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Saturday, December 17, 2016

Gift for Sis, but Mainly for Me

I love, love, love Lush's silky underwear powder. It is a wonderful silky smooth dusting powder with faint jasmine undertones. It gets really hot and muggy here so a nice dusting powder really is a great thing to have on hand. Until just a few months ago we had no Lush in Birmingham, and every time I was somewhere that had one I would buy 6 or 7 bottles of the stuff. It has no talc so I don't have to be worried about using it liberally, except for one small detail__the ridiculous price. I had just finished using the last of my most recent purchase (Thanks Lush in New Orleans) and am not ready to spend 9 bucks on two ounces of powder anymore so  I finally decided to see if I could find a hack for some DIY similar powder.  I found several and, as usual, decided to kind of sort of combine them to come up with something I really liked.  Jasmine was the overall recommended scent, but I am not a huge jasmine fan so I opted to leave mine unscented, (Which, by definition is a lie because it smells like cocoa butter.  It is not overpowering but still the smell is there. Than again, there are worse things than smelling faintly of chocolate.)

Now for the how to's.  In a large glass or enamel bowl mix 1 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup baking soda. 1/2 cup arrowroot starch and 1/4 cup finely grated cocoa butter.  Stir to mix well, then stir some more. Sift it twice and let it sit covered for a day or two (Once again I used a clean peanut butter jar).  Put a small amount in a shaker jar and enjoy.

For My Beloved Sister's gift I used a salt shaker from a box of silver I purchased.  A woman in our neighborhood was downsizing and the last thing she wanted to do was be stuck with polishing silver in her new space, so she sold every piece in a huge box for 60 dollars. I have used many of them as delivery systems for cookies or cakes.  (Most of it was silverplate, like the salt shaker, but there were a couple of sterling trays and a sterling bowl. Score! ) The box had 32 pieces in it so I am counting each piece as 2 bucks.
This make a cute (once again presentation is everything) and useful gift for her and she can always come here and get a refill when it runs out.  I plan on making this regularly and will keep playing with it until I get it just exactly like I want it. Right now it is just close, not perfect, but at a savings of 8 dollars a bottle I can deal with imperfection.

17 comments:

  1. Smelling faintly of chocolate sounds pretty good to me. Though it may mean that I feel obliged to eat.
    Another wonderful gift - for both of you.

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    1. Smelling faintly of chocolate or not seems to have no impact on how much I eat. Maybe I should have added sulfur?

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  2. Where do you but arrowroot and cocoa butter you can shave? I still want to make the bath bombs but I might be able to get to this on my time off.

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    1. Arrowroot powder is in just about any grocery store wherever Bob's brand is carried. I bought the cocoa butter as a solid in a jar at a local health food store. I simply took a spoon and scraped it until I had 1/4 of a cup. When I need more I think I am going to melt it first, pour it into something square (Ice cube tray maybe) so I can use my microplane grater. I think it would be quicker. But the spoon method really did work fine.

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    2. It may even be called arrowroot starch. I keep it all the time and store mine in an old peanut butter jar so I can't look at the label.

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  3. I'm surprised about the cocoa butter ingredient. What exactly does it do? But I say anything that helps with "glowing" in the south is a good thing.

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    1. The cocoa butter is what makes it so silky smooth. I had tried my hand at making cornstarch base dusting powders before and they feel a little chalky on my skin. This stuff glides. And you are so right about fighting that "glow"

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  4. Ah, Lush. Having two teenage girls, I know that store very well! =) Love that you found a more economical homemade version! I am going to share this with my girls because I'm sure they will want to try this! <3

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    1. It is a nice alternative to their incredibly steep prices!

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  5. We recently got a Lush store in our nearby mall but I never noticed the underwear powder. I'll have to check it out now that we have to steer clear of baby powder! What a fantastic way to package your sister's gift!

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    1. Yeah that baby powder issue is a major sticking point now!

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  6. I love the packaging too! You are so creative, I mean all around it's a super creative gift but what a neat way to gift it.

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    1. Thanks, there were 3 sets of salt and pepper shakers in the box and I will never use them for the table, since I already have both formal and informal shakers, Gotta use them for something I guess

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  7. Love the idea of making your own powder. I super love the "delivery system". Very pretty.

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  8. LOVE, love, love the packaging! Super cute & creative gift, & the packaging makes it!

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    1. I think presentation is everything, well, unless I am in a hurry!

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