Plush Folly - Make Your Own Cosmetics

Blending for Total Beginners

2011-09-11T10:58:00.001-07:00

I LOVE my job.

Our perfume competition is going swingingly - we've had the panelists' choices through for their favoured top, middle and base notes and also their preferred smells from a set of "wild cards" we sent them. I've logged all their responses, loved putting their packs together and am very interested but I'm ashamed to say that though I've been at Plush Folly for some months now, I'm a total novice when it comes to making perfume. The Perfume Home Study Course is one of my favourites to put together and know which smells I like best but at the beginning of last week I knew nothing at all about how a balanced perfume was put together.

I do now!

On Thursday, Sal, Mandy and I spent the morning blending and sniffing the panelists' chosen essential and fragrance oils until we came up with some fabulous scents to send back to them for their approval (or otherwise).

I learned so much. I'd not really considered how to actually mix oils so you can assess how they smell together or keep tabs on what you've mixed - cotton wool pads and paper plates to write your blend on are so simple but work so well. I learned about top, middle and base notes and how it can be difficult to predict how some oils will smell together until you've actually blended them. Some that I thought would smell amazing because of what I was dropping onto my cotton wool pad with a pipette were either nondescript or overwhelmed by one smell. Sometimes Sal would say, "Now just add 2 drops of....." and my blend would blossom right under my nose. Amazing.

It was clear that, in the same way we all have different favourite foods, we all have our personal favourite smells - Mandy likes anything in the 'green and fresh' category; Sal adores bergamot; me? I'm so new to it all that I'm wowed by many but think I favour the citrus category.

Without giving too much away, one of the "wild cards" was Chocolate fragrance oil and it's amazing how that blended with other smells. It's so distinctive on its own - we know as soon as someone's taken the lid off to pour some in the office - but it seems to absorb and develop other fragrance and essential oils in a really unexpected way. It was such fun to play with.

Grapefruit essential oil was one of the favoured top notes that we used - it's supposed to lift the spirits so perhaps it's that I can thank for being in such a great mood for the rest of the day or perhaps it's simply that I have such a fantastic job!

Thanks, Sal!

Nickie

Perfume Design Panel - competition DAY ONE

2011-07-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

To coincide with the launch of Sally's perfume book we (the team here at PFHQ) decided to design a new perfume and invite others to join us on the design team.

We ran a competition on Facebook where we invited FBers the chance to win a place on the design team, one winner to be chosen each week for a period of three weeks.

Today our third and final winner was selected at random and we have our complete team!

Each of the design panel will be sent a selection of top, middle and base note essential and fragrance oils ranging across the fruity, floral, green, woody and oriental categories with a few wild cards thrown in! Each panellist will place the aromas (in each category) in order of preference and report back to PFHQ with their selection.

Once PFHQ have received everyone's feedback, the favorite oils will be selected and the blending will begin.

More to follow when the feedback is in.

June Intensive Cosmetic College - Day Five

2011-06-18T05:03:00.000-07:00

The last day of our June Intensive Week and still plenty to cram in!

The morning started with a practical session and the students made beautiful lip glosses followed by a treatment balm. The lip glosses contained a selection of oils, butters and wax designed to nourish and soften the lips and each were laced with mica to give beautiful shades of gold to pink to a very glossy burgundy - beautiful!

Each student designed their own treatment salve and we had a range of hair wax, rash treatment, nail and cuticle balm, eczema treatment salve, cracked finger ointment and elbow grease!

From practical to theory and having remembered to give homework the night before, Sally went over labelling, weights and measures, allergens, specialist software and everything else that you need to consider when putting together and producing labels for your cosmetic products.

Traditionally on the last day of the intensive week Plush Folly treat the students to lunch and today we went upstairs in the hospitality suite for a sumptuous buffet prepared by Mandy. Since the weather was wet and grim, we sat indoors rather than on the balcony.

After lunch we traipsed back to the training room to discuss suppliers, costing your products, insurance and selling over the web, retail outlets and at craft fairs. Whilst the session was underway, we multi tasked and fragranced /bottled the liquid soap that had spent the night softening in the big pot.

The final practical exercise was making a moisturising cream using all the knowledge gained during the week. The students chose which oils, waxes, waters, extracts, essential oils and other fancy optional additions they wanted to use and set to making up their wonderful pots of thick, luxurious moisturising cream.

Having cleared up and made the room as oil free as possible, the students were awarded their CPD accredited certificates of achievement for having covered so much during the week. That just left us with one task in hand - to unwrap and dish out the soap made yesterday!

To squeals of delight, gasps of surprise (that Blue FCF truly had turned magenta!) and laughter at the amount of botanicals some of us had managed to use in our soap (! - quite a few exfoliating bars made!!) it was time to pack up our mountain of goodies and say goodbye.

It's always sad to say goodbye at the end of such a bonding, busy, interesting and exciting week, but a pleasure too. I know that those students have learnt such a lot, their enthusiasm for every task was immense and the skills they displayed in creating wonderful products - well each and every one was worthy of a shop shelf.

We wish everyone luck and enjoyment and look forward to hearing how they get on.

June Intensive Cosmetic College - Day Four

2011-06-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

Day Four already! Where has the time gone? Today we had a day of soap - traditional bars of soap and liquid soap.

The initial fears of dealing with soidum hydroxide were soon dispelled although goggle and gloves were donned in order to provide protection against splashes. As the morning progressed, the benefits of the different oils and butters used in soap became apparent and the chosen oils were weighed into the saucepan to melt.

Although Sally forgot to give the blending homework the night before (tut tut!) we all managed to find the time to make delicous blends of essential oils to use in their soap. As discussed in the colour session on Tuesday, we used the Blue FCF colouring to turn our soap a wonderful shade of well - first it was blue, then we watched it turn grey, then a murky burgundy colour and finally amazing and glorious pink!

Once the soap was finished and tucked up under the blankets until tomorrow, we turned our attention to liquid soap. Rather than start the liquid soap from scratch and make up a lye solution with potassium hydroxide, we did the 'white board' method and used a soap paste that was made last month. As this takes such a long time to dilute, we brought it to simmering point and then left it overnight. We look forward to adding stuff to it tomorrow and then bottling it.

We also had fun testing the pH of certain items and coloured our litmus papers anything from bright red (acid) through green (perfect!) to the darkest blue (alkali) which helped us to understand what happens during the saponification process.

In the afternoon's theory session, we discussed making soap using different methods such as the no heat method, the hot process method, slow cooker method and even the rebatching meth

od. So many choices! We didn't stop there - we ran recipes through the Plush Folly SAP calculator, superfatted the recipe using both the SAP calc method and the 'control freak' method.

Finally just when we thought we'd covered everything for the day, we remembered our lovely cleanser sitting in the fridge waiting to be put into pots. It was so much thicker than yesterday now that it had had the chance to cool. We split our cleansers in half and left one half a smooth creamy cleanser to be used with the muslin cloth and to the other half we added bamboo powder to make an exfoliating cleanser.

Sally remembered the homework tonight and we have an example of a label which we need to spot mistakes and note what is missing. There is a little challenge for us to see who can list the most !

I can't believe how quickly this week has gone or how much ground we have covered. We came knowing very little and by day four we know such a lot!

Tomorrow we cover balms/salves, lip gloss and moisturising creams, labels, Trading Standards, suppliers, pricing our products and other bits and pieces. I can't wait!

June Intensive Cosmetic College - Day Three

2011-06-15T13:23:00.000-07:00

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!

June Intensive Cosmetic College - Day Two

2011-06-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

What a busy day for the students! We started the day with a session on colours and had fun striping our arms with various shades of micas, oxides, ultramarines and lakes. The colours and skin feel were compared and Nickie did a great job of testing whether the colours were water or oil soluble.

All went well until Sally pulled a horrible trick of mixing blue ultramarine with water and citric acid...poooooooey!

OK, so now everyone understood the suitability of the colours in different cosmetic products, we set about using some of those colours and mixing up a variety of bath fizz.

From fizz to scrubs and the students made a stunning selection of salts and

sugar scrubs adorned with seeds, seaweed and other exfoliating ingredients.

The afternoon was a rather more sober affair and we covered - at length - how to create the most flexible safety assessments covering a range of cosmetic products. We compiled a virtual PIF, analysed MSDS, discussed the contents of a GMP and generally felt confident and almost happy that the whole subject of product certification wasn't nearly as bad as originally thought!

The day ended on a high as we unpopped the bath fizz from the moulds....and don't they look fantastic!

More tomorrow!

June Intensive Cosmetic College

2011-06-13T14:35:00.000-07:00

After a miserable weekend of rain, rain and more rain, a watery sun and Monday morning arrived along with students from Norway, Spain, Scotland, Wales and various parts of England.

After introductions and settling in, the course dived straight into studying the characteristic of a wide range of carrier oils. Plunging the students into the depths of oleic, myristic and other fatty acids, the properties, benefits and behaviour on the oils on skin was explored and the students created their own range of skin, hair or body oils. Argan oil received a lot of attention although the jojoba oil bottles seemed to be emptiest at the end of the exercise!

After lunch the room was filled with beautiful aromas as we uncapped over 40 essential oils and discussed their merits in terms of active properties in skin care and mood enhancing capabilities in perfumed products. Most oils were commended for their beautiful aromas, others less so (poor vetiver, we felt quite sorry for the little chap as no one was brave enough to include him. I'm certain that he'll be more popular as the week goes on!).

From wonderfully captivating perfumes to 'must have' room diffusers enhanced by the introduction of some sumptuous fragrance oils...and wow, do we have a class of budding 'noses'. The blends created simply danced their way from bottle to beaker to final container, sparkling with teasing essences to delight and mollify. Impressive results from first attempts - I await day two with excited anticipation.

Students' Success! NV Launch their Beautiful Candles

2011-06-07T03:28:00.000-07:00

NV CANDLES

In November 2010 sisters Vicky and Nickie attended a Candle Workshop here at Plush Folly. In just six months, they've managed to build their own business from what started as a quest to find the perfect candle to suit their personal taste.

They're currently to be found at Pulse Exhibition at Earls Court launching their range of candles - what an exciting start to their business!

http://www.pulse-london.com

http://www.nvcandles.co.uk

NV's Cashmere and Silk candles are made from natural soy wax and the finest quality fragrances. Handmade, they are a range of mood-enhancing, luxury scented candles, ranging from oriental spices to delicate florals. We're thrilled that Nickie and Vicky have been so successful - read our chat with Vicky below.

Congratulations on your success, Vicky! What made you decide to make and sell candles?

Both Nik and I love candles, but found it difficult to find fragrances which we really loved so decided we should make them ourselves.

What has been the most exciting moment during the setting up of your business?

There have been many exciting moments, seeing the photos from the photoshoot was very exciting, but for me it was when we were accepted to exhibit at Pulse in Earls Court where we intend to launch the business.

gorgeous fig and green tea candle - yummy!

What has been the worst or most disappointing moment?

Right at the beginning when we were designing the packaging, the costs were more than we had expected. It was a real challenge to come up with a design which looked eye-catching but didn't break the bank.

What is the one bit of invaluable advice you would give to others embarking on a new business?

Put together a business plan, including costings and research the market.

Your candles look fabulous. What is the inspiration behind the ranges?

We wanted to design a range of candles which were a little different from others on the high street. Looking at competitors so many were packaged in white or pale boxes so we decided to use deep rich colours to create an opulent striking range. We wanted to have more than one type of candle so we created the larger, luxuriously packaged Cashmere range predominantly for the gift market and special occasions, but we also wanted to produce a range of candles for everyone to enjoy everyday so we designed the Silk range.

What is your favourite aroma?

Difficult question because it changes depending on my mood, at the moment it is Scottish Blossom Honey and Amber, but ask me tomorrow and it could be different!

And finally, I know you went on a Plush Folly course and had some follow up sessions, but how do you rate Plush Folly in terms of helping you?

The course at Plush Folly was a toe in the water to see if candle making was for us. Little did we know how much we would love every minute of the course and what a catalyst it would be to inspire us to create the business. The day we spent choosing the fragrances was the most fun I've had for a long time. The help and support given by Plush Folly has been invaluable, I don't think we could have done such a good job so efficiently without your knowledge and generosity of time.

If you're inspired by NV's success, Vicky and Nickie attended our Candles Workshop

Plush Folly also offer an accredited home study candle making course

Cosmetics College - Intensive Week Programme

2011-03-04T02:34:00.001-08:00

Life changing - fantastic course, excellent teachers, great information

generously shared and lots of lovely take home presents

Although almost a month ago now, we are still on a high from our Cosmetic College Intensive Week programme. What a week it was! Let me share a little insight from the week interspersed with comments from our students.

Sadly we had a last minute cancellation on the Friday before as - due to work commitments - one of our students was unable to come. Although we operate a wait list, we thought the notice was too short for anyone to take up the place, but our replacement student managed to fly in from Malaysia to join us for the 2nd part of the week.

Monday

The students had been set a little homework so that they could come armed with information about their chosen essential oil so we kick started the week with a session on blending and creating perfumes and body sprays. From perfumes, we progressed to base oil characteristics enabling us to design and create our own version of facial and body bio-oils. We ended the day elbow-deep in salt and sugar scrubs.

Everything explained so well, no-one was ever left out at sea

From a quiet, shy student group in the morning to a chattering, smiling group who were happy to stay for more rather than go home! The lure of using the scrub soon had everyone scuttling towards the train station and cars!

Tuesday

The groups were split into two on Tuesday morning. Half the group learnt about using everyday herbs and enjoyed making an infusion and a balm, whilst the others learnt about safety assessments, PIFs and creating a GMP - possibly not quite as much fun for this group!

Great blend of making and legal side of business

Tuesday afternoon was messy! We kick started the afternoon with a discussion on natural v synthetic ingredients and the use of preservatives and antioxidants. The practical sessions involved making face masks/body wraps and a creamy exfoliating cleanser.

Brilliant value for money

Wednesday

After the easy homework from the night before, the students came armed with information on the most expensive candle they could find on the web. They then made their own versions of natural container candles and used the blending skills from day one to produce the most stunningly aromatic candles. Most impressive. We discussed different room scenters for when candles weren't the preferred option and the students chose to make either reed diffusers or scented aroma beads.

Great things to take home, more than expected

The afternoon started with the theory session on sourcing packaging and different packaging ideas. Suppliers were discussed at length and students that were already using suppliers shared their experiences.

Plenty of opportunity to ask questions

During the last part of the afternoon the students designed and made a body butter - what a talented lot they are!

Sally is a fabulous trainer, there is nothing more I could have asked or wanted of her

Thursday

After various reports on how lovely the body butter (scrubs, perfumes, oils - all the products the students had been using so far!) we settled down to a day of soap making.

Excellent - surpassed expectations

Sally chose a willing volunteer to demonstrate how to make up the lye solution and once everyone was confident that they could manage it, the whole class set about making soap. We had liquid soap being made in one corner of the room and cold process everywhere else! The liquid soap making process takes a lot longer, so once that was on the go, everyone turned their hand to making cold process soap.

Good to hear the highs and pitfalls from someone who started small and has built up

We just managed to get the soaps under wraps by (a late) lunchtime so the afternoon was dedicated to a theory sessions of understanding the saponification process, superfatting, substituting liquids and designing your own soap and a practical session making bath fizz. Oh yes, we discussed and created labels too....

By the end of the day, the room was more perfumed than the scent counter at Harrods!

Very thorough and lots of helpful hints and tips

Friday

After swapping Tuesdays groups around so that the others got a chance to learn about herbs or cosmetic legislation, Friday became a very busy day! We had a sociable group lunch which also involved unwrapping yesterday's cold process soaps, scenting and bottling the now diluted liquid soap made yesterday and taking the bath fizz out of the moulds. Lots of oohs and aahs and general squeals of delight.

Learnt a great deal in a short time - well measured

After lunch we settled down to a theory session of using active ingredients in creams. From extracts and tinctures to silicones and squalane and specialist luxury oils.... and then finally the students got to make their luxury face cream that they had been designing on and off all week. The results were commendable, what a great job by all!

Perfectly pitched - lots of different levels of experience amongst Plush Folly's trainers

Almost home time....so after presenting the awards and much hugging, swapping of emails and promising to keep in touch, the students made their way back home, back to reality and back to work on Monday to fund their new found passion.

An amazing teacher - super (woman!)

What a great week it was for all of us.

Gained so much knowledge, confidence and now feel able to branch out on my own

Our next available Intensive Week programme is June 13th - 17th.

Assembling the skin care courses

2010-10-29T05:35:00.001-07:00

Who says its a glamorous job working at Plush Folly?! Today I have been assembling the Skin Care home study courses. We only make these up in small batches so that the ingredients are fresh - but also because we just don't have the space to store them in large quantities.

There are 33 different ingredients included with the course - each of these needs to be weighed or measured, packed or poured and labelled. Its no mean feat, especially as I was working on my own (it's half term) which meant stopping and answering the phone (12 times) and receiving a visitors to pick up their orders (twice). Oooh, I've just spotted the chocolate bar in the photo, shhh that was a treat for when I'd finished!

I started with the oils - always keen to get the messiest bit out of the way first. We include sweet almond, castor, cherry kernel, calendula, avocado, rosehip, vitamin E and evening primrose oil - and of course my favourite olive squalane which ok, I know it isn't an oil, but I group it with the oils for 'messy' pouring. Pouring vitamin E is always a challenge - it is so thick and gloopy that I have to concentrate hard to make sure it goes in the little bottles rather than clog up and simply pour down the sides. With the oils out of the way I can have a major clear up before I tackle the lovely floral waters. Lavender, rose, neroli, witch hazel, geranium - and we always include a guest floral water. Which one shall I go for today - ah yes, the lovely Melissa that recently arrived. Quick check against my list.....aloe vera, glycerine and preservative, there we are - that's all the pouring out of the way except for the essential oils. I'll do them last.

Another big clear up and what shall I do next? Will it be the clays, botanicals, fruit powder, honey powder, xanthan gum, jojoba beads or the waxes? Yes you're right - the waxes can be next. That's beeswax and emulsifying wax in the bag (ha ha!). While I'm packing those I can decide which fruit powder to include. My favourite is the strawberry as I love the smell, but the mango is tempting me.....

Finally, all the powders (inlcuding the mango!) have been weighed, packaged and labelled and now all I've got to worry about are the essential oils. As a treat I'm going to start with the rose, then the geranium. I always do them in order of my favourite first. I'm leaving the tea tree to the fifth and final pour as I'm never quite sure about that one. Great for problem skin and in a face mask treatment though - which is why it is included.

I'm running out of room here, but I don't want to start packing into boxes just yet as that is so much easier when everything is ready. If I can just make room so that I can sort the packaging out.......note to self: Don't forget the muslin cloths Yes, you're right - I say that as I DID forget the muslin once. Luckily the customer was very understanding and we sent more in the post before she'd even got round to making her hot cloth cleanser.

That's it! I do believe I have everything ready. I can start packing them into boxes. Gone are the days when we'd have to print over 100 pages of courseware to go with the ingredients - all the courseware and assignments are downloadable from the students accounts and the quizzes are now taken online.

I'd be very excited to receive one of these boxes and knowing how quickly these sell, I'm sure it won't be long before I'm making up more boxes! For more details about this home study course, please visit our website

Seaweed Skin Care

2010-02-19T06:32:00.000-08:00

I remember hanging up a piece of seaweed outside my grandmother's house so that we could predict the weather during our summer holidays.

Freshly picked off Bonchurch beach, our wonderful slimy strands of 'octopus legs' seaweed adorned her front porch. Each morning we'd hope to find it crisp and dry indicating a hot sunny day ahead - and I'm sure we were never disappointed. Why were summer holidays always longer and hotter than they seem to be now?

Seaweed has always been close to my heart (and no, not just because I love to eat sushi!). We use it in several of our products in the form of kelp and spirulina. It's nourishing, exfoliating and can colour and texture. It has an aroma which if I'm kind, I'll call it oceanic, but on other days I'll call it downright stinky and we have fun finding essential oils to mask the aroma.

A couple of my private students are planning to start up a new handmade skincare range for their salon - one of the treatments they currently use is a caviar body scrub. They are looking to replace it with a fresh seaweed body scrub.

I read an article yesterday that said certain seaweed extracts can slow down the signs of ageing by inhibiting the skin degrading enzymes – enabling the skin to remain plump, firm and wrinkle-free for longer. A study showed that skin tone, firmness and elasticity showed an improvement of 67.6% over a 12 week period and reduced skin dryness and roughness by 92.1%. Now that’s good news!

Seaweed is also rich in minerals and has proven antibacterial qualities so it makes the perfect ingredient for certain skincare products.

For those of you not lucky enough to live near a beach or rockpools in order to harvest your own seaweed, grab yourself some powdered kelp or spirulina and have some fun with our seaweed mask recipe. Who knows, perhaps it will bring the sun out at last!

2009-12-11T01:59:00.000-08:00

Its foggy and cold here this morning with no sign of snow - so we thought we'd make our own. Not only make snow, but we thought we'd keep in good Plush Folly tradition and make pink snow!

So here is our recipe for pink snowflakes.....

Ingredients:
Pipe cleaners or thin bendy wire
Very hot water
*Epsom Salts (how much you need depends upon the size of your glass jar)
Pink liquid soap colouring (food colouring will do)
Glass jar
A pencil or wooden stick
A 14 cms (6 inch) piece of string or ribbon

* you can use Borax instead of Epsom Salts if you wish

Method:

Cut your pipe cleaners in to a length of about 7cms (2.5 inches). You will need 4 pieces of pipe cleaner in total. Twist the pieces together to form an eight sided star shape. Tie your piece of string or ribbon to the very top of the snowflake.

Pour very hot (just boiled) water into the jar or glass container so that it is three quarters full. Add your Epsom salts and stir until dissolved. Keep adding more Epsom salts and stirring until you have saturated the liquid and no more can be dissolved. It is fine to have a few Epsom salt crystals lying on the bottom of the jar. Add a drop of colouring and stir into the water (add more if you want darker coloured crystals).

Place your snowflake shape into the liquid in the jar so that it is immersed completely. Tie the ribbon or string to the pencil (or stick) so that the snowflake is suspended in thte jar and not touching the bottom.

Leave somewhere for 24-48 hours and watch the crystals start to appear.

There we have it (well in a few hours anyway) - pink snow! Be sure to check back in a few days when we post the finished flake.

Kits, kits and more kits!

2009-12-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Training courses for 2009 have nearly finished which will give us time to pack up kits.

We love our kits and get excellent feedback from them
'More than a kit, this is a lesson in a box',
'what a wonderful time I have had and what a great choice of ingredients, thank you!' '
I'm working my way through them all, deciding which one to do next is always a difficult choice'

So if you are stuck for a present this Christmas, or want to brighten up a dull January day, why not have a look at our range of kits.

We have glycerine soap making kits, lip gloss kits, bath fizz kits, mineral makeup kits, cold process soap kits, hand cream kits, moisturiser kits, shampoo kits, conditioner kits, perfume making kits, body scrub kits, body butter kits, face mask kits, toner & body gel kits, room diffuser kits....now that's a big choice!

See our website for the full range

Making Liquid Soap

2009-12-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

At last! We have been working hard on our Making Liquid Soap home study course and I am so thrilled that it is in its final testing stages and almost ready to roll out.

The course includes how to make a hand soap, a body wash, a bubble bath and a mild shampoo and we use a droolingly beautiful list of ingredients during the programme.

We have bottles of testing going on by various friends and family so that we can ensure that the products made on the course are suitable and loved by all. We've also been able to cancel our membership to the gym (you'll see why!).

So if you fancy being elbow deep in bubbles in February (we are working towards releasing the the course during the last week of January), check out the web page here You'll see that it's on a special pre-release price if you buy it now.

Making Perfume: Everything Makes Scents

2009-12-01T11:47:00.001-08:00

Gosh, its been a while since we blogged but so much has been happening. I'm making it an early New Year's resolution to blog more often!

We're crazy about some of the new scents we have been ordering in for the 'Making Perfume: Everything Makes Scents' workshop. We have extended the course from half a day to a full day as we were finding it difficult to cram everything in!

Sitting on the desk in front of me I have some lovely aromas - Gracefruit's Pomegranate Noir is one of our favourites, as is their Tobacco Leaf. Cathy loves the Japanese Plum (which makes a change, she normally goes for anything to do with Rose) and Byony is eyeing up the musk (better smell than the Body Shop range apparently!)

In our last workshop, some of the students were tyring to design a Perfume for Michelle Obama. The winning perfume comprised rosewood, cedarwood, vetiver, violet and lily. It was stunning - a subtle yet pervading floral aroma with haunting undertones of woodland.

My daughter has tasked me with making her a warm berry perfume - not too sweet, not too fruity, not too cloying and not too strong 'that Daddy will be commenting'. She knows what she wants - let's just hope I can deliver!

If you'd like to design and wear your own perfume, why not come and join us on one of our perfume making workshops. We don't just stop at perfume but create blends suitable for a room spray or diffuser, a linen spray or pillow perfume too - plus we enjoy sampling and analysing some of the big name brands.

For more information on the Perfume Making course, please see the course description on our website. We also have a 'Make Your Own Beautiful Perfume / Aftershave' kit for those of you that want to try making perfume at home.

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

2009-05-09T00:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-31T12:54:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-22T10:50:00.001-08:00

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

2009-02-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

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!

Making Perfumes - the power of smell

2009-02-01T12:21:00.000-08:00

Never underestimate the power of smell, its an extraordinary sensation (excuse the pun)

Whilst writing the Making Perfume: An Adventure Trail course, I had an overwhelming urge to sniff everything I came into contact with. I guess it's like reading a cookery book when you're hungry, you want to devour the contents of the fridge! Translate 'reading a cookery book' to 'writing a perfume course' and you'll understand how I felt. My nose sampled everything from wet washing to dry washing (they smell very different - and yet the only difference is water...), a ream of freshly opened printer paper, a brand new leather diary, burnt apple sauce (don't ask) and every conceivable fruit, vegetable and flower I could lay my hands on. I think Sainsburys have be down as a serial veg sniffer, luckily they appear to be very understanding.

The rather cloying and not-my-favourite ylang ylang, became livened up with lime, mellowed with vetiver and full bodied with patchouli. It was then spiced with sandalwood, peppered with bay, lightened with a pinch of orris and rounded off with a touch of bergamot. What a splendid aroma it is now - I've splashed it liberally around the shop and been noting people's reactions when they come in. The result is a definite success and ylang ylang is back up there on my list of 'gorgeous essential oils'!

Make Your Own Perfume Course

2009-01-27T10:43:00.000-08:00

We have been drooling over some of the wonderful products included in the Making Perfume: An Adventure Trail home study programme.

The amber resin is so lovely that I keep smelling the back of my hands where I rubbed a little of the crystalised pieces. We have some infusing in jojoba oil in our workshops and Cathy keeps undoing the lid so she can have a little 'snort' .......mmmm quite delicious!

Writing the course has made me 'hungry' for scents and I'm delighted that today I've satisfied my desire with a perfume that starts with the top notes of aldehyde, peach and leafy greens with a subtle hint of neroli. Just as your nose adjusts to this fizzy explosion, the sensuous middle notes unravel and burst into life with an uproar of sweet jam-like rose, sugary fresh jasmine and tuberose. Ylang ylang makes a subtle lazy appearance quickly followed by a glorious full bodied musky finish.

If you want to know what perfume I'm wearing, and how to make a similar one yourself, all is revealed in the course!

Highest Toast - World Record

2008-09-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

We were delighted to see that Freddie's toaster has succeeded in gaining him a place in the Guiness Book of Records for the world's highest toast! See his toast in action here!

We met Freddie when he came to our workshops to make the world's longest lipstick. He had carefully calculated - based on an article he'd read in Vogue - how much lipstick a woman will consume in a year. We then worked with Freddie to create a lipstick weighing the same weight. Not exactly a handy size to carry around in your handbag - but hey, what a creation!

Back to the toast......I'm hoping that Caroline, Alison & Ruth (yes, my chickens arrived on Saturday!) will start laying soon so that I can enjoy fresh eggs on my piece of the world's highest toast!

Just like buses!

2008-09-12T03:11:00.000-07:00

Two come along at once......

Having recovered from our radio 'appearance', we then find ourselves as part of a Channel 4 production! We had a hilarious afternoon filming with Channel 4 for a programme called Bite.

The presenter, Zena, came to Plush Folly and had a whacky afternoon making lip gloss, 'pink pampering pack' and 'Me Me Me Me ME!'

I shall say no more. Check out the Plush Folly website to watch the shinnanagans (I've no idea how to spell that word.....)

Biodiesel Soap

2008-09-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Not the most glamorous of soaps to look at, but we have made our first batch of soaps using brown glycerine gloop from biodiesel.

Chris, from Essex, sent us a large pot of the brown gloop to try out before we teach him how to create his own soap. Carefully wrapped in newspaper and secured in a box, it arrived leaking. As we were out, the postman kindly delivered it to our neighbours house......dripping its gunk in a steady, but discreet flow. Luckily, if you put in enough elbow grease, it makes a wonderful parquet floor polish so our neighbours were more than understanding!

We ended up with 480g to include in our first batch - so only 4 bars were produced. We used the hot process method to make the soap and even after a week it is a little on the soft side. We'll leave it a little longer before we try a bar and send the rest back to Chris for his comments.

In the meantime, it's fading to an amber gold colour and, thanks to the addition of sweet orange and patchouli essential oils, smells a darn site better than it did on the neighbours floor!

Not Cosmetics but Chickens!

2008-09-02T12:15:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited - I'm getting some chickens! OK, so its a world away from cosmetics, pink, glitter and fluff, but I simply can't wait.

I have the hen house and the run and am scouring books researching what bantams are prolific layers, have a friendly disposition and are hardy and 'easy' to keep.

Alison keeps calling me 'Felicity' from the Good Life - I think I may call one of my chickens 'Alison'.

Will keep you reported on how I get on with choice of breed (and names!)

Making Cosmetics - on the radio?!

2008-08-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we were lucky enough to be invited onto BBC Radio Solent to discuss the art of making cosmetics at home.

Live on air we made a lip gloss (using beeswax, olive and castor oil, shea and cocoa butter) coloured witha little red wine coloured mica. The radio presenter loved it and commented on how soft it made her lips feel (great for those air conditioned studios).

Then came the hysterical part ! The presenter selected to make a face mask was the lovely Jon Cuthill (not much hair on his head, but sporting much facial hair!). After tasting many of the ingredients and pronouncing them 'delicious' (good thing it was radio so you couldn't see the grimace he was pulling), he opted to make his mask with Wild Yam powder and Strawberry extract. After much clinking of teaspoons (oh those special effects you can get away with on the radio) and stirring of the powders and clay, Jon literally spread the paste over much of his face and head.

As the mask tightened, his voice became more and more clipped until it was impossible for him to continue presenting the show! Cue for a break - a dash to the washrooms, and Jon emerged looking "younger, glowing, and downright good looking!".

Hmmmm, if it did all that for Jon, I guess I should give my husband the same treatment.......Nick darling, wild yam and strawberries for 'supper' tonight!