Enfleurage

Hi. Personally I like coconut oil but more in theory than practice. I prefer jojoba for most things. Tom likes coconut very much and uses it in massage a lot. He's probably more of a coconut fan than me. Here in Oman we have it everywhere but I still bring jojoba. With the whole oil you have the 76 degree hardening as well

And grapeseed oil I am not a fan of. People seem to like it and ask for it so we carry it in the store. But yeah, I think there are a lot of biocides used and for sure it goes off quickly. I think for massage it's ok, I don't have a fit if someone uses it on me, but if you buy it, use it directly. Old grapeseed oil is just nasty

I do it ... the good thing about making your own products (for me) is that I use my intuition about what might work best for me (a creative process), and it's always a fluid process in the sense that you can change and adapt - your skin changes, you use a different essential oil or natural moisturizing oil, or shea butter, etc or one of the above ... Read Morethat is new to me that might work best at different times... New ideas you can follow as they come to you. When I really need a "purifying" "cleansing" kind of incense there is no substitute frankincense - I don't think I've ever used water incense I'll have to come in for a demonstration :-)

i used to make a scrub with ground up almonds, rosebuds, jojoba oil and essential oils of patchouli, sandalwood and a little rose or neroli but you could add any. It was really great for face in particular but gave a super lovely after-fragrance for the body. Kind of a muhammaria wedding night thing

water incense? jeez where have I been?

it's to scent the water one offers guests to drink. It's a mix of spices, frankincense and some other stuff. You burn it in a little stone bowl--a filz, on coals so it burns clean. As the smoke rises, you can hold a bowl upside down over it to catch the smoke. Once you have a bowlful of smoke, turn the bowl over gently but swiftly and then pour the water into the bowl, through the smoke.

Sigh, ever have a holiday sale for facebook fans or qat chewers?

sell some in your shop!

yeah, it would be fun to distill some. Cant see the opportunity though...oh, and dea made it illegal years ago when the us pulled out of somalia. (Somalis chew qat and the image of qat and kalashnikovs became linked in the american media.)

And of course yemen is all the stranger and more interesting for the briliant cake-like architecture and the daily qat chew, which makes the whole country stoned.

fascinating :-)