Esme ulland-joy, 10

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of a two-part column by 10-year-old Esme Ulland-Joy. The first part was published Dec. 2.

Do you remember that in my last column at the beginning I said I hadn’t gotten a good bath bomb recipe? Well, this past summer I went to my aunt’s house to stay a few nights. Yes, it is the same aunt who gave me the Harry Potter craft book. I discovered that she also made bath and body products, so I emailed her and we chatted about recipes over email. When I was at her house we made bath bombs. We also made roll-on perfume and room spray. The bath bomb recipe we used was awesome. It made the bathroom smell so, so, so good.

Before our next trip to my grandparents’ house I started getting a lot more supplies. My mom ordered a ton of supplies from an online store called Bulk Apothecary for me to bring to my grandma’s house. It was cool because since my grandma used to be a scientist (now she is a writer) she told me a lot about her work and how she had to buy samples of hair to test shampoo for the company she worked for. The reason I went to my grandma’s house was because my mom and dad were going on a trip. When they came back I had made three soaps, two chocolate lip scrubs, spearmint lotion and lavender body scrub. I gave my mom one of the lip scrubs and the body scrub and my dad the lotion. I love making gifts for people and was very impatient for my mom to answer my emails about what scent she wanted, so several times I had to borrow my grandma’s phone to text her to say, “Mom check your email!”

My godmother Carolyn came to visit for my birthday this year, so I decided to make a fall-themed bath and body gift basket. In it was a lavender vanilla body scrub, a cinnamon and sweet orange hand and body lotion, a bath bomb, pumpkin spice lip scrub, chamomile bath soak that could also be a foot soak and lastly an apple cinnamon spice foot soak. The bath soak is in a bigger container so it would be more appropriate for a bath, but some people don’t take baths so it can also be a foot soak.

I started an at-home business called Esme’s Fresh Homemade Cosmetics, but I then realized that cosmetics are more like make-up so I changed the name to Superior Land Bath and Body (do not copy). If you want to start making bath and body supplies, I would recommend starting with a kit. Experiment and look up recipes online. Sugar scrub is, in my opinion, the easiest thing to make because all you need is sugar and coconut oil. You can also add scent and coloring, but if you just want a quick, non-expensive exfoliator that you can make at home, definitely use sugar and coconut oil. There are many soap recipes online and in books and whenever making soaps there are endless possibilities.

My goals for making bath and body products are to get ingredients for a face mask without honey, to make lotion with cocoa butter and to keep working hard and hopefully be at the farmers market one day. I hope you enjoyed learning about my passion and I hope this inspired you to give this a try.

Editor’s note: Esme Ulland-Joy, is 10 and is in the fifth grade at Sandy Knoll Elementary School. Esme loves ballet, reading and science.