Out of all the things I’ve made that I have to frequently remind myself not to eat, this Chocolate Lip Butter is pretty high up that list. It smells downright delicious, and leaves my lips oh-so wonderfully soft and hydrated. And did I mention that it smells exactly like high end chocolate and is pretty much irresistible? This stuff is great.
Every Christmas my mum fills her slow cooker with cranberry juice, orange slices, a few fistfuls of whole spices, and some magic to create a wonderful warm Christmas punch. This spice infused body butter is inspired by that wonderful punch, and by how it made the house smell as it simmered away.
Last September Margo, a reader and fellow clay aficionado, commented to tell me about this clay bar she used to buy at Sephora. It was just straight clay, in bar form, and it was nearly $50. Yipes! Margo quickly figured out that she could make her own for a lot less, and I loved that idea. It’s taken me a while to get to it, but here we are. This French green clay bar is spiked with some of my favourite face mask goodies, and I think you’ll like it.
I remember trips to the cottage as a kid with Brin, our first family dog. Like Tobyn, he was a Bernese Mountain Dog, complete with a heavy black coat of beautiful fur. He wasn’t much for swimming, but he enjoyed wading about near shore, lapping at the water and cooling down. And every year, without fail, he would start to smell of warm vomit mixed with expired bleu cheese after a few days of these wading escapades mixed with hot weather. It was truly wretched, made worse only by the knowledge that we had another 18 hour car trip across the prairies ahead of us, and we would be trapped with our affectionate and furry source of wretched olfactory sin for every minute of it.
As a lover of cities, Broadway, and chocolate chip cookies I have long wanted to visit New York City, and last month I finally did. I went with my mother, and we had a blast. We walked a lot, enjoyed some fantastic food, and just enjoyed being a part of such an alive, teeming city.
In Canada the May Long Weekend is our summer safe zone. Gardeners move plants outside, people bring boxes of summer clothes up from the basement, and the most optimistic among us go camping (and it almost always snows for them). May Long Weekend was last weekend, and I’ve been daydreaming about camping for months now. And that’s where these amazing brownies come in. They help bridge the gap between now and true s’mores season, and they’re still amazing enough to take camping for those moments when you don’t have a campfire going.
Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care is now available at booksellers all over the world!