Soapcraft Aromatics and More

Natural Cleanser & Polisher

Gina — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:58:50 +0000

This is the first of its kind on the market that I know of. This is a proprietary product developed by Soapcraft here in New Zealand.
This product will clean nearly any surface including your car interior. Exceptions are glass and mirrors. By any surface we mean stainless, plastic, wood etc.
The product is made from all natural oils including cocobutter, olive, sweet almond, organic sunflower oils & New Zealand beeswax. The organic pine turps used in this product will leave your home smelling clean. This is a spray and wipe cleanser.
This is a product that we have made for ourselves for the last 15 years so we know it works.
Remember that this is made here in New Zealand using real plant oils not any petro-chemcial ingredients.
IF you want to pay by credit card we can arrange this after you have bought the product.

Sorry I can not yet put up a buy now until I am address verified which I am sorting. I am not expecting more than $25 per bottle so once this reserve is met I will re-list the product.

No Charge For Our Bees

Gina — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:48:31 +0000

Download the application form here

The Auckland City want to charge us $190 to keep bees. Why I wonder? Don’t we want to encourage people to keep bees. Often its retired people with less income but time rich who want to keep bees.

Please download and fill in the form and send in your submission to let council know that its not good enough. Leave us alone to keep bees.

Gina – Owner of Soapcraft Aromatics & More

The Smell of Hotel Rooms

Gina — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:39:01 +0000

I can not understand what seems so simple to me has still not been picked up on by Hotels. While staying in the States recently the ‘stench’ of commercial cleaning products used in the rooms was awful. It felt like it was more smelly than actually clean. It is so unnecessary when there is such a simple an more natural way to clean using hand-made products like liquid soap or other products like essential oils and baking soda.

Gina

Beeswax Candles

Gina — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:06:00 +0000

I have a little play sometimes with beeswax making candles. I had made a few little blocks and discovered that wick size is important. The wicks I had used were to thin for what I wanted so the candle burnt a small flame. Not that impressive to me who likes everything BIG.

I lit one of these little candles last night an guess what I did. Yeap I went to bed and forgot to blow it out. This morning when I came in the office it was still burning low but steady. This was 12 hours later. Very impressive I decided.

Sustainable Palm

Gina — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:01:51 +0000

That’s right, do not stop using palm oil, at least do not stop simply to save endangered species. Boycotting is not the answer, especially since you would have to boycott an awful lot of products and companies. It is found in cookies, crackers, frozen dinners, shampoo, lotions, cosmetics, soaps, pet food, and many other products. Palm oil is now the most widely produced edible oil. It is also found in a wide array of products sold in natural food stores, and it is being used as a possible fuel alternative. It’s even found in chocolate. When the palm oil crisis was brought to Nestlé’s attention, the company sought out a sustainable alternative. Instead use certified sustainable palm oil.
Why is using certified sustainable palm oil better than boycotting its use? • Because palm oil makes 10 times the amount of oil per unit area as soybeans, grape seeds or sunflowers, it is actually more environ- mentally friendly to use because of this.
• Poverty stricken Indonesia and Malaysia rely on palm oil for their economies. Boycotting would devastate these communities rendering many people unemployed.
• If you boycott one type of oil, another will just take its place. Whereas using a sustainable oil is a win-win situation.

Part of an article taken from Sponifier Magazine. Article written by Eric Spense 2011.

List of Recipes

Alison — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 00:56:29 +0000

This page has a complete list of recipes sorted alphabetically.

Wood Polish

Gina — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:40:18 +0000

Formulary: Recipe: Wood Polish

© Aromatics & More Ltd.
This information is supplied for you to use but please do not just copy all my hard work and call it yours.
If you would like to reprint it please contact us for permission.

Bring out the beauty of your wood furniture with this moisturizing and conditioning wood polish. Rub onto wood in cirucluar motions and then wipe clean with a soft rag. Lightly scent with essential oils. Never use essential oils undiluted on your wood furniture as they will strip the surface!

Ingredients	Mls/Grams
Phase 1
Carnauba Wax	40 grams
Unrefined Beeswax	25 grams
Olive Oil Virgin	185 ml
Essential oil (try Pine, Lavender, Lemon or Orange)	2.5 ml

Instructions

Melt the waxes and olive oil on the stove top
Add your essential oil and mix well
Pour into a wide mouth jar and let set till hard

Water Dispersible Bath Oils

Gina — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:37:44 +0000

Water Dispersible Bath Oils

Water dispersible bath oils are very easy to make. They have the great advantage over regular bath oil because they mix through the water. The oils cover your body rather than floating on top of the water. When you get out of the tub you can just gently pat yourself dry and there is no need to apply lotion. Best of all, the lovely fragrance of the perfume oils carry you through the day or night.
To make any oil water dispersible you add 10-20% of Polysorbate 80 and mix them well. For example:

Liquid Plant Oil	75%
Essential Oil	5%
Polysorbate 80	20%

If you are not a person that takes baths these oils can be applied directly to your skin after getting out of the shower. When you massage them onto the skin they mix with the water. Lightly Pat yourself dry. Don’t forget the man in your life. This is a great way for him to combat dry skin without having to apply a heavier lotion.
Here are some useful tips when making up these oils

It’s always a good idea to mix an anti-oxidant into a bath oil formula to keep your vegetable oils from going rancid and your essential oils from deteriorating. I recommend Vitamin E or Rosemary Oleoresin.
If you are going to color the oils make sure your colorant is “oil soluble” or it won’t mix in.
Package the oils in either glass bottles or PET plastic. Some plastics start to collapse when they have oil in them and the essential oils “leach out” through the plastic.
I use a higher percentage of essential oils in my bath oils. Usually you only need add one capful of oil to a tub of water. I usually use about 20ml of essential oil per liter of oil.
Since there is no water added to the oils you do not need a preservative.
You can add other ingredients such as lecithin to your oils for extra skin conditioning
I’ve seen some nice layered bath oils. These are achieved by adding ingredients that don’t mix with oil such as Glycerin or Honey. Shake them up before adding them to the bath. If you add these ingredients you still need no preservative as they have their own anti-microbial properties.

Create your own Mineral Makeup

Gina — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:53:25 +0000

Create your own Mineral Makeup

Sheer Mineral Powder Warm Beige

This will make 30 grams by weight or the equivalent to 6 x 10 gram powder jars. We suggest our powder pots with sponges to best avoid inhaling loose particles when applying the powder.

This recipe is for loose mineral makeup using your own iron oxides rather than a pre-blended base. Micas help give your skin a healthy glow.

You can use a mortar and pestle to mix and grind the ingredients or an electric mixer. We also sell a small hand blender that may be used. I have found the best mixers for small amounts are electric coffee grinders. They have enough power to truly mix the powders.

Part 1	Volume	Weight	%
Yellow Iron Oxide	1/2 tsp	0.9 g	3
Black Iron Oxide	1/8 tsp	0.15 g	0.5
Red Iron Oxide	1/3 tsp	0.45 g	1.5
Ultramarine Blue	1/16 tsp	0.03 g	0.1
Titanium Dioxde	3/4 tsp	2.4 g	8

Note for ease of measuring we supply two sizes of scoops. Our small scoop is equal to 1/16 of a tsp and our large scoop is equal to ¼ tsp.

Blend these ingredients well using a mortar or our spatulas . Make sure there are no streaks of color. See our blending instructions . You can test it by smearing it on white paper.

Part 2	Volume	Weight	%
Micronized Zinc Oxide	2 tsp	4.2 g	14
Fine Mica Powder	5 Tbsp	15 g	50.1
Titanium and Mica	1 1/2 Tbsp	5.8	19.8
Pearl White Mica	1/8 tsp	0.3	1
Red Gold Mica	1/8 tsp	0.3	1
Phenoxyethanol (optional)	7 drops	0.3	1

Add Part 1 to Part 2 and blend well.

Fill Powder Jars.

Shampoo for Dry Hair

Gina — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:49:43 +0000

Shampoo for Dry Hair

Appearance: Off White Creamy

The addition of Lamesoft™ aids in the replacement of natural fats that are stripped from the hair from washing. The addition of Honey helps add moisture. Guar Quat aids in contioning, wet combing and thickening of the product. I have not added oils to this formula as oil will generally cut down on the foam produced by a shampoo. Lipsoft with help regulate the foam in addition to thicken the product.
Note: to add fragrance or essential oils mix equal parts fragrance and Polysorbate 20 with your oil and then add it to the water. Generally never add more than 5% fragrance to any product. Less is best. Deduct the amount of fragrance and Polysorbate 20 added from you water content. For example if you add 10ml of fragrance to your water deduct 10 ml of water from the total formula.

Ingredient	% of Total by Weight	Function
Premixed Clear Base	30	Surfactant
Lamesoft	8	Surfactant
Guar Quat	3	Protein
Honey	5	Humectant
Lactic Acid	2	Moisturizer
Postassium Sorbate	0.5	Preservative
Purified Water	50.5	Dilutes other ingredients
Botanical Extracts(nettle and horstail)	1	Actives-Scalp Stimulants
	100

Instructions

This shampoo may be made in a single stove top or microwave safe vessel.

Measure your purified (preferably distilled water) into a clean container and heat to warm. Sprinkle in the Guar Quat and let sit or mix till completely disolved. Next add your, potassium Sorbate. When it’s dissolved then mix in your honey and lactic acid.
Mix in by hand , Clear Surfactant Base, and Botanicals. Do not use a whipping blender as you do not want to incorporate air into your product.
Decant into a clean container.