I've been away from the blogging world for a while now and felt an update was in order!
My absence has partly been down to not having much to blog about, but also because I've been working on some scent ranges for (hopefully) products for 2011.
First up is Black Rose, a mesmerising blend of geranium, patchouli, palmarosa and black pepper essential oils. This is a seriously sexy fragrance, very feminine and seductive.
Next is Winters Kiss, a cool, refreshing blend of peppermint, rosemary, geranium and bergamot essential oils perfect for banishing the winter blues. Sahara is, as it's name suggests, a rich, dry masculine fragrance blend of lemon, litsea, ginger and cedarwood atlas essential oils, the perfect scent for a mens range. Hippy Chick is the fourth of our new fragrances, a captivating blend of lavender and patchouli, reminiscent of peace, love and harmony.
Our fifth essential oil blend, Sandman again utilises lavenders soothing qualities, and teams it up with cedarwood to produce a calming and relaxing blend perfect for helping you wind down at the end of a long day. Sunny Side Up is a lively, summery fragrance combining litsea, sweet orange and palmarosa to produce a beautiful cheery scent sure to put a smile on your face.
Our last(for now) blend teams geranium with lemon and ho leaf to produce a tenacious, enlivening, playful fragrance named Fortune Teller. Zesty, floral and minty, this is one of my favourites and will cheer even the grumpiest person up!
So, that's what I've been up to........that, and making some lovely ecosoy aroma-melts using the above fragrances. I'll shortly be opening an Etsy store in order to sell these lovely melts in time for Christmas. Watch this space guys.
....and first thing monday morning a package arrived containing some amla powder. Now, I vaguely remember skimming through ebay and spotting it, but I don't remember ordering and paying for it *roll eyes*. However, I had done just that, so Google was my next port of call to figure out what I was going to use it for, or rather how I was going to use it as I already knew it was used in hair products amongst other things.
Amla, or Indian Gooseberry, is an ayurvedic powder used in ancient Indian holistic medicine for both hair and skin care which contains a large amount of vitamin C. It has a spicey, sweet scent and is a dark beige colour. Reading various forums and articles gave me lots of inspiration for both formulating products, and self experimentation, so armed with amla tea(made by steeping amla powder in hot water for half an hour then straining) and an amla face mask(again, amla powder mixed with enough water to make a paste) I headed for the bathroom.
I used the amla tea as a rinse after washing my hair with one of my 'poo bars, then applied the mask and left it on for 15 mins whilst I lounged like a hippo in the water!
Having no personal experience of amla at all I really didn't know what to expect from either treatment. However, once dried, my hair was fabulously soft (almost too soft really as it was almost like baby hair), and my skin was quite taut but felt silky smooth, and still does this morning.
For now, I have more Googling to do, and much more scope for experimentation. In the meantime I resolve to stay away from Ebay post consumption of alcohol!!
Was messing about with photoshop using a picture I took a couple of evenings ago. It was the most perfect night, warm and sultry, as every evening should be. One of my cats was enjoying the it too, snoozing on top of our car, so I grabbed my camera and took a quick snapshot. I loaded it into Photoshop and played around with lighting etc and this was the result.
I feel I ought to tender an apology to this fabulous collaboration and the ladies who passionately set it up for having been absent in this for the last couple of weeks. Last wednesday was awful, could barely get my head off the pillow and everytime I tried the room span and my head pounded, hence my absence.
I haven't forgotten about you ladies though, I'm here, even if I am a little late. I love visiting other blogs, being awestruck and inspired by the things I see.
These beautiful earrings caught my eye. From the blog of Aga Art these are really elegant, a step away from the 'norm', which is something that always appeals to me. The skill and craftmanship that it must take to produce such gorgeous jewellery is inspiring. Check out the rest of the blog too, you won't be disappointed.
I am an huge fan of Deviant Art and have my very own gallery on there. As I haven't had anything new to contribute to my gallery of late I thought I'd showcase the work of some very talented artists who also have galleries there.
I've chosen my favourite mythical creature, the dragon, as my theme. So much Dragon art is formulaic, and looks much like all the rest. Here are some pieces that for me stood out from the crowd.
I know this isn't either soapy or arty, but I just had to share this picture of my new forest pony, Lukey. He's either asleep, or hyper, there is no middle ground, bless him. This is him in one of his more mellow moments.
Browsing on Stephanie Pui-Mun Law's site Shadowscapes tarot I came across this image
I don't know why this card called me....there are so many beautiful images on there, so many bright colours to be bewitched by, so why this fairly monochrome, simple image?
The meaning given for this particular card is
"Exploration, seeking out the uncharted, expanding horizons, taking a long view, leadership"
I can imagine myself standing there, on the precipice, surveying all around me, starring with wonder into the distance, feeling totally calm, at peace.
If you believe in tarot and the meanings behind it you'll perhaps tell me it's a sign. If not, maybe you'll tell me it's simply coincidence that I'm at a cross roads in my life and just happened to find this image.
Whatever the explanation I find myself looking into the future with a certain clarity that wasn't there before.
....is that on one's virtual travels, there are so many delightful things to uncover and be inspired by.
One such thing I found is a most gorgeous soap I came across on Etsy. It's visually stunning, and I just bet it smells divine. Topped with fennel seeds, the lovely delicate blue top is complimented by a creamy light layer underneath. This ladles and jellyspoons, it the top tottie of the soaping world, prime soap p0rn.
I'm so so excited, and terrified about this product as I haven't a clue if it'll work out, but you don't know if you don't try, eh? It's basically a kind of rebatch, with additional liquid and oils added, fragrance added after the rebatch, therefore you use less. It's whipped, whipped, then whipped some more!
I'm also trialling the packaging, so in effect this experiment is twofold......ooh, exciting stuff *giggle*
Where might one purchase this very elusive oil in the UK? I've been doing more research for future products and came across this little beauty.......but can I find it? Can I buggery!!!!
One is not amused.
All I've come up with so far is that anything even Acai related is extortionately expensive.
This is an everyday shampoo bar made with my usual blend of olive oil, walnut and coconut oils, with added sunflower oil and a dash of honey. Scented with bergamot, palmarosa and an hint of Ylang.
A new shampoo bar for brunettes, or those with itchy, flaky scalps. Made with sage infused olive oil, walnut oil, avocado oil and a touch of coconut oil. Scented with cedarwood, tea tree, peppermint and sweet basil essential oils, all of which are reported to help maintain an healthy scalp and hair.
I made this one HP, as I will be making all my shampoo bars as this allows me to add specific oils/butters and additives for specific hair care needs.
I was browsing some serious soap p0rn on Flickr and came across this delicious soapy beauty. It's incredibly eyecatching, and visually unusual, which always appeals to me. This is the kind of soap I would buy, the kind of soap I aspire to make. It really is very beautiful, and deserving of the title 'artisan'.
This was made yesterday and I've just finished cutting and trimming. Although it's unscented it's beautifully sweet smelling, very fresh and mild. Made with extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil, along with pureed cucumber this little soapy wonder is incredibly mild
Just need to wait for a few weeks whilst it cures!
My latest soapy offering, entitled 'I Avo Dream' in reference to the inclusion of avocado oil, avocado butter, and pureed avocado! Phew :D
Scented with sweet basil, peppermint, rosemary and a touch of litsea......the resultant scent is of mint humbugs, sweet, minty with a hint of something deeper from the sweet basil.
Whilst I was browsing the interweb for bio-packaging for my products, I came across an article that made me giggle, not because it was particularly funny, but because it is scaremongering at it's best, as well as being ill-informed and poorly written.
Entitled Are cosmetics destroying the planet it contradicts itself in several places, and produces barely credible 'evidence' to back up it's claims.
May I suggest that, if you need to write an article so entitled, you take the time to research the subject fully, not just use gross generalisations to promote your own agenda.
For once, I have actually managed to stick to my creativity pledge *woohoooooooooo*
I've begun stitching my cross-stitch art card, I've made a soap, and a 'poo bar, plus I've been continuing playing with a recipe for a soap-based shower smoothie, and so far so good.
Here are some pics to prove to the world that I can indeed remain motivated, if I put my mind to it
This is something I've taken in order to kickstart my creative juices, wake up my lazy muse, and start to feel like I'm accomplishing something.
The pledge is to produce, or do, something creative everyday over the Easter holidays.
I started yesterday with making a little ATC artcard. I don't particularly like it, but that isn't the objective here.
Today, I've made some 'Snap' cards with my son, and began designing another ATC, this time I'll be cross-stitching one as I have oodles of fabric that's just sitting about doing nothing!
It feels good to be using my creative brain again :D
I thought I'd better post something else, just incase you'd all gone to bleach your eyeballs after seeing the Butt-Ugly Bloke soap I posted about a little earlier!
So here is a visual feast of foot scrubby goodness containing bentonite clay, walnut oil, sea salt, pappermint leaves, beeswax and lavender and peppermint essential oils. It's dreamy to use, and smells divine. Yum!
That is, the soap is ugly, it's not meant for Butt-Ugly blokes *giggle*
The good news is, I successfully produced a batch of hot process soap.
The bad news is, damn that soap is U-G-L-Y!!
I used green tea as my liquid, and because I'm stoopid, I forgot that it would render the resultant soap a very dark shade of brown. I also used chromium green iron oxide powder, and, again, because I'm STOOPID, used too much *slaps self*.
The scent is very manly........sweet fennel with lime, and a touch of may chang.
It is very definitely Bloke soap. Green and brown Bloke soap. Pfft!
I haven't any pictures of the soap in it's cut state, but DO have some of the process, and the soap hibernating in it's mould.
I sprinkled the top with crushed fennel seeds, just to add to it's already aesthetically challenged appearance.
I'll add cut pictures tomorrow, when I've got over the trauma of producing such horrific soap! lol
There's something to be said for covering yourself in something delicious knowing that you've made it yourself. A sense of achievement, of pride. Well, this body butter is MY something delicious, and I am so so so happy with it.
Usually shea butter behaves badly and goes all grainy and unco-operative on me, so instead of heating it and holding at that state for around 20 minutes, I heated up, using the bain marie method, my other oils and butters(walnut and chia seed oils, and avocado butter) until the avocado butter had melted, then added my shea and used the heat of the other oils to melt it.
I have to say that the resultant butter is utterly glorious. It's light and fluffy, the shea hasn't(touches wood) gone grainy, and it smells divine. I scented it with lavender and cedarwood essential oils and oh my, sensory heaven.
Here is my little pot of wondrous, whipped delight.
My latest adventures in soap making have not been worthy of recording in print, and the only reason this latest batch is being blogged about it because I felt I needed to have something to show as
I'm far too embarrassed to post pictures of the croap I've made on the last two occasions! Having become somewhat frustrated by soap making I had to try to salvage something from the failed batch, so incorporated the grated croap, (below), into this batch. It was meant to be a shampoo bar made using the hot process method....PAH!
I had failed miserably at my first attempt at the hot process method(honestly, how hard could it be?), being a die hard cold process gal, and because I'm stubborn to the core I decided that I NEEDED to atleast try to save face and produce something worthy of being called soap!
I'd received through the post the Blue Azulene colour I'd bought from Aromantic and decided to use that to colour a portion of batch. I also added a touch of Blackstar Red mica, something else that is new to me.
Ofcourse, as was befitting the theme of the last week, the batch seized on me, and I didn't have the opportunity to scent it(shame, as I love the lavender/peppermint combo I'd planned), but I was happy with the save, and glad that I hadn't totally lost the plot where soapmaking was concerned! The coloured portion ended up a granite grey, which isn't unpleasant. I'm just dying to find out how the Azulene colour behaves on it's own, so as soon as I find my notes on ocean type scent combinations using essential oils I'll (hopefully) have a new batch to show :)
Courtesy of Deviant Art, I have the following prints for sale.
I occasionally delve into the world of photomanipulation, although i don't pretend to be anything other than a rank amateur! It's a medium I hope to develope further, although watercolour is where my main interests lie.
As I didn't actually get round to doing any sketching yesterday(a fact I plan to remedy today!), I thought I'd post an old sketch from last year. It was only a quick flick of the pencil over the page, but I'm happy with it :-)
I've woken up this morning totally inspired and itching to start sketching again. The last piece I began is still sitting, unfinished, on a large piece of paper somewhere. Unfortunately I haven't a clue as to where said piece of paper is, whihc is frustrating to say the least. I can, however, sketch out some ideas for inclusion in the aforementioned piece, so today will be spent with pencil in hand, downing copious amounts of tea, and quite possibly rather alot of head scratching and swearing!
So, now I've come to posting this introduction to my blog, I'm suddenly lost for words. The problem lies with trying to describe who, or rather what, I am. Am I an artist who makes soap, or a soaper with artistic ambitions? I suppose I am a bit of both. Painting is something I love, something I dream about, something I wish I was better at. Making soap is something I love, something that keeps me busy when my artistic muse is taking a break, something that still allows me to be creative when I get the jitters looking at a blank piece of paper and am too scared to proceed.
I haven't painted anything for almost 2 years, and getting back in the saddle is proving to be a challenge.
I last made a batch of soap a few days ago, and am already thinking about what I can do to improve my recipe, improve the finished article, make it better.
There are parallels there.
So, until I decide what, and who, I am, I'll describe myself as The Arty Soaper, and take it from there.
