Holiday Season 2007

       

       

                  Making Lotion "Free Pouring"

Gloxi: Natural Preservatives

 Most Popular Scents

Letter from the Editor:          

Yippee the holidays are almost here!  The first major change at Mabel is we have a new search feature.  I have written so much over the years, even I forget a good recipe or formula.  More so when it is a holiday one.  So, if you go to Archives, it now has a nifty search tool.  It will search the Archives, and/or the supply company.  The search tool in the actual supply company also works.

I love the new search tool.  I tested Wassail and found that recipe right quick.  Rum or Cognac aficionados may want to get on top of the no bake fruit cake recipe now.  I love that recipe and it seems to be better when aged.  Do a search on that, the recipe comes up in second place. 

What Sells?  I am asked that quite often by people wanting to sell their own hand made products.  Across the country various friends of mine opened up bath and body type shops this year. Here is what I learned does sell in any location: 

Anything lavender, almost anything lemon, and the same with vanilla and coffee/espresso.  Spread yourself out and do not invest all on floral--just because you like floral.  You really need a floral, fruit, sweet and spicy scent at minimum.  When it comes to bases, anything dead sea--such as body scrubs, and bath salts.  Body Butters came in second to body scrubs and bath salts.  So, I would sell dead sea bath salts and body scrubs in lavender, lemon, and coffee/caramel.    If I am ambitious, I would make matching candles with room sprays.  I feel the room spray expresses a good scent best--and you can spritz away before guests arrive.  I would attach a room spray to a candle with a ribbon and just sell it as a package.  So, if I sold gift baskets, you can assume I would have a dead sea body scrub, bath salts, with a matching body butter, and a candle with a matching room spray.    A few bath bombs or fizzy bath salts would not hurt either.  More fun, I may add scented sachets for the closest and drawers.  Sachets are great gifts and often an item people will not buy for themselves. 

Making Lotion Made Easy:  Free Pouring

Lotion is the #1 used bath product and you will save gobs of money if you make your own.  With a dry and cold winter ahead, do use some vegetable glycerin that will draw moisture in. 

As far as making lotion, I will say it again. For years I was intimidated by making lotion.  Once I figured out it was simple, but messy--I created EmulSoy to divert the mess part.  Basically, emulsification waxes no longer end up all over my work area.   Waxes were heck to get off even a tile floor anyway.  I made that step into a bar.  To cut my bars, I use a stainless steel butter knife.  This allows me to put pressure above--and score them into four parts with ease.  The utensil to the right is made by KitchenArt and the only model I like for this purpose. EmulSoy is more than a clean way to make lotion, it contains soy lipids than really embrace additives.  The soy lipids make it come out a rich opaque, like half and half, no matter how thin, and not a cheap transparent. 

Now, the term free pouring came from my bartenders days-some 24 years ago.  I found a neat way to "free pour" when making my own personal lotion.  When making my own personal stash, I do not really like to measure and weigh materials.  I do know I like a 20% (or so) oil and 80% (or so) water based lotion.  (My early recipes too greasy...)  I took my favorite nuking pitchers (never acrylic) and simply marked them with bright shrink tape where my 20% oil line was and my 80% water line--I measured that last time.  I use a similar pitcher, not marked to do my blending.  This is because I will wash the blending pitcher later.  These vessels work like a charm in a microwave, and with a hand blender.  And I know I am working with a 64 ounce pitcher.  Click thumbnail photo to get a better look at the marking system.

Using pre-established markers allows me to just throw what I want in the oil part, and what I want in the water part, anytime I want to make lotion or crème.  *I plop my EmulSoy in the oil part--after I have met my oil marker.  And I do heat them together, and let them cool down together.  I do not get hung up on weights, or mess up other cups.  Recently I made a great lotion with:  Aloe Juice & Glycerin (10%) for the water part, with a teaspoon of borax,  and in the oil part: Shea Oil, Jojoba, Vitamin e, and Vanilla Flavor oil (at 5% of the oil part) and it all came out luscious.  After it is blended and cooled down to 120-110 degrees I add Germaben.  It takes about 20 minutes to cool down to that range.  Since I like to forget this step--I put the pre-measured Germaben right near the handle of the prepared lotion.  This way I cannot forget it.   Also, while warm, but not steaming hot, I can add really cool stuff such as carrot essential oil.  Anything precious, I do not want to evaporate.  Making crème is the same method, you are just using more Emulsoy.  And some crèmes you may wish to do a 50/50 oil/water ratio--although these have nothing to do with thickness--the EumlSoy sets the thickness.  For a very therapeutic crème, you may want to add menthol oil at 1% and peppermint oil at 5% and perhaps Emu in your oil side.  To buy EmulSoy click here.   Modified Formula, Click here.

Where I got the Aloe this time was funny.  A friend bought me an expensive "cold pressed" gallon to drink.  I think it tastes like Kat Scan film-even with "peppermint" and other good herbs.  And they come over and check my fridge to check if I drank any-leaving disappointed all month.  Well, the last time they checked it was 1/2 gone.  They thought I was doing marvelous and they were elated.  Little did they know it was all in the pitcher of lotion cooling. Yes, the Vanilla really came out well with the peppermint! Moral of this story? If someone gives you aloe to drink, make lotion!  Your skin does drink 10% of what is put on it. 

Brenda Eastman on EmulSoy "I love it, love it, love it."  And thank Brenda Eastman for this...a couple of dollars and we can toss the lid... $2 plastic pitchers......76 cent plastic pitchers 2 liter.  I use these for a lot more than making lotion.  I use designated ones to make candles and so on.  To clean I wipe down the inside with a paper towel while still hot.  They can usually withstand up to 240 degrees...but after that--they will melt.  I have opened the microwave door to find  a "plastic blob" on a few startling occasions-but I was pushing 260 degrees and did not realize it.  Cleaning a bunch of wax out of a microwave before it got cold--was the challenge.  Always keep an eye on them.

Holiday 2007 most popular fragrances:

Crème Brulee, Mulberry, Mulled Cider, Harvest, Espresso, Sandalwood, Gardenia (serious big seller this year,) Lilac, Cotton, Linen.

Holiday 2007 most popular flavors: 

Apple Cinnamon, Red Hot Cinnamon, Cotton Candy, Peppermint, Almond, Lemon Drops,

Espresso Latte', Butter Rum, Chocolate Mint, Cool Berry.

Clearance Chocolate Molds: 10 Molds in a Box

Carrying chocolate molds was difficult because they take an unusually wide box.  Because they do not fit in our normal boxes--I am selling them in trays of 10, as a clearance item.  I am selling ten molds in a wide flat rate box for $30 and they are already boxed up.  Retail value is at least $80.  There are ten molds in each flat rate box--a variety with none repeated.  At least in each box 5 are traditional molds such as cordial, cups, and turtles.  At least 4 are holiday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and some Easter.  Each mold has many cavities.  And I will throw in my on-line Chocolate making video.  In fact, anyone can click here and watch the video until the holidays are over.   Making chocolate was one of the most memorable projects I shared with my three daughters.

In the video I recommend just buying Nestle chips, they are the best quality on the store shelves.  I also dissuade people from buying the "other" dipping type chocolate as it contains too much wax.  Click here to buy the molds.  *While supplies last.

Have a GREAT holiday season!

Natural Preservatives: Milk and Sugar Enzymes: Gloxi

Glucose oxidase and lactoperoxidase are basically natural sugar and milk enzymes used as preservatives in place of the typical parabens.  You may be familiar with these terms because Burt's Bees recently started using them in their lotions.  These two compounds are so hard to pronounce, I call them "Gloxi."  As far as natural preservatives go, I would not consider compounds such as "grape seed extract," in and of itself, a broad spectrum preservative by any means.   Any emulsion such as lotion, really needs more protection from micro-bugs than greed seed extract. 

Gloxi is so neat I wanted to carry it on the site.  Unfortunately it comes in refrigerated and is not stable until it is in an environment such as lotion or cream.  The handling is so special, I do not envision this becoming available on the open market.  If anyone did carry it, I would question if they cared about its effectiveness.  You really need to be a professional to handle it.

Why? Basically the milk and sugar enzymes do a great job as a broad spectrum preservative, unless it is exposed to air over and over.  Opening up a jar and sticking a finger in, creates more havoc than we know.  Well, we know a little bit.  We know the stores in the malls use sample spatulas.  This is the reason.  Beyond introducing little buggers that a human eye cannot see--Gloxi does not like Oxygen. Air is like Kryptonite to Gloxi.  Enough air and the milk and sugar enzymes will turn into hydrogen peroxide and no longer work to fight micro bugs.  When handled properly, I LOVE GLOXI!  We do offer a Gloxi lotion base in our Wholesale section.  It is known as Soytanicals Lotion PLUS. 

I am getting besieged with calls for this as well as the Soy Spa Bath, wax dipping product.  Since they are both based on Soy Lipids, and compliment each other, I am putting them under one brand. Soytanicals.  I do need more performance testing, in a professional environment.  If you have anything to do with a spa, I can send substantial samples as long as shipping is covered.  Click here to contact me.

Natural Preservative Grapefruit Seed Extract Seed Extract - Not So Natural

*This article is not discussing internal GSE and makes no opinion on internal GSE products.  This article discusses GSE in topical applications.

Nutshell:  Grapefruit Seed Extract, (GSE) is a by product of manufacturing, making it a syntheic and most are preserved with parabens, triclosan, or  benzethonium - to name a few, as it gets packaged up to be sold as Grapefruit Seed Extract.  One study tested all GSE's on the market and found the few that did work-did have preservatives inserted and at mega quantities.  So, if a lotion was protected from microorganisms, it was the preservatives from the first instance of GSE manufacturing, not lotion manufacturing, protecting it. Grapefruit seed extract is a synthetic chemical compound, cannot be called “organic,” and is not permitted in organic food products.

Grapefruit seed extract. Sounds so healthy, doesn´t it? You´ve heard it touted as a “natural” preservative, and the health food store sells it in a capsule as an antifungal supplement. If everybody says that it´s natural they must be correct, right? Wrong.

Grapefruit seed extract is not grapefruit juice or grapefruit essential oil. It is most certainly not an herbal tincture. Chemical manufacturers take the leftover grapefruit pulp, a waste by-product from grapefruit juice production, and in an intensive, multi-step industrial chemical process, change the natural phenolic compounds into synthetic quaternary ammonium compounds. Typically, in chemical synthesis of this type, chemical reagents and catalysts are used under extreme high heat and pressure or vacuum. Synthetic ammonium chloride is one of the chemical catalysts used in this process.  After all of that, they preserve it!

Unfortunately, because there is no legal definition of the word “natural,” any company can put chemicals in body care products and tell you that they´re “natural.” Also, in the US, any company is free to sell any chemical compound as a “dietary supplement” without doing any pre-market or long-term safety studies of any kind.

Source:  Institute of Pharmacy, Ernst Moritz Arndt University, Greifswald, Germany

Source: The Swiss Toxicological Information Center of Basel, Switzerland

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