Lotions, potions and brews and a little gardening news
Tomorrow I want to squeeze in some time to play with the new ingredients I got this week. (I spent way too much money.) I want to try to make a shaving lotion and give out samples next week to some of the men, see if I can broaden my customer base. The ladies, too. I hate to rub it in to the more hirsute of you ladies but I've never had very much body hair and since I went through very early menopause, well, I haven't had to shave my legs in over 10 years. There just isn't any hair anymore. My underarms I only have to do very occasionally. The hair on my forearms, always very sparse and fine, has completely disappeared also. There are definitely a few pluses to getting older. A lot on the negative side too. Anyway, shaving lotion, which has more in common with a cream conditioner that a lotion looked really interesting. You need to make it thick enough to cling to the skin but not so thick that it's a pain to remove. It has to have conditioning and some slip and slide to make it easier to run a razor through. Plus it really needs some skin loving ingredients to help condition and protect the skin like hydrolyzed protein (silk and oats for me) and a humectant to help moisturize - sodium lactate.
I also want to make another lotion with cocoa butter, virgin coconut oil and a little vanilla essential oil. That actually sounds good enough to eat! I have a new emulsifier that's supposed to make a lighter, fluffier lotion that I want to try out.
And then there's the foaming silk facial cleanser that I've been wanting to make. I finally got the other surfactant (foamy, lathery stuff) that I've been waiting for. I really want something that's not going to strip all the oils off of my face and leave me feeling like I have to have a moisturizer. I will anyway but taking everything natural off of your skin is never a good thing.
I won't get around to it tomorrow (I might not get all of the above done tomorrow because there's a lot of cooking to be done) but I want to try making a body wash in the near future too. I only have a couple of weeks worth of the one I bought and I'd like to see if I can stop buying it and make my own without it costing too much.
I also want to try a shampoo bar. I've read about them and people who use them rave about them. And they're not hard to make. I want to make a conditioner, too though I don't use it very often. I've been using a volumizing shampoo because my hair is so fine that it'll just lay like a close cap on my head if I condition too often. I don't use gel or other products on my hair and I don't 'style it'. Wash and blow dry. My concession to styling is bending over at the waist when I blow dry to get some fullness.
So many things to play with and so little time!
My old Wal-Mart has a craft fair every summer (end of August when it's unbearably hot of course) and I'm considering putting up a table so I have to come up with a selection of items that I think will have the broadest appeal. And scents.
And speaking of scents, I have to write to the supplier of the two fragrance oils that I ordered through Amazon. I was looking for a good sandalwood fragrance oil because the essential oil is so expensive. This one had great reviews. They also have a nag champa scent which I love in incense. So I ordered one of each. The nag champa smells exactly as I was hoping but the sandalwood? Doesn't smell even remotely like sandalwood! I was prepared for one that smelled artificial but not one that hadn't even the slightest resemblance to sandalwood. I'm thinking that the bottle got mislabeled because it smells like a mixed scent perfume oil to me, and one that, while not abhorrent, isn't all that appealing to me. They also sent me a little sample of a scent called Voodoo Love that's also not to my taste but I like it better than the 'sandalwood'.
There's not much to do with the balcony garden right now. Everything's planted that can be at the moment. I'll try and post pics tomorrow since there's something to take pictures of now. My little broccoli plants are beginning to bloom! I have itty bitty little broccoli heads on them. I have the aforementioned greens. Oh! I do have some tiny little bok choi and tatsoi that I need to maneuver and replant in their boxes. They all decided to grow clumped together so I'm going to try and re-position them. The kale is coming up nicely and I have tomato and pepper plants in bigger but still temporary pots that are stretching their legs, waiting to go into the snow pea pots when they're done. Those temporary pots are still small enough to bring inside should we get a cold snap. That's not likely but we did have snow in May a couple of years ago. That was a shocker! I have lots of snow pea shoots but no pods yet. Luckily if they decide not to produce the shoots are tasty in salads or stir fry. But I'd much rather have the pods.
I should have some small broccoli about the time some of the bok choi and/or tatsoi are ready to be harvested. Hopefully I'll have some snow peas by that time and I'll have the base for a kick-ass stir fry! I might not even add any protein and that's saying a lot from a confirmed carnivore like myself. Well, maybe some shrimp or a little chicken. But the veggies shall be the star of the show! Hmmm, must remember to pick up a can of water chestnuts. I do love me some crunch in my stir fry.
OK, on to load the dish washer and clean the kitchen so I have a clean surface to perform my culinary and mad scientist endeavors tomorrow. I also have to catch up on this week's Magicians and The Expanse. Plus there's that new show that started last Saturday with Pierce Brosnan - The Son. It's set in south Texas in 1915 with flashbacks to the 1840s. Anyone else watching that? So far so good. The 2 hour premiere held my interest but didn't WOW me.
*Sigh* I might have work troubles and health problems but right now the temperature is lovely (though the skies over overcast), the wind is making the wind chimes ring, my green, green garden is rippling in the breeze and the birds are singing. My bills are paid and there was (just) enough left over for groceries and gas for the car. Right now, at this moment, life is OK.
I hope everyone else is doing all right too.
This entry was originally posted at http://ixchel55.dreamwidth.org/352123.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
I also want to make another lotion with cocoa butter, virgin coconut oil and a little vanilla essential oil. That actually sounds good enough to eat! I have a new emulsifier that's supposed to make a lighter, fluffier lotion that I want to try out.
And then there's the foaming silk facial cleanser that I've been wanting to make. I finally got the other surfactant (foamy, lathery stuff) that I've been waiting for. I really want something that's not going to strip all the oils off of my face and leave me feeling like I have to have a moisturizer. I will anyway but taking everything natural off of your skin is never a good thing.
I won't get around to it tomorrow (I might not get all of the above done tomorrow because there's a lot of cooking to be done) but I want to try making a body wash in the near future too. I only have a couple of weeks worth of the one I bought and I'd like to see if I can stop buying it and make my own without it costing too much.
I also want to try a shampoo bar. I've read about them and people who use them rave about them. And they're not hard to make. I want to make a conditioner, too though I don't use it very often. I've been using a volumizing shampoo because my hair is so fine that it'll just lay like a close cap on my head if I condition too often. I don't use gel or other products on my hair and I don't 'style it'. Wash and blow dry. My concession to styling is bending over at the waist when I blow dry to get some fullness.
So many things to play with and so little time!
My old Wal-Mart has a craft fair every summer (end of August when it's unbearably hot of course) and I'm considering putting up a table so I have to come up with a selection of items that I think will have the broadest appeal. And scents.
And speaking of scents, I have to write to the supplier of the two fragrance oils that I ordered through Amazon. I was looking for a good sandalwood fragrance oil because the essential oil is so expensive. This one had great reviews. They also have a nag champa scent which I love in incense. So I ordered one of each. The nag champa smells exactly as I was hoping but the sandalwood? Doesn't smell even remotely like sandalwood! I was prepared for one that smelled artificial but not one that hadn't even the slightest resemblance to sandalwood. I'm thinking that the bottle got mislabeled because it smells like a mixed scent perfume oil to me, and one that, while not abhorrent, isn't all that appealing to me. They also sent me a little sample of a scent called Voodoo Love that's also not to my taste but I like it better than the 'sandalwood'.
There's not much to do with the balcony garden right now. Everything's planted that can be at the moment. I'll try and post pics tomorrow since there's something to take pictures of now. My little broccoli plants are beginning to bloom! I have itty bitty little broccoli heads on them. I have the aforementioned greens. Oh! I do have some tiny little bok choi and tatsoi that I need to maneuver and replant in their boxes. They all decided to grow clumped together so I'm going to try and re-position them. The kale is coming up nicely and I have tomato and pepper plants in bigger but still temporary pots that are stretching their legs, waiting to go into the snow pea pots when they're done. Those temporary pots are still small enough to bring inside should we get a cold snap. That's not likely but we did have snow in May a couple of years ago. That was a shocker! I have lots of snow pea shoots but no pods yet. Luckily if they decide not to produce the shoots are tasty in salads or stir fry. But I'd much rather have the pods.
I should have some small broccoli about the time some of the bok choi and/or tatsoi are ready to be harvested. Hopefully I'll have some snow peas by that time and I'll have the base for a kick-ass stir fry! I might not even add any protein and that's saying a lot from a confirmed carnivore like myself. Well, maybe some shrimp or a little chicken. But the veggies shall be the star of the show! Hmmm, must remember to pick up a can of water chestnuts. I do love me some crunch in my stir fry.
OK, on to load the dish washer and clean the kitchen so I have a clean surface to perform my culinary and mad scientist endeavors tomorrow. I also have to catch up on this week's Magicians and The Expanse. Plus there's that new show that started last Saturday with Pierce Brosnan - The Son. It's set in south Texas in 1915 with flashbacks to the 1840s. Anyone else watching that? So far so good. The 2 hour premiere held my interest but didn't WOW me.
*Sigh* I might have work troubles and health problems but right now the temperature is lovely (though the skies over overcast), the wind is making the wind chimes ring, my green, green garden is rippling in the breeze and the birds are singing. My bills are paid and there was (just) enough left over for groceries and gas for the car. Right now, at this moment, life is OK.
I hope everyone else is doing all right too.
This entry was originally posted at http://ixchel55.dreamwidth.org/352123.html. Please comment there using OpenID.