I know this post is kind of old but I just became a member too. I don't have any of the plants you mentioned (and it's too cold here to send plants now) but would you be interested in handmade candles? I make candles in a variety of shapes (votives, pillars, stars etc) and scents. If you are interested, let me know and I can email you with a list of the scents and molds that I have and we can work something out. Jenell

Enduring, I would think about two. One for lotion, one for soap. But, I forgot, is this your Master bath, or a guest one? Unfortunately, for a guest one, you may have the eternal problem of having to explain which is which, or letting each guest experiment each visit... I actually bought our kitchen sink one from HD. I had gone there intending to buy one to match our Blanco Rados faucet, and the sales guy actually talked me into purchasing the no-name $14 one hanging on a rack. We've had it for 7 years (CANNOT believe our kitchen reno is 7 years old!), only clogged once, and DH took it all apart and cleaned out the gook...took me awhile to stop reefing on that poor ol' spout that was no longer plugged! So, the point of my post is that you don't necessarily need to spend the big bucks to find a dispenser that will work well and look good. (The NN one from HD looked very much like the Blanco one that cost 10X more!) Old pic showing soap dispenser:

It may not penetrate, but the purpose is to keep a barrier between the moisture in/on your skin and the air - so that the moisture can't evaporate so easily - my doctor told me that for very dry skin, cream is much better than lotion, it should say "cream" on the jar. I use Clinique moisture online for my face and Walmarts off brand of Eucerin cream in a pot for the rest of my body. I used the Eucerin brand cream and then tried the off brand and there was *no* difference, except for a radical savings price wise. I slather it all on *while I'm still damp from the shower* I only dab off the big water droplets. It won't be nearly as effective if you dry off the water. I have very dry skin, by following these directions it has really helped, for me anyway.

I've found that cocoa butter makes whipped body butters too hard - especially once it settles. If you liked that firmness, then definitely put cocoa butter in it when you do it! Oh - hello - I just saw how old this post is. Wow. Well at any rate - in case there's some cyber junky out there reading this ;) - I prefer combining shea and mango butters w/ some very light, non-greasy oils (nothing heavy like avocado, much as I love avocado in soap!) such as apricot kernel, grapeseed, sweet almond and kukui. When I used to make body butter I'd nuke the butters and oils together in a big bowl, then I'd blend them together using a hand-mixer, then I'd put them in the freezer for just a few minutes - until the surface started to firm up a bit - after which I'd mix again and then nuke again and then mix again and so on, back and forth until I got a really super light, whipped, fluffy mixture. By the time it settled it wasn't hard, but was no longer quite "fluffy." It was like the super nice stuff you buy in the fancy stores! Rich and creamy and smooth and silky with just a little fluffy whippedness. I also used to use a product called Dry-flo which is basically modified or extra sifted cornstarch I think. I was told it worked well and it seemed to as long as you don't put in too much. Its purpose is to take away that heavy greasy feeling that's often found in body butters, without taking away the moisturizing feeling...and it also helps the body butter just sort of glide on in a silky way - hard to explain. Secret is to not overdo it. The company used to send away free samples which were a huge amount - way more than most people need unless they're seriously pro. They may still give away samples? Hey one more thing: the most fun, "marshmallowy" white plastic containers are the double-walled, low-profile ones, 4-oz. Just google it. 8-oz. is too much if you're making natural body butter without a bunch of preservatives and 2 oz. isn't enough. 4 oz. just looks and feels right.