Firstly our fearless leader, Margy, explained how using simple household ingredients for shampoo and conditioner had improved the condition of her hair. She uses:
Shampoo - Mix 1T of Bicarb Soda with 1 cup of water. Pour slowly over wet hair. Rub and rinse.
Conditioner - Mix 1T Apple Cider Vinegar (without the mother) with 1 cup of water. Pour slowly over wet hair. Rub and rinse.
Our two
presenters were young mums, Rachel and Racheal, who kept us intrigued by
making a variety of products including chap sticks, Vapor-Rub, sun
block, shaving cream and solid perfume.
Coconut oil and beeswax seem to be the basic ingredients in most of the products to which essential oils were added.
Firstly Rachel showed us how to make chap sticks which I think were made from 2 parts coconut oil to 1 part beeswax before adding essential oils. Margy will probably have the recipe on the Simple Living Toowoomba site in the next week. Rachel uses an old saucepan she picked up from an Op Shop which she only uses for making these products.
She showed us the high tech way she stands up the containers while she fills them ~ by using her children's Play-Dough. LOL!
When she finished her presentation she then painstakingly filled up thirty or so containers for everyone to take one home while Racheal started her presentation.
She demonstrated how to cleanse the skin with oil and for this she recommended using:
Oil Cleanse Recommendations
Carrier oil (2 parts)
Oily skin - sweet almond, apricot oil
Regular skin - organic pure sunflower oil, argan oil
Dry skin - avocado oil
All skin types - jojoba oil, hempseed oil, olive oil
Astringent oil (1 part or less if you are sensitive)
Castor oil or hazelnut oil for dryer skin types. Up to 1/3 of the mix can be castor/hazelnut oil for oily skin types. For dry or sensitive skin, use 1/4 or less. Example: dry skin oil cleanse mix could be 3/4 avocado oil and 1/4 hazelnut oil.
She made solid perfume and sunblock...
Vapor-Rub
...which set very quickly...
...as well as leg shaving cream...
...and some for us to take home.
Racheal gave us some recipes to try including:
Homemade Lemon Essential Oil from Dr.Oz
She buys bulk coconut oil at $12-$13 per litre from Nature Pacific and Macadamia Fresh.
Oils such as apricot and sweet almond oil and zinc oxide powder (used in sun block) can be bought from Aussie Soap Supplies.
Butters such as shea, cacao and mango as well as good quality essential oils can be bought from
Racheal also found that Mommy Potamus and Wellness Mama were treasure troves of information but couldn't give us their recipes as many are copyrighted. She bought two excellent eBooks from Mommy Potamus for $25 each.
Both sites do have some free recipes so do check them out if you are interested in making your own products and actually know what is in them :-)
Before the workshop we had our swap and a cuppa. I took along some ' pots' of my suspect mint
and came home with a gorgeous pot holder made by Shiralee from Vintage Papery which is featured in the first photo as well as enough basil to make some basil pesto. Shiralee coloured her potholder with Crayola crayons and hopefully she will do a tutorial about the process on her blog soon.
A couple of the Down to Earth Forum members had also travelled to Toowoomba for the workshop and one of them brought along some her beautiful crochet work which I snapped up. It is really a burgundy colour but my camera hates anything red for some reason.
It was a day for being spoilt as the other DTE member who knitted me the slippers which I featured in the post 'Aah...that's better' after my tirade about Telstra, had realised that I had rather small feet...
...so knitted me a smaller pair. My skin doesn't really look that colour ...I hope! She also brought along a couple of healthy looking blood lillies and some beeswax so I am all set now to experiment with some of the recipes the two girls gave us today.
After the workshop we moved next door to McCafe and had a chin wag for the next couple of hours. All in all it was a lovely day. Do come along to one of our workshops during the year if you live in the area I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy yourself.
It sounds like a lovely day with a complete treasure trove of great ideas, information and goodies!
ReplyDeleteI use olive oil to remove makeup and as a moisturiser. I use a tiny amount of coconut oil on my hair instead of my usual $50 curl control mousse as I am finding the cocount oil is having a better effect on my hair at the present time.
Sherri, that's an interesting tip about using the coconut oil on your hair. I have never tried that.
Deletewow wonderful! i would love to learn to make lip cremes & moisturizers, shampoo am not fussed on, i just use natural soap & nothing else to wash my hair & haven't looked back.
ReplyDeletegreat post, glad you all had a wonderful full day
thanx for sharing
It was a very informative workshop, Selina and I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
DeleteI wish they had courses like this in our community. I am always on the look out for them but no luck yet. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteKrystal, any chance of starting up one yourself. Our presenters are just everyday mums who make these products at home for their families. We don't usually have professionals presenting our workshops. A lot of people have skills they don't mind sharing if they have the confidence to stand up in front of a group of people.
DeleteWhat a wonderful sharing of information Nanna Chel. I've made the lip balm and the oil cleanser before, but I must say, I'm thrilled to see the instructions for the lemon essential oil! I use this all the time for my cleaning cloths, and it's so hard to find now. I used to be able to get the Eureka brand for about $3, but no more. Thankyou...Mimi xxx
ReplyDeleteYes, the instructions are quite simple aren't they, Mimi. I have done the same thing with dried calendula leaves and olive oil in a bottle sitting out in the sun for a week or so.
DeleteTried the cleansing oil mix this morning, castor and olive, worked well, and did not really need moisturizer after, wiping off with the warm cloth. Will try to do this at least twice a week. It was a great day and glad I attended.
ReplyDeleteTried the cleansing oil mix this morning, castor and olive, worked well, and did not really need moisturizer after, wiping off with the warm cloth. Will try to do this at least twice a week. It was a great day and glad I attended. Your camera really did not like the burgundy colour.
ReplyDeleteDeb, the red colours never look good. I remember the girl on the blog, Bunny Mummy, who was using the same camera saying that she had the same problem. I didn't feel so bad then as her photos are fabulous.
DeleteI always end up just a tad envious after you have one of these workshops, they sound so awesome! Thank you for posting links and recipes, these are all things I have wanted to try to do!
ReplyDeleteNow Kathy you just need to start your own group. Problem solved. LOL!
DeleteWhat a one to miss! It sounds like so much information to process - but how nice that there were samples to take home. Now that all the moving drama is complete I am back to regular programming but with doing the odd market thrown in.
ReplyDeleteWe missed you, Barb. Hope to see you at future ones now you have more time.
ReplyDeleteOh how fun. I loved reading about this and will plan to try the oil cleansing method. I hosted a ladies church event a couple weeks ago and I did homemade laundry detergent, softener, foot scrub, coconut miracle cream. It was so fun. I love the idea of sunblock. Thanks for visiting my blog and I plan to visit you more often.
ReplyDelete