Fragrance Friday

I haven't been smelling any new perfumes this week (but I re-found a stash of unsniffeds, so there'll be a fo realz FF next week), but this is Fragrance Friday, which includes more than just perfume, so today I'm going to talk about homemade bath oil!

I have a rather sizable collection of pure oils, purchased originally to help with my skin woes. I'm very, very slow about adding them into my skincare regimen, though, since my skin has a tendency to break out horribly, but I feel so bad about all those bottles sitting sad and unused in my fridge. My solution: put them to another use!

I remember reading on Bois de Jasmin many months ago about how you could add perfume to unscented lotion or oil to make your own perfumed body products on the cheap, so I decided to give it a try with a perfume that has caused me such heartache: Mitsouko. Absolutely loved the original sample I tried, but the full bottle is evidently from a different reformulation, and it pulls powdery on me. I do not like powder in perfumes, for the most part, but I so, so loved my sample vial that I'm not willing to give up on it, even though there's no reason to suspect it will get better with age. However, I figured it could make for a very decadent bath experience, so I decided to try it in bath oil form.

I used macadamia nut, jojoba, borage, and evening primrose oils, combining in a 1/2 oz vial, then added about 10 sprays of Mitsouko. I belatedly realized I should include an emulsifier so that the bath oil wouldn't coat my bathtub, but the vial was almost full so it ended up being less than 10% polysorbate 80 (my emulsifier of choice), so it wasn't quite as cooperative with the water as it could have been (15-20% is my usual choice for oil:emulsifier ratio). The bath experience itself was still extremely enjoyable, but I'll have to be careful when I shower tomorrow, ha!

My bath smelled quite strongly of Mitsouko, and while it was still not right, I found it much more pleasant in a different format than when applied directly to my skin. The oils made the water super soft, and post-bath, I had no need for lotion or perfume, as my skin was left moisturized and gently perfumed. Still a bit powdery, but it was okay––it just made me feel like I was clean and pampered.

I imagine any perfume could be bath oilified, and I hope to experiment with some of my other full bottles in the future (and maybe make use of some unloved sample vials, as one bath's worth would empty them!). Any oils you have on hand would undoubtedly work as well; you don't have to include an emulsifier, but it makes cleanup much easier. I purchased my supplies over a period of several months/orders from Lotioncrafter and Garden of Wisdom and recommend both sites, and there are tons of other places to purchase online.

Have you ever made your own bath oil? What's your favorite way to spoil yourself?

Skincare Saturday: Grapeseed Oil

I've been exploring diy skincare the last couple months, and after some overly-optimistic headlong dives using a ton of ingredients at once, I've scaled back and am gradually adding things one at a time. I'll be featuring one or two ingredients per week, talking about their properties, benefits, and my experience with them.

I am not a chemist, at all. I cannot overstate that. As such, I rely on internet sources for my information; I have neither the time nor the interest to read scholarly articles on the subject, but I will try to relay reliable information. For anyone who's interested, I highly recommend Points of Interest; Susan (Swift) is incredibly knowledgeable and there's a ton of information on her site, including several extremely helpful ingredient comparisons and oodles of recipes. Wikipedia, in spite of its faults, is still a good place to start, and if you're a science-minded person, you can go straight to the research articles themselves.

First, some very basic terminology: carrier oil means an oil that can be used at high ratios in skincare formulations; as such, they are usually more affordable. With my oily, acne-prone, sensitive skin, I prefer carrier oils that are lighter and drier (such as grapeseed or safflower), whereas those with mature or dry skin might prefer heavier, richer oils (like avocado). Carrier oils serve as the base for other ingredients, such as essential oils, which are extremely concentrated, usually fragrant, and need to be diluted like whoa, and exotic oils (following Garden of Wisdom and Points of Interest), which are more expensive, often richer or higher in healthy ingredients, and which can help skin more dramatically. I'll be talking about items from each type in this series, but today my focus is on a carrier oil, grapeseed (or grape seed) oil.