local anomaly

Oh, that would make me super-mad too...are you going to write the manufacturer of the crappy butter and let them know about the problems you had with their product? (If you haven't already.) Maybe they will try to make it right and give you a refund or a replacement.

What about differently colored caps and labels on the bottles? Then it would be easy to let people know. "Now remember, the lip gloss is in the bottles with red caps and perfume is in the blue-capped ones." Or something like that...

It stung me a little bit too but it went away fast and stopped the itching. It feels good. Now I just wish the puffiness would go away without me having to hold an ice pack over each eye! This sucks!

I think the way I titled this post probably made it sound like worse than it actually was, haha! The bars don't smell bad to me, I'm still using them. They just don't smell anything like I thought they would, especially in the 3rd batch when I didn't use shea or an EO with lemon in it. That batch had rosewood EO but it still smelled like the first batch, only not as strong. I actually like the smell of the beeswax by itself, so it should be great in a lip balm with no other scent added to it I think. I know if I decide to use shea again I'm just going to make sure I get the refined and deodorized butter! Thanks for the tip about using unscented baby wipes on the molds. Maybe the hot, soapy scrub I gave them just wasn't enough to remove every trace of the scent. This does make me a little less reluctant to use a non-stick metal muffin pan for a mold. What kind of experiences have you guys had if you use them?

I actually had been to my doctor early last week and I'm making another appointment tomorrow because the prescription she gave me the last time (antibiotic eyedrops) is not helping and my eyes are getting worse again. I know people will think OMG, she self-medicated with prednisone for a cat?! I didn't mention that I have been prescribed that before (for something else years ago) and knew it would not have any ill effect on me. I had 5mg tablets, (6 of them) which was lower than the normal dose for an adult human and I only took 10mg a day for 3 days until I ran out. At no time did I ever want anyone to think I was suggesting someone else should do what I did. I just mentioned it because I was in some significant pain then and was VERY desperate for relief. I'm still trying out some things people posted about on here as well, like the Eucerin cream. Even if my doctor prescribes steroids in some form again, a lot of the remedies suggested here could still help me feel better faster even with the script. Of course I'll ask my doctor about what I can use along with it too.

Hmm...for the page name I'm not sure, but how about a product line called Naturally His?

I've had good results from those as well, if "shea olein" is something like fractionated shea. I got this handmade cream online with that and olive squalane that I'll bet would be easy to whip up. (Literally!) It's really a nice, light mousse. I got it just for moisturizer but I noticed the red patches on my nose and cheeks started fading after using it for a couple of weeks. I like this stuff a lot and if you don't want to try making it yourself, here's where I got it: https://www.chagrinvalleysoapandcraft.com/whipsqualane.htm

Any ideas for which treatments are OK to use on eyelids? I'm just getting over the worst bout with eczema I've ever had and it's hard to find things that really help but are safe to use in the eye area. I hate to admit this, but the only thing that helped me with this flare-up (which was so bad my eyes almost swelled shut!) was some leftover prednisone my vet prescribed for one of my cats. I was *THAT* desperate for relief...I thought I would dig my eyes right out of my head, they itched so bad!

It was a solid block of yellow beeswax from the whole foods store. That's where I got all the ingredients for the first batch. There was no label or anything on it. Not even a wrapper! I found a better and cheaper place for a lot of ingredients so I'm not getting stuff from the store anymore unless I have to. It's a company called Camden-Grey, check 'em out if you haven't yet: www.camdengrey.com I might try beeswax again if I can get the bleached cosmetic grade you mentioned. I still have a little less than a pound of it left so I might use it for lip balm. I don't mind the honey-like smell of it by itself, so it should be fine for something unscented. Also, I'm not doing a block of ANY kind of wax anymore, chopping that stuff up was...ahhh...a very unpleasant sensation in the gluteus maximus! I think I might try soy wax sometime. I dunno, I'm still experimenting and fiddling. I didn't have any mix-up issues with oils, I rarely cook with them so I didn't have anything else in the house except the ones I got just for the bars. The EO is in this tiny little bottle you can't easily mistake for something else. Hehe. I do that too. Probably too much, because sometimes he sees me coming up to him carrying something and he just says, "NUH-uh!! I'm not smelling that!" The jar of shea I got was probably OK, it didn't smell rancid, it just smelled...smoky. Thank you...I still miss my Kit N. My vet thinks she had a brain tumor. Yes...that sounds exactly like what I had. I did notice it melt right into my fingers when I rubbed it between them. The smell just doesn't agree with me, I guess. Hmmm...note to self: Must make sure it is specified "cosmetic grade" soy wax if I decide to try it out!

Thanks! I am going to try some refined / deodorized shea butter when I run out of the olive butter, just to see how that turns out. I liked the feel of the shea, but the smell...not so much. I used it all up so I just won't get it again unless the lady I'm going to give a "lemon bar" to tomorrow likes them and wants more. I have sort of a weird issue with scents. I have to avoid fruity, flowery and sugary scents that might attract yellowjackets once it gets warmer because this place is yellowjacket heaven and those critters LUUUUV me. They chase me everywhere if I wear anything except woodsy-type scents. (Hence the rosewood.) The candelilla wax smells like it might work with that type of scent better than beeswax maybe. I guess I'll find out in the next batch!

Hello all...lotion bar-makin' noob here! I've been fiddling around with them for a week or so, I guess. I've toyed with the idea of making soap too, but crawl before you walk and all that, right? I've made my third batch of bars today. I started out with a recipe I found somewhere a few months ago while I was gathering information and they turned out decent. That batch was unrefined shea butter, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil and beeswax. I scented it with an EO mix of bergamot, lemon and cardamom. It was from the whole-foods type grocery store where I got the rest of the ingredients, just something I picked because I liked the way it smelled. So I said I'd never done this before, right? Right. I'd also never used any of the ingredients for anything else before, never handled any of them except beeswax either. I opened the shea butter and found out I do *NOT* like the smell of it. Ew. Oh well, I figured...I'll kill the smoky odor with the EO. So I melted everything according to the recipe and added the EO accordingly as well. The bars turned out well, but were a bit stickier than I liked. What I liked even less was the way they smelled. The smoky odor of the shea was still there, but now with a hint of lemon. Did I mention EW? Yeah. I re-melted it, added a little more wax and EO and they came out better consistency-wise and with a stronger smell of lemon but no more smoky shea. Not what I was expecting, but OK. They're usable. I thought the shea butter was the cause of the weird scent so I decided to try different ingredients in the next batch. I got some olive butter, candelilla wax and rosewood EO. My second batch was candelilla, olive and avocado. I didn't scent this batch so it has the sort of leafy, earthy smell of the wax and although I'm not wild about it I can deal with it. The third batch was beeswax, olive butter, avocado and macadamia nut oils. I scented it with the rosewood EO. And what do they smell like? LEMON! I don't understand how! I did use the same molds, which were thoroughly cleaned right after the first batch and I couldn't smell anything on them when I washed them then. They are plastic, and they sat unused for a few days before I used them today. (I used different molds for the second, unscented batch.) Every batch was melted in a stainless steel double boiler and since batch 2 didn't have even a tiny whiff of batch 1 in it before being poured I assumed I scrubbed everything well enough after each use. Is the lemon smell coming from the plastic molds anyway? Is it the beeswax making everything smell like the first batch? Some other common ingredient? Am I doing something else wrong? Am I crazy? (Wait...don't answer that last one!) Any suggestions for other really odorless ingredients I might use so I can make other bars that smell like something besides lemon? ***I'd like to give the user Kitn a Special Hello! Sorry I couldn't just PM you! Your username caught my eye because Kit N. is the name of a really sweet kitty I lost last February at 10 years old, so Kitn, meet MY Kit N.! Thanks everyone!