Today I’m sharing a formulation I have been working on for months—a Long-Wear Cream Eyeliner. It goes on like a dream, wears beautifully, and easily holds its own when compared to products like Bobbi Brown’s Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner and KVD’s Tattoo Waterproof Liquid Eyeliner. The formulation I’m sharing today has been in development since May, meaning I tested it through some of our hottest summer days to make sure it was worthy of being released 😄
The part of the world I currently live in is not known for having amazing summers. Amazing summer days? Sure. But summers on the whole? Reliable beautiful days, all in a row, without question? Not so much. We’re moreso known for “Monsoon June”, mild to severe flooding, crazy car-destroying hail and thunderstorms, and then the odd beautiful day that makes you forget it all. Our reprieve is often September, and sometimes even early October, which can be downright beautiful. That’s what this soap celebrates.
When you want to add a bit of colour to something, there’s a lot to consider. What colour do you want? Do you want opacity along with the colour? How long do you want the colour to last? What is the end use of the product? And let’s not forget the all-important solubility. I often get questions about using one colourant instead of another in recipes, so I thought I’d write an overview on the different types of colourants I use, why I choose them, and what they’re best suited for.
After years of DIYing, I’ve got a pretty good cache of acne-fighting ingredients. From clays to herbs to essential oils, my basement cupboards are a veritable arsenal of zit-busting weaponry, and these bars of soap have it all. They’re designed to clobber zits and stop acne before it starts. They’re also pretty groovy looking.
Here in Calgary, December 21 is a short, dark day. The sun rises at 8:37AM and sets at 4:32PM, giving us a whopping seven hours, fifty-four minutes, and seventeen seconds with which to go about our daylight requiring business. That’s less than half the daylight we have on the summer solstice in June. We’ve got nothing on the far north, but even somewhere comparatively close (latitude-wise, at least) like Toronto gets noticeably more daylight than we do on the darkest day of the year.
I bought a bag of bright red cranberry seeds last year, and found them in the back of my cupboard just in time to make a Cranberry Sauce soap as my second Christmas soap for 2014. These pretty reddish bars are bright and spicy, and feature a sprinkling of pretty cranberry seeds on top.
Make it Up: The Essential Guide to DIY Makeup and Skin Care is now available at booksellers all over the world!