My New Favorite Lotion-Making Tool

Over the holidays, I received a salad dressing mixer and ever since then, I’ve been finding all kinds of other uses for it, especially lotion making. It is more powerful than the mini-blender (and also uses twice as much battery power). I still use the mini-blender to whip up my thinner lotions such as my all-time favorite lotion. For the thicker creams like the water-resistant sunscreen, this tool is the secret to getting the creamy, smooth texture that I’ve been wanting. Here are some tips for using the salad dressing mixer for your homemade skin care creams:

• When all the ingredients are still in the liquid stage, hold the mixer firmly down, blade touching the bottom, and just pulse. Otherwise, your lotion may splash everywhere. No need to use the carafe it came with although it is shaped to prevent splatter.
• To speed up the cooling, place your container in a cool water bath. Gradually add ice to the water bath to bring down the temperature as you mix. If you’re using glass, make sure you don’t bring the temperature down too quickly or the glass may shatter.

By the way, making salad dressing follows the same principle as lotion-making: it is simply an emulsion of oil and water with egg yolks being the most common emulsifier.