Monday, January 20, 2014

Shave cream/oil

So awhile back, I found this recipe.
The original recipe calls for shea butter.  Shea butter is hard to find in town and I really wanted to make it so I used some Palmer's cocoa butter formula instead.  It made for more of an oil than anything. I did not need to use the stove since it was summer and leaving the coconut oil on the counter over night allowed it to turn into a liquid.  I used the same amount of almond, rosemary, and peppermint.
The fella really liked it and I really liked it.  It conditions so well.  However, with the Florida heat, storing it in a cool, dry place as recommend is not really a viable option; so after a few short months (yes months, you really do not need to use very much of this at a time) the batch went bad.  I had stored the batch in a small ball jar.
I will say the using the cocoa butter formula instead really made it like a shaving oil. Works really well, but not the tidiest way to shave one's face.  So this time I asked the fella what he thought, if he'd like the more solid way ( it is winter now so things hold somewhat) and what he thought of the fragrance.  His response:" what fragrance" so I know I needed more oils.
So I made a few tweaks to the original recipe :



1/3 cup shea butter (72.67 grams) or Palmer's cocoa butter formula (in a jar)
1/3 cup virgin coconut oil (72.05 grams)
1/4 cup jojoba or sweet almond oil (54.88 grams)
15 drops rosemary essential oil
10 drops peppermint essential oil


So gather your ingredients:

I got the shea butter off Amazon, the jar is from IKEA, the coconut oil from Trader Joe's, and the oils are from the local health nut store (sunflower health foods) but I'm sure you could just get everything off Amazon and simplify your life.    
(so excited to have a microwave now)


Anyways, on the stove combine the coconut oil and the shea butter in a saucepan.   Please just stand in front of the stove and wait for it to melt or just do it on low heat so you don't burn the oils.  ( I came dangerously close to doing that)

Put your melted mixture and the rest of the ingredients in a heat safe bowl. Your house will now smell amazing.  If you have a dog, they will try eating the air it smells insanely delicious.  

Let your mixture solidify.  If it's cold I'm sure you could just leave it out on the counter.  I decided to cover my bowl and place it in the fridge.  

So after a long day a thesis writing, I came home to this coolness/ weirdness


Take out your hand mixer and whip it on high.  If you are using the Palmer's you can just do it by hand.  Also you can skip the solidifying step as it will never happen.  It's so thin and oily that it's easy to stir.  It will however, never whip.  I found that in using the Palmer's getting the mixture to keep air is pretty much impossible.  However, if you use the pure shea butter, it'll whip up really nice like a whipped cream (smells delicious but I wouldn't recommend tasting it, lol)


Then spoon it into a jar.  I tried one that fastens this time to try and see if it would keep better.  




A nicely decorated jar is always fun. I did mine using glass paint and a Martha Stewart stencil for the border ( I free-handed the "Shave").


I think I will make some lavender-mint oil for myself next :)


-Nique

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