Monday 9 April 2012

Favourites.... repeat performances guaranteed!

Of all my experiments the fragrance, Demeter, that I have blended from bergamot, patchouli, frankincense, clary sage, and benzoin essential oils: and used in a bath and body oil has proved most popular. Its my favourite, as I love all the essential oils included and it has proved the most liked by my friends as well.

I've also been delighted that the Neroli facial exfoliant I make has incurred repeat requests from everyone that has received a pot. it's still going to turn up in Christmas stockings!

I've more experiments to try out - that lip balm has to get a little softer; I'm after a consistency similar to MACs lip softener; I want to get proper rectangular moulds for soap (so much more rewarding than silicon loaf pans); and I'm still trying out blends for a facial serum.

Tuesday 27 December 2011

Fresh-faced: a simple skincare reminder for the New Year

This is what the Compleat Beau should have remembered all along:
1. cleanse
2. moisturise
3. protect/sunblock
4. exfoliate
5. vitamin C


I'm busy reminding myself that it is this simple for the New Year in an endeavour not to be seduced by the fanciful and the complicated. Amongst my long-term favourites are Origins Clean Energy cleansing oil, Aveda exfoliator (evening only)and Weleda almond oil and creams for when all is dehydrated and complaining. I like moisturisers, tinted moisturisers and foundations with spfs for protection - the sunblock with the vitamin C will do your anti-aging as well as anything, and the real wonder products are those you return to again and again.

Makeup is a whole lot of fun, having given up contact lenses I'm planning on giving smudgy eye-liners a go again, neither can the power of an occasional beauty spot be underestimated.

Sunday 11 December 2011

Eric Ravillious

I covet all things Ravillious and have done for years and it is pleasurable to have small satisfactions by buying gift cards and visiting the Allen Gallery in Alton to gaze on their Wedgewood Collection - they have a lovely tea shop as well. In the meantime I put pennies in my piggy bank and save for a plate, or a mug.

Monday 4 July 2011

Teenage kicks redux



Crabtree & Evelyn's Patchouli soap was the first fragranced, and on my allowance expensive, purchase I made for myself. It was a revelation of how classy patchouli can be, rather than honky and mixed up with the pee-like smell of the hippie shop in 1970s Reading. I kept the empty boxes as decoration because of the lush Douanier Rousseau-inspired design work.

Friday 1 July 2011

Patchouli: my long-time love affair

Patchouli is a plant native to Malaysia and now cultivated in countries with similar climates, such as the West Indies.The essential oil has a hot, pungent and lingering smell - with an animal quality to it. it is used as a fixative in perfumery because of its lasting smell and it has a long history; the paisley shawls of eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain arrived from India smelling of the patchouli used to deter moths in transit and this added to its popularity in fragrances. It is also a very useful essential oil for skincare. It is both anti-inflammatory and a cell-regenerator which makes it useful in treating various skin conditions. In aromatherapy it is used to treat anxiety and depression, particularly stress-related conditions.

Monday 2 May 2011

Garden of the Hesperides: a brief history of citrus


Greek mythology created the metaphor of the Garden of the Hesperides. The Hesperides were the goddesses of the evening and the golden light of sunset. They were entrusted with the care of the tree of the golden fruit, oftentimes called apples but thought to be citrus, which was first presented to the goddess Hera by Gaia (the earth goddess) on her wedding day. Herakles was sent to fetch the apples as one of his twelve labours, and upon slaying the serpent, stole the precious fruit. However, Athena later returned them to the Hesperides. The fruits preciousness id also emphasised by it being The Apple of Discord in the story of Paris, Helen and the downfall of Troy.

After the conquests of Alexander the Great citrus trees and fruits were increasingly grown around the Mediterranean as Greek colonists introduced them to new areas. The earliest evidence of citrus has been found in excavations in Mesopotamia dating from 4000BC. Mesopotamia lay between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and encompassed parts of modern Syria and Iraq. It was conquered by Alexander about 332BC.

On the Iberian Peninsula the citrus fruits arrived with the Roman legions and their cultivation was furthered by the subsequent Arab, or Moorish, rule. The Moorish rule lasted for several centuries and had a huge civilising influence with the transmission of literature, science and maths. Their territory was know as al-Andalus, which though heavily fortified against the Christians in the north, engaged in commerce and cultural exchange with its neighbours. Amongst the Moors were the Berbers from North Africa who bought their irrigation techniques, still in use, and their crops: citrus, olives, grape vines and wheat. Later the Spanish took the citron to the Americas where later large, commercial citrus orchards were cultivated in California from the mid, to late, nineteenth century.

Over time citrus developed religious significance for Jews and Christians because its abundance in Winter signified survival and God's abundance at the Festival of the Tabernacles and Christmas respectively. Religion, however, was not the only force in cultural history, the other was economics because the citrus fruits were coveted delicacies; they feature in cookbooks from the Middle Ages onwards, but they were also coveted for their fragrance.The bergamot orange provides a good example of the trade in citrus fragrances. It is a bitter orange whose aromatic peel is used for both cologne and Earl Grey tea.

Thursday 3 March 2011

Experimenting: successes, obsessions and expensive mistakes


Mistakes: my most pongy and expensive mistake to date - and I'm sure they'll be more in time - has been a whole litre of vetiver liquid soap that just made us all feel sick and ended up being thrown away. I seriously overdid the vetiver and didn't get the smell of clean that I was after. A good lesson in less is more. I've made mediocre eau de parfums and colognes, face toners that went off and face oils that weren't good for me because I diagnosed my skin-type wrong!
Successes: These are two fragrances of bath & body oil and a facial exfoliator. The bath & body oils are spring and winter inspired and I've called them 'Persephone' and 'Demeter' because the spring-like scent is from fruity and floral essential oils that are chosen for their uplifting effect; the fruit and feeling of renewal a reawakening. The counterpart then had to be winter and the time for Demeter's lament over the loss of her daughter. This scent is of grounding essential oils such as patchouli and frankincense - great favourites of mine - befitting an earth goddess. The facial exfoliator is the only survivor of my first attempt at making my own skincare. It has a gentle aqueous base, some walnut grains for visual effect but the work is really done by jojoba beads. Finally I add neroli essential oil because of its suitability for all skin-types, including sensitive, and its efficacy as an oil for skincare. My daughter now won't use anything else and she gave some to a friend as a present, her friend's mum uses it too...
Obsessions: I have obsessive crazes - several months buying old perfume bottles, but only under £10, and now old compacts, again they have to be under £10. The latter I might fill with lip balm for gifts but I've not yet got the formula quite right ... well, perfumery, unguents of all types.
Experiments: I've had a go at making glycerine soap - no report on this yet, and I'm having another go at blending an eau de cologne fragrance with essential oils, only this time I'm sticking with a bath & body oil (they seem to be working for me) and not adding the alcohol etc..