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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).

So there comes a point in time when one is hiding out in one’s room because one of one’s cats caught a big rat and is flinging a dead rat around in the living room, and one takes this opportunity to write on one’s blog which one has neglected for 2.5 months.

This is one of those times. I’m hungry, there’s a dead rat floundering around outside of my room, and mi novio is out so is unavailable to sweep up the body. Woe is me!

—

Ooh el novio has returneth and, with great trepidation I peeked out of the room but the rat body was nowhere to be found! The suspect Dos had left the crime scene along with his foster mum Suki, with a presumably innocent Spot snoozing on the sofa, lending a false sense of serenity to the atmosphere. The plot thickens. El novio had started to doubt my words and overestimate my imagination when, finally he found the dead body… in the cats’ drinking bowl. Floating.

And so a dripping Mr. Dead Rat joins the recently deceased Ms. Dead Bird in a growing cemetery of dead-by-cat creatures that we have had to dispose of in a nearby bush outside of the house.

If anything, this has created a blog post out of nowhere, and you, random visitor of the website or long-time stalker can reap the benefits of the circumstances involving a killer cat, a dead rat and a cowardly cat owner.

The first night David asked if I wanted to join him for trapeze practice. I had never been a trapeze swing, and had no doubt that my weak upper arms were not up to the task. A swing suspended high up in the air was also probably not for one who was afraid of heights. So of course I said yes. How often does one get an offer like that?

It was difficult. Most of the others in the group were newbies as well but were obviously much more limber than I was. I am only slightly more flexible than a tree trunk. David, in a magnificent thrust of his abs, managed to hoist himself onto the swing in one swift movement. He then did cool stuff like variations of hanging upside down from different angles with different limbs.

It was soon my turn and I managed to lift my feet slightly above ground and then dangled helplessly from the swing, willing my abs to do a similar manoeuvre. I’d like to think they did a good job but I suspect that I was only able to get on the swing with a great deal of help from David, who crammed my legs in between my arms, effectively then hanging me on the swing by my knees. With a bit of reaching, I was able to grab the ropes and hoisted myself onto the swing, hanging about 6-7 feet from the ground.

It was glorious. So this is what the world looks like to trapeze artists. (I later found out of course that normal trapeze swings are much higher because one has to budget for various acrobatics swinging from one swing to another, and one artist catching the other as well.)  My wide grin stretched from ear to ear.

I mustered up the courage to hang myself upside down with some contorting of my legs, but the rapid loss of abdominal strength (it really isn’t about the upper arms) meant that I also lost control very quickly. Soon I was dangling by my knees upside down squealing my head off, trying not to break into a full-blown scream or break my neck in the process. I managed to refrain from both and landed unceremoniously on my butt with both feet in the air, with David looking on with amusement.

“You are brave,” he peered at my red face. “I have to recognise that.”

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.

Illustration of a double boiler, not to scale

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).

Little containers of cream and not lip balm

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.

Stiff thick accidental cream that I had to throw away

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.

Less than 0.5cm of lip balm in a tube

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.

Water and oil do not mix

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.

One hole for draining, one hole for air

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.

Voila! The toner itself

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.

First bottle of lotion I ever made

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.

This recipe was given to me by a couchsurfing host in Delft, the Netherlands, who kindly baked me a batch for my ferry trip to the UK. The cookies were amazing, and I’m glad she gave me a photocopy of the recipe which remained on my fridge in Singapore until I moved. Recently I managed to recover the picture that I had taken of the recipe, so here I shall digitise and share it on my blog. Although I no longer have an oven in KL – I do have a toaster oven, and a healthy spirit for experimentation.

These were baked in a proper oven in Singapore.

Super-Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

MAKES 20-24

• 175g (1.5 cups) plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 70g (1/3 cup) light muscovado sugar
• 50g (1/4 cup) golden castor sugar
• 125ml (generous 1/2 cup) sunflower oil
• 1 medium egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanila extract
• 150g choc chips or chunks

Here’s what you do, if you have a regular oven:

1. Preheat oven to 180deg C or 350deg or Gas 4, and lightly butter 2 baking sheets.
2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.
3. Beat together the sugars and oil until smooth using electric beater, a food mixer, or by hand. Then add the egg and vanila. Gradually tip the flour mixture into the oil mixture and fold in gently. Stir in the choc chips.
4. Spoon heaped teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes until pale golden but still slightly soft in the centre.
5. Leave for 1-2mins on the sheets, then transfer carefully to a wire rack to cool.

If you only have a toaster oven and want to do a trial and error, read on. The problem with toaster ovens is that you have no control over the temperature and it tends to get from zero to very hot, burning the outer layer of the cookies very quickly. So after discarding the first round of burnt cookies, what I did was to put a piece of aluminium foil on top of the cookies, covering them. From trial and error, I put the aluminium foil on for about 7 minutes allowing the cookies to cook without burning, and took the foil off and continued baking for another 2 minutes.

I’d say that the oven-baked one definitely trumps the toaster-oven ones in terms of texture and lightness, but beggars can’t be choosers so if you have a cookie craving and a toaster oven, this recipe would still work although it would be a bit finicky.