Serendib House at L!VE Cafe, with new products and varieties

Woot! I was running about 30 minutes late, but with the help of Kavi and her friend Emma, Serendib House is finally set up at L!ve Cafe (163 S. Oak Park Ave.) and open for business until 3 p.m. So far, the pomegranate-vanilla soap, Kavi’s lip balms, the sandalwood-rose body butter, the marshmallow gift boxes, and the cookbooks have been popular.Β 

Come by, say hi!

#serendibkitchen
#serendibhome

*****

Little customer

Little customer for Serendib Home, trying out the sandalwood & rose body butter.

 

 

 

Marshmallows in cute little boxes

I was feeling a little bummed that I’d run out of time to make truffles, esp. since I’d bought these cute little boxes for them, and then I realized that in fact, marshmallows fit perfectly into the exact same boxes.Β  (Selling at L!ve Cafe until 3 today…)

#serendibkitchen

 

 

For today’s sale @ L!ve Cafe, I’ve carefully put all the food items to the right of me, and all the body butter (pictured below) to the left of me, and still, many people are tempted to try eating the body butter. It won’t hurt them, since it’s just shea butter + mango butter, with a little color & scent, but it is not particularly tasty.Β Β But SO PRETTY.

(Pictured: Sandalwood & Rose; Mango, Vanilla & Lime)

#serendibhome
#serendibkitchen

Sandalwood & rose body butter
Mango, vanilla & lime body butter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pomegranate & vanilla bath salt

Kavya and Emma agreed that this pomegranate & vanilla bath salt was the prettiest item in the display. It’s fun layering the salts, and I *love* these hex glass jars.

#serendibhome

 

I tried to make the bath products either South Asian-y or Christmas-y — love how this mango, lime, and vanilla soap came out. Like a jello & sherbet dessert. And when you put the mica coloring in with the glycerin, for just a moment, it feels like Holi.

#serendibhome

 

 

 

Favorite new mold — dragon eye! (The flying dragon is also cool.) The pomegranate dragon eye is perhaps my coolest holiday soap. Β I’m hoping someone is delighted to find this for their fantasy-obsessed partner’s stocking gift…

 

Mango, vanilla & lime body butter

Glass jars cost about the same as plastic jars, interestingly, so my inclination would normally be to do all glass jars, but of course, for shipping, plastic is safer (and lighter). So I ended up with a mix of them. There are so many little details to a physical product, whether it’s a book of a jar of body butter. Just doing the writing part is, in some ways, simpler.Β 

#serendibhome

Chocolate chai soaps
Melt and pour soap is not so easy to swirl — you need to get the temperatures exactly
right. I gather cold-process soap swirls much more easily; maybe I’ll try experimenting with that next summer. (I’m planning to basically be done with bath product making until AFTER next semester ends.) This batch of chocolate chai soaps didn’t swirl as much as I’d hoped; ah well. They’re still pretty, in a more muted sort of way…

Marshmallow sampler

Now THESE, you can eat. Β They went out with the ALMOST-LAST physical Kickstarter orders this week. I have two more orders to hand deliver in Oak Park, and two more people who we’re trying to track them down for addresses, and then I am pretty sure that we’ll just have the digital orders left, that WILL go out by Monday 12/23, come hell or high water.

(Jed, I’m planning to get you that last bit you need by tomorrow; I hope you’ll have time to put that in.)

#serendibkitchen

 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *