When they were little, the girls loved our summertime essential oil recipes. Now that they have grown into big girls, they cannot live without them. We still mix-up the bubble gum recipe and bump-buster juice; we have carefully developed our own formula for all natural sunscreen-we like cucumber a lot, and we, naturally, believe in lavender and chamomile with just about everything. We also have carefully researched and experimented with chlorine-busting shampoo, because we hate green hair almost as much as we hate seaweed. Most of all, though, we depend on “octopus snot,” the Junior Lifeguards’ nickname for aloe vera gel, which appears to soothe and cure just about all the causes and consequences of intermittent summertime blues. If aloe vera gel came in fifty-five gallon drums, we would invest…and we still would run out before summer’s end https://thecollectedhouse.com/what-im-loving-summer-essentials/.
I admit I still have not found exactly the right stuff for duplicating Coppertone’s fragrance. I finally caved and wrote to the media relations department at Schering-Plough, makers of Coppertone.. For me, the elusive, allusive fragrance of Coppertone oil serves as the E-ticket to summertime bliss; I still have a couple of very old E-tickets somewhere, too…while I’m searching for summertime essentials.
Meanwhile, for the softball team, we busily have formulated soaps and shampoos in all the girls’ favorite fragrances. We have perfected really good imitations of all the big designers’ best mixes. And the girls do not feel the least bit shy about wanting and needing potent cleansers. We have become big fans of Rosemary for shampoo and conditioner, and we always have appreciated chamomile in soaps and shampoos, because it smoothes, soothes, and sweetens all it touches. Naturally, citrus rules in cleansing products, so we load-up shower products with the entire cornucopia-not just lemon, but also orange, mandarin, grapefruit (sadly under-rated), and lime. Naturally, we lace the mixes with vanilla, the most innocent of scents; they may play like beasts, but even the pitcher and catcher still are little girls becoming women. The girls go into the locker room fragranced with infield dirt; they come out smelling like super-models.