life goal: infamous recluse
The thing I can't possibly stress enough about why, exactly, reconstructing Early Modern recipes totally belongs in the field of game design is that for all there is the joy and satisfaction and some kind of mystic cross-time connection with creators of the past OR WHATEVER--
Back in the summer of 2023, I had been pouring through the Early English Books Online database (as one does), and came across William Salmon's Polygraphice (1673)--within which I found the following: "VI. To rectifie the Breath..."
The thing about trying to Frankenstein a lavender soap out of bits and pieces of a bunch of historical recipes...
I had for some time wondered what would happen when my various apothecary nonsense things went bad. I sometimes had things that turned out strange, and some things that didn’t set right and turned out gross, but eventually the day did come when I had something TURN BAD from OLD AGE.
The time has come for some actual pomatum and 100% less fun with fire (as the prophecy foretold).
So remember that time. When I thought it was a good idea. To try and make a new soap in the later hours of my evening.
Or apothecary, same difference.
As I sit here with the luxurious scent of soap I bought in London gently wending its way from betwixt the too-weak atoms of the quart-sized freezer bag I've unceremoniously shoved them into, I think to myself: Yes, good, *this* is the atmosphere I need to relay more *Soap Adventures.*
Over the previous week and a half, I have received as a consequence of my recent birthday, the following--
It's from October of last year, but my blog, my rules HA, I'm calling it NEW, OKAY-- I was interviewed by my undergraduate alumnae magazine about my experimental archaeology!
Katherine Crighton 