Peppermint Kiss by Kelly McKain

Author:Kelly McKain
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Usborne Publishing
Published: 2012-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

On Sunday morning we got to work creating our range of beauty products, juices and smoothies. We’d settled on holding a grand opening, with free samples, canapés, juices and mini-treatments, in two weeks’ time (which Liam said was possible, just!). That would coincide with the beginning of the summer holidays, so that Grace and I could be there too, to look after reception, make the smoothies and keep things clean and tidy.

Mum had bought a surprise for us – pink-striped aprons like we had when we were little (but from the pound shop, not Whisk, this time!). It was strange, thinking that the last time we were all together wearing aprons like this and making yummy beauty stuff, I was sitting on the counter, the smallest little girl, being given the easy jobs and not allowed near the stove. And now I was in charge, directing everyone.

First we started on some little soaps. It was strange, scrubbing our hands and arms right up to the elbow, putting on hairnets (which we had hysterics over!) and sterilizing all the equipment before we started. It really made it feel like a proper professional business.

The scale was different too – instead of making, say, ten little star soaps, we were doing fifty. And where I sometimes guessed quantities, now I was having to weigh and measure everything out carefully, to make sure we stuck to the budget for each product. As Grace (aka the new Alan Sugar!) told me sternly, there was no point in making things that cost more to produce than we could sell them for. The other thing that soon became clear was that, if we were going to have any chance of getting as much as we hoped done before midnight, we’d have to work as a team. We weren’t doing all the products in one day, of course. But we planned to make a good selection, and then we could add to that later in the week if we had time, as well as making up all the fresh face masks at the last minute. The masks only had about a three-week shelf life in the fridge, so we wanted to leave them as late as possible.

I set Saff to work on a couple of oranges and lemons with a grater, to get the strips of peel I wanted to put in the soaps, and Grace was in charge of squeezing the oil out of their skins, to give the soaps a really fresh, zesty smell. I melted the soap base myself because you have to be careful to get the temperature right or it goes all cloudy and brown, and then I added the orange or lemon oil. Mum was in charge of pouring the liquid soap into my cute little star moulds and adding a few strips of peel to each one before leaving them to set.

It seemed to take ages to do those, but we soon got into our stride and started turning out batches of Rose & Geranium Bath Bombs, and then lavender ones, which we named Luscious Lavender.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.