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| Make Wonderful Body Sprays with Tea! |
Today was a Mama/daughter science day. She had a few things she wanted to try out. First was some orange glitter hairspray from Claire's. The result was mostly just orange, not very glittery, but the model was adorable despite being a little hard to catch on camera.
The next project was to make Crystal Jewelry with pipe cleaners. We actually started that one last weekend when we seeded the pipe cleaners with Aluminum Potassium Sulfate from the kit. This week we did the dye step. Right now they look like dyed fluffy pipecleaners. We didn't really get much crystal growth. Maybe we didn't get the initial seeding solution stirred well. Kind of hard to focus on the directions when I'm trying to pour boiling water and stop my budding hip-hop dancer from whipping and nene-ing into me. (I am terrified of cooking with my children by the way. It is like being on the Wipeout game show, but with flying child limbs as obstacles.)
Next up was the Perfume kit she got from Santa. This one she had already tried in her room, but she couldn't find any combinations she liked from the apple, jasmine, heliotrope, lily of the valley and peppemint. As a kid, I had made tea-based body spray with a nice neighbour and so I had bought some witch hazel and glycerine in preparation for helping her today.
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| Favourite Teas |
First we picked our teas. Her's is Cinnamon Apple Spice (cinnamon, hibisqus, chamomile, chicory, orange peel, and roasted carob) and mine was Chamomile.
We boiled distilled water and then let our teabag steep in half a cup of water for 5 minutes.
I added a teaspoon of whole flower lavender from my spice rack and let that soak with the tea.
Meanwhile, we went and made bottle labels. My daughter called her's Cinnamon Apple Toast. I called mine Soothing Lavender. Here are a couple of label places to get you started.
When we were done designing our labels, we measured the following into a mini-spray bottle:
When we were done designing our labels, we measured the following into a mini-spray bottle:
- 30 ml distilled water
- 2 drops witch hazel (for a preservative)
- 2 drops glycerine (helps the scent last on your skin)
By then our tea had mostly cooled. We measured 45 mL of tea and added that to our little spray bottles. (You might want to pull the teabag out after 5 mins and then let it cool down another 5-10 minutes before handling especially with little kids.) I didn't strain out the lavender flowers from my tea, but added them also.
In general, the results were way better than I imagined. The scent is not super strong, just pleasant, so it is especially good for kids that go crazy with the spraying. Next time I try it, I might try using vodka as a preservative rather than witchhazel to see how that impacts the smell. Increasing the glycerine would make it a little stonger and last longer. If you try it, make sure you shake well before each use.
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