Part~1 Part~2
Kitchen Kemistry Part 3. Natural Cosmetics.
By
Ivor Hughes
The Beautiful Art.
-:-
We may never know, the why or when, of the origins of the beautiful art. For it is obviously a very ancient practice. When we look at the rich heritage of body painting and piercing in all of its incredible cultural diversity. We can also understand that as an art it contains strong elements of psychology. For example the body and face painting of the warrior cultures. The tattoo arts of the Polynesians and the henna hand paintings of the Indo Arabic traditions. The legendary Cleopatra and Sheba spent large sums of palace revenue on the then exotica and erotica of the eastern world. They understood very clearly the value of perfumes and face paints and the psychology behind them. They are mood altering, this is verified by the modern practice of aromatherapy.
The Body Cleanse.
In parts 1 and 2 of this series I have pointed
out that beauty can either be skin deep, as in the excessive use of
antibacterial detergents, dandruff shampoo, face paints, foundation
creams and other hole blocker's. Or it can be something that radiates
from within, this is real beauty. This depends on what type of food
you eat and how it has been treated before you eat it. So let us
assume that you have already started to sweep and scrub the interior of your
temple. Now let us look at the cleansing of the outer walls of the temple.
The 'Sauna' of the Finns. The 'Steam Bath' of the Turks. The 'Sweat Lodge'
of the North American Indians, all of these cultural practices
indicate the importance of cleansing via the skin, of toxins and
excess sebum. The Western Domestic equivalent is the long soak in a hot
bath. Do not use bubble bath concoctions they are detergents and are harsh
on the skin.
Run the hot bath onto a half dozen herbal tea bags. Either Chamomile, Linden
or Elder flowers. Do not combine them, try them out individually. After a
stressful day, relaxing can be difficult. Have a nice picture on the wall at
the end of the bath, that you can explore whilst the herb water goes
to work on you. A 30 minutes soak should be sufficient. Straight from
the bath, go to a warm shower. With a long handled stiff brush or a
loofah briskly brush the skin all over. Keep rinsing the brush or
loofah otherwise it will become clogged with dead skin cells, toxins
and excess sebum. Now start to turn down the temperature of the water,
and continue to gently brush the skin. Minimum 2 minutes in cold
water. Dry yourself briskly and apply your favourite astringent floral
water. To finish off, sit comfortably in a straight backed chair both
feet flat on the ground, neck and back straight, hands laid back of
hand in the palm. Now commence the following breathing exercise;
Close the eyes and breathe in slowly and deeply through the nose to the
count of 5, then hold the breath for a count of 5. Then slowly breathe
out through the mouth. Then hold again for a count of 5. Repeat! This will
oxygenate your blood and assist in the detoxification. Minimum 5 minutes or
longer if you wish. It is simple but very effective and very important. At a
later stage you may wish to go onto an advanced technique of alternate
nostril breathing.
By those simple procedures you have bought about a number of physiological
changes which reflect on both mental and physical levels. they can be
summarised as follows;
(1) The pores have been opened by the use of warmth. Toxins are released and
deposited along with the sebum and dead skin cells onto the surface of the
skin. The herb tea will also have an effect upon your stress levels.
(2) The shower and the brush or loofah removes the debris and toxins from
the skin. The cold shower and the brushing of the skin, stimulates the
skin capillaries just below the surface. In addition the lymphatic system is
also stimulated, which assists in the removal of toxins from inside to
outside. the skin will glow.
(3) The application of the floral water is astringent, and the open pores
will close, and the skin will tauten. It is invigorating for the skin. But
not in excess.
(4) The breathing exercise oxygenates the blood stream this is essential if
we wish to clean out the blood stream. Your blood is your river of life. It
is either polluted or it is clean. Rivers and waterways by analogy perform
the same function on a larger scale as the blood within.
It is important that you remember, that whenever you commence a cleansing
process lodged toxins are released into the blood stream for removal by the
organs of elimination. If you are heavily polluted this may give rise to
symptoms such as a headache or tiredness as the toxins circulate in the
blood stream. Drink plenty of clean water this will flush the toxins
relatively quickly and the headache will disappear. If you use a pain
killer you will have just wasted your time. The pills interfere with
the working of the body, and once again you will have closed your ears
to the wisdom of the body. Saatchi and Saatchi are congenital idiots
in comparison with body wisdom.
Your Personal Floral Water.
I will not belabor the point of why and wherefore. There is much information
on the site. Simply enter the words you are looking for into the site search
engine. This will give you a list of articles in which your search word/s
are to be found on the site.
Your first requirement is clean high strength
grain alcohol (not
maize) for use with essential oils or flower petals. This is best produced
from a good quality London or Dutch Gin. The bottle will show the
strength either as a percentage eg 40% v/v this means 40% alcohol and 60%
water mixed. If it is a 1 litre bottle then you will obtain 400ml
approximately of 98% alcohol. If your bottle gives the strength as proof
spirits this is different to percentage by volume. The following
formulae will be useful :
(A) Proof x 4 divided by 7 = % by volume.
(B) % by volume x 7 divided by 4 = proof.
Example, your bottle of spirits is 100 proof. 100 x 4 divided by 7 =
57 % by volume.
High Strength Alcohol By Freezing Out :
This is an ancient technique that preceded that of distillation, and was
known to the central Asian tribes more than 500 years before the birth of
Christ.
Empty a bottle of wine or spirits into a suitable sealed container. Water
when it turns to ice will expand, so ensure that there is sufficient
expansion room in the container. Place the container into the domestic
freezer and leave until the water has frozen.
The unfrozen liquid is high strength alcohol. Decant it, and seal it in a
glass bottle. It is volatile i.e. it is inflammable and will evaporate
easily.
Freezing Point: -114.00 deg C. Boiling Point:
78.00 deg C.
This method was first bought to the attention
of Europeans by Paracelsus in his published work 'Archidoxis'
written in 1527. Francis Bacon reported as follows ;
"Paracelsus reporteth, that if a glass of wine
be set
upon a terrace in bitter frost, it will leave some liquor
unfrozen in the centre of the glass, which excelleth
Spiritus Vini drawn by fire.
The spirit is at a slightly higher percentage
than that obtained by distillation. This method is not suitable for
producing medicines or items for sale to the general public. Unless
you are able to determine the Specific gravity of your alcohol you will not
be able to produce the correct dilutions for the differing purpose for
which they are required. It lacks the precision necessary for
production of medicines and commercial products. Alcohol and the hydro
alcoholic solvents are produced from the alcohol of the pharmacopeia.
You will now need a small bottle of an essential oil. Ensure that it has not
been diluted or adulterated with a fixed oil ( See the articles on Volatile
Oils) The 'Spirits' are produced at a strength of 1:10 or 1:20 meaning;
either 10ml of oil per 100ml of alcohol (1:10) or 5ml of oil to 100ml of
alcohol (1:20)
Measure out the alcohol and oil and combine them with a vigorous shaking to
dissolve and disperse the oil through the potion. It is now ready for use.
Store in a cool dark place in a sealed glass bottle. Never use
plastic.
You may experiment with the different volatile oils, however first study the
articles under the head of Aromatherapy or Volatile oils. Use single florals
do not mix them. Each oil has differing physical characteristics which
will interact with each other on a chemical level and change its
characteristics and physiological effect.
The Home Based Herbal Business.
If you wish to produce natural cosmetics for commercial sale then you will
need to purchase the forthcoming CD 'Earth, Air, Fire and Water'. You will
need some distillation apparatus as shown below.
Glassware with Ground Glass Joints
The glassware has many advantages. It may be easily stripped for cleaning
purposes. It is light and portable and conducts heat efficiently. Major draw
backs are that it is fragile, expensive and only suitable for small batches.
Alternatively one may build a distillation unit to meet your needs.
Home
Built Apparatus.
The Key :
(A) Breakable joints for cleaning
purposes.
(B)
'G' clamps to secure
the still head to the body of the still.
(C) Stainless steel frying
basket. with the handle bent across the mouth of the basket
(D) Welded lugs to support the
basket.
(E) Liquid reservoir.
The apparatus as shown is a modified stainless steel pressure cooker. In its
current configuration it is used for the extraction of essential oils for
small scale use. Oils are obtained by steam passing through the
material in the charge basket.
If the basket is removed it may be used to manufacture or rectify alcohol.
With a suitable modification the apparatus may be used with a venturi tube
for distillation under reduced pressure. The apparatus is simple, robust and
relatively cheap to make.
Two construction points of importance (1) The still head and still body must
have a hermetic seal.
(2) The Condenser must be sized to dissipate the heat generated and
efficiently condense the vapours back to liquid. These two points are
usually the cause of failure or inefficiency in home built apparatus.
In Kitchen Kemistry part 4 we will take a
look at hair preparations and shampoo.
N.B. I have had feed back that
there appears to be a problem with the freezing out of ethanol from cheap
chateau cardboard wine and also from a brandy manufactured in the USA which
the label stated was 40 % by volume.
The brandy turned into a syrupy mass whilst the cheap wine just froze like a
block of ice. The freezing point between alcohol and water is big enough to
drive a railway engine through.
The only logical explanation is that both of the liquids contain additives
which have bound the ethanol to the water in such a way that they cannot be
separated by freezing. I know from personal experience that a wide range of
chemicals including glycerine is added to improve taste in inferior wines.
If glycerine is present in any quantity it will alter the physical
characteristics of the liquid. In that situation the only resort is to
distillation.
Another possible explanation is that the ethanol contained is not from an
accepted plant source. For example it could be produced from milk
whey, or even wood chips. To the chemist alcohol is alcohol and is given the
same chemical formula.
I believe this to be incorrect. The physiological effects of alcohol
produced from fruits, grains and other plant parts differ from each other in
their effect on the mental state. However, as a body they have a totally
different effect to that of alcohol produced by synthesis, rather than by
fermentation.
