optiphen Archives - Soap Queen

DIY Ginger & Moringa Oil Hair Conditioner

July 3, 2017 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Lotion

Moringa seed oil comes from the Moringa tree, also known as the Miracle Tree and the Tree of Life. It’s considered a super food because it’s made from seeds of the tree, which are packed with potassium, fiber, and magnesium. These amazing properties makes moringa seed oil a great addition to skin and hair products.

This Moringa & Ginger Hair Conditioner recipe contains 10% moringa oil to nourish the hair without weighing it down. Ginger essential oil adds a zesty scent and gives the conditioner a light cream color. Cetearyl alcohol and BTMS-50 work to combine the oil and distilled water.

We tested this conditioner on several hair types including curly, dry, fine, and coarse hair. Everybody who tried it loved it. We used the conditioner normally after shampooing, leaving it on slightly longer than normal for extra conditioning. It can also be used as a deep-conditioning treatment, but it may be heavy to use as a leave-in conditioner.

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Rose Clay Face Mask DIY

April 24, 2017 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Lotion

Rose clay is a naturally beautiful skincare ingredient. It adds a soft, rosy hue to this Rose Clay Face Mask. Rose clay has gentle oil-absorbing properties, making this mask suitable for both dry and oil skin types. Scented with rose absolute, this face mask is luxurious and pampering.

This face mask recipe was specifically designed with dry, mature skin in mind. Rosehip seed oil is rich in vitamin A and C, and intensely moisturizes without leaving a greasy feeling on the skin. Chamomile extract soothes dry skin, and is thought to be an anti-inflammatory. A downloadable label template gives a finished and polished look.

Rose absolute is extracted from rose petals, and gives the mask a soft, luxurious rose scent. It is a pricey essential oil, but you don’t need much at all. Just 1 mL of the oil is enough to elevate this mask to a truly pampering experience. If you don’t have dry or mature skin, there are three different variations of this mask recipe. This post will help you find which clay mask is right for your skin type.

Tumeric Clay Face Mask – normal, combination skin.
Lavender Clay Face Mask – dry, sensitive skin.
Sea Clay Face Mask – oil skin.

A few notes about recipe substitutions:

Polawax Emulsifying Wax is a highly reliable and strong emulsifier. It could be substituted for the generic version, Emulsifying Wax, if you prefer, although this recipe was not tested with Emulsifying Wax. Due to the clay in the recipe, we splurged and used Polawax Emulsifying Wax to avoid any chance of separation.
This recipe calls for avocado and rosehip seed oil. Other oils can be used instead if you prefer; we recommend staying with liquid oils that absorb easily into the skin. Changing the total amount of oil in the recipe will change the overall texture of the mask.
Because this recipe is essentially a lotion and contains a large amount of water, a preservative is necessary to prevent mold and bacterial growth. We chose Optiphen, but other water soluble preservatives will work. Learn more about preservatives here.
Increase the total amount of clay if you want it to be better suited for normal to oily skin types. Decreasing the amount of clay may create a thinner product with more moisturizing properties.
If you prefer to use different clays, feel free to swap them. Clays have different absorbing properties, which will affect how it feels on the skin. Learn which clay is right for your skin.
If you have very sensitive skin, fragrance and essential oils can be irritating. Omit from the recipe if you prefer. Or, you can sub out the essential oil for a different oil.

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Sultry Jasmine Lotion Tutorial

April 7, 2017 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Lotion

Jasmine blossoms are known for their strong and sweet aroma. The new Sultry Black Jasmine Fragrance Oil is an alluring spin on a classic jasmine scent, with additional notes of cassis, bergamot, and smoky musk. Because of its perfume-like qualities, it’s a great choice for leave-on products such as body oil. It’s also the perfect fit for this creamy body lotion recipe.

Inspired by the Sultry Black Jasmine Fragrance Oil, this lotion recipe is made with rosehip seed oil. Rosehip seed oil is rich in vitamins A and C and is great for extremely dry skin. It’s known as a “dry” oil, which means it dries quickly on the skin without leaving a greasy feel. Its addition makes this lotion fantastic for hands if you work in an office and don’t want to leave an oily smear on papers you touch.

Jasmine Essential Water is used as a portion of the liquid in this recipe. Essential waters are created by infusing purified water with essential oil. If you like, you can use a full 12 ounces of distilled water instead. Diluted Royal Purple LabColor gives the lotion a soft purple hue. This can be omitted from the recipe completely, or you can add more if you prefer a more saturated color. Learn how to dilute LabColors here.

Polawax Emulsifying Wax is the emulsifier that brings the water and oil together. Stearic acid is a co-emulsifier, and also acts as a thickening agent. Learn more about formulating lotion recipes here. Because of the thickness of this recipe, it is not suitable for bottles with pumps. Not interested in making your own lotion from scratch? Lotion base is a great option!

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Sunshine Lotion Tutorial

July 12, 2016 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Lotion

I’d love to spend hours in the sun, but my skin might disagree. Rather than bathing in sunshine and risking a burn, I created this Sunshine Lotion Recipe. It’s a thick and creamy texture, yet it feels surprisingly lightweight on the skin. Scented with Sunflower Fragrance Oil and Southern Peach Fragrance Oil, it smells slightly fruity, flowery and completely amazing. It’s like spreading a little bit of summer on your skin!

If you’ve never made lotion before, it’s surprisingly simple. In a nutshell, it boils down to mixing water and a small amount of oil together. In order to blend the the oil and water together, you need an emulsifier. In this case, emulsifying wax gives the lotion a nice “slip.” This recipe also contains stearic acid, which acts as a co-emulsifer and thickener. If you’d like to learn more about the different components of lotion recipes, the How to Create Homemade Lotion Recipes post is full of information.

In addition to water, oils and emulsifier, lotion recipes require a preservative. Preservatives are anit-microbial solutions that prevent mold and bacteria from growing in your products. Any product that contains water requires a preservative. For the preservative in this recipe, I used optiphen which is a paraben and formaldehyde-free preservative. To learn more about which preservative is right for you project, click here.

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Kauai Red Sea Salt Scrub DIY

June 28, 2016 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials, Soaks & Scrubs

If your skin is feeling flaky and dry, exfoliation is key. Exfoliation gets rid of the rough texture and helps your moisturizer absorb. This Kauai Red Sea Salt Scrub is made with salt from the Pacific Ocean. The salt is covered in red alae clay from Kauai to give it a gorgeous burnt orange color. The fine texture of the salt makes it perfect for scrubbing off dead skin from the legs and body.

Jojoba oil and fractionated coconut oil are added for skin-loving properties. To help prevent a greasy feeling on the skin, I added potassium cocoate. Potassium cocoate is a natural liquid surfactant made from coconut oil. It acts like liquid soap and gives the scrub light cleansing properties. The scrub will not bubble or foam on the skin, but the potassium cocoate makes the skin feel clean rather than oily. It also prevents the red alae clay from sticking to the skin. To see what this scrub looks like on the skin and how it washes off, scroll to the bottom of the post.

This scrub is part of the #SoaptheRainbow series and contest. All week long, share your photos of red projects on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook with the tag #SoaptheRainbow for a chance to win a $10 Bramble Berry gift certificate.

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Fresh Face Round Up + Chamomile and Calendula Infused Toner

August 25, 2014 Filed Under: Bath & Body Tutorials

Last week was full of recipes created to pamper your face. For dry skin in need of additional moisture, the Lavender and Aloe Lotion and Lavender and Chamomile Cleansing Bar feature hydrating ingredient such as Sweet Almond Oil, Shea Butter and Jojoba Oil. If your skin is on the oilier side, the Tea Tree and Rosemary Cleansing Bar and Oil-Free Lavender Lotion help control oil and keep skin feeling comfortable.

Top row (left to right): Lavender and Aloe Lotion, Oil-Free Lavender Lotion
Bottom row: Oily & Dry Cleansing Bars

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Guest Post: Perfectly Preserved + a body butter recipe

December 9, 2013 Filed Under: Tips & Tricks

Lotions and butters are some of the most popular bath and body products, but they’re also products that can raise the most questions. Questions such as “Do I need a preservative for my product?” “Which preservative do I use?” and “Are preservatives safe?” are some of the most common ones we see, and we hope this thorough guest post by formulation guru and fellow crafter Susan Barclay-Nichols will help clear up some confusion.

Susan is an expert in cosmetic chemistry, and in this post she gets down to the nitty-gritty of which preservatives work best in which products, their usage rates and their ingredients. It’s a one-stop-shop for everything preservative related! Read on to learn about the wide world of preservatives and how you can safely use them in your products.

A-M Note: If you’re concerned about parabens and the safety of preservatives in bath and body products, we’ve found these following resources to be helpful explanations: Parabens Puzzlement, More to the Parabens Puzzlement and Debate Over Parabens – Truth and Research. Borrowing from the blogs: “The FDA supports the use of Parabens as does the European Union….and under regimented testing by the cosmetics directive of the European Union they too, found no direct correlation of Parabens and cancer.”

Keep in mind, the type of preservative you choose is up to you, and I’m glad that there are effective options for everyone out there who wants to responsibly use a full spectrum preservative. All Bramble Berry preservatives have been approved for use in body products. Now onto the guide! – A.M.

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You’ll notice there are actually two areas of contamination in the product. The first is the great big green spot on the left side, but did you notice the brown-y orange streak to the right hand side of that on the side of the jug? Yep, there’s a little more contamination for you!

I made this lotion without preservatives to show you how quickly things can go off. I made this sixteen days ago. (It might have gone off earlier. This was the first chance I had to check it, to be honest!) I did all the things I generally do – I heated and held both phases, I made sure all my equipment and workshop was clean – but I left out the preservatives. I covered it tightly with Press & Seal in this jug after it had cooled to room temperature. It’s been cold in the workshop – below 10˚C – which is quite chilly considering a fridge should be kept at 0˚C to 4˚C, and room temperature is 18˚C to 22˚C. It is also quite damp back there as we’ve had a bunch of rain since Halloween – just about every day – which is normal for this time of year.

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