Out with the Old and in with the -- um -- Old?

Whatever.

I've been asked (repeatedly for years and years now) to bring back some of the oldies but goodies (even greaties and spectacularities *shaking head*) that were created in the days when the Djinn was a Delicia. As in delicious. As in a street front store in a trendy part of town where we, my business partner and I, concocted lovely balms, butters, soaps, perfumes, oils and various other bathing sundries, whilst watching the hustle and bustle of life outside our big picture window.

Delicia was a new gig in town and a lot of people were perplexed. We were interviewed by the local newspaper, and included in the annual "Taste of the Tower" event, as well as participants in the local business' Mardi Gras parade. People would come into our little shop of aromatic wonders and stand in the doorway, mouths hanging open, eyes wide with curiosity, and they'd ask, "Do you guys do piercings?" The more the question was asked, the more snarky and nasty our responses would become. One of my kids was helping out one Saturday afternoon when a particularly obnoxious youngster walked in, stopped dead in his tracks, and said, "What the f**k?! Do you guys do piercings?" To which my child replied sweetly while handing the potty mouth a sample bar of soap, "Yes, we do. First, go wash your tongue with this. Use the hose out front."

It took a while for people to figure out that the piercer was gone, long, long gone, and it was just us, the soap ladies in residence now. Our regulars came in for vats of lavender body butter and fat baby head sized fizzing bath bombs scented with burnt sugar and jasmine sambac. Some came for king-sized bottles of massage oil on a weekly basis (?), some came simply to hang out and chat. One older gentleman came to wash the windows twice a week for a five spot and a bar of peppermint soap, "Lunch and a bath," he would say. This was a neighborhood shop and the regulars lived within walking distance of our little shop, though we did have quite a few folks driving in from across town. And then our online business was hopping crazy.

But what I remember most about it all were the products -- the creativity and ingenuity behind all the skin care -- so I've decided to dig out all the old recipe books and scour them for some new stuff, the stuff with pumpkin seed oil in residence, and organic hemp oil, and mango butter. Already tweaking and playing around . . .

Fall is my favorite time of year, a time of rejuvenation.