Tag Archives: Gift Ideas

Pre-Shave Oil

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A while back I made a few batches of pre-shave oil.  It went over well and has served my skin nicely since.  It is time to make more!  After having used both numerous times I think the menthol was not a great choice.  It has too much of a cooling effect which is not what you want in a warm shave.  This time will be sandalwood only.

Step 1: Gather up some brown bottles, measuring and mixing supplies, and the oils.

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Step 2: Mix 2 parts castor oil, 1 part olive oil, and a generous dash of your favorite essential oils for aroma.  The two oils have quite a different shade of yellow at first.  They get almost cloudy when mixed until they mix completely, then it is all clear again.

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Step 3: Bottle with a tiny funnel and put a zazzy logo on them.  I wanted to use the phrase “For a shine that is hard to beat… and look directly into”, but it didn’t fit on the label.

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Hand Soap Concentrate – Gift Ideas

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Another great gift ideas came from a previous post.  Instead of doing a single batch of foaming hand soap at a time, you could make lots of the concentrate.  It is barely any more work than doing one at a time, and you can give them away as gifts!

Instead of using measuring spoons I went with weight.  The ratio of volume is 6 to 1 soap to oil, so I went with a similar ratio (messed up a little in the pour pictured below) to give me a bit over 12 ounces.  I figured this would translate into about 12 fluid ounces and will fill three 4 ounce boston round bottles.

Castile Soap
Olive Oil

Once you have those two in mix the ingredients well with a whisk.  It should come out looking something like this.

MyFile 3Now is a good time to add any essential oils for fragrance.  I didn’t measure, but rather added by smell.  Looking at the bottles it ended up in the half teaspoon range of essential oil used per 12 ounce soap batch.  I made a festive peppermint, a sweet smelling lime, and a nice lemony version.  They were all pretty well received with lemon going the fastest.  A smart little label lets you know which is which and gives instructions on it’s use.

Cheap and easy to make, it is another wonderful gift idea for the holidays.  You can purchase empty foaming hand soap bottles by the dozen for a few bucks a piece if you want to hand them out.