Do

It has been a gradual and creeping process but I believe that I have become too used to reading, but not writing content.

Yesterday a high school mate told us, laughingly, that he had spent some time writing 300 words on the topic of nose hair. It started off as a plan to review the year past. Somehow, along the way, he lost the plot and started contemplating the more pressing issue of the overgrowth of his nose hair and the point of growing hair out of one’s nose. Then he spent more time tightening his prose and choosing precise words to convey the dismay that he felt when he extracted a half-white one. To be exact, it was black on one end, brown in the middle, and white on the other end.

I don’t believe anyone has read his piece yet. But it appears that his nose hair has inspired another running train of thought that is happily, pointlessly chugging along.

Is High School Mate’s nose hair trying to reach out to the sun? Is that why it has been growing as quickly as it can, even as it is relentlessly plucked, so that it can see the light of the day? Would we finally achieve world peace when the arms race of efficient growing versus efficient plucking stops?

Anyway, I digress. The point is, there is no point. What is the point of art? What is the point of play? What is the point of living? Here I perform some word juggling. What is the point of art, if there is no play? What is the point of play, if there is no living? What is the point of living, if there is no art?

Anyway. Again.

I want to write more in the new year. Some plans are under way, a new domain name, a new website structure, some content ideas. A consolidation of my online identity and content production onto one platform.

As practice, I have been writing about things that have excited me these days, including my progress in solving the Rubik’s Cube without a manual (I am about 5/6 through), the first time that I had properly cooked in months, and certain ideas on the governance of artificial intelligence, which I had been reading about. None of the writings have made it to being published, and my graveyard of dead drafts is now populated with half-baked remains again.

But that’s ok. I wrote. I can’t expect to produce shiny articles or contain my control freak perfectionism within a few weeks, after lacking practice and being in creative prison for so many months. If I continue writing ten drafts, out of which one will be posted, or if I continue fine-tuning my inner critic to stop yelling and giving false alarms (This is a drill that people will hate what I write and judge me until the end of time! I repeat, THIS IS A DRILL! ), maybe this year will be a year of writing and thinking through writing.

The important thing is to start. I believe I have, and I believe I have finally written a post that I can press publish on. Thanks, High School Mate’s nose hair. Never stop growing.

It’s 10:30am and since this morning I’ve been tinkering with the solar cooker that I’ve made out of makeshift materials. Inspiration struck yesterday and I was watching youtube videos and perusing the resources from the good folks of Solar Cookers International Network – while waiting for the sun to rise today – and so here we are, with an old cardboard box lined with aluminium foil, seated in a polystyrene box, positioned in the most sun-optimal part of the house at the balcony.

The lined cardboard box is covered with a pane of glass that I happened to have lying around (yay greenhouse effect!) and in it is a black baking tin. My thermometer that measures up to 110 deg C is lying in the box as well. The polystyrene box outside is for keeping the heat in, and doubles as a convenient holder for the heat reflector (usually used in cars against windshields to keep the sun out – in this case it is amplifying the sun’s effect on my solar cooker). The baking tin is black because black absorbs heat most readily.

9:30am: Temperature in solar cooker is at 29deg C.

10:15am: Took a salted egg (the type that is wrapped with black salt) from the fridge and put it into my black baking tin, as the very first thing that I am going to cook in the solar cooker. I didn’t have any other cookware that was black, and the baking tin didn’t have a lid – so I chose to cook something that was black as well, with no water vapour.

The temperature within the solar cooker is 30deg C. The sky is cloudy. There is some intermittent sunlight shining onto the trees right outside my balcony, but usually direct sunlight doesn’t come onto my balcony till about noon, and only comes for 1-2 hours. This will change as we go further into the year, mid year we get, I think, about 5-6 hours of full sun. That is when I think I’ll be able to really take advantage of the sun for cooking.

10:45am: Temperature is at 32deg C. It is still overcast.

10:54am: Checked weather forecast – it seems that it will rain in the afternoon. Should have checked the weather forecast earlier 🙁

11:03am: Temperature now is at 33deg C. A tiny sliver of direct sun is showing itself on the next wall – it will come our way in about 1.5 hour’s time. It’s windy and cloudy.

11:14am: It’s still at 33deg C, though I thought that the glass felt a little warm when I hovered my hand over it. Leo didn’t feel it though so maybe it’s my brain manifesting its wishful thinking. I am now wearing sunglasses when I go check on the cooker.

11:31am: It seems to have dropped to 32deg C. I am feeling dejected and my only source of hope is the expanding sliver of sun on the next wall. I have also found some recipes on the Solar Cooking Wiki (part of the Solar Cookers International Network website).

12:07pm: The temperature is now at 34deg C. The sun is advancing, but the sky remains cloudy. The hope is that the rain will come after I get some of my full sun, just to see how high the temperature can go. I am full of regret that I didn’t do this experiment a few days earlier when it was so warm. Still, my sunglasses are perched on the top of my head as I write this, indicating my adamant optimism for a better outcome every time I go check on it.

12:20pm: 36deg C, go sun, go! Incidentally, I rediscovered this product which is called the Go Sun stove, which seems to be the coolest thing for camping. I got to know about it some time ago when I chanced upon its Kickstarter page, and it looks like nowadays it’s in production. It’s not cheap, and I wonder if it’s possible to try to make a copycat product based on same principles. I now regret that I never spent much time learning woodwork or metalwork in Kemahiran Hidup back in high school. Would be useful now when I’m life hacking.

12:32pm: 37.5deg C. Unfortunately there’s a big thick rain cloud above in the sky which I observed with annoyance through my sunglasses. Taking off the glasses did not help assuage the worry that my hopes of a full sun may be dashed. Well, as long as it’s not raining the solar cooker will remain standing out there. The glass does feel warm to the touch now, as it’s a titch above my body temperature.

12:45pm: 37deg C. The rainclouds are really heaping in, and I’m slowly losing faith. Spot, in a gamely show of solidarity, is now camping beside the solar cooker and keeping watch.

12:55pm: I watch in despair as the temperature recedes to 35deg C. Spotty got bored and left. Maybe it’s a sign that today’s not a good day for solar cooking.

1:34pm: It’s 37deg C again. The rain has not begun pelting down although it had been threatening to do so for the past hour. If the rain clouds were gone, the sun would be right on the solar cooker by this time – which probably explains the increase of temperature again, even if the sky looks pretty dark by now.

1:50pm: It’s 38deg C. I doubt that we will get much further progress today though, even if it hasn’t started raining – in an hour or so the hypothetical direct sun (behind layers and layers of clouds) will have deserted my balcony, and so I don’t think the temperature will rise any further. I’ll still keep it out there but it seems a lost cause by now.

1:52pm: Just started raining 🙁 Mission aborted. Brought the whole setup indoors. Better luck tomorrow.

1:58pm: Started wondering if I could try to set up a project regarding rainwater as well – if you can’t beat them, join them right? Maybe a rain chain? To harvest downpours of rain?

Notes:

1. Always check the weather forecast first. ;_;
2. As a proof of concept I probably chose the worst day to test the prototype. Even though the sun wasn’t out the oven’s temperature rose steadily, but then it receded when the sky made clear its decision to rain on my solar cooking parade. Hence we have no idea if this thing will work or not.
3. It was fortunate that I didn’t lay out any elaborate recipe and only put a single egg into the baking tin, but this was because I didn’t have a lid for my baking tin and didn’t want the ingredients to steam up my greenhouse glass lid (which I assume is a problem – not sure if it is). So I gotta figure out the lid problem or get another cooking container.

The funny thing about this project is that while the sun has mostly been a source of annoyance in a major part of my tropical life (until I visited temperate countries, which was when I realised that we’re lucky and ungrateful bastards in this side of the world), now I’m actually eager for it to unleash its full power on my balcony so that I can see if this solar cooker works. Goes to show what a change of perspective can do to one’s likes and dislikes.

So I decided today that I am going to try making mosquito repellent with my garden’s over supply of indian borage (also known as bangun-bangun). I’ve read here and there that it is a natural repellent and have been curious about whether if it works or not.

15 mins later.

I blended a sizeable bunch of leaves with some water. Filtered the concoction, and am left with about 200ml of green, disgusting-looking liquid. Now it is on my work desk willing me to go deal with it but for some reason I am paralysed by a ball of fear in my stomach and hence I’m staring at it from afar.

Some part of me wants to throw it away and have nothing to do with it. But the rational part of me is telling me that I’d come this far (harvesting the leaves, blending them, filtering them) and I should just heat and hold it, throw in some bug repelling essential oil and a few drops of preservative, and call it a day. At least I would have accomplished something. Another part of me is telling myself to restart the process by brewing an indian borage tea and use that instead of the icky murky dark green liquid.

The irony of this is that while I’m typing this, I am itching from a few mosquito bites on my arms, affecting my judgment of the situation. Could it be that I’m unknowingly making a concoction that attracts mosquitos instead of repelling them?

Argh. I’d make the worst witch ever. Alright. I’m going to measure out 100g of this liquid and heat and hold it. The rest might just go down the drain.

10mins later.

The slow cooker is in motion and I’ve put 106g of the indian borage liquid in to double boil. The remaining liquid is still staring at me but I’ll probably throw it away. Heat and hold process starts now, while I practise the ukulele.

Quite some time later.

So I put 40 drops of mosquito repellent essential oil into the indian borage juice and 10 drops of preservatives, and put it into two 50ml spray bottles. Froze one bottle. I didn’t bother with the Polysorbate 20 so I will have to shake the bottle every time I use it. The concoction looks and smells like herbal tea. I have sprayed it over my arms and legs but since I haven’t seen any mosquito flying around, I can’t tell if it’s working. The spray is pleasant on the skin because there’s no oiliness, but maybe it also means that it will not stick on the skin for very long and I will need to reapply quite often.

No bites yet so far. Let’s see how long this lasts.

 

I pretty much abandoned my skincare routine upon return from Europe and have been breaking out with acne because of negligence, stress, and sleep deprivation. Also I was feeling a little icky about using my toner (there was maybe a quarter left) because it had been a long time. I guess I’m paranoid about nasties growing in homemade products which are not supposed to last for long! So here I am, making a fresh batch.

For reference, here is the first attempt. I realise that these posts are a little technical but maybe it might help some others (or myself in the future) to make a better product.

Preparation Stage

I decided to base this recipe mainly on the past recipe that I had used, and added the below changes:

1. Less humectant (glycerin) because it did feel kind of sticky on the skin and I think that the glycerin was probably the cause.
2. Also, we’ve repaired the slow cooker so presumably we can do the heat and hold process without the stove (which might make it easier to maintain the temperature at 70deg C); and
3. I have also got a new stock of liquid aloe vera gel which I am going to completely replace the green tea, I wonder if the aloe gel will change the viscosity of the end product (by itself, the consistency is not too viscous), but I’ll never know until I do it.
4. Oh another update is that I finally got a digital scale. I wanted to get one that was accurate to 0.1g but ended up mistakenly getting one that was accurate to 0.5g only, which is a little annoying, but oh well. At least it was cheap.

So, the current recipe is this:

Water-based ingredients

• 30% witch hazel distillate
• 60% aloe vera liquid gel
• 3% glycerin

Oil-based ingredients

• 2% vitamin E
• 2.5% solubiliser (Polysorbate 20)

Cool down phase:

• 0.5% essential oil – lavender and tea tree oil, each 5 drops
• 0.5% preservative (DMDM Hydantoin)

Heating Up Stage

I placed the 3 beakers (water-based ingredients, oil-based ingredients, and some extra aloe vera gel for supplementing the amount evaporated) into the slow cooker, poured in some boiling water and am waiting for the ingredients to heat up to 70deg now for the heat and hold stage, so I’ll take down some notes so far.

1. I must be the worst chemist ever.

So I very carefully measured the witch hazel and the aloe vera gel, 30g and 60g respectively, and was quite pleased with myself.

(And here, note to self: DON’T BE PLEASED WITH YOURSELF UNTIL THE DAMN CONCOCTION IS BOTTLED.)

And so, my overly confident self eyeballed the glycerin and put in a whole table spoon – and watched in horror when it came up to 6.5g. I had effectively put in 6.5% of glycerin when the plan was to put 3%. Fuck fuck fuck fuckfuckfuckfuck was the marquee in my head as I realised that there was no undo button. And not 10 minutes ago I was solemnly vowing to use less glycerin this time!

I would have to double the amount of everything. So I transferred the liquid from the small beaker to the big, and carefully poured in another 30g of witch hazel and 60g of aloe vera gel.

Then I set it aside. For the oil portion, I put in 2g of Vitamin E and 2g of argan oil, since that we’re now doubling the oil portion, and then 4g of Polysorbate 20. And while measuring these other ingredients, I was so intent on getting the exact measurement (well, up to 0.5g) that… TWICE, I forgot that I was holding the oil bottle in my left hand (while dripping the oil into the container with a pipette with my right) that I accidentally tilted the bottle and spilled oil over my work desk. Twice.

It is lucky that I am not working with any corrosive acid, and no harm is done besides the fact that my work desk is now an oily desk. Aiyo.

Anyway, the slow cooker has been making the process rather slow and the thermometer shows that it’s barely 70deg and so I can’t start counting my 20mins yet. I’ll go check again.

Cooling Down Stage

So the heat and hold process was duly done, and after the 20 minutes was up I took everything out of the slow cooker. I had forgotten to measure the actual weight of the 400ml beaker and therefore had to transfer the liquid out into a bowl to measure it, but now I know, for future reference, that it is 147.5g. Only 176.5g of the water was left, meaning that 10g had evaporated, so I added the extra aloe gel (also heated and held) in there. I had prepared a 40g extra but I guess next time I don’t need that much. I’ll probably use the excess for a mask or something later.

I stirred everything up and left the concoction to cool down to 45deg, upon which time I can add in the preservatives and essential oils. I’m not going to experiment on the essential oils, so it will be lavender and tea tree oil again. I put about 1.5g worth of essential oils (about 20 drops of tea tree, and 10 drops of lavender)and bottled them. So I have about 200g of toner now, which means that I’ll need to use them quite regularly to finish it. I’ll probably freeze one of them.

Bonus Stage: Face Mask

Since I have about 30g of aloe vera gel (and this stuff is expensive) I will use some of it for a mask. There are 3 ingredients to this mask: French green clay, French red clay and aloe vera gel. Basically what you do is to put about a table spoon of clay in, and 1.5 table spoons of aloe vera in, and realise that it’s too watery to put on the face, then put in some other amount of clay until the consistency is like yogurt and it won’t slide down your face. That’s basically what happened in my situation. The choice of red + green is simply because I have some at hand. I also have kaolin clay which is white.

Just wait until there’s a tight feeling on the face and it looks like it’s drying and then you can wash the whole thing off. In general I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave it on for more than 10 mins. For my skin the red clay seems to make it red (flushed, not dyed) within an hour of washing the mask off, I’m not very sure why it is, the green clay seems to be milder. I wiped my face off with a warm towel and proceeded to use the toner that I had placed into the freezer for a quick cooling down. The coolness felt good on my skin, and there was no stickiness, so I think it was a good call to lessen the glycerin.

Notes

1. Maybe I should measure things in a separate container before putting it in. The concern before was that some of the ingredients might get left in the transition container and make my measurements less accurate – but who cares about that if I am actually the biggest enemy of accurate measurement? Maybe the lesser of two evils is the transition container. Maybe I can use a small and shallow container like the saucers that we use to put soy sauce.
2. Using the slow cooker I can control the temperature to 70 degrees a little better, though it takes a long time to get there. I *could* heat the beakers first with the stove but given my clumsiness I would probably spill stuff and it’s the safest to put all the beakers in and just wait. It doesn’t seem that anything bad would happen with the beakers heating up slowly in time, so I guess I’ll just stick to this for now.
3. Because I still have about 20g of aloe vera gel unused, even after the mask, I think next time I will only prepare 20g extra and not 40 (this is, if I will be going for 200g worth of toner. For a 100g toner, I will only need 10g extra).

 

As you know I have been on an experimenting stint on body and bath stuff. Today I decided that I was going to make lip balm, an unexplored territory, though it’s supposed to be one of the easiest things you can do. So, I found a basic recipe, which recommended

• 3 parts carrier oil (I put 1 part wheat germ oil, 1 part avocado oil, 1 part sweet almond oil)
• 1 part beeswax
• 1 part solid butter (I used shea butter)
• essential oil – (start with 1 to 2 drops per tablespoon or 1/2 ounce of ingredients, adjust as desired)

You put all the oils into a heatproof glass beaker, except for the essential oil that goes in later during the cooling phase,  put it into a double boiler (see figure below), melt the oils together, and then when they’re fully melted you put them into containers of lip balm.

Fairly foolproof. One could probably do it with a hand tied behind one’s back.

But, pride comes before a fall. I did everything nicely up to the point of mixing everything into the beaker. I put the beaker into an empty bowl, and poured some boiling water into the bowl – and what happened? The tiny beaker started floating, capsized, and water started flowing in!

Nooooooooo! I cried, possibly followed by a mix of choice profanities. Within the split second that I needed to react and tilt the beaker upright again, x amount of water had invaded my lovely oil mixture. In panic, I added in y amount of emulsifying wax, and started stirring vigorously. Poured some more boiling water into the double boiler,  beaker threatened to capsize again, another round of profanities ensued – such drama!

In any case, the beaker was stabilised, and I stirred it quite a bit, and added some ylang-ylang essential oil and a few drops of preservative after I took it out of the double boiler. At this point, as you have noticed, I’m not even pretending to measure things anymore. This ship has capsized, and sailed (I realise that the metaphor makes no sense here).

So while the cream was starting to set, I poured it into two tiny containers. I didn’t really want to use too many of my limited tiny containers to put some dodgy accidental cream in, so I only managed to store about 2/3 of the cream, and was left with 1/3 to use on the spot. When the cream solidified to a thick mixture, the texture wasn’t that bad, except that there’s some sort of sticky after-touch, if you know what I mean. Given the high amount of oils in it, it’s also rather greasy.

I tried to use as much as I could, on myself and on the exposed parts of the immobile Leo who was working on the couch – but ended up having to throw a big pat of the cream away. Oh well.

Part Two

Armed with lessons learnt from the humiliating defeat, I went at it again. Cleaned the beaker, spatula, teaspoon, stirring chopstick – an unenviable task – and restarted the process. Everything was carefully measured, and poured into the beaker. This time, I poured the boiling water into the bowl first before putting the oil beaker in, ensuring that I had a good grip on the beaker.

I stirred and stirred. The shea butter melted easily enough, and the beeswax took a little more persuasion. But at the end, everything melted into a light golden viscous liquid, and it was time to pour the mixture into the lip balm containers. As my hands are not the steadiest hands, I mobilised Leo to come help with the pouring.

Being very inexperienced and frankly, in retrospect, rather stupid – we used a small funnel to help with the pouring. As you might expect, the waxy oily liquid set very quickly and left a layer of residue inside the funnel. At the same time, the liquid was also solidifying on the mouth of the beaker. We managed to pour a smidgen in and were discussing a better course of action, when I asked Leo to stick the beaker back into the double boiler to stop the solidifying – and –

It capsized again!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

In equal parts disbelief and dismay, we surveyed the damage. It was a deja vu of a beaker filled with oily hot water, with no resemblance to the final product it aspired to be. We had succeeded in pouring about 0.5cm of lip balm into the tube before the funnel discussion happened, and that was all that we had to show for the entire night of toil. And we had ruined a funnel, which till now is still waxy and oily despite of multiple attempts to clean it.

I was tempted to throw the mixture away there and then, but stopped when I considered the clogging that might happen. Cleaning a funnel may be annoying but a stuck pipe would probably be another world of pain. So I dejectedly left the beaker on the counter, crime scene untouched, and retreated to the safe space behind my computer screen. I would clean the mess up later, together with the shards of my shattered dignity.

Leo serenely picked up his work again, and I proceeded to give a blow-by-blow account of the second defeat to Eva through gchat.

Part Three

After an hour or so, bed time was approaching so I reluctantly went back to the disaster area to clean things up.

To my astonishment, the failed lip balm mixture had now separated into very clear layers of water and oil. I had a retrospective eureka moment – OF COURSE that would happen! Oil and water do not mix, and when the water cooled down the lip balm solution would also harden into a layer sitting on top of the water.

Cautiously, I ran a fingertip across the lip balm layer, and found that it glided very similarly to how it would if I were to glide it on real lip balm.

I sprang into action. I pricked two holes through the lip balm layer so that the sealed water could be poured out (two holes because the water would not pour if air could not enter to fill the void), and drained the water easily.

Boiled water again, for the umpteenth time, and filled the bowl with the boiled water to make a double boiler. Stuck the beaker in again. Stirred and stirred. The lip balm mixture melted easily back into liquid. It was looking good.

It was as though the oil and water debacle had never happened. (It did though. Twice.)

Leo came and helped again with the pouring process. This time we did not use the funnel, which turned out to be a completely redundant procedure, and filled up a tiny tub, and 2.5 tubes with the long-suffering lip balm solution.

It set beautifully. It feels a titch too oily on the lips, but that may be helpful in the cold and dry European weather that I’ll be experiencing in a couple of weeks. I’m also setting aside the Accidental Cream for that purpose.

Notes and thoughts

1. Oil and water repel each other because water is a polar molecule, and oil is not. According to this link, “polarity is when one end is positively charged while the other end is negatively charged. Each water molecule is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. But the atoms are not arranged in a line. The two hydrogen atoms cling to one side of the oxygen atom making the molecule look something like a Mickey Mouse head. The electrons in the molecule spend more time on the oxygen side of the molecule, giving this side a negative charge and the hydrogen side a positive charge. Only other polar molecules can dissolve in water because polar molecules dissolve only in polar solvents and non-polar molecules dissolve only in non-polar solvents.”
2. If I had more chemistry sense I’d probably remain calm in the first instance when disaster struck, because I’d then know immediately that I just had to set the mixture aside for an hour or two, drain the water and restart the process. I am a little embarrassed about missing the obvious, but the joy of seeing the water-oil separation when I had lost all hope makes it almost worthwhile!
3. Cleaning oily things is annoying, but not half as annoying as cleaning oily AND waxy things. I’ve not given up on the oily and waxy funnel though. It’s a nice size and I’d like to salvage it. Note to self – never pour oily wax through a funnel.
4. I guess I’d like to make another batch of lip balm that is less oily. I think that requires more beeswax and less oil, according to what I’ve read.
5. Success is not a given, and failure actually teaches much more. More experiments lie on the horizon, more stupid mistakes to be made.
6. Science rules, bitches. And it’s comforting to know, that however crazy the world is, and however you feel like the only sane person in a mad world sometimes – oil and water will always repel each other under normal conditions and without emulsifiers.

About a month ago when I was younger and more innocent, I made a hand lotion which to date seems to be holding up quite well, according to my mum whom I gifted the hand lotion to. The problems with the younger and more innocent version of the lotion is that 1) it did not contain any preservatives, which I have learnt that is an irresponsible thing to not include, and that 2) it did not go through the process of “heating and holding”, which is supposed to help with the emulsification process (oil + water) and to kill off unwanted bacteria, fungi, and other nasties.

So today, I have decided to be more diligent with my formulation and go through the proper procedures. It is a lovely Sunday afternoon. The below is written as I go through the formulation, real time.

Pre-experimentation

I must say that I am rather nervous. This time I’m not following a specific recipe, though I have read up quite a bit on what toners are and what ingredients a basic toner should contain. I’m working with a number of new things, from witch hazel to aloe vera to DMDM Hydantoin, which is a preservative. The more I read, the more nervous I get – so I’ve decided to stop reading and write down the pre-process, so that I can move straight into experimentation after the housemate has vacated the kitchen. This is the formulation that I have written down:

Water-based ingredients

• 30% witch hazel distillate
• 20% aloe vera liquid gel
• 40% green tea (normal tea brewed from leaves)
• 4% glycerin

Oil-based ingredients

• 2% vitamin E
• 2.5% solubiliser (Polysorbate 20)

Cool down phase:

• 0.5% essential oil – lavender and tea tree oil, each 5 drops
• ~0.2-0.6% preservative (DMDM Hydantoin)

This list is written based on the ingredients that I have at hand, and also loosely based on recipes that I’ve found online. My main guide is the Point of Interest blog, with its posts on toner; I also found these two recipes from Humble Bee and Me. As I don’t have all the ingredients that they prescribe, I’ve decided to make my own prescription, based on what basic theory I know.

The solubiliser (Polysorbate 20) binds the small amount of oils into the majority of water-based ingredients (witch hazel, aloe, green tea, glycerin) so that the oils (Vitamin E and the essential oils) are evenly dispersed in the mixture. It is much lighter than the emulsifying wax that I used in the previous hand lotion recipe. The amount used is supposed to be the same amount with the oils. The preservative is probably not the best one, but I only have this in my stock, so I will use it.

I don’t have a digital weighing scale, so if I were to be a perfectionist this project is failed from the beginning. Instead, I’ve decided to follow the percentages as closely as I can according to whatever tools that I have, which relies on volume instead of weight. I do have an alcohol thermometer so I can monitor the “heat and hold” temperature. The housemate has also left the kitchen so I have no more reason to procrastinate. I shall start now.

The action

I’m waiting for the 20 minutes heat and hold process now and thought I would just continue the documentation of the processes. Here’s what I did, mainly based on the recipe above:

•  30ml witch hazel distillate
• 20ml aloe vera liquid gel
• 40ml green tea
• ~5ml glycerin
• ~2.5ml vitamin E
• ~2.5ml solubiliser

The first four, the water-based ingredients, are in one container, while the oils (last two ingredients) are in another, both containers are in a water bath that is around 70deg C. I have to wait for 20 minutes, and then combine both containers into one, and then wait for them to drop to about 45deg C when I will put in my essential oils and preservative, as listed in the below three points:

• 5 drops lavender oil
• 5 drops tea tree oil
• 10 drops DMDM Hydantoin

Once in while I’ll go check that everything is at 70deg C. If the temperature drops below that I’d turn on the stove and make it go a bit more. My thermometer is rested in the oil container, while I’ve put a cover on the water container to prevent too much evaporation. You’re supposed to heat and hold another very small batch of ingredients and then weigh the amount evaporated on the first batch, and replenish it with the backup batch. However I don’t have the digital weighing scale and no space in my pot for a third container, and I’m trying not to be too anal about things, so I’m just going to see whatever I have left.

One more minute to 20. I’ll go check the mixture.

Letting things cool down

It appears that quite a bit has evaporated, even if I did take the trouble to cover the water container. I guess this means that I should tweak the ingredients of the cooling down phase to be less than what I wanted to put in. The mixture that I have (according to a rather horrible beaker that doesn’t really give me an accurate reading) is in between 75-80ml.

After typing the above paragraph I went to check on the temperature of the solution and found that the solution had sneakily separated into oil and water! I realised that I forgot to stir it after mixing the contents of both containers. I then used a clean chopstick to stir quite vigorously, and at the moment it looks like the water-and-oil solution has regained its one-ness.

Adding of final ingredients

The mixture was looking at about ~70ml when the temperature hit 45degC. I adjusted the amount of cooling phase ingredients to reflect the change in volume, and put in 3 drops of tea tree oil and 3 drops of lavender essential oil, and about 7 drops of DMDM Hydantoin.

Then I stirred everything in again, and poured the slightly warm end product into a 100ml bottle, and gave it a vigorous shake or two. I must say that I’m kind of disappointed at the volume that I ended up with, at about 2/3 of the 100ml bottle only. After the shake the mixture has some froth (some head, in beer terminology) above, so I’m still waiting for the froth to go away and for the temperature to go down to room temperature so that I can try it.

Notes

I’m still a little confused about the heating and holding process and I’m a little annoyed at all the good stuff that evaporated. Also, because I don’t know what actually evaporated (of that good 25-35% that disappeared), it makes troubleshooting harder. I later read that you’re supposed to stir the stuff while they are in the double boiler, which I did not, so I’ll need to remember the next time. But how do you do that without even more evaporation?

I haven’t tried the mixture so I can’t really say if it’s good or not. The emulsification seems ok so far. The froth has disappeared mostly but there is a small layer left still. Viscosity wise it’s thicker than water and thinner than most oils. While swirling the liquid around I notice that the part of the mixture right below the surface clouds up a little. Is that because of the froth, or because of failed emulsification? Or it’s just the properties of the liquid itself?

Some hours later

The cloudy effect is not so obvious now but I think it’s also the lighting that has changed since the afternoon, so I’ll have to observe again during daylight. The froth has disappeared.

The toner smells nice. I wet the cotton pad (with about 10-15 drops) and was able to swipe it all over my face – I used it once after coming back from a walk (before cleaning my face with a cleanser) and it did look a little dirty, so I surmise that it does the job of cleaning. Face feels nice and cool after using it, though it seems to have a slightly sticky (not oily) phase before it completely dries out. In any case I will use it for a few days and report back later.

This is my first attempt at making a hand lotion, inspired by this recipe by Humblebee and Me. As I did not have the exact same ingredients, I substituted the ingredients with whatever I had. The outcome was quite close to what I would consider a hand lotion to be (texture-wise), although I didn’t quite like the scent. My mum whom I gifted it to seemed to like it though.

Original recipe	Ingredients I used
Oils 10g emulsimulse emulsifying wax 15g safflower oil Water 73g water 2g vegetable glycerin 1 tsp raw honey or ½ tsp honey powder To be added during cooling phase 5 drops French lavender essential oil 2 drops benzoin essential oil 1–2 drops litsea cubeba essential oil	Oils I used olive-derived e-wax Safflower oil was substituted with macadamia oil Water About 70g of rosemary tea instead of water, Accidentally put too much glycerin – 4g 1tsp of raw honey Cooling phase 5 drops of lavender 3 drops of rosemary

 

Original instructions:

Melt the emulsifying wax and safflower oil together in a small saucepan over low heat. While they melt, warm the water, vegetable glycerin, and honey in the microwave a little and stir to combine.

Once the oils are melted, add the water part and heat everything through. Remove from the heat and whisk as the mixture cools, until is is thick and creamy.

Notes:

I basically followed the instructions to a tee and the whole process of making the lotion took me less than 15 minutes. The outcome was about 75ml of hand lotion, probably due to the evaporation of liquids and also some waste while using the funnel to pour the mixture into a pump bottle.

Later on I read that you should “heat and hold” the water and oil mixtures for 20 minutes so that things would emulsify better and you would kill the nasties inside the raw materials. Here’s more information about heating and holding.

As you can see, there were no preservatives added to the lotion – which I’m a little wary about. I don’t want to go into the preservatives vs. non-preservatives debate but it seems that contamination is a real concern (and the anti-preservatives people seem a little alarmist), so I think it is better to preserve than not. At least when I make my own concoctions I know exactly how much preservatives go in and how they work.

As a result I’ve told my mum to finish the lotion within 1 month, or as quickly as she can – and I’ll make her more later on if she likes. I’ve ordered a broad spectrum preservative in my next batch of raw materials, hopefully it will arrive safely as it’s a supplier I’ve never bought from – and then I should be able to make safer products.

Check out also the new Cosmetics Science section in the website.