Sunday 29 July 2012

Packaging and Labels


I have been working a lot on the new skin care range that will soon be available.
The products will be amazing for your skin but I also wanted them to look like little presents. I have looked at my packaging and have thought about what I would like to arrive in my letterbox and have come up with gorgeous little boxes.
I hope you will like them as much as I do. :)

Example label:




Packaging:





Sunday 24 June 2012

Vanilla and Tonka Bean Body Cream

I made Body Cream yesterday and it turned out to be wonderful.







I used the following ingredients:
45ml Water
25g Olive Butter
25g Shea Butter
25g Cocoa Butter
25g Macadamia Nut Butter
25ml Almond Oil
25ml Wheatgerm Oil
25ml Rosehip Oil
Polysorbate 80
Vitamin E
Vanilla and Tonka Bean Fragrance Oil
Preservative
1) I melted the butters in a double boiler
2) I added the melted butters to the oils
3) I added water and Polysorbate 80
4) After everything cooled down a bit, I added the Vitamin E, Fragrance Oil and Preservative

It took quite long to harden out and I only whipped it today.
It is not greasy at all and sinks into the skin straight away.

This is seriously wonderful stuff. :)

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Shea butter, organic and refined

I have also received the shea butter now and as promised, there is also a picture.

It's white and very creamy and both products are available on my homepage now. :)
http://www.thecraftlab.co.uk/ourshop/cat_580330-Butters-Solid-Oils.html

Saturday 16 June 2012

Cocoa Butter Pellets

It happened, I have found the perfect product which is now officially the first item that my company 'The Craft Lab Ltd' is about to sell.

Organic Refined Cocoa Butter in pellet form! What a genius concept right?
I fell in love with the pellet form straight away. It is so easy to dose and the butter looks and smells just like white chocolate.

Besides that, the quality is amazing. I really am very happy to be able to offer such good quality to my customers.
I will also sell them as non organic and I was able to secure Organic Refined Shea Butter with the same amazing quality.

Pictures of the Shea Butter will follow next week!

Friday 30 March 2012

Cranberry facial mask

I made a mask with my fruit powders today. :)

I used only little amounts of the following ingredients:
Cranberry fruit powder
Polysorbate 80
Pink Argiletz clay
Almond Oil
Water

I was a little bit pink afterwards but my skin felt really smooth and fresh.



Fruit powders

I am happy to announce that I found a really great manufacturer for freeze dried fruit powders.
I have received some samples and they look great.
8kg of fruit make 1kg of fruit powder. The powder is 100% fruit and full of vitamins.

The difference between the powder from my manufacturer and the powder that can be bought on several cosmetic supply sites in the UK, is that my powder does not contain any Maltodextrin which is made from corn starch. Maltodextrin is very cheap and does not contain many vitamins which means the fruit powder is stretched.

Pure fruit powders can be mixed with any sort of cosmetic and is a great colourant in addition to providing a lot of vitamins that are beneficial for your skin.

I received the following:

Cranberry powder (much more pink than red)



Strawberry powder


Buckthorn powder


Pineapple powder


I hope you like them as I am thinking of selling these.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Pink Solid Butter Scrubs

I made some more of my nice little butter scrubs today.
They are just gorgeous to use and smell so lovely.

I have only used a little bit of Vanilla FO as the Cocoa Butter and the Beeswax
smell so great already.

I hope you like them.




Sunday 18 March 2012

Bath bomby fun

I have tried one of my bath bombs.
I used half of the pink one and half of the yellow one as they still fall apart. :(

The bath water looked and smelled great though.
I only need to get them to hold together now. :)



Solid Lotion Bars

I also tried to make 'Solid Lotion Bars'.
Helen posted a recipe a while back on http://www.forum.fresholi.co.uk/index.php.

I adapted the recipe a bit because I didn't have all the ingredients at home and ended up using the following:
Cocoa Butter
Shea Butter
E-wax
Coconut Oil
Almond Oil
Polysorbate 80
Colourant

I will use them later on and report back with some feedback. :)





Solid Butter Scrub

I made a few things today and one of them is 'Solid Butter Scrub'.
Each of the scrubs weighs 25g and will be used up after one session.

Ingredients:
Mango Butter
Cocoa Butter
Almond Oil
Beeswax
Polysorbate 80
Colourant

I am quite excited to see how this will work out. :)



I have made solid butters before but this is the first time trying to make solid scrubs.
I will report back after I had my shower.

Saturday 17 March 2012

Bodylotion

I have been making body lotion this morning because I couldn't sleep.

I used the following ingredients:
Rose Water
Water
Unrefined Shea Butter
Almond Oil
Cherry Kernel Oil
Passionfruit Oil
Emulsifying Wax
Citric Acid
Preservative
Angel fragrance Oil

It looks nice and creamy but you can really smell the unrefined shea butter.
But hey, it's really good for the skin so I will have to live with it. :)


Saturday 10 March 2012

Books!

I have received some lovely books to start the weekend. 
 This book is very exciting. Even though it contains only 35 recipes, they sound amazing and are very well explained. She also offers essential oil compositions for different skin which I really liked. 
If you are a beginner or need a bit of inspiration, this book will help!
I can't wait to give some recipes a go! :)

This book is good if you are a beginner and want same base recipes to play around with. I would always use the soap calculator to double check the ratios and maybe increase the super fatting.
This book provides a few heavy and light cream recipes as well which sound really nice.
All in all, definitely worth a read and I will be making some soap soon! :)

Monday 5 March 2012

Storage boxes / Gift boxes

I went to WH Smith today to have a look at some books and came across the cutest storage boxes.
These are the perfect size to work as gift boxes and are half price in my local WH Smith at the moment.


I absolutely adore nice packaging and am always on the search for nice boxes.

What do you think? Aren't they lovely? :)

Welcome!

Welcome to my little craft lab!
 This is my first blog ever so please be kind. :)

I am doing a lot of research on handmade beauty products at the moment and a lot of experimenting as well. I have been making cupcake bath bombs. They still need a lot of work but I am inspired. I have been buying cupcake magazines to make them look more like the 'real' thing. My piping is horrendous at the moment as I have actually never piped anything before (luckily my granny has no idea how to read my blog, phew), not even a real cupcake.

 My biggest challenge is the icing as I have been trying to make a mixture of corn starch, Shea butter and cocoa butter because they are all skin loving ingredients. However, they are not holding up very well when they come into contact with any kind of heat (blow dryer etc). Further, I have been giving some samples to my family and the feedback was that they are too much of a mess as the oils disperse in the bath water, but stick mainly to the sides of the bath tub.

 I shouldn't really be saying this but am hoping to help someone out there with the same idea. I had the glorious idea to shave my legs whilst having a bath with one of my cupcakes which of course, made the hair stick together with the oils to the sides of the bath tub and I needed half an hour to clean the mess up. :)

Unfortunately I had to give up and try a new piping mixture which was this time just with conventional royal icing sugar, Rose water, colorant and corn starch. This works much better and doesn't feel sticky in the water at all. It doesn't dissolve as nicely in the bath tub however and I will be adding some slsa to the mixture in the hope of making some bubbles as well. I also feel that they look much too colourful and I am looking into more pretty less colourful cases.

They are scented with honey and vanilla.
I also made some blue ones are scented with a dupe of Angel.

What do you like better in a bath bomb? Perfume fragrances, food fragrances or something more natural? Or would you prefer essential oils?