Now and then I get a renewed enthusiasm for making my own beauty products and the kitchen turns into a magical apothecary where decadently sweet smelling lotions and potions steam and brew.
Sometimes I think making the creams, oils and perfumes is more enjoyable than using them. Not!
For a few hours I become the wizard of sparkle and glamor, stirring pots of melted cocoa, shea butter or coconut oil, assessing the concentration of herbal decoctions and taking in the wholesome scent of liquid beeswax.
Home-made products smell heavenly even before you add fragrance.
That last step is itself an art form.
Mixing and matching fragrances is a serious scientific process which takes into account accents, base tones and middle notes, but the joy of creating your own cosmetics comes from experimenting and making mistakes.
Sometimes the scents come through too strong, sometimes their harmonies clash, but no two creams or lotions are ever the same, probably because I always forget to write down the ingredients as I go, and creating that unrepeatable experience is the most enjoyable part.
Main Areas: Garden Writing; Sustainable Gardening; Homegrown Harvest
Published Books: “Terra Two”; “Generations”; "The Plant - A Steampunk Story"; "Letters to Lelia"; "Fair"; "Door Number Eight"; "A Year and A Day"; "Möbius' Code"; "Between Mirrors"
Career Focus: Author; Consummate Gardener;
Affiliation: All Year Garden; The Weekly Gardener; Francis Rosenfeld's Blog
I started blogging in 2010, to share the joy of growing all things green and the beauty of the garden through the seasons. Two garden blogs were born: allyeargarden.com and theweeklygardener.com, a periodical that followed it one year later. I wanted to assemble an informal compendium of the things I learned from my grandfather, wonderful books, educational websites, and my own experience, in the hope that other people might use it in their own gardening practice.