Something else I made over my Christmas break was body wash. I'd thought about making some for a while, but this, more than any other recipe, involved a few too many ingredients I didn't have. What were those ingredients? Citric acid, liquid castile soap, and guar gum. Luckily, my co-op stocks all those ingredients.
As a fun side story, the day I decided to make everything, it was probably 19° F (-7° C). I'd hadn't started or moved my car for 11 days, which normally isn't an issue. I'd forgotten that northern Idaho in the winter can cause real car problems. When I went out to the car, it wouldn't turn on. I heard a sort of clicking, like something was trying to work. This didn't discourage me, though. Not only was I totally stir crazy and needing to be productive, I'd told my partner I'd drop off our rent checks at our rental company. The office is only a few blocks from our place, but with it being so cold and icy, walking to drop off the checks was a bit of an adventure. I didn't stop at that, though. I then walked approximately a mile to the co-op and back home again. It's important to note that I wasn't wearing my Yak-Trax, which made it a dangerous and probably foolish walk.
The citric acid was the one thing I wasn't sure I'd be able to find. Both it and the guar gum were in the bulk section, though. I have a bit of citric acid left, but I'll probably just order more from Amazon since it'll be a slightly better deal than $9.55 a pound.
I knew I could find castile soap, but I didn't realize the variety of scents I could find. In case you didn't know, Dr. Bronner's comes in quite the range of scents. I probably had 8 to choose from. I stood looking at scents for a long time before I found the mild unscented version. At the last minute, though, I remembered one of the best body washes I've ever used was peppermint scented. Sure enough, there's a peppermint Dr. Bronner's. I was close to choosing the citrus blend, but my partner has a few peculiar opinions about when to use citrus. We share a bathroom, so I thought I'd go with the scent he'd tolerate more. The benefit of choosing a scented soap is that I didn't have to worry about adding the essential oils at the end.
I infused with oats and dried rosemary even if the original recipe called for fresh. Any added oil benefits may have been missed, but since I let it infuse for a good long time, I feel like I probably got a good bit of benefits anyway.
The thing I didn't understand was the thickening process. Since step 3 of the original recipe talks about the guar gum thickening so quickly, I was fairly worried when mine just wouldn't thicken as much as I wanted. It felt more like soap I should use in a foaming soap pump because it was so thin. After the body wash sat around for an hour or two, it thickened right up. I'm actually a bit startled how much it thickened. It's now almost on par with lotion instead of soap.
My finished product is quite nice. It doesn't foam up very much at all, but I still feel like it does a great job. That peppermint is an amazing smell in the shower. It helps open up my sinuses and feels luxurious.
As a fun side story, the day I decided to make everything, it was probably 19° F (-7° C). I'd hadn't started or moved my car for 11 days, which normally isn't an issue. I'd forgotten that northern Idaho in the winter can cause real car problems. When I went out to the car, it wouldn't turn on. I heard a sort of clicking, like something was trying to work. This didn't discourage me, though. Not only was I totally stir crazy and needing to be productive, I'd told my partner I'd drop off our rent checks at our rental company. The office is only a few blocks from our place, but with it being so cold and icy, walking to drop off the checks was a bit of an adventure. I didn't stop at that, though. I then walked approximately a mile to the co-op and back home again. It's important to note that I wasn't wearing my Yak-Trax, which made it a dangerous and probably foolish walk.
The next day was a weekend, so my partner and I put some Heet into my gas tank and jumped the car. It's been working fine ever since.
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