Port Potager

Now that the sun is out, it's time to add some sunscreen to my homemade lotion . To do this, I ordered some zinc oxide from soapgoods.com :  This could well be a lifetime supply — I have a pound, and I only used 1/4 cup. (This in a lotion batch that usually takes me about three months to get through.) The 1/4 cup amount of zinc oxide is to get to roughly a 30 SPF. This obviously isn't lab tested, but there's a chart that gives amounts to help approximate. I went with 20 percent of the total added in, which is 1/4 cup.  I made the lotion as before (you can check out details in the first link above), but when I measured out the aloe gel, I added 1/4 cup of zinc oxide and stirred it up to make a paste: This is way easier than trying to get the powder mixed evenly with what ends up being a cup of water, once you add it to the gel. Hold off on the water until the last minute, stirring it into the aloe and zinc paste right before you are about to emulsif...

This fall, I've been working to replace my chemical-filled soaps and lotions with homemade products that use natural ingredients. As I've been using up various tubes and jars, I haven't gone to CVS to buy more; instead, I find a recipe and test out a new, homemade version.  A while ago I made some new moisturizer. A homemade moisturizer is different – definitely more of a cream, for starters. It doesn't have any alcohol in it, which makes store-bought lotions feel like they are soaking in quickly, even though it's actually evaporating some of the moisture into the air. They are also much thicker, so you have to get used to waiting a bit for it to soak in. I don't find it permanently greasy the way suntan lotion is, but it does take a little getting used to while you wait for your skin to absorb all the good stuff.  You can make these lots of different ways, but I basically followed Rosemary Gladstar's "Perfect Cream" recipe . Moisturizers...