Welcome to December, the first day of our lovely jammy Bonne Maman advent calendar, each day a new flavour to celebrate the countdown to Christmas! It’s just one of my favourite things about December, which also incudes my birthday, Raymond and my 30th anniversary, Sasja’s adoption day, and my adoption day on New Year’s Eve.
A bit of festive fun for you! Check out Compound Interest’s Chemistry Advent Calendar, Festive food around the world! It starts with one of my most hated foods because it contains one of my most hated compounds!
Thank you for joining us this month! A lot of this year has been pretty challenging with my ongoing health issues with spasms in my arms. I’ve missed a few e-books and November’s is late, but coming in the next few days – see this post for the coupon if you were a November subscriber – as my pain doctor moved away and the new one finally told me after five ineffective treatments that the previous treatment wasn’t her practice, but things are looking up as I have a new pain doctor I’m seeing mid-December who should be much more helpful. And he’s local! I could walk there and not break a sweat!
I’ve also realized my e-books this year have been massive, with all of them at 90 pages or over, when they used to be 30 to 40, which is taking a toll on my arms and results in me spending a goodly portion of the month writing those as well as blog posts. I wrote over 100,000 words in June 2023, which is ridiculous, but great fun! I have to alter my writing schedule to fit it all in, something I’m working on for December onwards.
What can you expect to see this month on the site?
I have a few posts coming on making solid body cleansing bars – you can see the first part of that series here –Q&A: Can I use Aminosensyl™ SC or HC in a solid foamy, bubbly, lathery™ body cleanser bar? – based on my e-book, Body cleansing bars you will love – that I hope you’ll enjoy!
I have no idea what else is coming this month as I have 524 drafts in the blog folder and a ton of e-books I have to edit or turn into posts. I have dozens of new ingredients to share, and a cold process emulsifier series to finish up before the end of the month.
Going through my drafts and formula notebooks going back to 2018, there’s so much I haven’t shared, including a Cerave moisturizing cream duplication that I thought I shared, but I haven’t. I’m going to spend some time going through this one to get it ready to post.
I think I’ll have my first stand-alone single ingredient formula e-book ready for this month on LUMOROL K 5229 as there’s just so much misinformation about this ingredient, including astoundingly bad advice on how to mix it. There’s no debate about how to mix it – no professional formulator would be caught dead using a spatula to mix anything in the workshop, let alone using it for a “few swishes” for something that requires mixing to create an emulsion – but I hope this will be put it rest.
Related post: Why you shouldn’t be using spatulas to mix emulsions with all kinds of examples, including LUMOROL K 5229 shower oils!
This bit’s important, so I hope you read this about a potential Zoom workshop!
We are doing a Zoom workshop this month on something! I’m really missing teaching and connecting with all of you more, so we thought this’d be fun! (Warning: There may be singing!)
I’m not sure what the topic will be yet. I figure it’ll be something we desperately need for personal use, like shampoo bars, body wash, liquid shampoo, quick cold process emulsions for winter, emulsified scrub (wow, I’m out of everything, it seems!).
We could do a spotlight on some new ingredients – I have so many new botanical extracts, emulsifiers, surfactants, and more! – or maybe a concept, like mixing, or playing with some equipment?
I was thinking of doing it over the Christmas – New Year’s Break – maybe Boxing Day (the 26th)? – as it can get really chaotic beforehand. I can do a Saturday or Sunday, no problem. The timing will be interesting as I’d like to include as many people as possible, but I start to fade in the late afternoon/evening, so I’m looking at starting it between 11 am and 2 pm PST (-8 hours from Greenwich time).
All monthly subscribers are welcome to join us for this Zoom meeting, and it’ll probably be about 2 hours long, based on previous workshops.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on time and topic!
Will I share the video for the Zoom workshop afterwards? I’m not sure. We haven’t shared them afterwards before for a number of reasons, a few of which are the size of the files and the potential sharing of links to non-subscribers, so I need to think on this further.
Links for posts about our 11 Zoom workshops we offered in 2020 and 2021, no videos, but you can generally see the PDF for download for the formulas and concepts…(Do a search for “Zoom” to see all the announcements for workshops and the questions and formulas that came after them as there are loads of posts like that!)
Cold process lotion and conditioners! Our first Zoom meeting! Making a 10 minute lotion on Saturday, April 18th, 2020! Find the download here!
We did one on oils and combining emollients that I can’t find now. Weird!
Overhead mixers & magnetic stirrers – our live Zoom meeting Sunday, May 17th at 11 am (PDT)
Let’s make some body wash! Zoom meeting Sunday, May 24th at 11 am PDT!
pH & pH meters: Join me this Sunday for a Zoom meeting on pH & pH meters (Download formula & handout here!)
Shampoo bars: Zoom workshop this weekend – Shampoo bars! (The PDF was removed as it was being shared outside of this site.)
High shear mixers! Join me for a Zoom workshop on mixers on Sunday, January 17, 2021 at 11 am PST!
Spring Q&A Zoom workshop on May 2, 2021,
As we do every month on the site…
If you’re in need of supplies, $10 subscribers to the month have three discount coupons this month for Lotioncrafter, Windy Point Soap Making Supplies, and Voyageur Soap & Candle. Thank you for this lovely gift out of the goodness of your hearts, lovely suppliers!
They’ll be updated as we receive them. If you don’t see them today, please check back tomorrow or the next day, they will be there eventually.
If you’re a $3 subscriber or higher, click here to see the duplication request post!
Please note that requests for duplication are only considered if they’re posted in the duplication section as this is part of the $3 and up subscribers benefits and not if they’re emailed, direct messaged, or suggested in comments on social media. I cannot possibly re-create every single formula suggested as this blog would be nothing but duplicated products — and how boring would that be? – so I can only choose a few a year to create. I go into detail about my process for choosing formulas in both the duplication request post and in this post. Thank you for continuing to share them in that post. I have been getting loads of ideas from it the last few months, and there will be more to come soon, I hope.
And don’t forget that you have access to the formula directory! The formula directory is constantly being updated to include even more formulas from around the blog, so if you’re looking for a formula, you’ll find it in the formula directory! (That word has lost all meaning now…)
Also check out the latest addition to the monthly posts – Ingredient substitution ideas post ($3 and up)! If you have an ingredient you’re trying to find or need help substituting for in a formula, please share your thoughts over there!
If you’re a $5 subscriber or higher, click here to see the month’s Q&A post! I check this post every day, and it’s my priority to answer your questions or help with your formulas – it’s the best way to get in touch with me and guarantee an answer!
Right now, this is the only way I can answer questions or analyze formulas because I have such limited abilities, so please make that your first stop if you have something you simply have to know! 😁
I’m almost caught up with the Q&A. I have a huge post coming from an epic question by Anca, and then I think I’m up to date-ish? There are a few that have asked for lists of formulas that take time as there’s a lot of copying and pasting to do, something that trashes my arms quite a lot.
And don’t forget about the monthly Super happy fun member-to-member post for December 2023!, which is available to all levels of subscriptions, so please feel free to share your thoughts on this post or others on the blog!
You can always find the links to these monthly posts in the pinned post section, which is found to the right of just about every page on the blog on desktop and most mobile, or the bottom of every page for the odd mobile device. Or do a search for “Q&A” or “duplication” to find them. I’m afraid I don’t have time to do searches for you if you write to me as I’m swamped and my arms and hands are still in minor spasm, so doing one of those two things will find you those posts very quickly.