Living in a world of scent

Try to think of everything you smell each day. Most scents come and go without giving you any pause. Every now and then, something catches your nose, and you think about it- there's a memory of it, or a distaste for it, or perhaps it's a scent you adore. Some scents we become so accustomed to, we don't even smell them- the way our homes smell or the scent of our perfumes.

I make an effort to notice every odor I can. Sometimes this is a good thing, other times it's not so great, since the world isn't always a pleasant smelling place. When I walk to my office in San Francisco, I'll catch whiffs of a wide variety of odors within a short amount of time. There's the food form the restaurants I pass, the occasional bits of nature in the form of flowers, trees, or bushes, the more industrial smells from road work or new construction. I smell cigarette smoke way too often, which bothers my lungs, and pot smoke fairly regularly as well- while it doesn't bother my lungs, I think marijuana is rather nasty smelling. Sometimes there's the smoke from a fire, and I hope there's nothing too serious happening at those times.

There's one spot where there's a water fountain, and it has a kind of fake maple sweet smell to it, perhaps like fenugreek. I'll catch someone's perfume or cologne as they walk by- usually thinking to myself that they really ought to be wearing less, especially when I can smell it half a block away. There are odors that I'd prefer not to write about- fortunately those aren't as bad in my area as in others.

The office building is generally one of those places I fell has a neutral odor- I'm used to it. Sometimes I'll get into an empty elevator, and the scent of perfume or cigarettes lingers from the previous occupant. During lunch time there will be food smells, especially if one of the conference rooms has a hosted lunch.

My apartment often has way too many scents to describe- if I'm making something, that will often fill the space. My work space has dozens of essential oils in it, and while the bottles are closed, I feel they contribute to the scent of that room. They definitely make my trash and recycling smell nicer than most people's! Sometimes there will be soup simmering, cookies baking, or candles burning, and those will be the predominant smells. And while I love scented candles, I don't use "air fresheners." Cleaning products might add some odors, but I generally try to find ones that don't smell too strongly.

There's also those smells that are hard to describe, but you know what they are- for me those are the seasons, like when I'm walking, and I suddenly smell "fall" or "summer." They don't always coincide with the actual season, especially now that I live in San Francisco, but when I'm walking around and those scents hit me, they just trigger those seasons in my brain. And while I definitely don't get it in SF, the smell of snow is distinct to me, but I don't think I have words for how it smells to me.

Women and Science

I love science. There is so much out there in science, and I really regret not pursuing it in college. I was rather good at chemistry, did well in biology, and had so much fun in bacteriology. I never did physics, mostly because I wasn't going to be able to get into "honors" class since I didn't take the "honors" Algebra II class. I'm not much of a math person, though I did well in the classes that I did take. My chemistry class in college was simpler than the chemistry class I took in high school, and while it was interesting, it was practically a joke.

I see stuff in the news about getting little girls interested in STEM subjects, with Goldie Blox and what not, but I think there needs to be more focus on keeping teenage girls interested in science, and let them know what studying science can lead to career-wise. I'm more interested in science (in particular the parts that relate to beauty products and scent), but technology, engineering, and math probably have interesting career paths that should be considered and promoted.

Science feels like it's come up a lot for me personally in the last few years. Being married to a software engineer (who reads physics textbooks for fun) certainly helps with that, but in other ways as well. At my most recent show, I was asked by a few people whether I had a science background. While most of the beauty products I make don't involve complex scientific knowledge, there is still science to them. I study the properties of different oils and butters- the types of fats in them can change how they work, so the oil you need depends on the type of product you're making.

Soap making is fun, because it involves a chemical reaction right before your eyes- lye (either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide in water) combines with oil to make soap! At least real soap, not the detergents you'll see sold at most stores. You need to use some math (not scary math, and there are calculators available online just for this purpose) to calculate how much lye you need to saponify your oils. Different oils have different requirements for lye, and typically you're using more than one type of oil to make your soap. This goes back to the above, where the composition of the oils bring different properties to your soap. Since you don't want any lye left over in your soap, you superfat your recipe, which means you need to calculate your lye so that not all of the oils are saponified. Superfatting  means you're left with some left over oils in your soap, which makes it good for you skin.

Lotions present a different set of science issues- like soap, you're combining oil and water, but you want different results.An emulsifier is needed to keep the water and oil from separating. You have water phases and oil phases, you keep track of their temperatures, and combine them into a magical creamy lotion. Then you need a preservative- this is where biology and bacteriology come in. Lotions are good breeding grounds for all sorts mold, bacteria, fungus, etc., so a preservative slows that growth down.

I've been getting my science fix that way for awhile, but now I'm spending more time studying chemistry in regards to perfumery. There's the components of the essential oils, plus I'm reading up on some of the aromachemicals out there.

Depths of Winter Giveaway

 We are giving away a compact of our solid perfume, Depths of Winter! This scent features notes of frankincense, fir balsam, and spice, with a fragrance reminiscent of a cold winter night.

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As a January baby who spent her formative years in New England, I love all things snow and winter. I even love shoveling snow, and miss it now that I live in San Francisco. I don't miss the hot and humid summers though! 

Some of my favorite memories are of walking through the woods while the snow was still following, surrounded by cottony piles of snow on the ground and covering the bare tree branches. There's a quiet in the air, and the scent of cold. While it might feel chilly to some, I was filled with warmth from the joy it brought me. After traversing through the snow, I would return home, brushing the snow off my hat and coat. At that point it would occur to me that yes, it really was cold out there, and I would drink hot cocoa to warm up.

Frankincense & Myrrh

At my booth at the San Francisco Holiday Bazaar, I had two small plates out, one with frankincense, and one with myrrh. I figured that this was something a lot of people haven't seen before, and it'd be a good chance for them see it, touch it, and smell it.

While some people had definitely seen them before (quite a few people said they burn frankincense at home), and some people said they had smelled frankincense in church, a lot of people have never seen either. Several people didn't know they were real.

Frankincense & Myrrh Mixed Together.

As someone fragrance-focused, I really wanted people to get a chance to smell these two things. It is easier to smell them when you rub them between your fingers, and most people were willing to do that. I guess some people just liked being able to see them for the first time. The myrrh was a bit hard to smell, but the frankincense would give off a beautiful odor when people picked it up. Having these at my booth allowed me to share something I'm passionate about (scent) with a wide variety of people.

I have a few of these for sale on my Etsy page. They come in little flowery gold pouches, so that those who want their gold, frankincense, and myrrh in one can sort of them together. The flower petals on the bag are there mostly due to my love of flowers.

Preservatives

Recently, I went to open a sample bottle of toner (from a fairly well known brand) when I noticed something dark on the side. I thought it might be a smudge on the outside, but it was in the bottle. It was a dark flake of something, probably mold. I definitely wasn't going to use that toner. This was a sealed bottle, stored in a dark, cool, dry spot. Looking at the ingredients, there were no obvious preservatives.

Preservatives come in different forms (parabens are one type that many have heard of and are trying to avoid) and protect aqueous products from growing mold, bacteria, and other nasty things. Products such as scrubs that don't contain water, but are likely to end up getting water in them, might also contain preservatives. Generally, only a small amount of the preservative is needed- you will usually see them at the bottom of the ingredients list.

I sidestep the preservative issue by not making products that use water. This way I can keep Ivre de Fleurs preservative free, while not worrying about if my product is safe. I add antioxidants, Vitamin E and Rosemary Oleoresin Extract, to many of my products to increase their shelf life. Oils might not turn moldy on their own, but they can go rancid, and the antioxidants keep the oils fresher for longer.
I know a lot of people don't care if their products have preservatives, but others don't want to use products with any preservatives in them. I try to minimize my use of products with preservatives, since I don't know what the long term ramifications of using them will be. I don't avoid them completely, though. If I'm using a lotion, I'm fine with the small amount of preservatives in it, since I don't want to deal with the more immediate issues of mold and bacteria.

Patchwork Show this Sunday!

As stated on here and a few other places, I will be selling at the Patchwork Show in Oakland this Sunday! I will have all of the products featured on my website and my Etsy store. We have six flavors of lip balms, including the Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balm featured in Conscious Box this month. Our five floral balms will also be available, along with our foot balm.

We are also launching three new products at this show! These will be available online once the show is over.

New Products:
Pumpkin Seed & Cocoa Body Butter- Limited run for November, this is a decadent body butter that is solid in the tin, but melts easily in your hands. While it is made only from oils and butters, it doesn't leave you feeling greasy.

Hair Oils- We have four scents- Lavender Herbal, Geranium Floral, Soft Woods, and Ylang Ylang & Sandalwood. Containing argan oil, camellia seed oil, and shea oil, these oils nurture you hair without the use of any silicones.

Everywhere Oils- Available in Rose Otto, Lavender, and Ylang Ylang. The oils are lightweight, and can be used on your face, hair, or body. The primary oil used in these is camellia seed, a rejuvenating oil filled with antioxidants.

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Conscious Box Giveaway!

Last month I made 5000 Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balms to be distributed in November's Vegan Conscious Box. It was a lot of work, especially since I had only made 50 lip balms at a time in the past. But now the boxes are being mailed out, and we're giving away three boxes, so you can win a box with the Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balm along with other eco-friendly samples.

Our Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balm is a sophisticated take on orange, and features the same premium oils  as our other lip balms. It uses the essential oils of blood orange and juniper berry for its flavor.

Want to buy the lip balm? For November, Ivre de Fleurs is offering the lip for $7.50, 25% off the normal price of $10. We offer this along with our other lip balms in our new shop- checkout the Ivre de Fleurs Website to buy directly from us.

Want to try Conscious Box? For 25% off your first month, go to Conscious Box and order your first box. You can choose between the classic box, vegan box, or gluten free box

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New Products, New Stores

I have two new lip products that will be available for soon- a moisturizing lip gel and a lip butter.

There's very little wax to the lip gel, so it has a soft texture and no waxy feel to it. It comes in a little pot with a silver lid. It uses sunflower wax, meadowfoam seed oil, castor oil, and extracts of evening primrose and orchid. I flavored it with fresh ginger and ylang ylang essential oils, giving it a spicy and exotic flavor.

The lip butter uses rice bran wax and mango butter, but otherwise uses the same extracts and oils as the lip gel. This one is flavored with rose geranium. It's softer than a normal lip balm, but not as soft as the lip gel- basically a nice middle ground between the two. It comes in little pots as well.

Unfortunately, the lip butter pots were overfilled, so all the tops got squished down once the lids were put on them. This brings me to the new stores part- I will be opening a seconds shop on Storenvy this weekend, where I will be selling products with packaging issues at reduced prices. I will be selling the Rose Geranium Lip Butters there. While the lip butters themselves are great, I'm not satisfied with the way the tops look after I put the lids on them.

I will have several Mocha and Lemon Cream Lip Balms for sale on Storenvy, since the original packaging doesn't really work- the labels on the boxes don't stay down, so they don't look that nice. There will be one Rose Otto Lip Balm available, since the box on that one has a small scratch, and one Jasmine Balm where there's a small dent on the lid.

I will also have products for sale on my website soon, as opposed to buying through Etsy. I will still have some products on Etsy, just not as many. Once my new website is up, I will be introducing two new promotions- one product will be sold for a reduced price, and a monthly limited edition product.

For the month of November I will have Blood Orange & Juniper Lip Balms on sale for $7.50- it's a new lip balm flavor, a sophisticated orange. The limited edition product will be pumpkin seed body butter. It won't smell like pumpkin, because there is no pumpkin essential oil, but it will have pumpkin seed oil and extracts, providing your skin with a plant based Omega-3 boost.

More News- Patchwork Show in Oakland & Shops

In addition to selling at the San Francisco Bazaar Holiday Show, Ivre de Fleurs will also be selling at the Patchwork Show in Oakland. I'm very excited to be selling at these two events. I've written a bit about the San Francisco Bazaar in a previous post, so I'll spend a little time on the Patchwork Show.

The Patchwork Show will be on Sunday, November 24 at the Jack London Square Pavilion. It's the weekend before Thanksgiving, so it's a great chance to get some holiday shopping in before many people have even started. In addition to the craft show, there will be food trucks, DIY stations, photo booths, and live music.

In other news, I will be updating my website soon to include a shopping cart. I will still have some items available in my Etsy shop, but will have a wider variety available on the Ivre de Fleurs website.

San Francisco Bazaar Holiday Show

It feels like I haven't written in so long, but there's so much that's been going on! Part of it is a secret for now- I'll write about it in a week or two, once everything is set. For those who know- shhhh.

One of the big things for me is that I got accepted to my first craft show- I will be at San Francisco Bazaar Holiday Show, Dec 7-8, at the Concourse Exhibition Center in San Francisco. I went there last year and bought almost all of my Christmas presents. It's a really great show, and I'm thrilled that my application was accepted.

I plan to have several lip balm flavors available, body balms and butters, and some hair oils (possibly face and body, too), and hopefully some solid perfumes. It's going to be a lot of work for the next few months, but I'm looking forward to it.

Natural Fragrance

Talking about my products with a few people lately, it seems as if a lot of people are confused about natural scents. I only use naturally derived fragrances (essential oils, absolutes, concretes, waxes, enfleurage, and CO2 extractions) in my products, so if someone recommends a flavor or scent, I sometimes say I can't do it, since they don't exist in a natural form. It doesn't help that some companies advertise their products as natural, but don't mention that their scents come from fragrance oils. I'm not strictly opposed to fragrance oils and synthetic fragrances, but I think many people aren't aware that the products they're using aren't scented naturally.

Many fragrances aren't available in a viable natural form. When talking about lip balm flavors, a lot of friends mention various fruity flavors, but they're not available as essential oils. A "natural" flavor can be made, but you won't necessarily know what it's made from.


Citrus fruits are some of the few that can be turned into essential oils, and there really are many wonderful ones to choose from. I keep several types of orange essential oil on hand- blood, bitter, sweet, wild. The different colors of grapefruits and mandarins produce slightly different scents as well. That's not even going into lemon, lime, and all the other citrus fruits you find out there. Citrus oils are often inexpensive, but the main issue is that they can increase photosensitivity, so you don't want to add a lot to products that will stay on the skin. Bergamot is particularly bad due to the bergaptene in it. There are bergaptene free versions out there, so those are a little less likely to leave you burned.

Some essential oils have a fruity smell, such as Roman Chamomile, red raspberry leaf, black currant bud, osmanthus, and boronia. These range in price from expensive to obscenely expensive, so it's unlikely you'll find them in a beauty product, at least not one that isn't equally expensive. Also, while some of them have a fruity aspect, the other aspects to their fragrances make it so that they won't really come of as a simple fruit smell.

Floral scents are pretty tricky. Lots of them are available as essential oils or absolutes, but floral oils are usually pricy. Some are incredibly rare- there's only a small amount of gardenia absolute produced, and it costs a small fortune. Gardenia enfleurage is another option, but again it's too much money for anyone to want to throw it into a soap. I use an absolute and maceration of gardenia in my Monoi Hair & Body Oil (coming soon!), but most gardenia scents out there come from a fragrance oil.

Enfleurage, maceration, and CO2 extractions are options for getting a fragrance out of some flowers that don't otherwise give up their scents. These are expensive and hard to find, so scents like lilac most likely from a fragrance oil.

There are also some flowers that don't have a scent that can be captured. We might long for a natural scent from them, but they either have little to no fragrance of their own, or the fragrance is too delicate to survive extraction.

I don't think people should necessarily avoid all fragrance oils and synthetic scents. They're an easy and inexpensive way to give a product a nice scent. There many high quality fragrance oils out there, some that even use essential oils and absolutes. Without them, we wouldn't have coconut scented soap or strawberry lotion. Scents like rose and jasmine would be available, but many people wouldn't be able to afford them.

Favorite Essential Oils

While I love buying a wide variety of crazy essential oils, there are some I really love, and wish to add to everything. Below are a few of the ones I turn to the most.

Top Notes:
Yellow Mandarin: This is a softer, slightly floral citrus. It blends beautifully with many other essential oils. A lot of citrus oils have scents that are kind of obvious- orange, lemon, and lime, for example. There are many varieties of orange, and I love playing with those, too. But yellow mandarin is my go to for a citrus top note.

Cinnamon CO2: I keep wanting to add this to a lip balm. It smells so fresh and sweet- exactly the kind of cinnamon I want. A lot of cinnamon essential oils don't smell that great to me, but this one I could sniff all day. Unfortunately, it's very strong, so adding even a little to lip balms might result in stinging lips. I'm still experimenting though, and hoping to find a level that will give a nice cinnamon scent without the ouch factor.

Cardamom CO2: I added a little of this to my Wild Orange & Lavender Lip Balm, which adds a subtle twist to the flavor. I love cardamom, and it's one of my favorite spices for cooking and baking. I also have some rare cardamom absolute, but that's a little pricy to be throwing around everywhere. Cardamom essential oil is nice as well, but the CO2 has a cleaner scent.

Pink Peppercorn: My favorite pepper. I also have white and black pepper, but use them less. The white pepper isn't exciting enough, and the black pepper can be a little harsh. It adds a little excitement to blends without overwhelming them.

Middle Notes:
Orange Blossom Organic Extract: Different than orange blossom absolute, which can be heavy and sometimes a little too dirty. It's not the same as neroli either, though probably closer to a neroli scent than an orange blossom absolute scent. The scent is light but not weak, and is a great addition to any orange blossom collection.

Moroccan Rose Absolute: There are so many roses, and so many extractions for them. While I don't have the money to try them all, Moroccan rose is so far my favorite absolute. I use a Turkish rose otto for lip balms and skin care. It has a nice odor profile, and while still expensive, it is cheaper than Bulgarian rose otto. I have also tried a rose otto from Moldova.While significantly cheaper than even the Turkish otto,  I was not impressed with that one.

Jasmine Sambac Absolute: I prefer this to jasmine grandiflorum, though I use both. While jasmine isn't necessarily a filler, it blends in nicely with a wide variety of fragrances. I need to be careful though, since I tend to use it with too many other white flowers, ending up with an overly indolic fragrance.

Ylang Ylang: A sweet floral scent, and it's cheaper than many other floral essential oils. I like "complete" and "extra" best, though the other grades might work well for soaping.

Base Notes:
Vetiver: I didn't like it much at first, but I love it now. While it doesn't work with everything, it's become one of my go to base notes.

Sandalwood Absolute, New Caledonia: I love Mysore and East Indian sandalwood, but it's becoming rare and I worry about the ecological impacts of buying them. I've tried a few other sandalwoods, but the absolute is my favorite.

Opoponax: I love the absolute, but I do like the essential oil as well. The absolute is a nice sweet base note, with an interesting warm balsamic fragrance.

Beauty and Patents

While a cosmetic maker by night, I am a research assistant by day. Most of my research is on techy patent cases. I was joking with a coworker that I could make your lip balm and research lip balm patents. Of course I had to search for lip balm patents after that.

First off, my search strategy. Skip this paragraph if you don't care for the nitty gritty details. I used Free Patents Online for my search, since I've been using them for a long time and like their search function. The USPTO has their own patent search tool, and there are many other patent websites out there, as well as paid databases. I searched "lip balm" in the title fields and abstract fields separately. A general search for "lip balm" comes up with over 3000 results, which is far too many to sort through just for fun. A search for lip balm without quotes has almost 5000 hits- not as many as I thought there would be, honestly.

Most of the patents with "lip balm" in the title were design patents, and I didn't look at any of those. Many of the utility patents were about the packaging/casing as well, and so I skipped over those as well.

While I adore chemistry, I didn't want to puzzle out the ingredients some of the patents were discussing. I've listed the ones I find interesting below, but there are definitely more out there.

Botanical butter stick lip balm, Patent 7695727
This one puzzles me. I'm not sure how it's novel- is it the jojoba esters? I have some jojoba esters, but haven't used them in anything yet. I was mostly curious as to what they were like. Using candelilla, carnauba, botanical butters, and liquid oils hardly seems novel. Using a small amount of beeswax in such a recipe doesn't seem too strange either.

Hypoallergenic cosmetics, lip balms and lip sticks, Patent 4793991
This one's a bit older, and kind of interesting. Basically you used single plant origin beeswax, combined with that plant's oil (or an oil that is similar). I know of single plant honey (I see lavender and orange blossom in stores), but never thought about the beeswax.

Compositions and methods for delivery of caffeine, Patent 7560465
Caffeinated lip balm- specifically, dissolved caffeine added to a lip balm base. Given how much lip balm I apply in a day, that could be dangerous. I do use coffee oil in my Mocha Lip Balm, but that probably has minimal caffeine.

Nicotine replacement applique, Patent 7105173
Caffeine, nicotine...I guess you can try to handle all of your addictions with a little lip balm. I'm fairly certain this would be regulated as a drug, though I'm not exactly sure in which way- it has a drug in it, and the drug itself is an active ingredient in a cosmetic. Maybe the inventor of this patent and the caffeine patent should meet up and try to make one new super patent.

Land mine, Patent 5423266
So this patent has nothing to do with lip balms, but it came back in my search results for "lip balm" in the abstract. Because this land mine is about the size of a lip balm. Kind of scary and sad.

My job is to pull patents and to look for ones that meet the attorneys' specifications. I do not interpret patents, so these are just my musings. Patent litigation is expensive, so please do not consider these as a jumping off point for your products.

Cleaning up my workspace

When I moved across the bay, I was so excited that I finally had my own little crafting room. I bought a giant wooden old filing cabinet with regular cabinets underneath that takes up a lot of space, but holds all sorts of things. I use it for paper, ingredients, packaging, etc. I also have a little plastic table that I've turned into my scent station. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I've run out of room there, and have essential oils taking over other spots. I have a little book case, some carts, and a mini-fridge. I also had a sewing machine, some fabric, and various other crafty supplies.

While getting ready to launch my business, my slightly disorganized space became rather hectic, with papers everywhere, supplies misplaced, and every empty surface filled. I went on a reorganizing mission this weekend. I started with kicking out the non-business craft supplies- those are now out of the way, and might even be easier to use now that they're not competing for space. That cleared up a lot of space, so I got a new tall bookcase and another cart to help me get better organized. After a few hours or moving things into their new places, I finally had a clean space in the middle of the floor, and logical places for my supplies and ingredients.

Things are still a little crazy, but they probably always will be. I tend to know where everything is, even if it's not obvious to anyone else. And some day I will relabel the filing cabinet drawers, which still have the previous owner's labels. For example, I do keep manuals in the "manuals," but I use the "shrunken heads" drawer for bottle caps. I know. It's not nearly as exciting.

My scent station.

My awesome cabinet.

In the works

I have a love for all things oil. Not just in my food, but in my beauty products, too. In addition to experimenting with body butters and balms, I've also been creating various liquid oils for my face and body. I'm still perfecting those so I can make them for sale, since I don't want to sell anything that leaves people feeling oily. That might sound weird, but some oils absorb quickly. These oils leave you feeling hydrated without a greasy feel.

I have also created a prototype hair oil that I'll be trying out. Two oils,  in fact. I've used hair oils in the past, but those often contain one or more silicones, such cyclomethicone or dimethicone. I don't feel there's anything particularly wrong with them, and they can leave your hair feeling nice. I'm just not sure if they lead to healthier hair in the long run. After all, the products that contain them often advertise the fancy oils that are in them, not the silicones.

I have two base oil blends, with argan, shea, and jojoba in each, with a different extracts in the two. One is aimed for oilier hair, the other for dryer hair. I created different essential oil blends to scent them as well. A sweet herbal lavender fragrance for oily hair, and a sexy ylang ylang fragrance for dry hair. I plan on creating additional scents, such as geranium, in the future. I researched which essential oils are good for the various hair types and issues, and then blended the oils based on how nicely the scents worked together. After all, I want them to not only help the hair, but smell good in the process.

Coming Soon! The Ivre de Fleurs Etsy shop is opening this weekend!

Easy to apply and easy to love. Pamper your feet with a blend of lavender, tea tree, and peppermint essential oils. This balm in a tube glides over your feet, softening them with natural butters and oils.

Dreamy lip balms, currently available in sweet Lemon Cream (pictured) and tasty Mocha. Other flavors to follow!

Floral body balms, available in Neroli (pictured), Jasmine, Rose, Tuberose, and Mimosa. Use for cuticles, rough skin, or even as a light perfume.

Getting Back to Business After Lasik

I had wavefront Lasik done on both eyes last Thursday, and it's been a little hard getting back into business mode. On Wednesday night, I worked on a perfume to keep my mind of what was to come the next day, but then I ended up spilling it before getting to the top notes. On the plus side, it seems like it could be nice with some tweaking.

I got nothing done on Thursday, of course. After the surgery I needed to keep my eyes closed the rest of the day, so that's not conducive to productivity. I'd like to say it's a good chance to relax, but it's hard to relaxing when you can't quite sleep or nap, but you can't have your eyes open either.

Friday I could start doing things, but any computer work strained my eyes too much. I did make a batch of lip balm, so at least I got something done! But I haven't done much since then.There are certainly days I don't feel like doing much, especially after putting in a full day at my day job. With my eyes dry and tired, I've been feeling like that every day lately.

I'm finally feeling fine in front of the computer, so hopefully I can make labels, update my website, or do any of the other little tasks that await me. 

Experimenting with Lip Balm

One of the problems with lip balm is that it's very hard to make enough for base/flavor for just one tube. A single tube is .15 ounces, so making enough base from scratch for even ten tubes isn't easy. An accurate scale helps, but measuring .15 of this and .05 of that is kind of difficult. At the same time, I don't recommend making big batches, since then you might end up with 40 tubes of unusable lip balm. After making too many big batches that were no good, I needed to figure out a way to test bases and flavors without wasting too much. I use fancy carrier oils, so having those go to waste is not only sad, but costly. And while lip balm tubes are cheap, you don't want to throw more plastic in the trash than absolutely necessary.

For flavors, I figured out a decent way of testing them. I start by creating or melting down a small batch of base. I use the tiny disk clamshells from Majestic Mountain Sage, because it has a lot of room to stick labels with notes on them. I think something like these might work as well- they're cheaper, but don't have as much room for notes. I add a few drops of my flavor to the clamshell. In my case, single essential oils or essential oil blends, but this could work for testing out flavor oils, too. I add a small amount of base, and stir quickly to mix them in together. I then move on to the next flavor. Try not to have the base too hot- it might start melting the clamshell, and it could also weaken the flavor of essential oils with low flash points.

Testing out a base is trickier. Once you have a good idea of what you want, make the base, perhaps adding less of the ingredient you're unsure of. In my case, I'm trying to use candelilla wax instead of beeswax, because I want my products to appeal to as broad an audience as possible, including vegans. Since candelilla wax has a higher melting temperature, I don't need as much of it, but I'm not sure exactly how much I need. So I started with about half as much as beeswax, and the base into a single tube. Once cooled, I tested it, and determined it wasn't harder enough. I added a little more candelilla, and tested again. This time it was better- firmer, but not so hard that it's unpleasant. Once you have it right, you're free to flavor and pour into your remaining tubes.

To soap or not to soap

The idea of making cold process soap excited me so much. Chemistry, fragrance, and color combine into one little bar. But unfortunately, it seems to draw out the mad scientist in me, leaving me with the occasional bad batch. In trying to clear out space for all the supplies I need for my business, I've been making soaps with odds and ends. Sometimes the results are good. A recent soap came out quite nicely, with a cheerful yellow color (from turmeric and madder root infused oils) and bright pink jojoba beads dotting the top. The smell is a strong citrus floral, made by combining a fragrance oil with orange essential oil. The oils used were a bit of a hodgepodge, but it had no problems setting up.

But then the most recent batch did not work out as well. The color is OK, though not as vibrant. This one had only madder root for color, and the color is a bit of a muted yellow. The fragrance is fine, but a bit strange, since I threw in various fragrance oil samples with some left over citrus oils. I didn't throw in any strange oils, though it was my first time using hydrogenated soybean oil as a replacement for palm. In the end the soap cracked all across the top after a few hours in the molds. I'll test it in a few days to see if it's lye-heavy, but I'm hoping it just overheated. Either way, I won't be giving any of this batch to friends and family, since I don't want to worry about what I'm giving to them.

On the plus side, the perfumery text book I'm reading has a nice long chapter on organic chemistry. So even if I don't continue with soap, there will be other opportunities for my inner scientist.

Jasmine Lip Balm

I love jasmine, both the flower and the fragrance. It works so wonderfully in perfumes, and I really want it to work in lip balms. But the indolic quality of jasmine that makes it sexy in a perfume makes it kind of gross as a lip balm. I've tried two combinations, and they weren't bad to me, but my tester did not like them. I'd like to track down a jasmine that's less dirty and try it out, but that might take awhile. So in the meantime, no jasmine lip balms.

Fortunately, other flowers work fine in lip balms. They might not be to everyone's liking, but as someone who loves floral teas and candies, I think they can make nice flavors.

Cinnamon Lip Balm

I've been trying out some of the flavors I made samples of, and for the most part I really like them. The cinnamon one is a bit of a problem though. I love the cinnamon I have- it has a pure sweet cinnamon scent, without the woody earthiness a lot of cinnamon essential oils have. But I put way too much in the sample I made, and it made my lips burn. I'd still like to develop a flavor around it, but I'll have to cut back on how much I put into it. I want to make products that make people feel good, not ones that make them go "ouch."

I also like seeing how the different blends work in the lip balm base. Some of them smelled a little weird straight out of the bottle, but the base softens it up. It changes on the lips too, probably since it's just a thin layer. When I'm making perfumes, I usually start with either diluted materials, or I add the essential oils drop by drop into the alcohol, so I really don't get to smell the fragrances in non-dilute form. Seeing how a blend transforms in the lip balm is pretty interesting for me as a result.

Lip Balm Flavors

It's been a rather busy night for me. I've had several lip balm flavors I developed last month, and I've been so worried about which ones would actually work well. I didn't want to create borrowing flavors, since that would be too easy. I finally decided to just go ahead and make little samples of each. I had 12 flavors planned, and I added a few drops to a sample container, and then added some lip balm base I had whipped up. I had some extra base, so I went and created two "single note" flavors- rose otto and carrot seed. The flavors are all still cooling, but I'm excited to see how they work out.

Southern California Flowers

I have quite the black thumb and have pretty much given up on hopes of having my own garden. Living in a city apartment with an amazing view of the skyline is nice, but sometimes I miss a yard full of pretty flowers. Visiting my in-laws this past weekend was great, since I got spend time in two flower filled yards.

In Berkeley it felt like all of the bougainvillea was a hot pink, but I love the delicate pink of the ones growing in front of my in-laws' window.