Hi everyone! Sorry for the silence this week, but there’s been so much going on, I don’t know where to start!
Last week was supposed to be the week of reducing my pain – dental appointment on Monday, neurologist for Botox on Tuesday, pain clinic for an epidural on Saturday – but my root canals went wrong, and my Botox was cancelled because I had to presume I had COVID-19 while awaiting test results (negative, phew!), so I’ve been in a great deal of spiky, blue, electric, ice-pick in my eye pain for the last 10 days, which makes it really hard to think and write and function. Things have been better the last three days, so I was able to resume my writing schedule.
We’ve moved the site to a new host, which is going really well! You won’t notice any huge differences, although I’m noticing it’s way faster for me. This will give us greater stability with fewer (if any) 503 errors when we get busy! Yay, Raymond!
I’m hoping to post the Newbie Tuesday and Formulating Friday cream formulas for Incroquat BTMS-50 next Tuesday and Friday respectively, then the facial moisturizers the week after, then a few “what did you think of these formulas” posts as we approach the end of the year.
Then I need to take a break until January to get ahead of the next part of this series, formulas for Simulsol/Lotionpro™ 165 in early-to-mid-January.
The problem is that I need to write and get all the posts ready for publishing at once, and I often get halfway through something before I need to direct my attention to something else.
I think it would surprise you how many posts remain in my “drafts” folder for want of a half decent photo or a bunch of links.
Click here to see the home page for the Newbie Tuesday series.
Click here to see the home page for the Formulating Friday series.
In the meantime, if you aren’t using your oils, get them in the fridge or freezer, specifically the grapeseed, kukui nut, or camellia oil.
Read more about Heating, holding, freezing & thawing oils in the FAQ.
The new e-book will be out on Sunday, November 29th or Monday, November 30th. It’s been delayed due to the spiky blue ice pick pain as well as my inability to stop writing, and it’s at 67 pages about actives & extracts in eye care products, and I’m super excited about it. I have the always wonderful Bryce creating all the links, and Raymond’s taking photos, so the second-to-last draft is almost done. I hope to finalize it Saturday, but given I have another epidural tomorrow morning in town, 100 km away, it might have to wait to Sunday morning.
I’m going to take a lot of next week to do some planning for December and beyond because I have so much I want to share, more of the combining emollients series so we can continue the ester series, then the silicone series (which may be an e-book or longer, if it’s not on the blog).
I’m hoping to get all my information on mixers up here soon as I have so many pieces of equipment to share, and I think it’ll be a Zoom workshop in the next month.
As for Zoom workshops, I thought I’d hold a few in December, and wanted to know your thoughts. Sundays at 11 am PST (Vancouver time) works for me, but I could hold them at different times – say a weekday – over the pre-Christmas to slightly after New Year’s week. I have some topics in mind – like mixers – but I’m open to anything other than shampoo or conditioner bars.
When I schedule Zoom workshops, I’ll announce it with a link to the handout, meeting, and password here on the blog.
It’s a weird time of year in a pretty horrible year, so I have no idea how busy everyone is in their part of the world for the month. We’ll be having a very quiet holiday season as we aren’t allowed to socialize with anyone outside our household, inside or outside, and with our cases growing every day, that’s not likely to change for quite some time. We’re in need of socializing and fun, and I really miss teaching, hence the resumption of the Zoom workshops to connect and enjoy talking about cosmetic chemistry.
Thanks for continuing to support the blog with your monthly subscriptions. We’re all playing life on hard to nightmare mode right now, and we hope the blog is giving you a chance to forget all the stuff going on around us for a bit, and inspiring you to get into your workshop when you can to formulate.