Thank you, Rustic Escentuals!

Bought a huge lip balm tube order from lipbalmtubes.com (CLEAR OVAL TUBES coming soon to the shop, those of you who requested them!), then remembered that they are affiliated with Rustic Escentuals and added a note asking for a sample of their "Red Maple Leaf" fragrance with the lip balm tube order. (I received a sample with my last fragrance oil order and instantly regretted not getting more sight-unseen from the description- it smells amazing!) And, yay, they sent me another ounce sample! I know EXACTLY what I'm going to use the two ounces for, but more on that in a few weeks.

So, thank you to the lovely people at Rustic Escentuals/LipBalmTubes.com! (I'll be back for your Peanut Butter flavor oil, which I completely forgot to order with the lip balm tubes...)

Post Roundup - Shampoo

Ever have a blog/website that you end up getting lost for hours browsing around in? For me, Point of Interest is one of those! This time around I was looking for info on making shampoo. We're on our last bottle and I'd like not to buy shampoo from the store again if I can help it. Here are few of Swift's posts that have helped me get started with confidence. Please be sure to visit Point of Interest as well- today's post is about, guess what? Shampoo!

Back to Basics - What is a Shampoo?
Formulating a regular shampoo
Extended instructions for making shampoo
Conditioning shampoo for dry hair 

Buy Susan's e-book on hair care formulation at Lotioncrafter

twitter

I almost forgot to mention- you can now follow us on twitter: @CanfieldCrafts

Don't forget that we have a Facebook page as well- pictures of new items have already been posted there, so feel free to check it out.

Facebook

We finally joined Facebook, so if that's your social network site of choice please stop by! :-)

Finally on Etsy!

Well, I JUST finished opening our Etsy store and listing our first item. Aaaaand, I wasn't wearing my glasses, so now everything is blurry. *l* This evening I have a lotion order to complete, but tomorrow I'll work on listing the rest of the soap and lotion that we have for sale. :-) And I'll wear my glasses this time.

San Diego power outage

I just wanted to ask- if anyone has a picture (or knows where I can find one) of the power out in Downtown San Diego, can you point me in that direction? Our neighbor rode his motorcycle down Orange in Coronado and said the sight across the bay was a once-in-a-lifetime sight- all of San Diego with no lights! But on the AM news they were advising not driving unless absolutely necessary... and I guess driving down the Strand to gawk didn't count... ;-)

EDIT: I found a couple of photos online- here are the links to the articles/slideshows.
Slideshow photos by Mark J. Terrill - Check here for a larger copy of the first photo! San Diego looks cool in the dark with only the emergency lights on.
Another slideshow of San Diego's power outage- I liked the first photo of the freeway, but it's also interesting to see people just kind of... waiting for the power to come back on.
This short article includes a map of the affected areas, and an interesting first-person description of the power outage and the "block party" atmosphere that it caused. We experienced the same thing in our neighborhood- people were out on their bikes, in their front yards looking at the stars and talking to their neighbors, and generally having fun. You could hear people all over the neighborhood enjoying just being outside in the cool air.

SLS vs... SLS?

Looking at the websites of a couple of skin care companies today, I noticed that both of them mentioned that they one, don't use surfactants, and two, stay away from anything with the words "lauryl" or "laureth" in it (Sodium Lauryl Ether Sulfate, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, etc). The thought came to me that these statements could mislead some who had never heard the terms... So, having done a mind-boggling amount of research on these terms, I thought I'd post a few links and give some information to help arm you when reading the label of that soap/shampoo/bath bomb/toothpaste etc. Please see the links below to do more research on your own. :-)

Upright mold swirl tutorial

http://www.nizzymoulds.com/BLue%20&%20Yellow.htm

I usually save links to LiveJournal, but it's not loading for some reason... so here I am, with a link for making elegant, yet simple swirls in an upright mold. Check it out!

Update: In unrelated news, I found the reason LJ isn't loading... DDos attacks! *winces*