It's just that simple.... NOT!

Have you ever looked at a tutorial online or at something homemade that looked pretty simple until you tried it? Well, that's how I feel about some of my recent exploits with shaving.

I have been exploring some different ideas with shaving supplies, like aftershave, and it seemed like it might not be too hard. Well, it's not quite as easy as I had thought and I think that the problem is in my approach rather than the materials.

For the first go round I tried a recipe from the internet and added a few essential oils that I had researched. I knew that chances were it wouldn't suspend very well and I would have to continue experimenting. Next I tested it on my face and it didn't seem too bad, so it was on to figuring out how to make it stay mixed.

I did a little research and found that beeswax, along with some borax, can be used as an emulsifier. The problem was that the few things I found about it didn't explain very well that this was to suspend small amounts of water in oil and mine was a water base. I should have researched that more! After that I decided I would have to buy an emulsifier.

After some more in depth research I decided to buy some polysorbate-80, which seemed simple enough to use. The day it arrived I was super excited and just tossed all of the stuff together that I used in the previous aftershave mix and dumped some polysorbate-80 in it to see if it worked. It kind of worked, but I wasn't very careful about it and probably wasted the stuff I used to make the second batch.

So, I finally decided to get a little more scientific with it. I mixed the same things together, but this time I divided them into groups. All of the water soluble things that make up the majority of the aftershave I mixed as a base. Then I mixed all of the oils together and poured an equal amount of polysorbate into it, like much of my research suggested. Then after mixing each batch well I placed some of the base in a second container and slowly added the oil mixture to it. This is a better way.

While I am not finished making my aftershave, maybe now that I have the basics down, it might really be just that easy. Just remember that even though it might not be something you can throw together it can be fun!