Newsletter: December 2018

I’m currently sitting outside of my future job (I start in thirty minutes my first day is today! Yeek!) and since most of you have known what I’ve given up and have gained to get to this point, I think it’s safe to say I’m as nervous as it’s physically possible to be.

This will be my first real job outside of China since 2002. I’m starting off in retail. Oh yeah. Can you imagine it? This means I have to actually wear nice clothes and no jammies when I talk to customers. I already miss my slippers. It’s only seasonal work, but still. It is a job, and it’s my first one where I am not a teacher!

This past month has had me doing some truly amazing and wonderful things. I formulated my very first AHA product with Aristoflex AVC- and I’m kind of shocked it worked on the first go, so currently testing that out before I tweak it, then share it with you. I also got my hands on some hibiscus extract so have been playing with that too. And, made my very first liquid body butter! I know! Weird! Liquid Body Butter!

It had me visiting Dublin where I got to meet my girl crush Marie Rayma from HumbleeBee & Me. And let me just say, she is way awesomer in person than she is on her website! I’ve been following Marie for… many many years now! If you haven’t visited her site, go give it a view! She’s put out a spectacular Sugar Plum Christmas gift theme this year and it is awe-inspiring! Not to mention, bookmarked for when I get me in some plum oil! We got to sit around and drink pints of Guinness which started in the morning (liquid of the gods! Or maybe it was just the company I was in?), and just chat. It was really awesome! I truly can’t wait to do it again!

And that was probably my highlight from the past month.

I also had the pleasure of having my very first workshop with a student here in Ireland. It was something unique and new to be formulating with someone who truly wanted to learn and absorb the information I had to pass on. And it was wild to be using terms and phrases I’ve only ever seen on the screen. I was tongue tied a lot!

So that’s me in a nutshell! What have you been up to?