by Marie | Sep 10, 2018 | Bar Soap, Very Crunchy
I had so much fun creating these sunny, speckled bars. The idea was to create a swirl using texture—as opposed to colour—to differentiate the swirl from the rest of the soap. When I set out to make these bars it had been positively ages since I’d made soap. Who else gets sucked into those strange inertia loops where you haven’t done something in a long time, so you keep not doing it, and then BAM… it’s been months? That’s me and… so many things. Anyhow—as I brought the lye water and fats to trace and starting working with the batter I wondered why it had been so long. Soap making is far too fun to fall victim to the do-nothing inertia loop!
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by Marie | Aug 23, 2018 | Lip Makeup, Recipes with Videos
When I got my awesome little TKB Trading Lipstick Mold one of the first things I wanted to investigate was the compatibility of the lipstick recipes in my book with the mold. The compatibility was resoundingly… not. Efforts to use the lipstick bases from my book resulted in lipsticks that looked like they’d been torn in half. They wouldn’t come out of the mold in one piece (or even three) to save they lives—I had to dig them out with the handle of a spoon and many, many cotton buds. Boo. Oh well, at least we know. Anyhow, with my learnings from working with TKB’s lovely moldable lipstick base I set off to create my own. As you can probably guess I’ve got a lot of cosmetic type ingredients so I’m thinking I’ll create at least two different bases; this one will be a more basic one, featuring easier-to-purchase ingredients.
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by Marie | Jul 26, 2018 | Face
This soft, squeezable cleansing balm is rich and creamy, melts into a stunning cleanser once you start working with it, and leaves your skin feeling refreshed and just a touch minty. I love it first thing in the morning to help me hit the ground running!
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by Marie | Jul 9, 2018 | Make Up, Recipes with Videos
This idea was born out of perusing one of those in-flight catalogues whilst I was undoubtedly quite bored. You know the type—you can order Arwen Evenstar’s pendant, a mini-putt for the corner of your office, and a brand of makeup you’ve never heard of that is apparently huge in Europe. One of the items in this catalogue was some sort of makeup eraser stick; a compact twist-up tube of some substance that would help you tidy up cosmetic snafus—a cat eye that’s headed for the hills, or some mascara that liked the looks of your eyebrows. I liked the idea, and the ingredients gave it away as a simple cleansing balm, so this is my DIY take on it.
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by Marie | Mar 5, 2018 | Face
This silky smooth Eucalyptus Mint Cleansing Oil is really quite lovely; freshly herbal and minty, with a touch of a cooling tingle that definitely helps perk one up first thing in the morning. I tried a new solubilizer and I really like it—the cleansing oil rinses off beautifully and isn’t too drying. It comes together quickly and easily, and I’ve included a big list of substitutions and alternatives at the end of the recipe so you can easily adjust it and make it work with whatever you have on hand.
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by Marie | Feb 1, 2018 | Bar Soap
I don’t remember when I first fell in love with the lavender/spruce scent combo, but it’s been a long standing favourite of mine for a while now. The woodsy, calming sweetness of lavender blends beautifully with the bright, fresh, camphoraceous notes of spruce and it’s just downright lovely. And, thanks to both of these essential oils being relatively inexpensive, they lend themselves quite well to soap making! This Lavender Spruce Soap is the second recipe in my lavender spruce series; it features lovely purple and green swirls in a creamy white base, and is wonderfully fun to make.
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