It's getting perilously close to the busiest time of the year, which is made much less stressful if you do a bit of planning.
Sit down and relax, note down who you have to give gifts to and some ideas. Can a similar gift be given to more than one person? When you are making skincare products, it takes no more time to make a large batch of cream than a small one. All the relatives catered for in one fell swoop!
It's really so simple.

We have a few recipes below that have worked well for us and our website has heaps more. Some take 15 minutes, others an hour and a few weeks for cold-pressed soap.
With a little planning, you could produce heaps of gifts in an evening.

In this issue

New products: NZ bentonite clay, NZ kaolin clay; sandalwood fragrance oil; Dead Sea mud powder.
Recipes galore: body butter; bubble cakes; moisturiser stick; shaving cream.
 

---

New products

NZ bentonite clay

For a face mask, take 1 tablespoon of powder and mix with enough water to form a paste. Smooth over your skin, leave on for 20 minutes and wash off. Clays can also be used in soap. Use around 30g per kilo of soap and blend in just before the trace stage.
 

---

NZ kaolin clay

Kaolin, all clays actually, can be used as in the bentonite above.
 

---

Dead Sea mud powder

Our supplier of Dead Sea mud decided not to stock it anymore, so the search began for another supplier.
We've come up with an even better solution: the powder itself. We make it into mud ourselves simply by adding water. This way we control the end product with regards to preservation, etc. If you are using the mud straightaway, no preservation is necessary.
 

---

Sandalwood fragrance oil

It's really hard to find a nice sandalwood fragrance. Most are a little sweet smelling. This one is from Grasse, in France, as our our other fragrances, and is the best we've come across.
 

---

Recipes

Rainforest body butter with walnut oil (Makes 150g) Water Phase (WP) 100g water Oil Phase (OP) 16g NZ walnut oil 10g shea butter, wildcrafted 10g cocoa butter, organic natural 10g coconut oil, organic virgin 10g emulsifier O Last Phase (LP) 1g Geogard 221 Method 1. Heat the WP & OP separately in 2 pots until 60°C. 2. Combine the two phases and beat with a stick blender. 3. When it is beginning to thicken, add LP and blend. 4. Spoon into a container. Our 200ml pots are good for this.   It’s a shame to use any perfume in this one as the cocoa butter smells SO good. If you want a different odour, use deodorised cocoa butter and 1 tsp of essential or fragrance oil.

Bubble cakes Dry ingredients 240g baking soda 240g sodium cocoyl isothionate (SCI) 45g cream of tartar (you'll need to get this from the supermarket) Wet ingredients 30g glycerin   30g cocamidopropyl betaine 30g lauryl glucoside Extras 1 tsp rose essential oil, cosmetic grade 1 tsp red mica Method 1. Stir dry ingredients together. Add the rose essential oil and stir in. 2. Melt wet ingredients and add to dry ingredients. 3. Put on some gloves and knead the wet and dry ingredients until they stick together. 4. Divide the ingredients in half. Add the red mica to one half and knead in to blend. So now you have a lump of white and a lump of red ingredients. 5. On separate pieces of clingfilm, flatten each lump into a rectangle about 5mm thick. Place one rectangle on top of the other and roll up into a log. Cut slices and leave to dry overnight. To use, place a slice in the bath under the running water.

Moisturiser stick This recipe makes enough for one of our deodorant tubes. It makes a great moisturiser and is great for travelling. Ingredients 20g shea butter 20g kokum butter 20g beeswax 15g meadowfoam oil 2 drops essential oil or fragrance oil (optional) Method 1. Melt all the butters and oil together. 2. Add the essential or fragrance oil. 3. Pour into the tube and leave to set.

Shaving butter with rosemary and peppermint (Makes 300g and looks good in our 200ml pot) Ingredients Step 1 96g cocoa butter deodorised 48g coconut oil 12g almond oil Step 2 2 drops rosemary essential oil 1 drop peppermint essential oil Step 3 96g aloe vera gel 1 tsp white clay (it could be another colour) Method 1. Melt Step 1 ingredients. Let it solidify. 2. When it is hard, add the Step 2 ingredients and whip. 3. Add Step 3 ingredients and whip again. Spoon into containers. To use: Apply a thin layer to the skin and shave.