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The key ingredients are anhydrous lanolin, and isopropanol or 99% isopropyl alchohol. The lanolin is available from chemical supply companies, and the isopropanol is commonly used as a cleaner on electronics, hence is available also at electronic supplies.

Basic kitchen equipment can be temporarily appropriated, and because everything cleans up perfectly with soap and hot water, you can replace them without domestic management knowing A: that you took them in the first place and B: what you did with them.

The bottle on the left is one liter of isopropanol, the two spray bottles are 500ml capacity, used to apply insecticide to plants and available practically everywhere. You need one large jam-type jar, a medium pot, a baking measure that can fit into the jar entirely, and a kettle full of hot water. The tub on the right has one kilo of anhydrous lanolin. It looks and feels like normal automotive grease, without the smell.

Make sure the jar can accomodate around nine times the volume of the measuring spoon, and stay very far away from your stove and your cigarettes / cigar / pipe / other while you do this.

Put the empty jar in the pot, and add a bit of water from the kettle into the pot, not the jar, just to start warming things up. A depth of one centimeter / half an inch, is enough.

Fill one measuring spoon full of lanolin, and put the entire spoon inside the jar. You'll understand why if you ever try to get lanolin off a measuring spoon. Add some alchohol to the jar, about half way and close it. Slowly add more hot water to the pot, until it's near the level of the alchohol in the jar. It's important to do this slowly, because hot water plus cold glass equals big mess. The spoon is still in the jar, by the way.

In a few minutes, you'll see the lanolin melting, and settling to the bottom, with the alchohol above it. Mix it up now, and top up the alchohol to about 8 times the volume of the lanolin, so if you used a quarter cup of lanolin, add 2 cups of alchohol. Close the jar tightly, and add more hot water to the pot. In a few more minutes, you can shake it all up, mixing everything thoroughly, and you can now remove the spoon that will have just a tiny bit of lanolin stuck to it.

Close the jar tightly, and put it somewhere it can sit for a few hours.

Last Updated 7 Oct 2023 at 10:17:37