It's party time, where's the lip gloss?

We are moving from our shop in a couple of weeks time so today's party is our last here. The party host has chosen that she and her guests will make lip gloss and perfume.

I think for every child we have ever had at a Plush Folly part (and these run into hundreds, believe me!) 1in every 3 has made lip gloss - we must have a nation of shiny lipped children! Whilst they are very conservative with the colour - pale pink 'iced candy' mica being the most popular, they all drool over the flavours. We offer them a choice of using one or combining two to make a new flavour. Here are the top 5 flavours they all scramble for :

1 Chocolate
2 Cherry
3 Strawberry
4 Vanilla
5 Mint

Last : Coconut! I think we've only ever had one child select coconut.

The recipe we use is very easy and with two of us supervising, it can't possibly go wrong. It's one teaspoon each of grated cocoa butter, shea butter, beeswax and olive oil and two teaspoons of castor oil. This gets mixed together in a little ramekin dish and then melted in a bain marie.

Once melted, the children add their choice of mica colours and flavours and we then pour their beautiful creatins into a little lip gloss pot. By the time we've had fun clearing up - or making the second party cosmetic - it's set and the lid can be popped on.

So many happy children, so many shiny lips! So MUCH mess!

Oh So Natural

We had an SOS call on Friday evening from a friend of mine - she had a swarm

of bees in her front garden, very close to the gate...and too close for comfort to her front door. She had got home from work, turned the car engine off, but could still hear a motor so was very confused......she then realised it wasn't the car engine, but some other source and it didn't take her too long to track down the buzzing!

Knowing that not only am I doing my bee keeping lessons but that I was a happy recipient of a bee hive (Christmas prsent), she phoned to ask if we could help. I'm still kicking myself as I had my son's hockey awards to go to as well as meeting up with friends for a drink...somehow overlapping those two Friday night's entertainment just didn't allow for squeezing in building the beehive and catching my first swarm. :-(

Luckily Ted, our local bee keeping swarm patrol came to the rescue and took them off in a temporary hive.

This week we'll be putting the hive together in anticipation of it being swarm season and offering a home to another band of bees on the run. Can't wait!

Charity Bike Ride Across Zambia

My husband is busy training for a 500km bike ride across Zambia. The children and I are really quite amused and amazed as he isn't necessarily what we'd describe as 'fit - and yet the amount of training and passion he is putting into this incredible journey has quite stunned us.

If you would like to know more about the trip, please visit the Zambian Bike Ride blog where you can make a donation if you wish. The charity behind the venture is African Revival.

Meanwhile, I'm putting together a list of trees, bushes, shrubs and plants I want him to photograph as we use the butters, extracts, oils etc in our products.....oh yes, and persuading him to use the Incognito 'No More Mosquito' spray instead of deet.

Seaweed & Watercress Soap care of The Apprentice

OK - own up, who saw it? I love The Apprentice and last night it was very close to my heart - making beauty products! See our website to listen to our stint on BBC Radio reviewing the Apprentice Soap Making episode www.plushfolly.com

Seeing the Apprentice teams scavenge around in the rock pools collecting seaweed or donning their protective gear to collect honey reminded me of two lovely ladies we had on a course once. Their plan was to drive around the British Isles in their Winnebago making and selling soap created from ingredients indigenous to the area they were staying in.

We had fun compiling the list - Oats & Whisky soap (Scotland), Seaweed and Sea Salt Soap (Cornwall), Clotted Cream Soap (Devon), Guinness Soap (Dublin), Tea Soap (Yorkshire), Coloured Sand Soap (Isle of Wight), Crab Soap (Cromer - OK I'm lying, but you can see how fun this was!), Strawberry Soap (Wimbledon) etc - the list was extensive.

I wonder how they are getting on.....

Ducks in the window

When we used to dress the windows of the shop, it was a long, well thought out plan of action....we'd decide on a theme, a colour, a range of products, props and positioning and then spend a happy couple of hours darting in and out of the shop peering through the window to see how the creation was emerging. We'd have critical hats on, creative hats on and finally, the 'yup, that'll do nicely' hats on.

Well what a load of poop! The idea was to draw passer bys attention to something attractive and appealing in the hope that they'd stop in their tracks, back step to the door and come in and spend money. Now I know that the effort spent was all in vain....we recently took every single rubber duck we had in the shop and put them in the window. What an easy display they made - over 60 ducks in all, ranging in size, all with very cute faces, all lined up in a winding, snake-like row. Children have been stopping and head bashing the window to get a closer look - I can't believe there isn't one buggy in Hampton that hasn't been parked up whilst mother and toddler/child/ teenager/grandmother have been duck counting. The ducks weren't for sale, they were our shop ducks used to fill in gaps, adorn shelves, sit on pots, pans and generally keep us company when it rained.

How many customers have we had asking if they were for sale. We have given away a few to very well behaved children and adults - but the plan was to have them there while we 'sorted stuff out'. But...and this is a big BUT....our mind was changed by Erica who texted us offering a very good home, a warm bath, and a new view to our ducks if we were willing to part with them.

So we deliberated, discussed, reflected and generally mulled over the possibility of saying goodbye...and on Monday, every single duck went to live at Erica's. We wish them well, we hope they have a sunny bathroom and rest assured, we know they are loved, we saw Erica's BIG smile when she collected them.

The Make Your Own Lipstick Effect

The lipstick effect is upon us! In times of a recession, instead of cheering ourselves up by spending money on expensive items, we women tend to purchase less costly 'feel good' items such as lipstick. As an inexpensive pick-me-up, wearing a new lipstick can help you look good as well as feel good.

We had a lovely email from one of our customers last week. Instead of buying a lipstick, she had purchased a Make Your Own Cosmetics kit and spent a happy time making lipstick...."my daughter and I shared the box between us and we spent the afternoon making a lip balm, a lip gloss and a lipstick. The results are amazing, I can't believe that we are wearing what we made. It's a double whammy - not only do we have the pleasure of making, but the enjoyment of wearing it too. Thank you - we'll be back for the handcream one next".

So - in times of bank balances going into the red, cheer yourself up and make a shade of lipstick to match!

Cosmetics College - even more beautiful than usual

This week we have had a Cosmetics College student visiting us from Antigua. Not only was it her first trip to England, but it was the first time she'd seen snow! And what a performance the weather put on for her.

Deep, crisp and even.....beautiful twinkling mica-like snow covering everything it could touch. This was no dusting of talc, this was a heavy dollop of ice-cold pleasure! OK, so she missed the first day of college due to the plane being delayed, but luckily with other students finding they couldn't make the journey, we could dedicate our time during the second and subsequent days and cover everything she needed.

It's quite incredible to think that her family were basking in 80 degrees and relaxing on the beach drinking coconut rum while she was enchanted by mineral makeup, coconut soap and snowballs!