So, I have been attempting to make my own aftershave. It is slow going. I have been playing around with the idea for a little while, and I finally e-mailed Colleen asking her about menthol and peppermint EO. I like the cooling effect a lot.
Today I went to my local health food store and bought a large range of products. I bough Peppermint EO, along with Eucalyptus EO and Cedarwood EO. I bought vegetable glycerin, witch hazel, shea butter, coconut butter, vitamin e oil, and some distilled water.
I played around with different mixtures, and came up with something that I will be calling Peppermint Cedar. It smells, ok. I am not the biggest fan of peppermint, I just like the cooling effect because the high menthol content. I am looking a source of menthol without such a powerful smell. It doesn't smell bad, but it doesn't smell all that great to me. Some might like it, but I don't much.
I have to say though, this stuff makes my skin feel good, as it has so many different things that are healthy for it. I won't use it everyday, but if my skin is feeling really dry or irritated, this stuff is going on man.
I need to experiment more. This stuff is somewhere between a splash and a balm, but I really want an all out balm. Something along the consistency and appearance of Proraso aftershave balm. I don't know how they get that milky white cream look, but I want to figure that out. Colleen was very helpful in all of this. Such an amazing woman, that one. I will continue to pick her brain for info.
My goal is to come up with a nice base, that I can then add EOs to. This is all tricky business, and will take time to figure out. I'm not planning on going commercial with this stuff or anything. I don't have the time nor facilities to make batches of this stuff for selling. I just kind of want to experiment a little with it.
Matt