A few weeks ago, when Kathy was here, I made lotion for the first time. I enjoyed doing it, so I decided I'd really like to make other beauty products. I don't have any hand cream, and my night face cream is running out, so I'd like to make some of that. The problem? I can't find recipes that include preservatives! I don't understand why - emulsions of oil and water go bad quickly, and even in the refrigerator they don't last more than a week or so. I'm definitely not going to use up even a cup of lotion in a week. I've also checked out several books on making cosmetics out of the library, but they are no better. What does everyone else do? Make this cosmetics without preservatives and use them up quickly? Do they not go bad as quickly as some of the literature say? Should I just take a regular recipe and add .5-1% of phenonip (the preservative I have)? I think I may try the latter.
The other problem is that I don't have where to put the lotions. The kit I bought came with 12 4-oz bottles, but I used almost half of them with my first batch. Buying bottles online is ridiculously expensive. I did find these very cute jars at Michael's, for $1 each. So far I think that's the best I'll be able to do - but it does add to the price of the lotion a lot - specially when my plan is to give away the lotion (though the kids may try to sell some).
anyway, those are my complaints for the day - pretty frivolous, I know :-)