Solid What??

So, I was over in Historic Bethlehem the other day, and I stumbled onto a wonderful little shop called the LaRose Boutique. They sell natural and organic bath and body goodies - including but not limited to wonderful handcrafted soaps and scrubs. I bought Shea Honey Oat Soap and I haven't had the opportunity to try it yet.

I also bought Solid Perfume for my sister. Saw it, thought of her, that kind of thing. But I'm intrigued. I think I could finally have my Cinnamon Patchouli that I love so much without having to mix fresh oils every few days. (In other words, not a pain in the ass, so I would actually be able to wear it again.)

LaRose is totally worth the stop if you're in the area. The entire store smells wonderful and the woman who runs it is a sweetheart. It's also in a great little neighborhood full of specialty shops, including at least 3 art galleries (I love the Snow Goose!) and a Magick store.

Flavors.

Made more lipbalm the other night, Honey Almond with a touch of cinnamon. It turned out fantastic!

Then I tried to make Pina Colada. What a mess. The first try, the pineapple turned into a giant gooey blog, and the second try the pineapple powder integrated but I'm really not happy with how the flavor turned out. You can't taste the pineapple over all the coconut. I'm going to have to find a better/different way of flavoring this one.

I'm thinking of looking for a pineapple extract or a pineapple candy flavor and see how that goes.

Homemade Lip Balm = Epic Win!

I made another batch of lip balm this morning and I decided to take what I learned from using the recipe and just kinda wing it. I used the same amount of beeswax, but used coconut and safflower oils instead of just almond. Kept the Vitamin E, used Sweet Orange again, but I skipped the cocoa and honey.

It turned out good. It's yummy, it's a little more solid this time, and I managed to make a slightly bigger batch of this one.

I'm not sure whether the solidity is owed to the coconut oil (which is solid at room temp, if you've never seen it) or if it's because I left out the honey, but I need to remember that this recipe hardens faster than the other one does. I think I'll need to pour this one without dropping the pot into cold water.

At any rate, I'm having a blast and feeling really good about what I'm doing. Especially after the week with a sling in which I basically sat around and bitched about the sling, because it was something to blame my boredom on. Honestly, even without the sling, there's no way I could have grated beeswax with how my wrist and fingers felt last week.

I think that I'm going to whip up one more batch of balm before I have to pack it in and head to work. I'm thinking Wintergreen this time. I really want to make mint, but everybody does Peppermint. I also need to spend some time working on a list of infused oils I want to make. Definitely Vanilla Bean, because Vanilla Bean + Sweet Orange + Wintergreen = Root Beer! Not kidding, it's an incredibly close approximation. And I can probably get closer if I wait until spring and dig some sassafras root at my grandparent's house.

Any flavor ideas would be welcome, let me know!

Homemade Lip Balm = WIN!

I made homemade lip balm using one of these Recipes, from Crunchy Betty.com, the Luscious Lavender one. I used a little extra cocoa and sweet orange oil and I've really excited about how it's turning out. It's not even totally set up yet but I stole some anyway to give it a shot.

It's super yummy and seems to work pretty good. And having a recipe to follow for the first batch has totally gotten me over my fear of making lip balm, so keep an eye out for new stuff from your favorite hippy.

Salt and Sugar and Soft Hands, Oh My!

So about 2 weeks ago or so, I put together a Peppermint and Tea Tree salt scrub to go with Auntie Age's Best Foot Soak Ever. It still needs some tweaking to perfect the formula, but I was pretty happy with the results, given that it's only the second scrub I've ever made from scratch and the first one turn out to not have a very good shelf life even though the results were pretty awesome.

Tonight I tried another new scrub. This one is a Orange Spice Sugar scrub and I'll going to try it tonight before bed. (I'm nervous about the idea of trying a new scrub and then sitting down with the laptop, just in case it turned out too greasy.) I will post the outcome after I've tried it.

I'm thinking that if I can get the formulations right, I just might start to package and sell them. Any takers?

So I Guess I'm the Ice Lady now.

I stopped into to one of the places I grab lunch from sometimes and the clerk called me the ice lady. Great. Not only was I stuck in a sling for a week after I fell in the alley, now I've earned a nickname for it. On the plus side, I've gotten some good brainstorming in and have been working on collecting the ingredients for some new hippy treats.

I will be working to perfect my salt scrub formula as well as working on a sugar scrub base. And I got a great link from my cousin (Thanks, Manda!) for some homemade lip balm recipes, so I'll be playing with that over the next week or so.

Hopefully I can get back to crocheting before too long, but in the meantime, without the sling, I am one happy hippy. Even if I am getting called the Ice Lady.