In our last blog post we discussed how to know if your product needs a preservative. In essence, if your handmade cosmetic contains water, or will come into contact with water and isn’t a single use item, it will need a preservative! So now that you’ve determined whether or not your product will need a preservative, the next question is, which one should you use? If you go to any of your favorite handmade cosmetic suppliers and search for preservatives, a dizzying array of options with long chemically sounding names will pop up. How can you possibly choose one? There are 3 main thin ..read more

Knowing when to use preservatives, choosing the correct one, and properly incorporating it into your handmade cosmetic product is one of the most important aspects of any indie maker’s life. Still, we get asked on a fairly regular basis which preservative should be used for a given product, or what should be used as a substitute when the one we have suggested isn’t available. A lot of that information can be found online with some diligent sleuthing, however the internet is full of misinformation as well, so we decided it was time to make some blog posts about this topic! As a caveat, I would ..read more

Yesterday in the first part of this blog post, we talked about the different types of CBD, the legality of its use, and the potential usage rates of CBD in bath bombs. But today I want to show you how to actually incorporate this ingredient into your formulation so you can make awesome bath bombs like these! At the end of this post we also have a special, limited time offer from Kayla Fioravanti, co-founder of Ology Essentials (our favorite CBD Supplier!) as well, so make sure you don’t miss out! Now first and foremost, I suggest using a very simple recipe to make your CBD bath bombs. Since t ..read more

A fairly common theme  we see pop up in our Facebook Support group are questions regarding the use of CBD in bath bombs. Over the next couple of days I’m going to tackle that question for you! I’ll tell you what type of CBD should be used, how much should be used, and how it should be incorporated. I’ll also give you a reliable, trusted resource for CBD–the same place I get my CBD! But first things first, what is CBD and why should you use it in your products? CBD stands for Cannabidiol, and it is a compound that is found in hemp and non-hemp plants. It does not cause impairment and is n ..read more

We’ve talked about a few different ways to create infusions for your cosmetics over the past months. We created a cold oil infusion with juniper berry and hot oil infusion with calendula oil. But both of those infusions used liquid oils. What if you want to create an infusion with solid butters? The good news is you can totally do that! We already shared how to create Rosemary infused mango butter with our Patreon followers several months ago, and t’s one of my favorite infusions to make. I use it in my shampoo and conditioner bars made with our Shampoo and Conditioner Bar PDF and Guide. But w ..read more

Macarons are probably the cutest dessert out there! (In Amanda’s opinion!) They come in a variety of colors and filing choices. They also make adorable bath bombs and bubble bars! I feel like using the macaron mold is super simple and Wonder Bar makes an easy filing. For this project, Robyn and I used Robyn’s Humid Weather Bath Bomb Recipe. We used Wonder Bar for the icing. For the mold, we used a Cada macaron mold. It is probably one of the easiest molds to use! I love it because you can make macarons, vanilla wafers, cookies…all sorts of stuff! Step 1: Mix up your bath bo ..read more

A couple weeks ago we talked about making glycerites from fresh pomegranate fruit! We applied heat and let the extraction run for several hours without a lid. This allowed water to evaporate and ensured the glycerin content of the final product was at least 60% which will make the glycerite shelf stable. There is, however, another way to make glycerites and, in my opinion, it’s even more exciting! This second method, called a Sealed Simmer, when paired with aromatic fresh herbs, can even extract the essential oils and other volatile compounds. Our glycerite won’t be as strong as pure essentia ..read more

This year we really wanted to take some time to focus on natural plant additives for use in cosmetics. We’ve talked about cold oil infusions, and hot oil infusions, but what if your formulation only has a tiny amount of oil? Are there other ways to incorporate natural additives? Yes! There are quite a few ways, and the first non-oil infusion we will discuss are glycerites, a very underutilized type of tincture, which uses glycerin to extract all kinds of plant matter. You can even use fresh fruit which might otherwise be impractical to incorporate into handmade cosmetics. Not only do glycerite ..read more

Every Monday at 1PM CST I host a Make With Me Monday in our Facebook support group. People love being able to log in and hang out with me, and honestly it’s the highlight of my week. Being able to connect and learn from each other is such a wonderful experience! One of our most popular Make With Me Monday’s was when I showed our FB group how to build PYO (Paint Your Own) Kits, and you can watch that replay here if you want!. The premise of a PYO kit is simple! The bath bomb maker supplies their customer with a blank bath bomb, a paintbrush, some bath bomb safe paint, and instructions! The cust ..read more

Well it’s been a minute since I posted the Cold Oil Infusion blog post! So much has happened since then that I had to go look through my drafts to remember what the next installment in our infusions series was supposed to be! Ironically you’ve had to wait several weeks for this method of infusing oil that is super quick–Hot Oil Infusions! Now look, cold oil infusions are generally the preferred way to impart gorgeous plant power into your oils, and I personally prefer it because all I have to do is set a jar up and let the rest of the work be future-me’s problem. If you want to read about that ..read more