Creative

It being Serena's birthday today, I got to work making presents for her. I am nothing if not organised.

I took away some old nettle tea from her house yesterday, which I used as the base for a rather interesting soap.* The idea behind this is that nettle tea is soothing,** and some of its properties should be present in the soap. To complement this I used a variety of different oils which are also reputed to be gentle on the skin, one which imparts structural integrity and lather to soaps, and a load of additives (butter powder and some clays) to just generally make it better. More is more, and all that.

Alas,*** the soap did funny and weird things. I think that I used too much coconut oil, but can't see how that could have caused so much weirdness. I added extra water and lye and it seemed to settle down. I did forget to cook it for a long time to evaporate of the extra water, though, and now it is a little more sloppy than I would expect a soap to be.**** It needs to be ready on Saturday if I am to give it to Serena for her birthday. I may yet be making another soap.

Ha! What am I talking about? I am so going to make another soap. I saw one which used paprika as both a colourant and an exfoliant, and I have to try that out. I may also make a daffodil one. As I am fast running out of many oils, I shall probably use a lot of corn and olive oils. They are readily available around here.

I also made all sorts of other goodies: exfoliant body butter bars, two different types of face cleansers and a solid moisturiser bar which is water-soluble - the idea behind this is that it doesn't need any preservative as it contains no water, but it still turns into moisturiser when it does get wet. I saved so much money compared to what I would have paid buying similar products from an actual shop.*****

Next I must work on packaging. Also, I must make some conditioner. This may not keep well, so I shall do it tomorrow or Friday. HWSNBN will not be impressed with the kitchen being less than perfect a few days on the run.

He actually made dinner today. I came home to the smell of cottage pie cooking. It was very tasty. There is even enough left over for lunch tomorrow. I am very excited that there is no need for me to have soup for lunch tomorrow. Seriously.

Wow; such sentence structure. Could I have written that previous paragraph any better? Not if I were six years old, that's for sure.




*I am using "interesting" as an euphemism for "worrying".

**Unless you have to drink it. Drinking nettle tea is most assuredly not soothing.

***I think that this might be my favourite word.

****I would not expect a soap to be sloppy. Viscous is as wet as I will accept.

*****I did also buy her a necklace which I believe she has a high probability of liking rather a lot. This came from an actual shop. I am not a total cheapskate. Sometimes it costs more to make things than to buy them. When I realise that, I feel silly.