Selfsufficientish.com

Ok, I know I'm really annoying with my 101 things I want to make for myself (now that would be a good thread) but I'm back with another.

I've had some success with my 'homemade' concoctions. I've discovered that white vinegar with eucalyptus and sometimes bicarb cleans things wonderfully. I can remove all of my makeup (including mascara) using grapeseed oil and my teeth are far whiter now that I've employed bicarbonate of soda as my toothpaste. So now, I'm tackling shaving oil. For a start off I've never used shaving oil, not even shop bought stuff. I've always used foam... not good I know. so I'm going to give it a try... I've heard that equal parts of olive oil and almond oil are good... with a few drops of an essential oil added for fragrance! Has anyone tried this and what are your views? I'm not ready to go down the hairy legs and pits route to being an earth mother!

Haven't tried it ( i mostly use whatever shower gel I have at the time) but I'd be interested to know how you get on. I imagine you'd need to rinse the razor a lot as it would get clogged quite quickly. You could perhaps add some aloe vera gel to it too?

My fave shaving product is from Lush, its a cream called Prince and its looooovely. Too expensive to have all the time tho

Not from personal experience, but I would say that all that you are after is basically a lubricant to stop yourself catching your skin, in which case the oils you mention should have a good enough viscosity. My inclination would be to not bother putting any EOs at first, just because shaving leaves your skin a little prone to irritation. I guess that chamomile or lavender would be the only ones I would try at all and then in very small amounts. I've seen recipes for shaving oil for men that contain different EOs but in my experience shaved legs can be a lot more sensitive that man chin!

Clara wrote:My inclination would be to not bother putting any EOs at first, just because shaving leaves your skin a little prone to irritation. I guess that chamomile or lavender would be the only ones I would try at all

I did think that myself. I was reading about people putting bergamot in and thought a citrus based oil would be extremely harsh on newly shaved skin. I may pop some lavender in as that is quite calming and give it a go with that and the 2 base oils. I am interested to see how it works since as mentioned before, the razor may get quite clogged. I'll let you know.

BTW: Did anyone hear that Catherine Zeta Jones puts her good looks down to washing her hair with Beer and cleaning her teeth with a strawberry... I'm sure she uses much more than that, but hey even a bit the natural stuff has be good.

Bergamot was one of those oils traditionally used in colognes etc so I suspect that it is just because of an associated smell. in fact if anything you'd have to be sure that you were buying a brand that had removed the bergaptene as this is an UV sensitiser, could be quite nasty if you shaved your legs with it because you were off to the beach!

Hi
Found this recipe on a site I get EOs from
Haven't tried it though



"SHAVING OIL



This is a simple recipe lifted from some of the listed ingredients on a proprietary shaving oil.

Almond oil 100ml

Eucalyptus essential oil 20 drops.

Lavender esential oil 20 drops.

Peppermint essential oil 10 drops.

I find that this is aromatic enough and non-irritating. Others might prefer to add more drops of the oils[/i."

Worth a go?

Simple but efficient.

Olive Oil, and that's it. Works a treat. You won't really need anything else.

Either black spruce or cypress are excellent, they have a styptic action so help any little nicks stop bleeding almost immediately.

My experience with modern razors leads me to believe that any soap will do, but I've never tried shaving oil.

Nev

what did i do wrong then? I used jojoba oil on my legs - used a new razor and had an amazingly smooth pair of pins; it was great.
But oh my; within half an hour my legs were on FIRE

It was agony for about two days and covered in tiny red spots - my first experience of razor burn i guess??

I didn't wet my legs first, should I have done that?

I think soap and water to do the shaving, then use the oil to calm it down after - or maybe you should have a go a homemade nads recipe I found online.

Hair remover and shaper!

1/2 lemons, juice of
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup honey
cornstarch

7 minutes 1 mins prep

1. Dust area with cornstarch first.
2. Mix the ingredients, and microwave it for 2 min. stir and microwave it for about 20-30 sec. more.
3. Let it cool till it is warm and you can spread a THIN strip onto your skin.
6. Make sure your skin is clean, so the oils in your skin and hair don't keep the sugar from sticking.
7. Using small knife with no blade like a cheese spreader, a popsicle stick, or a tongue depressor to spread it on.
8. Spread a thin strip of the mixture onto leg, Cover it with a strip of cotton fabric (like an old shirt or old sheet).
9. Rub the strip three times in the direction of the growth, then (very important) pull the skin taut, pull against the direction of hair growth.
10. BTW, whether you pull the skin taut from the top or bottom of the strip doesn't seem to matter, just the tautness of the skin.
11. You have to occasionally reheat the mixture for about 23sec in the microwave.

I used hemp seed oil as shaving oil once. It was effective, but I don't think it was any more effective than soap and it made the razor really, really gunged up! My legs felt smooth though.

Hey SC!

Is it possible that you suffered an allergic reaction of something to the jojoba oil?

Nev

Hi Nev,

It's the same bottle as I use as a base for massage oil all the time; so pretty unlikely as I've never had a problem before.

I used to get really bad shaving rash but I think it was with a rubbish shaving gel/foam - now I always shave in the shower and I have used King of Shaves oil which is pretty good.... might make my own now