June Intensive Cosmetic College - Day Three

I can't believe we are half way through already!

The day started earlier than usual for Sally and Debbie, our student from Spain. When booking, Debbie asked if we could include making bath salts in the course curriculum and as it is wall-to-wall packed content already, the only way was to start 45 minutes early! Not for the faint-hearted but enthusiasm won the day and bath salts were taught.

We always stress that there are no mistakes - simply learning experiences - which was lucky as it was assumed that the bottle of liquid colour had a dripper insert in the neck of the bottle. Oh how wrong we were and CI17200 pink went gushing into the mixture...luckily, the right side of a black coffee or two, Sally grabbed the jug and quickly spooned out the excess colour before it had a chance to be absorbed. And the best products can often come from mistakes - the final heather sprinkled bath salts were magnificent!

From bath salts to candles and a wonderful morning spent creating natural wax container candles, night lights, tarts and floating candles culminating in a mood enhancing candle in a tin.

The afternoon focussed on an enormous range of cosmetic ingredients. We looked at unrefined, refined, processed and natural. We debated the best antioxidants, unpicked preservatives, spread silicones and squalanes on arms, compared emulsifiers, enjoyed extracts and generally had fun with an enormous range of ingredients.

The day finished by making a polishing cleanser (bamboo powder being the chosen exfoliant) although as we overran, the cleanser is in the fridge waiting to be decanted tomorrow.

Tomorrow we make soap!