Washing Up the Blues

Today started out okay, then it got better, then (now) I feel so . . . blue. I think it has to do with the fact that I read some really nasty things on the blogosphere about one of my favorite vendors and wondered if they were true. What I receive from this vendor has always been top notch stuff, things I really enjoy, things that work! But reading what I read, man, it just kind of knocks the wind out of the sail of enthusiasm I have for this vendor. I feel very sad for her, and mistrust has crept in. Darn it! I will continue to use her services and products, but there will also be that niggling feeling in the back of my mind about what's gone on. This is common 'out here', in 'net land, the politics within a given community (perfume, magic, soap, candles, authors, underwater basket weavers) can be vicious and unfair and ruin a reputation, if not an entire livelihood. So, in a show of support, because until I personally experience something negative from this vendor, I won't judge. I've just now ordered something from her. I apologize for being cryptic and not naming names. I'm not here to 'out' anybody. I'm just making an observation of why my mood may have taken a sudden nosedive. That's all.

I got a bunch of big-ass bottles of essential oils and stinky stuff gifted to me recently, and I was playing around with the 'cocoa resinoid', a fat liter bottle about 1/3 full of splishy-splashy liquid, and about 1/4 of solid resin. I had to warm the bottle in hot water in order to mix some of the resin into the liquid menstruum, and when I did, wow! When I first sniffed this bottle, I got a weird alcoholy smell from it, not like a diluent, but as a characteristic of the cocoa resinoid itself. Too much alcohol smell. So when I warmed it and mixed it in with the resinoid, I got the full effect of that cocoa -- it is so intoxicating! Animalic, warm, ambery, chocolatey (of course!), hints of tobacco and cherry and plum. It's incredible.