I know I have been lax on my blog posts, but I am going to get better at posting. Sometimes it feels like there are so many things to be done and unfortunately there are only so many hours in a day. That and I try not to take the laptop to bed and work in the evenings when I'm bushed and need to stretch out and relax. Fibromyalgia makes me slow down and take breaks and not work long into the evenings like I use to.
But the plus side is with my knowledge about making these types of products I have been looking closer at the medicinal properties of essential oils, so I ordered 7 essential oils just for their medicinal properties to incorporate them into a solid lotion bar to help with pain. My hands and one elbow is affected the most, so when they hurt there isn't much I can do other than take strong narcotic pain meds is to rest them. So I am trying more natural methods of pain relief to hopefully get away from those pain medications. I have just began experimenting.
But I do want to highlight a new product added to my store. I do need to photograph the product and I just haven't taken the time to do that. It's for a hand and body lotion that is made with aloe juice and goats milk as the liquid. Before you decide that isn't something you would use because of the goats milk I do want to let you know that there are safe amounts that can be added into a lotion without going bad. If you add too much the preservative can't handle it and it will go bad. That's why it's important to buy from someone who knows what they are doing when adding perishable items like milk into a lotion.
Ingredients In Alphabetical Order.
The label on the product will be in the correct order as required by the FDA.
Liquids : Aloe Vera Juice, Goats Milk
Oils : Avocado Oil, Coconut Oil, Shea Butter (organic unrefined)
Other Ingredients : Dimethicone, IPM, Panthenol B5, Sodium Lactate, Tocopherols, Wheat Protein
Emulsifiers : BTMS, Emulsifying Wax
Preservative : Liquid Germall Plus (paraben free)
Fragrance Oil or Essential Oil for scenting the lotion is optional
If you order unscented lotion any scent you smell will be from the natural scent of the ingredients used to make this lotion.
This comes packaged in a Malibu bottle. I still need to photograph the finished product as I have made this recipe before, but the last number of bottles seem to find their way to my kids friends who like it as well. Compliments of my daughters and son. But I need to make more in the next day or two so I will photograph it then. The Malibu bottle is a bottle that sits upside down on it's cap. The advantage to this style bottle is you use gravity to your advantage to get most of the product out of the bottle. The bottle looks just like the bottle that I use for my aftershave balm but just a bit taller as it contains more.
It's filled with a bit more than 4 ounces by weight, but the label reads 4 ounces.
This is what my aftershave balm bottle looks like.
I do make all my own labels. I keep the general label saved, and change out certain information as needed such as the scent name. I took a screen shot of the front label so you can see what the label is, until I get it photographed. The background is white not grey as shown in the photo below.
It's quite lovely on the skin and I'm a bit picky when it comes to the lotions and creams that I use myself. So I wouldn't offer my customers lower quality products than I would use myself.
The last few weeks have been really busy for me. With more orders than the usual, and no I'm not complaining in the least! But I also had to sew and make part of my daughters halloween costume. She went as princess Darth Vader this year. Not because she likes either one very well, but she wanted the "huh, that is so messed up" and I quote her on that effect that it would have with her friends. I'm afraid halloween evening was crazy and my daughter was ready to walk out the door to go trick or treating with friends before I had time to remember that I wanted to take pictures! When she got home she was pooped and was ready for bed. After a few treats that is.....
But this is what her costume pretty much looked like except we used a real looking tiara from the jewelry section of a store. My son had a light saber so I used the same pink fabric that I used for the chest piece to make a sleeve for the saber so it all matched.
But I did take a photograph of the chest piece that I created for the front of the black shirt. I just based this piece onto a black turtleneck so we didn't ruin a shirt for one night. That and the fact that she already had a black turtleneck so I didn't need to go out and buy one. I stabilized the back of this silky fabric with a very stiff pellon.
Then I had to finish a baby quilt, changing pads and burp cloths for a good friend of mine baby shower. They don't know the sex of the baby and they were going with browns and neutral colors. This is what I came up with for a quilt. It is machine quilted as well.
The burp cloths are flannel backed with cotton terry, just like toweling.
You can find those pictures here.
http://s271.photobucket.com/user/iiapco2/library/Anderson%20Baby%202013?sort=4&page=1
The rest of her gifts will be made after the baby is born when they know if it's a boy or a girl.
Then another friend is having a baby, and I only have part of their gift down. They know it's a boy and are involved with taekwondo so this is their quilt. This is just a quick cell phone pict as I haven't taken the time to really photograph it. But their baby is due in about a week or two so I had better get busy and finish those baby items!!!
Then this week was especially busy with PC items. As I had orders for Aftershave Balm, Shea Aftershave Balm and Tallow & Lanolin Shaving Soap, all of which needed new batches to be made up. The balm I make up in 21 oz batches but the shaving soap I make up in 13+ pound batches so it will last me awhile.
*whew* Now I think my "stuff" should be about ready for me to work on in the kitchen so I can get back to work and get those last three orders finished up this afternoon.
