cedar_lea

Let me know how it does! I'm really new to this (before I just went down to the local essential oil shop and mixed up scents and put them in whatever product was available) and my head keeps spinning with what ifs! Some of them are good, some (I'll just throw these candles in the oven to remelt) not so much.

Does anyone know of a good volumizing shampoo base . . . . or even does anyone sell a good volumizing shampoo? I'm realizing that I'm almost out of shampoo and wondering if I can indulge my scent-control-freek-ish-ness. I have alot of fine hair in a shaggy textured style and I've noticed that wich shampoo I use makes a big difference.

Is there a wax that seems to take well to most scents? I do my own blends so I'm wanting to make sure that the stuff I mix up will go well. I was thinking that soy tarts would be really nice, but soy is so often tempormental that I'm worried about just jumping in with something. I do have glass glow that I've been using for candles, so sticking to that with silicone molds is an option. I was also thinking that a less expensive soy wax might be better because of soy's popularity & costs. What are your thoughts? Also what size molds should I be using? I like the size of the clamshells I've gotten from (that company everyone hates) but I also like some of the more decorative tarts I've seen out there. What's too big or too small?

So I was randomly thinking about this today and I have a theory. . . . Disclaimer 1: this is theoretical. I have never made a lotion. If my theory is off base please tell me because someday I may want to try making one. Disclaimer 2: I am quite familiar with Angel, but really only in so much as I like to wear it and have used it as an inspirational fragrance. My assumptions may be colored by the way my body chemestry takes fragrance So the comment was that Angel always changes in lotion. If this is the case the question should maybe be what will interact best with the scent. Now thinking of Angel I think of sweet vanillas and patchouli that doesn't smell like hippy patchouli because it goes phenominally well with the chocolate. The vanilla (which is really vanilla, coconut and some other creamy scents) and patchouli are strong notes that could be thrown off balance easily so we don't want to accidently strengthen either of them. The chocolate, however, I think could handle a little more intensty without taking over. So what if you used coco butter for your creamy part? As far as the oil maybe something nutty? Almond, Walnut, hemp? My theory is that there should be scents that will blend into the background of the fragrance and be supportive without detracting.

Sorry about the repeat. I missed that there was a page 2. That went up really fast

http://glasspetalsmoke.blogspot.com/2010/08/eau-scent-of-moroccanoil.html I found this article on the scent. Apparently the blogger tried to figure out who designed the fragrancey & was denied. I could find no record of any dupes & it sounds like the company is keeping it pretty secret. The artical did have a bit of a flavor profile in it: The scent, however, is a clever provocateur. The composition includes the familiar aroma associated with hand lotion (classic white floral aldehyde) and introduces a mashup of suntan lotion, white amber and milky musk. The combination is luxurious, sensual and addictive, evoking memories of warm sandy beaches and vibrant turquoise waters, I'd guess coconut, amber and musk would be your bases. You'd probobly want a floral in ther too. Freesia maybe? Lilly?

So far they are the only supplier I've worked with, but I've been happy with what I've gotten. (other than Essentials, the fragrance store here in town which I can't afford for candle quantities) The reason I've only gone with them is that I am doing this because I like to blend my own scents. They have a larger selection of one note scents than most other FO suppliers and are the only place I've found that has all of the ingredients I've needed for my scent recipes. I love that they have reviews and you can tell if you're getting a sweet powdery lavender or a leafy one (for example). I've only gotten the basic strength so far, but it gave a good scent throw. It's not the extreme fill your house when you burn it level of scent, but it's a noticeable background note, which is exactly the level I wanted to achieve so, again, I'm happy. Now the scents I've worked with so far are things like cypress and oakmoss so they're probobly pretty easy to get a good scent with. I also used honeysuckle, wich could have been a light floral that faded quickly, but it stayed nice too. I'm excited to try citrus scents next as they're another that tend to be a fleeting top note & could disappear easily.

I'm not precisely sure what you are asking but jojoba has been the standard carrier oil I've used in the past to top off perfume oil blends. Were you using coconut with Angel? Coconut is one of the scents in the angel mix so I could see how that could bring out those notes a little and alter the scent.

Ooops. That one is Youth Dew Amber nude! Here is the classic: Top notes are aldehydes, orange, spices, peach and bergamot; middle notes are cinnamon, cassia, orchid, jasmine, cloves, ylang-ylang and rose; base notes are tolu balsam, peru balsam, amber, patchouli, musk, vanilla, oakmoss, vetiver and incense. I would think that you're more importaint scents are Orange or peach, bergamot, cinnamon/cloves (could even possibly use a holiday spice here), jasmine, ylang-ylang, balsm, amber, oakmoss, vanilla, and musk

I looked up the flavor profile for you just in case you need to mix something up yourself. I think you could get away with a shortened list, but Magnolia, Ginger, Carnation, Jasmine, Ylang Ylang, Amber, Sandalwood, Patchouli, & Chocolate are probobly the easiest to get to stand out. Of course, I've noticed that finding base FOs to blend is sometimes a bit of a pain so that might be more work that you're interested in. Notes Top Note: Gentian Flower, Magnolia, Ginger, Fresh Tea, Grapefruit Middle Note: Red Carnation, Jasmin, Ylang Ylang, Spices, Black Rose Base Note: Amber Balms, Vetiver, Sandalwood, Patchouli Heart, Dark Chocolate

Funny you should ask . . In my quest to make good edible body paint I researched alot of flavor oils. I think OregonTrailSoap had one of the better selections of flavor oils but they are pretty spread out. There's also some etsy sellers with a good selection. One of the things I heard while researching however is that edible flavor oils are more scent than taste . . .which is not really what I wanted. I mean the point of edible body paint is that someone wants to lick it more than a couple times right? So more research and I stumbled upon this http://www.getsuckered.com/Category/Candy-Flavoring-Oils.aspx They list several of thier flavorings as highly concentrated and oil based & have an awesome selection. I ordered a few and I can't wait to see how they turn out.

I have to give props to pantone. I've always considered salmon/coral to be my least favorate color. Than, three weeks ago I'm in the grocery store and I see this dress on the cover of Glamor (or some other fashion mag) that is this light fluffy ruffled thing accented in black vinal. I loved it. I wanted to hate the color but it just seemed too perfect & grew on me in five minutes. There's just something about the primness of it that gave a nice dicodimy & completed the look. So I'm kinda sold on it as a color that is allowed back into my world. . . . and I should have been a really hard sell . . . Trend forcasters: 1 My personal tastes: 0

I've made some fun blends with rose and lotus as a base that I think are definately romatinc and Valentine-ish. I'd play with Jasmine too.

I reread the info on grapeseed oil and it was talking about one of the protiens being water soluable, not the oil. How long do I need to wait to know if it's going to seperate? so far everything is sitting nice & fluffy together. It makes sense to me because most paints are pigment suspended in a brushable substance so I don't know how much bonding is actually necessary.

Well they weren't tins, but I have cooled all of my candles in the oven. I simply don't have the counter space for much else. I preheated the oven on the lowest setting to warm the containers so I just turned the oven off and left the containers overnight after they were poured & my tops have always been flat. Now over Christmas I did have a candle that somehow settled at an angle & another with a bubble where I had the brilliant idea to remelt the wax in the oven. I also had the brilliant idea to heat the oven to my pour temp. . . . . it worked . . . kinda. The crooked one leveled. The bubbly one was more stubborn but I was able to get that out as well. The process wasn't faster than just remelting on the stove & the wax turned brown. No scent change, just browned. Just FYI in case anyone else has a radom "I wonder what would happen if" moment.

LOL . . the vinager was a random what do I have in the kitchen that might change something here moment. I didn't think it actually did anything and I tried another batch with grapeseed last night & didn't bother with it. I just figured I should mention it in case I was missing something LOL . . about the misspelling too. This stuff is way more stressful than it should be . . As far as coloring goes I spent quite a bit of time researching that. As I understand it, FD&C color is approved for both cosmetic and food use. So I looked for that on packages & actually ended up picking up an oil based candy colorant from the Wilton section at micheals . . . . and then I was at the grocery store and realised that some of the food colorings were FD&C based. I used some of those & didn't notices much difference in performance between the two. The non oil based did spread a little better during the wipping process than before. This might have something to do with the addition of grapeseed oil. I read somewhere its water soluable. As far as extracts, they were just a "I'm not going to go buy a bunch of lip balm flavorants until I know I have some chance of pulling this off" decision. I definately have been able to blend them so that there's flavor in every lick. The end result is something that is similar to lip gloss, but also similar to a body butter. It looks a little thicker than expected but is able to be brushed on and spread nicely on skin. I was able to get bright vibrant colors. The paint doesn't seem to dry, but it also hasn't stained my skin. I'm guesssing this is because of the waxiness. The texture is still a little greesier than I'd like, but it does make your skin very soft & silky afterwards. I still haven't played with the fractionalised coconut oil yet (It's not something I can just go pick up a small amout to play with) but I'm considering decreasing the amount of regular type & leaving it because I think the skin temp melt point of the coconut oil may be adding to the spreadableness, but it is also the source of the greesy so there's where my next bit of play time is.

OK . . . I think I found my problem --- Fractionalised coconut oil is liquid, regular type is closer to shortning. I should have gotten the Fractionalised type

OK all. Sorry about the panicy message last night. I experimented and ended up trying a bunch of things. I did add 2tsp vinager, but it didn't seem to help. What did help was adding another equal part canola oil & whipping it while it cooled. (I should have thought of that ALOT sooner) So the end result is I have successfully made a paint. It's thicker than I expected, but it brushes on really nice & if it was stored in tubes it wouldn't be noticable. The color is beautiful and rich. It's greesier than I would like, but that should be able to be solved by using something lighter than canola oil (grapeseed?). My skin even feels really good today, although last night the shower water was really beady. So I consider it an experimental success. There's still pleanty to learn & play with, but it no longer feels like failure.

perhaps I'm just a newb . . . I mean I barely cook so there's alot I could be missing here & this is my first time playing with bath and body stuff . . . but I just had to try it . . . . and it's a bit of a nightmare! So here is the base recipe Edible Body Paint 3 tb. beeswax 3 tb. coconut oil 3 tb. cocoa butter 1/2 tsp. flavoring food coloring to suit... Melt the 1st 3 ingredients, stir in the flavoring and color. Pour into tubes or other containers. So I bought the ingredients and measured them as best I could considering the the wax was in a block & the cocoa butter had to be microwaved to get out of the container. I was obviously not going to buy something in large quantities for a first attempt. I noticed that the beeswax was hard to measure in tablespoons so I melted some in a pyrex container, saw that I had 1/4 cup & added the same of the coconut oil and cocoa butter, let them boil & melt down & added 1 tsp high quality vanilla extract (It's a can I do this test after all). Than I added a bright blue wilton coloring. I couldn't get just fd&c (or whatever that abbreviation is!) in town & I saw that that is what they used so I figured it would have less chance of making big skin stains. So I mix the stuff up and it's beautiful . . . . but it looks and tastes like wax. Vanilla wax. I added another tablespoon of the cocoa butter & two of the coconut oil & two teaspoons of honey in an attempt to thin it . . . and it worked a little. Now it's brushable wax. A consistancy closer patrolium jelly. It still needs to cool but what am I doing wrong? Any advise?

That ROC info is so helpful! Stella you have single handedly made wicks make sense! So when I buy my next wicks for testing I will pick up some of the wicks that work better in palm wax in the same ROC as I've been using and slightly bigger and I should have close to perfect wicking . . if I guessed right . . . and if not I'll know what direction to go with the wicks. I suspect that if I were to just use a wick that likes my wax more & is the same size it would work really well because I'm happy with the amount of wax that is melting but there is alot of flicker & it did go out once, but not so bad I had to fish the wick out of the wax or anything so I also may need to go up a size. This is nice and not overly daunting. I like having a next step that makes sense!

Did anyone try out any of these recipes? It sounds so fun! Did they get the consistancy right?

Are you saying to watch for stains while crafting? I always assume everything is going to stain because I'm about the messiest person in the world . . . . or are you saying it will stain while you are using it? That would be problematic.

I'm still trying to figure out how to compare the different kinds of wicks. It's pretty confusing. The wicks they suggest are the ones I used and they worked surprisingly good with the palm wax so I haven't experimented too much yet. I am going to look into some other types of wicks when I have supply funds but I'm pretty happy with the ones I used. It burns better than most candles I've purchased from stores so I feel a little nit picky complaining, but it's not quite perfect yet.

Yes I will keep using them. They are a little tricky to work with because they're difficult to stick the wick to & take alot of wax (another reason I'm loving the rocks) & burn for ALOT of hours. (I keep loosing count so I'm not sure how long *blush*) When I designed the scents that inspired the candles the purpose was to create a conciousness shift through scent. So I'm trying to make a religous meditation type candle & a tall prominate candle where the scent is interacted with a typically short distance & the candle can be fairly ignored (as much as you can ignore any candle, of course) is what I needed & I don't think I'm going to find anything else that serves my purposes so well.

This is the most amazingly awesome thread ever!! You have no idea how much time I've spent searching for the perfect deoderant to complement a scent blend I've concocted & wondering why I couldn't just mix something up because the stuff I like always gets discontinued anyways and so on and so forth. So how did these recipies do for folk? It seems like tea tree would limit your scent choices because it's so strong. How does baking soda do with holding scent? Did your blend hold up all day or did your deoderant magically disappear at 2 (which happens to me with several commercial brands . . . typically the ones that come in yummy scents.) Also, where do you get empty doederant cases? I'm exploding with curiosity here!