Crafty Ali Boulder Life Article
text and photos courtesy of Boulderlife.co and Stacy Keck Photography
Video By 23rdstudios
It All Started With Freckles
As a little girl, my mother used to tell me that “a face without freckles is like a night without stars.”This was her way of convincing a little girl who hated her complexion that freckles are beautiful. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for my mom’s loving words, but I wish she had also instilled in me the importance of wearing sunscreen. So now that I’m grown and have come to understand the seriousness of skincare, I find it painstaking to decipher the long list of difficult to pronounce ingredients that claim to do miracles.
Lately I’ve noticed a significant trend in Boulder and beyond toward homemade, do-it-yourself (DIY) health and beauty products. I think people are recognizing that a lot of the beauty products on the store shelves contain ingredients that may be hazardous to our health. More and more I’m seeing recipes for homemade, non-toxic, good-for-you skin care. Perhaps I’m a little late to the patchouli party, but if there are two things I love when it comes to skin care they are value and DIY. In an effort to avoid the toxins without sacrificing my vanity, I’ve decided to cook up my own natural dry skin remedy using just a few ingredients that I know will be beneficial. Being that we live in a dry climate, I thought a batch of moisturizing lotion bars would be the perfect first step towards simplifying my skin care routine.
I searched for a recipe and found that most had these ingredients in common:
Gather Your Ingredients
First Step – gather together your ingredients. In this case everything was purchased at Rebecca’s Apothecary.
Now, I’m sure the experts out there would use a double boiler to combine all the ingredients, but honestly there is no need for fancy equipment. I re-purposed a pickle jar that I had thoroughly washed and dried.
Re-purposed Pickle Jar
Now, pay attention here because this is the most important step…put the ingredients in the jar. There you have it!
Now place that jar in a sauce pan with a few inches of water on the stovetop and set it to simmer. I thought for sure I would feel like Hermione Granger in potions class mixing and measuring and stirring, but alas, this is truly a set it and forget it process.
As a little girl, my mother used to tell me that “a face without freckles is like a night without stars.” This was her way of convincing a little girl who hated her complexion that freckles are beautiful.
Having a lid on the jar is important as oil and water don’t mix. Also, with the lid on tight you can just shake the jar to mix up its contents. A few shakes of a lamb’s tail and a few shakes of the pickle jar and you’ve got liquid gold. Just make sure all ingredients are melted and combined thoroughly and you’re ready to pour the mixture into your molds. I used silicone baking cups which proved to be extremely easy but you can use anything from ice cube trays to chocolate molds. Just pour, let them set for a few hours and Voila!; you have beautiful, homemade lotion. Simply rub onto your hands like a bar of soap and your body heat will soften the lotion. Your skin will soak this stuff up so don’t worry if it’s a bit oily at first.
From the peanut gallery: