Homemade Beauty Products!

Facial Moisturizer, the latest version! Luv it!

You know how one thing can lead to another?  Well, getting interested in soap making has led me on a path that may soon see us buying virtually no bath and beauty products!  It's not like this is any huge epiphany or turn-around; at Aagaard Farms we've been making our own stuff and avoiding unnecessary chemicals for a long time!  We've been using baking soda and vinegar for cleaning for years, making our own jams and jellies with our home-grown fresh fruits, raising and drying our own herbs and beans.  It's hard to believe that even six or seven years ago I was happy to pay $40 for a jar of moisturizer, but not any more!

Like everything we get involved in, I did a lot of research about soap making before I even acquired goats.  I wanted to make sure it was the right move, the right investment in time, energy and money.  As I learned about soap, I learned about skin, about butters and oils, and learned more about essential oils.  I've been using essential oils for years for fragrance.  I haven't worn over-the-counter perfume in a long time, always essential oils in a base of skin-friendly carrier oil, but none made by myself.  Now I know so much more about their qualities for nourishing the skin, improving health, cleaning, removing bacteria, mold and, yes, even viruses!  The teat dip we used on the goats was all homemade and largely essential oils in a witch hazel base.

Our own interest in a green and sustainable life style, and learning about soap making took me online where I discovered a world of #DIY beauty and health products.  Not just soap, but everything you could possibly need from cough drops to deodorant!  Looking to test the market before we were ready to make soap, I decided to make some lip balm and lotion bars from one of my favorite skin care ingredients: hemp oil.  I could see if my Farmers Market customers were interested and I'd have them for my own use!  And hemp oil is a local product: we use 'Manitoba Harvest' hemp oil in our morning smoothies as well as our skin care!  I acquired some lovely bars of natural beeswax from Manitoba's  'Hive on the Hill' and I was off-and-running in the beauty biz.  The balm and lotion bars were well received, and I was gratified that some CSA friends and other people with eczema had great luck with our all-natural products and have been return customers ever since!  And my sensitive skin was quite happy so it was all good!

As I was running out of my commercial face moisturizer, I happened to get hooked up with Diane Kidman's wonderful herb books.  Her book Beauty Gone Wild' had the recipes that really got me thinking that I could make my own!  Now, I'm not going to share her recipe here, because she works really hard and I think you should buy her book.  The e-book is $4, just four bucks and she deserves it! (And if you don't have a Kindle you can download free software so you can read any Kindle book on any type of computer.  You knew that, right?  And did you know that the Canadian blog/Facebook page Joybilee Farm lists free Kindle books everyday?)  Anyhoo, back in the summer, for a $9 bottle of organic olive oil, I got a couple of big jars of a lovely (although somewhat heavy for summer) facial moisturizer. With some olive oil left over for salad!  Yes, that's right - about $9 for two large jars of moisturizer!  One I kept refrigerated, since the cream contains no preservatives, until I had used up the first.

The time had come for more moisturizer, but this time I know so much more!  Plus, the soap making has had me acquiring different butters and oils, as I became interested in new recipes.  As I could afford it, I've added new essential oils and more exotic ingredients to my arsenal.  So, Diane's basic recipes calls for, among a few other things, a cup of olive oil and up to 32 drops of essential oils.  This time, I replaced some of the olive oil with sweet almond oil and jojoba oil - both known to be very good for the skin.  I also had, this time, rose hip seed oil and geranium oil, replacing most of the lavender essential oil I used in the first batch.  Both the rose hip oil and geranium oil are very good for mature (cough, cough) and sensitive skins!  And wow - do I love this cream!  The smell is lovely but light, the texture is a little lighter but still rich enough for winter, and it sinks in nicely!

My shower routine now starts with a gentle facial scrub of ground oatmeal, honey and a dab of goats milk (all local - love that!)  from my other favorite resource: Janice Cox's 'Natural Beauty at Home'.  The scrub is also fabulous for hands: weather-chapped, goat slobbered, chicken pecked, kitty scratched, chore-doing hands!  I've also made bath soaks, body scrubs, and soon, eye cream from this book!  A great resource.  If you're thinking of making your own, do also check out the fab-u-lous website Fresh Picked Beauty - loads of great stuff!  Another great source, not just for skin care recipes but also loads of other crafts and gardening ideas is Garden Therapy; I've also recently picked up her e-book and follow her on Pinterest too - the good stuff just keeps coming from Stevie!   It's her recipe for easy bath bombs that some of our family will be getting in their Christmas presents this year, along with a little soap, of course!  When I get to it, I'll let you know how the homemade eye cream goes!

Hemp Bread - Oh, Yes I Did!

If you've read this blog a while you will know that we are big fans of hemp.  Super food, soothing skin care ingredient, fabulous fabric - all from a plant that can be sustainably grown without much addition of pesticides, fertilizers or irrigation.  We're so lucky, in Canada, that it is perfectly legal and widely accepted (Get with it, America!).  We're also fortunate that one of the premier suppliers of hemp foods, Manitoba Harvest, is based right here in our province, so we like to consider the products local, even if we don't really know where the hemp was grown.  In our house you will find hemp oil, which we use in our morning smoothies, pestos and salad dressings, as well as in our handmade lotion bars and lip balms.  Hemp oil is not suitable for cooking with, as it can't take high temperatures.  Also in the pantry at all times is hemp protein powder which, until now, went into our morning smoothies.  We also have hemp seeds, known as hemp hearts, which are awesome little nutty seeds for topping salads, pastas or for munching.  We have hemp clothes, which are sturdy and long-lasting, improving with age as they get softer and softer.  We even have some hemp paper products!  Multi-purpose, awesome stuff that hemp!

For Earth Day, I received a lovely email offering a celebratory discount from the nice people at Manitoba Harvest.  I immediately went to the website to take advantage of 30% off, which was just for the weekend.  While cruising the different protein powders, I read that the powder can be used in place of flour in baking recipes.  Hmmmm.......

I was needing to make bread and had a craving for a more traditional sandwich loaf.  Our usual 'go-to' bread is one of the fabulous no-knead artisan breads from the book 'Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day' by Hertzberg and Francois.  It is a great way to make bread from scratch for busy people: you mix the ingredients in the storage container, let it rise, throw it in the fridge and when you need bread you grab a hunk, let is rise a bit and throw it into the oven on a hot pizza stone.   Sometimes however, I do want a lighter sandwich loaf, the 'knead' kind of bread.  My 'go-to' recipe for that has been the 'Easy Farmhouse White Bread' from the always fabulous Farmgirl Fare.  The original blog post with the recipe has tons of great extra info and tips plus links to techniques like forming a loaf and such.  Highly recommended!

Anyhow, I've made the recipe a few times; the first few times straight up, then changed some of the flour for whole wheat, then spelt.  Today, from the starting four cups of flour I replaced half a cup with hemp protein powder and a full cup with whole wheat flour.  As per the suggestions in the blog post, I increased the milk by a cup, to compensate for the 'thirstier' flours.  The resulting loaf is very good: still light, with an extra, subtle nutty flavor and a nice dark fleck through loaf!  I'm quite happy to know I've added a little bit of protein, Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids and other good things!  Now, I'm going to mess up all those healthy benefits by slathering on way too much butter and a bunch of homemade grape jelly!  Yummy!  Have you given hemp foods a try!  You really should; your body will thank you!

Making Lotion - in Bar Form

Re-melting the first batch in more
melted beeswax and coconut oil.

I'm continuing to experiment with common products that I can make at home, instead of purchasing products with unnecessary ingredients.  I saw, on Facebook, some talk of simple hand and body lotion hard bars and I found the concept very interesting!  It seems very convenient to have lotion in a portable, hard bar instead of a tube or bottle.  And I loved the simplicity.   Happy.Healthy.Holistic posted on Facebook that she had made some and loved them, and a few days later she posted the recipe here.  Simple ingredients, simple technique - it looked great!  I was interested in using ingredients on hand so  Jo's Health Corner recipe, here, used a liquid vegetable oil, allowing me to use my much-loved hemp oil.  As a matter of fact, the ingredients are the same as the one I used for lip balm, here, just different proportions.

I have, here in the pantry, coconut oil (a solid at room temperature), hemp oil from Manitoba Harvest (we use it in our smoothies and on salads), local natural beeswax and I decided on a little lavender essential oil.  I used equal parts of the first three ingredients, melted over low heat and poured into molds.  I used a double broiler method; hemp oil doesn't take much heat so I wanted a bit more control than trying to melt it in the microwave.  Stirring and melting took about five minutes, I removed it from the heat, added about twenty drops of essential oil and poured it into a muffin pan.  About an hour later, I knew something wasn't right - the bars were still too soft to get out of the container!  I put the muffin pan in the freezer, and was able to remove the bars about half an hour later.  Once they warmed up a bit on the counter, I realized that they were too soft: they held their shape but when I tried to pick one up my fingers sank into the bar.  Hmmmmm....

Happy.Healthy.Holisitic had used a beeswax pellet in her batch.  I had hand-grated a block of beeswax (a very good workout for the arms).  I decided that I hadn't packed the grated beeswax enough in the measuring cup, so I was low in that ingredient.  I also thought that Jo's Health Corner at used a lighter oil, so perhaps I was a little heavy on the hemp.  I decided to re-batch my lotion bars.  I grated another cup of beeswax and melted it with half a cup of coconut oil.  Once they were melted I added in my bars and melted them.  Back into the muffin molds and I let them cool for over an hour.  Much better!  The bars popped out of the mold easily and are firm to the touch.  They have a nice lavender fragrance.  You just rub the bar between your hands - coconut oil melts at body temperature and coats your hands.  A little goes a long way!  Took a few minutes, but it sinks in nicely and is very moisturizing!  The hemp oil gives them a beautiful green color, as well.  Recipe, for me with my hemp oil, will be one cup packed, grated beeswax, one cup coconut oil, half a cup or even a little less of hemp oil.  Any essential oil will be great!    

Making Largely Local Lip Balm

We're rather interested in anything we can make for ourselves these days.  And the more local the better!  If you're not aware, we're participating in The Dark Days Challenge, a group of bloggers writing about the challenges of eating local food through the winter.  If you follow us on Facebook, we're sharing links for everything from making dog biscuits to Christmas decorations to bath and beauty products!  It's interesting to contemplate just how self-sufficient we could be - supplying most of the ingredients ourselves!

We're working on bringing a little boy goat here shortly, so that we will have our three little goatlings pregnant for the spring and will be milking by April.  We hope to provide ourselves with milk, cheese and butter, and to add to our farm income by making and selling goat milk soap and creams!  I use goat milk soaps now, which are fantastic for my somewhat sensitive, dry skin.  Selling milk and milk products is way out of our means, involving regulations galore and investment in a commercial grade kitchen and equipment. In the quiet days of winter, I'd like to get started on trying some products.  Stay tuned for an easy entry into soapmaking!  I remembered a great little recipe for lip balm in one of my favorite magazines, The Herb Quarterly,  in the Summer 2010 issue.  The recipe is by Janice Cox, whose excellent book Natural Beauty At Home I've owned for a while.  With cold weather here to stay, lip balm is something we'll be using regularly!

The basic recipe in the magazine calls for 1 tsp. coconut oil, 1 tsp almond oil and 1/2 tsp. grated beeswax.  You simply microwave the ingredients on low for in short bursts for a total of one to two minutes, mix well and pour into little jars or tubes.  Little pots and tubes are easy to access at craft stores, or online at eBay and the many websites for DIY soap/body product makers.  I tried a batch of this last week using local canola oil, and it is quite nice, but light.  I didn't even think to take pictures, just got motivated one afternoon to make it after I ran across some beautiful, local beeswax from Hive on the Hill at a craft market!  I think I was a little light on the beeswax, got to pack it a bit after grating.  We've got coconut oil here, which we've been experimenting with for cooking and baking because of its health benefits.

I decided on trying a batch with Manitoba Harvest hemp oil, which we use regularly in our smoothies because of it's high level of essential fatty acids; it's local, organic and has some great skin benefits (I'm using a lotion from Manitoba's Hemp Lady right now)!  Because hemp oil has a very low boiling point, I melted the coconut oil and beeswax first, in ten second increments, stirring between blasts, until it was liquid, than added the hemp oil for another twenty seconds.  Total microwaving was about sixty seconds!  I stirred well, than poured into little waiting pots.  I like this balm much better: it's richer and more emollient.  Because of the hemp, it is a lovely green shade, but that doesn't show up on the lips.  It does smell and taste a wee bit 'grassy', but I don't mind that!  Now, I'm wondering what local product could replace the coconut oil, but that's a tough one!  Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, which makes it great for balms, and it has it's own skin benefits.  Maybe a vegetable shortening, although everything in the stores has soy or cottonseed or something not even slightly local.  More research is definitely required!  I've also been thinking about natural colors: I've read about dehydrating beets and carrots and grinding them to powders to add color.  I'm wondering if that would make the balm more prone to spoiling, again more research is required.  I've also got some strawberry 'leather' here that I made this summer but it does have the seeds in it; it might give flavor and color but again, might spoil!  But, I've got all winter to work on it!  Have you ever made your own balms or lotions?  I'd love to hear about it - please leave a comment!

Contemplating Hemp on Canada Day!

Yes, it's Canada Day, our national holiday celebrating the birth of this wonderful country! And I'm thinking about hemp! As an old (sort of) hippie chick, I've been wearing hemp clothes for years; really, like decades. I introduced Farmer Man to them; Farmer Man can kill a t-shirt in one growing season, well, he can kill numerous t-shirts in one growing season. Doesn't matter if it's the cheapie from the box store or a high-end performance shirt from one of the 'lifestyle' stores - Farmer Man can trash it. Hemp, though, wears fabulously and just gets softer with each washing. Farmer Man has some that are two years old and looking good!

Manitoba has been very progressive in allowing cultivation of the hemp plant. It is really an exceptional crop for the Prairies: grows quickly, doesn't have any known pests and diseases, doesn't require much water or fertilizer. Hmmmmm, hardy, reliable and doesn't require much inputs - it's almost the perfect plant. And so useful - you can make fabric, rope, paper and it's an extremely nutritious food source and is great for skin care, as well. Did I mention it's almost the perfect crop plant? Now, before anybody freaks: yes, it's related to marijuana, but it has minuscule amounts of the active ingredient that makes marijuana illegal.

Hemp as a food is awesome! The oil is one of the best sources of Omega-3 and 6 Essential Fats. It is not for cooking, it can't take high heat, but it is beautiful and nutty tasting as a salad dressing. Hemp seed, as a snack like sesame seeds or pumpkin seeds, is yummy and imparts all the health benefits. Hemp flour, hemp protein shakes, hemp seed butter: they are all yummy and good for you! And the best part, for me, is that they are local! Hemp foods can replace many of the things that come from 'far, far away', as we pursue a more local diet! There is lot more great info at Manitoba Harvest. We ordered a starter kit from Manitoba Harvest and we're enjoying it immensely. Some of there products are also available locally at Two Farm Kids, and the products are carried at health food stores and natural stores across the country.

I've been looking for something to replace my off-the-farm income; I've been thinking about getting goats and making soap and cheese. However, goats require infrastructure like extremely good fences, so it's not immediately possible. So, maybe I'll become the hemp queen of Brandon. I found an easy recipe for lip balm (which I'm addicted to) in the charming magazine The Herb Quarterly. Hemp oil can replace some of the other carrier oils used in cosmetics. Hemp soap is excellent for the skin, I've used hemp lotions before and enjoyed them immensely. Hemp flour can go into the homemade bread! Hemporama at Aagaard Farms!