When I started on Twitter, my original screen name was MsMarilie. It goes way back to my BlackPlanet days (*facepalm*), and Marilie was/is one of my favorite Brian McKnight songs when I was in college.
One day, I was tweeting about mixing up some shea butter concoctions and Serenity23 said, you’re always mixing something – you should change your name to MsMixtress! And so I did.
But anywho, back to the mixing. Back then, I was using a hand mixer, because I didn’t have a stand mixer. When I saw the prices of the Kitchen Aid mixers, I was verklempt! However, hand mixing was not getting me the results I wanted. My shea butter wasn’t “whipped.” It was melted and mixed together, but not light and airy. I still used it, because the whole point was that I didn’t like some of a lot of the ingredients in commercially made creams and lotions.
Last year, my friend Nievea came down to Charlotte for a visit, along with her sister Toly. Her sister had seen me talking about a Kitchen Aid mixer on FB, and said she’d be on the look out for any coupons/deals for me. She didn’t find any, but when she came down she was gracious enough to gift me this vintage Sunbeam mixer!
One of the beaters was missing, but I scored a set off of eBay. You gotta love eBay. Finally, I’m able to get the butter to a whipped consistency!
Right now, I use myself and HH as guinea pigs. I work on mixtures and write down the amounts so that if I like it, I can make it again. Right now, I don’t sell it because:
- I don’t think the consistency would ship well in cold or hot weather. By the time someone got it, it’d be totally different than what I made. LOL!
- This mixture contains no water, because then I’d have to get into emulsifiers and antibacterial ingredients. It’s simply butters and oils, which can be a bit pricey.
- Because it’s just butters and oils, the only antibacterial property is the T-50 Vitamin E oil. I didn’t want to get into adding chemicals. I could just use regular lotion if that were the case. T-50 is stronger than your average over-the-counter vitamin E oil.
Maybe one day, I’ll give it a go. One day, I’ll sit down and figure up costs, order more double walled containers in bulk, make som labels, and try to sell it locally at the farmer’s market.
Anywho, I made some today and I really like the mixture I came up with. My official tester (HH) hasn’t tried it yet, but I think he’ll like it.
Do you make any beauty products at home?
Cohabitation Chronicles 