Trivial Pursuit

It's going to be a rough rest of the year. It reminds me of the atmosphere in 2008 when everything went pear-shaped. As a small business owner, this is especially scary. People are holding onto their money now, just as they were then, the only difference between now and then is the internet. This time around, people are burnt out by online education and Zoom meetings, and everything that entails. The times we live in dictate that this is something we should get used to, however, it is still a hard pill to swallow when handing over a few hundred dollars to learn something via Zoom or on some other online platform, so people are faltering. Though it is the future and the now, that doesn't make it any less frustrating. Money is the matter. Normally by this time of the year, I would have taught no fewer than two in-person soap-making workshops, one perfumery workshop, and two or three incense workshops, garnering a little extra money for living expenses. Live workshops are as beneficial to me as they are for the people attending them as they also give me an opportunity to come out of my cast iron shell and talk about the things I love talking about. 

I've had to reformulate the base soap ingredients because the cocoa butter was causing some issues with hardness and brittleness, as well as creating a tiny bit of ashiness on the exposed part of the loaves. I haven't had a problem like this with soap in years. Once I reduced the amount of cocoa butter, it improved the overall feel and appearance of the soaps, so that little worry is gone now. I searched the internet for 'fake cocoa butter' because I thought maybe that was a thing and somehow I had gotten it, and I found nothing except for a badly documented video of fake Palmer's lotion. Apparently, in some parts of the world, someone out there is making a mint selling something that isn't cocoa butter lotion in what I assume are recycled or illegally procured Palmer's bottles. The complaint I found about the 'fake' lotion is that it smells like a cleaning product rather than cocoa butter. Rabbit holes. I tell you, they're a trap, but great for Trivial Pursuit game nights.