glad that Mountain Rose Herbs was sold out of the tea I wanted to order, which meant I just had to buy all the ingredients and play with some blends on my own. They arrived in heavy zip lock bags, certainly not nice enough to have on display, so I used my

inventory of canning jars. Luckily, the labels on the bags came off easily and I was able to transfer them to the jars. They make a nice addition to my kitchen!

I've been wanting to create some spreadsheets of ingredients where I can easily look up the properties of say, all carrier oils, in one place without having to read about each one separately. I thought I could do one for essential oils too, and start with the oils I have. With this in mind, and my new found interest in other homemade remedies, I figured it would be time to start another Blog devoted just to that. So here it is, Homemade Herbal Remedies, and my first spreadsheet of ingredients is posted there. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Skin care with Aloe

Have you ever squeezed gel from an aloe leaf?  That stuff is gooey!  I had to sacrifice three fairly good sized leaves today for a new recipe I tried.  It's on page 114 of Organic Body Care Recipes by Stephanie Tourles,

It's called a cleansing cream but doubles as a face and body cream.  It has most of the same ingredients in the other recipe I use daily on my face, but instead of cocoa butter it has aloe vera gel and vitamin e oil.  Can't go wrong with those ingredients!  The best part was that I already had every ingredient, although my aloe plant might not be real happy tonight.  1/4 cup is a lot of aloe!  Used lavender, geranium and a bit of ylang ylang essential oils for added benefit.

Rosemary Oil - everything you want to know and more...

Awaiting my order of Rosemary oil from Mountain Rose Herbs.  I've been using a thick, creamy oil blend from Organic Body Care Recipes that is simply Sesame base oil (cosmetic grade, not culinary) and Shea Butter.  With the addition of Rosemary oil, it will help with aching muscles and circulation too! Thinking about a Lavender/Rosemary blend for balance.
Here's some interesting tidbits of info about Rosemary:

• "Hungary Water" was made by the Queen of Hungary by adding rosemary sprigs to wine.  It was said to "renovate vitality of paralyzed limbs".  
• Rosemary also has a reputation for improving memory. 
• The results of a study suggest that an ingredient found in rosemary  "may shield the brain from free radicals, lowering the risk of strokes and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's".  
• Another study showed it may have anticarcinogenic properties.

I'm gonna get some, and you can too.  Click on the Mountain Rose Herb banner for more information.

Skin Care - knowing the ingredients

If you're like most women I know, you use some kind of skin care product on your face and body. Take a minute and look at the ingredients in your moisturizer and see how many you can identify. Some people spend a lot of money on these concoctions, especially anti-aging face creams. I've been buying a commercial line of anti-aging face products for several years now, and I'm still not sure what the main ingredient is. So, I've been reading about ingredients in the Organic Body Care Recipes book I posted about earlier and deciding which recipes I'm going to make.

Rose Hip Seed Oil is good for mature skin and extreme weather exposure. Macadamia Nut Oil is another carrier oil that penetrates well and is used in creams for mature skin and skin that's sun or wind burned.

Choosing the essential oils has been an education too. In addition to having therapeutic value, the aromas are known to have certain effects on the central nervous system. Lavender has always been one of my favorite scents, and come to find out it has many versatile uses for skin care too. It has sedative, antispasmodic and antiseptic properties. It can be used for sunburns, insect bites, cuts, headaches, muscle aches, menstrual cramps and to induce sleep! The aroma is known for its relaxing and calming effect.

The almond meal/yogurt face scrub is working great! My face is very smooth and feels soft, not dry. I plan on following it with a Rosewater and Vegetable Glycerin toner. Then with one of the moisturizers I'll be mixing up. One that looks promising is the Rich and Royal Regeneration Flower Cream. Ingredients include macadamia nut oil, rose hip seed base oil, beeswax, rose water, vitamin E oil, and lavender, sweet orange and ylang ylang oils. I'm going to experiment a bit with other essential oils too. I purchased Bergamot, Rose and Frankincense oils, along with Lavender, Sweet Orange and Ylang Ylang. All 6 of these oils are listed as stress reducers and can be blended. It'll be fun coming up with my own "signature" scent.

These ingredients are inexpensive and can be purchased at Mountain Rose Herbs, along with other bulk products like teas and spices. Just click on the banner to the right for a look.

The Mountain Rose Blog

The Mountain Rose Blog has another Holiday giveaway this week - five different teas, a great tote bag and a beautiful tea pot for the lucky winner. I associate tea with sailing, being on the boat on a dark, rainy night, wet and cold headed for our destination. Sounds pretty miserable until we go below, light up the stove and brew a cup. Warms us from the inside out and all's well. Wish me luck...

Making my own skin care products

I became inspired this weekend while visiting a new friend. She makes her own face creams using recipes from the book Organic Body Care Recipes, and supplies from Mountain Rose Herbs. So I've ordered the book and am putting together my shopping cart - can't wait to start concocting! Hey, it involves cooking, good smells, and will save me tons of money. I've already started with a cleanser and exfoliator that's just ground almonds (almond meal) and a dab of yogurt. Things I always have on hand and it works great. Next, on to a cocoa butter lotion with sweet orange oil. Really need the moisture in this cold climate!