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Make Your Own – Face Cleanser

Looking after your skin can be expensive and time consuming, but often the products we use are unnecessary.  We at St Kitts believe skin care should be simple, easy and uncomplicated – no need for special beads dug from an ancient burial sight somewhere far across the galaxy that guarantee to leave your skin feeling ‘just delightful!’ and your pocket decidedly empty. The staple of every skin care routine, as far as I’m concerned, is a great cleanser. This easy recipe for fantastic cleansing oil is both a versatile and cheap way of achieving glowing skin.

bottles-for-cleanser

Ingredients:

80mls coconut oil

10mls jojoba oil

10mls calendula oil

This mixture of oils forms the perfect addition to your routine, softening and moisturising your skin. Coconut oil is hydrating for the skin, it contains mild anti-bacterial properties and naturally clears dirt and dead skin cells that can clog pores and lead to blemishes. As well as soothing and softening the skin, calendula oil is a great anti-inflammatory, meaning it is fantastic for acne, ulcers, rashes and eczema amongst other skin issues. Jojoba oil is actually a liquid wax, known to be the ‘oil’ that most closely resembles sebum (which is produced by the skin naturally). This makes it fantastic for helping to regulate the production of sebum, thereby reducing the likelihood of oily skin.  As with the coconut and calendula oils, jojoba is also hydrating and moisturizing, making the three a perfect combination for clearing pores and freshening tired skin. Best used at night, this is a ‘one size fits all’ product. It is also virtually scentless, so those of you with a sensitive nose can still benefit! It also works as a great base for more specialised cleansers – if you suffer from acne or blemishes, try adding a drop of lavender (also great for relaxing before bed!), for oily skin add a drop of geranium for its skin balancing properties and for dry skin give a drop of frankincense a try. This product will fast become your go to, we promise!

 

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Make your own – Bath Salt

It’s that time of the year again and Valentines Day is fast approaching. Whether you’re looking to make a gift for that special someone or just want to relax and take your mind off the whole holiday, this bath salt recipe is guaranteed to hit the spot.

Ingredients:

½ cup baking powder

¼ cup Epsom salts

1 drop rose absolute oil (or try geranium but you will need a little more of this)

dried rose petals (optional)

bath-salt-2

Epsom salts are most easily found in your local chemist.  First mix together the baking powder and Epsom salts, ensuring they are completely combined.  Add the drop of oil and stir thoroughly – there should be no lumps or clumps and the salts should change colour to that of the oil.  This could take quite a while but not to worry; if you are using petals add them now, that’s all there is to it!  Sprinkle the salts into a hot bath and relax.  If you’re not a fan of the heavier, floral scents then replace the rose absolute oil with a few drops of the essential oil of your choice (note that other essential oils may not alter the colour of the salt and will still need thorough mixing).

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Make Your Own Body Powder

So Christmas is over and we’ve said our ‘happy new year’s – but if your family is anything like mine, it’s already time to start thinking about birthdays. Gift giving is never harder than for January birthdays – after all, you’ve already used up all your ideas (and money) on Christmas! Not to worry, we’ve come up with some ideas so you don’t have to – and best of all, they won’t break the bank! This week’s favourite is this cheap and easy recipe for a luxurious scented powder.

powder in progress

Ingredients:

1 measure dried thyme

1 measure dried rosemary

1 measure ground cinnamon

1 measure orange peel

1 measure orris root powder or cornflour

half measure arrowroot powder

This recipe really works best if you’ve got a grinder – just stick it all in and whizz it ‘til it’s smooth! You can even make your own dried orange peel by putting your fresh peel in a hot oven until it’s dry and crinkly.

If you don’t have a grinder then not to worry, just use ground cinnamon, orris root powder and arrowroot powder for a simpler but no less delicious version.

 

This is a fantastic product to use in place of talcum powder, or just to add a lovely scent to your skin. Let out your creative side when it comes to the packaging – it will look gorgeous in a recycled kilner jar, or even just bundled in some muslin with a pretty ribbon.

finished powder

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Make your own – Bath Bombs

A great gift idea for all occasions (and our most popular blog post ever!), our bath bombs dissolve in a hot bath for silky smooth, fragrant bath water. Bonus – they’re exceedingly easy to make!

Ingredients:

Witch Hazel Water

Bicarbonate of Soda

Citric Acid

Essential Oil (we like lavender for an extra soothing bath, but anything you like will work!)

Dried herbs, petals, flowers or food colouring  (again, lavender flowers are it for us)

 

Moulds:

We’ve got the kind of house that always has kids running around, and of course that means kids toys everywhere – so we used a plastic ball pit ball, cut in half (ingenious, we know) as our mould. But you can use anything that has the shape you like – ice cube trays, cupcake tins, whatever you’ve got lying around.

Bath.Bomb.how.to.image

Directions:

  1. Combine equal amounts of citric acid and bicarbonate of soda.
  2. Add a few drops of the essential oil of your choice, plus any flowers or colouring you’re using & mix thoroughly.
  3. Sparingly add Witch Hazel Water (a few drops at a time) until the mixture is just damp enough to hold its shape when compressed. Go easy on adding the liquid- if you add too much the mixture will do all its fizzing in your bowl instead of your bath!
  4. Pack the mixture firmly into both halves of your mould, then push together to join. (If using an ice cube tray or similar, just make sure to compress the mixture into the mould so it doesn’t all fall apart when you take it out).
  5. Allow to set for at least 2 hours before removing from the mould.
  6. If your bomb falls apart when you remove it from your mould, it’s probably too dry- put the mixture back in a bowl and add a few more drops of Witch Hazel water.
  7. Package in some cellophane with ribbon as a gorgeous home made gift – or spoil yourself and get that bath running!