The fields of grain are ripening to gold. The weather forecasts have alternate days of rain and sunshine. I haven’t seen a combine harvester in the fields this year, but I expect them any day now.
Lughnasadh, or Lammas is the first of the annual harvest festivals. It falls on 01 August in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s the celebration of the grain harvest.
From Yule to Litha, the winter solstice to the summer solstice, I’ve produced cosmetic creams with fragrances. The creams all have the same base (#14) and are combined with blends of essential oils. For Lughnasadh I’ve abandoned the base + fragrance formula. Taking the shorter of the alternate names (to fit on a label), Lammas Lotion relies on its ingredients for its fragrance. The fragrance comes from oats and wheatgerm oil, with just a hint of vanilla to add sweetness.
Lammas Lotion is lighter than the cold creams (#14, #21, #22). More than half the total ingredients are water based, so it cannot rely on beeswax alone as the emulsifier.
Another consequence of the higher water content is that this cream is more prone to fungal and bacterial contamination than a cold cream. There are no essential oils, which are natural preservatives. Instead, the Lammas Lotion recipe is dosed with a natural preservative (Naticide). It has a slight vanilla and almond scent, so works well with the smells of grain and vanilla. Naticide is described as “made from essential oil compounds”. I would read that as being a chemically modified natural product.
When I use very small quantities of ingredients, say 1-5 ml, I use a syringe to measure them out. The syringes have blunt needles. They are sold for refilling inkjet printer cartridges.