The Natural Beauty Workshop

Pistachio Butter

Soft, creamy Pistachio Nut Butter is made by hydrogenating pure Pistachio Oil along with Vegetable Oil.  The result is a smooth, spreadable butter that can lend a pleasant texture to balms, salves, and lotions.  Pistachio Nut Butter can also be used in soap making to add moisturizing qualities.  Because it penetrates the skin easily, it makes a wonderful ingredient for massage lotions or butters, and can be included in all-over body care products.

Ode to Calendula

October's birth flower is Calendula, one of the most commonly used herbal flowers used in natural skin care and medicine.  Calendula is a very useful ingredient.  It's soothing properties make it a favorite for use in everything from bar soaps to salves, serums, and lotions.  Here are some lovely photos from our Flickr Photo Pool that are making great use of Calendula.

Flowers & Herbs by Hello Crafty

Fizzy Bath Bombs by MorganStreet

Earthly Goods Complexion Bars by Aroma-Herbals

Calendula Blossom Soap by Herb Friend

Kiss My Tattoo Healing Balm by MeaCulpaBodyandBath

Comfrey.Calendula.Herblovers.Castille by AquarianBath

If you have photos of your handmade bath, body, and skin care creations we would love to see them!  Share them with us at The Natural Beauty Workshop's Flickr Photo Group.

Food for Thought at Beauty by the Batch

Our recently launched web site, Beauty by the Batch, provides a great service by showcasing bath & body artisans in an easy to navigate directory.  You can search for an artisan by specialty, product, or simply by browsing photos on the home page.  In addition to this valuable service, Beauty by the Batch also provides a growing library of full length articles on natural and handmade personal care. 

You could literally spend hours pouring over the wealth of information available in Beauty by the Batch's Personal Care Article Library.  It touches on a wide range of subjects including Skin Care, Beauty, Massage, Health, Pet Care, Aromatherapy, and more.  Some of my favorite recent articles include:

Why are "By the Batch" Personal and Home Care Products Better?
This article provides valuable food for thought for both consumers and artisans. 

Introduction to Essential Fatty Acids
This article contains basic information necessary to understanding how and why these ingredients are so important to your health and to your beauty.

Beauty by the Batch's Guide to Purchasing Vegetable Soaps
A little background information on how handmade soap is created, and what you should look for when purchasing it.  This informative guide answers many questions that clients often have when buying handmade soap for the first time.

Be sure to check out the Personal Care Articles at Beauty by the Batch to learn more about natural and handmade personal care.

Reader Question - Scent Help

As I am working to develop my product line, I find that I am stuck with the number of scents to offer. I would like to have a nice range of scents that cover earthy, floral, fruity, exotic, masculine, feminine and fresh, which will probably be unisex. Do you have a recommendation of a maximum # of scents and also, do you recommend a way to go about signature scent development? ~ Amber

Dear Amber,

Thanks for contacting me with your question.  Developing custom scent blends sounds like it would be a great solution for you.  It helps to set you apart form the crowd, and creating the blends can be lots of fun.  It will take a lot of experimentation to develop blends that you and your customers love, but it can also be very worthwhile. 

We have a great article on blending custom scents on our log. I'll give you the link so you can check it out.

Building an Aroma

As for how many scents to add to your line, that is up to you and your customers. Many businesses start out with a smaller number of great scents, and expand the line as the popularity or demand grows, but having a larger line of scents has its advantages too.

Do you have any tips for Amber on how to develop her line of scents?  If so, please share them with us in the comments below.

Trick Or Treat - Mini Scrubs

These miniature, single serving Salt Scrubs will thrill your friends and family this Halloween season.  This assortment of cute, candy scented scrubs look adorable packaged in colored tissue paper, and are sure to be a big hit with kids and adults alike.

This project starts with a very basic Salt Scrub recipe.  This base recipe is made in one batch, and then split into smaller portions to create a variety of scents and colors.

Trick or Treat Scrub
Makes about 6 ounces

Basic Scrub Recipe
3/4 cup Sea Salt, Fine
2 ounces Fractionated Coconut Oil
Assorted Micas and Fragrance Oils

Directions
In a small mixing bowl, combine the Sea Salt and Fractionated Coconut Oil to create the basic Scrub.  Next, take 1 mounded teaspoon of scrub at a time and color and scent it individually, in disposable paper cups, using the following combinations of Mica and Fragrance Oil:

• 1/4 teaspoon Milk Chocolate Fragrance Oil & a few pinches of Copper Mica and a pinch of Black Mica
• 1/4 teaspoon Bubble Gum Fragrance Oil & 1/16 teaspoon (or less) Pink Glimmer Mica 
• 1/4 teaspoon Caramel Apple Fragrance Oil & 1/16 teaspoon (or less) Jewel Tone Topaz Mica
• 1/4 teaspoon Pomegranate Fragrance Oil & a few pinches of FDA Red Mica and FDA Blue Mica and a pinch of Black Mica to deepen
• 1/4 teaspoon Raspberry Fragrance Oil & 1/16 teaspoon (or less) FDA Blue Mica (add a pinch of FDA Red Mica to achieve a more purple tone)

The micas go a long way so add a pinch at a time and stir to see how the color disperses. Use small pinches of the Black Mica to deepen the chocolate color and the pomegranate as desired. 

Usage & Packaging
Package each of your mini scrub in a 1 Ounce PET Jar.  Seal the lid with clear tape to make sure that there won't be any leakage.  Cut a 6 inch x 8 inch piece of of colored tissue paper for each jar,wrapping them individually.  Twist the ends to look like candy wrappers. The finished jars should resemble wrapped pieces of candy!  To dress these up even more, top them off with decorative Halloween stickers.

The Natural Beauty Workshop is Featured in the New Publication: Business Technology

From Nature With Love and The Natural Beauty Workshop is featured within the new 258-page book, Business Technology: A Guide for Midsize and Small Business by Michael W. Johnson.

We're honored to be selected as the blog highlighted within the "Business Networking & Showcasing Through Blogs" section of the book:

I am still in the midst of reading through this informative book, and am already finding it to be a nice foundation for small businesses that want an introduction and fundamental grasp of the technologies and resources that can help within all areas of their business processes.

Business Technology: A Guide for Midsize and Small Business Author: Michael W. Johnson Publisher: WAIN Technologies LLC Copyright: 2009 ISBN: 0615299210 / 978-0615299211

A special thank you to author Michael W. Johnson for featuring the Natural Beauty Workshop. For more information about Business Technology: A Guide for Midsize and Small Business, please visit the book description on Amazon.com.

Reader Question - Linen Sprays

Do you have a recipe for room/linen sprays? ~ Deirdre

Dear Deidre,

Thank you for contacting us regarding Room and Linen Sprays.  There are several ways that you can make these kinds of products. In this email I've listed my two favorite methods.

The first, and simplest way to make a spray like this is to use Floral Waters. Floral Waters are synthetically fragranced, water dispersible scents. They come in a wide variety of pleasant aromas. These can be used at full strength in a sprayer bottle or they can be cut with up to 50% distilled water. If you cut these Floral Waters with extra water you should add .1% Liquid Germall Plus as a preservative.

You can also create fragrant sprays by dispersing Fragrance Oils, Candle Fragrance Oils, or certain Essential Oils in water. In order to do this you'll need to mix your Oil with an equal amount of Polysorbate 20.  1/4 ounce of Fragrance Oil or Candle Fragrance Oil combined with 1/4 Ounce Polysorbate 20 is enough to scent between 4 oz. and 8 oz. of Distilled Water. Simply add the oil and Polysorbate to the water and shake well. These work best packaged in sprayer top bottles. As with Floral Waters, you should add .1% Liquid Germall Plus as a preservative.

While certain Essential Oils can be used in these Sprays many, Essential Oils can rapidly degrade plastic sprayers and bottles, even when diluted in water. While Citrus and Spice Oils are the most notorious plastic degraders, all Essential Oils should be used with caution.  Create small test batches before creating a large amount and see whether or not your sprayers hold up to your formula.

Do you have any simple recipe for linen sprays to share with Deidre?  If so, please tell us about them in the comments below.