There is serious, important political stuff going on that I want to blog about, but bear with me while I get my brain in a state to do it justice. I am wiped out after my last week of teaching and need to recover, somehow, before my huge pile of marking comes in. I am trying to help this process by laying off the caffeine - one tea and no coffee today - and although I know it is the right thing to do, it will mean I get enough sleep and make each cup of coffee more effective, I would quite frankly bite your hand off if you came in here holding a cup of the black stuff. Consider that due warning.

I haven't been completely useless, though. I finished reading a paper about Climate Camp that will be useful for me in writing mine. I got my test batch of soap out of the fridge and tried using it. Sadly it melted into a gloopy mess when we put the heating on, but you can't have everything. I made a new batch with salt in, which is meant to help soap stay hard (ooer) and I figured it couldn't hurt from a hygiene perspective either. And while I didn't actually write any of All England - I am still grappling with the Snogging Scene From Hell in which two resistance characters with issues up the wazoo encounter each other on a dimly lit staircase - I did do a bit of mechanical plot-creation regarding how the All England Party actually come to power. (nb it involves Tories being crap) Oh, and washed a bunch of really muddy parsnips Ducki dug up from the garden - the one outdoor crop we've done reasonably well with. Bit short on spoons now, but hopefully refraining from coffee will mean I can sleep...

In the absence of anything else interesting to write about, my adventures in soap-making will have to do. My 'recipe' is very improvised, as most of the proper recipes I've found involve either animal products or caustic soda/lye or both. The test batch is made from a small amount of coconut oil, a largeish amount of olive oil and a few tablespoons of vegetable glycerine. Now, obtaining glycerine isn't difficult - it's often sold cheaply as a sore throat remedy, and less cheaply as a baking ingredient. In fact, obtaining vegetable glycerine isn't too difficult. However, establishing that the cheap and easily available glycerine (such as Boots Value Health, which I currently have) is from a non-animal source is a total pain in the arse. So if you need vegetable glycerine, please reap the reward of the hours* I spent on Google establishing that! Or look at the small print on the bottle - if it says v/v or v/g next to 'glycerin/e' on the ingredients you're ok.

Anyway, I thought I'd make a small quantity of lemon and tea tree soap to test things out, lemon because Ducki likes it and tea tree because the plan is to use it as hand soap in the toilet. I bought some cheap heart-shaped silicone cupcake cases to use as moulds. The issue is getting the stuff to solidify. They've been in the fridge overnight (with each mould inside a hummus pot, guess it's a good thing we keep those!) but each one is still half liquid. It's frustrating because I don't want to make any more until I know it'll work. Next thing is to see if I can make solid soap without the coconut oil, or find a brand of coconut oil that doesn't smell...

*slight exaggeration, but it felt like hours - most of the information came from forums of ex-smokers using some sort of electronic cigarette, so not that interesting to me.

Rose face cream

-Three teaspoons of room temperature coconut oil. Work it with your hands until it becomes creamy, ooer missus.
-A teaspoon of olive oil. Stir this well into the coconut oil
-A teaspoon of rosewater. Stir well into the oil mixture.

Apply when needed, although possibly not when about to go to work/put makeup on unless you enjoy looking shiny.

Developed because pure coconut oil is a pain in the arse to apply at what passes for room temperature in Stirling in December.

You'll be pleased to hear I haven't been trying to fit a new toilet by myself. (although if I did I'd be tempted to use the old one as a garden planter - my parents had TWO of the things in their garden at some point but were total spoilsports and didn't put plants in them) No, this is about the various homemade and apparently 'natural' substances I've plastered myself with today.

Hair things first:

( Deep conditionerCollapse )

( Vinegar hair rinseCollapse )

My hair is soft and shiny but feels a wee bit greasy, and isn't quite as 'big' as usual. That's disconcerting. We'll see what it's like in a few days.

Now for other stuff:

( Ylang ylang and lavender bath saltsCollapse )

( Moisture creamCollapse )

( DeodorantCollapse )