Frankincense & Teak + Smoke & Mirrors = warm & sexy!

The project today was to use a blend I’d put together using an FO from Mad Oils called Smoke & Mirrors plus one from Fragrance Laboratory called Frankincense & Teak (not currently available) plus a portion of the olive oil being infused with frankincense tears.  This is a fairly new thing for me, infusing oils, as I rarely had the botanicals around to do it, but these came to me serendipitously with an order placed with Mad OIls and this FO from Fragrance Labs just screamed to be used with them.  So, The infusion was done a couple of weeks ago, then set aside in a sealed jar for future use.

The blend of the two FOs was something that was achieved due to the light, elusive scent of the Smoke & Mirrors FO. It’s a glorious scent, don’t get me wrong, but very light and hard to pin down.  With the base notes being smoky, it seemed ideally suited to a blend with something that was wood-based and earthy, which is exactly what the Frankincense  & Teak boldly states. I absolutely love this fragrance and it blended perfectly like a long-lost lover with the Smoke & Mirrors.  So onward & upward we go.

 Here’s the emulsified state so it’s now ready to separated out into individual pouring pitchers for the colours. Those turned out to be Key West Blue from Mad Oils, Cancerian Heat from TKB Trading, Pearl White Mica from TKB, and Blackstar Blue, also TKB’s,  with a dash of activated charcoal.  The base colour is the white.  I’m in a rut, I know using the white part as my base all the time, but it’s my comfort zone.  One day I’ll be bold and break free, but that’s not today.  I used very little of the black colour in this loaf so as not to overwhelm the other colours which were also dark.   It still had plenty of contrast despite the deep colours, and swirled very easily throughout.

I tried a modification on a hanger swirl.  The standard was always, and this is just me, so don’t shoot the messenger for having their own opinion, a bit boring and rather plain.  Yes, it’s unique, but just doesn’t really say “Bazinga, look at me!”  So I tried something a bit different. Not even the butterfly technique.  Something else entirely.  I’m not sure I even did it right for what I was shooting for, but once I see how it turns out, I’ll alter it based on what this one’s results are.  I apologize for being cryptic, but in swirling techniques when trying out new moves, cryptic is all you have until you slice up the loaf.  Hopefully that can be done tomorrow and I’ll edit this post to show what it looks like inside and if anything needs to be changed with the motion used in it.  Hope you like!  Bubble on! (Pics of the wet soap are below….)