Conny Oberrauter — The Cosmetics Chef. I chat to Conny about starting her business and her book

David Watts on mix 93.8. Mix 93.8 some legendary radio for you on a Monday night as we do each and every Monday at this time it is what's involved welcome to it great to have you with us special guest in studio I've been looking forward to this for a while we've actually been trying to get the setup for a while but now eventually managed in studio with me my guest this evening Connie Oberata from the cosmetics chef hello Connie hi David so good to be here finally yes we have gone through a bit of a mission to actually get the setup I mean then there was my stuff your stuff my stuff your stuff and so on and so forth but very excited to have you with us you've been on the radio station before it was what more than a year ago I guess I think it was late last year I was with Saskia Viet I think yeah I was about October ish okay but but very quickly yes and I was fascinated and I thought okay I got it got to hear more about this and about this cosmetics chef and that was for a couple of reasons number one is because not only are you a published author but you're also a qualified cosmetic chemist so let's start off with right at the beginning tell us a little bit about Connie I mean where do you come from how did you get into this whole cosmetics thing well basically I'm a girl from the veil from girl the Eden veil so yeah born and bred in the veil and I'd always just love chemistry so I loved chemistry at school and really at that stage I actually wanted to find cures for diseases I wanted to study pharmacology while I was at school but unfortunately parents couldn't afford university so I had to find another way so I literally opened up the yellow pages and you know some people may not know what the yellow pages is I think most of our listeners will know the other pages and I just looked for chemical companies to do a bursary or some kind of apprenticeship because in those days you could still do apprenticeships and I came across so many companies just said no no no and eventually one of the companies I came across told me I needed to speak to a lady who ran a cosmetics manufacturing company so I got a hold of her and she invited me to spend the day with her at her cosmetics factory and this was really just literally a day after I finished my metric exams and I went and spent the day with her and I learned about making cosmetics and my mind was blown away and I absolutely fell in love and I knew that that's where I had to be are we allowed to ask you what the company is though the company unfortunately is no longer on it was called Q cosmetics and the lady's name was Diane I wish I could remember her surname because she opened doors for me that were absolutely incredible it was amazing so this is one of those okay that's that's now it I want to learn too much how does one because you say here you you're a qualified cosmetic chemist now there's obviously then involved a lot of studying so where did you go how did you do this well the same lady she actually introduced me to a diploma course that is run through the Society of cosmetic chemists known as cos chem and you actually go do a two-year diploma course doing cosmetic chemistry so in universities at the moment there is no specialized cosmetic course so most of the people that are qualified in the industry have got some kind of food degree or a general BAC degree so this actually specializes in the cosmetic science which is all your emulsion technology so I signed up for the course started doing that got in that major I got a job in the industry study part-time and just got to know the real hands-on experience is to literally starting work in a factory I was a factory worker and actually started on the factory floor compounding cosmetics now just the irony of this and one of the reasons that my eyes lit up is when I was going up my dad was he'd moved into the cosmetics industry so he worked for a company in those days it was called cheese bro ponds then it became a leader ponds and now it's lever ponds I believe and he was he was working for them there after he worked moved to Estee Lauder and from there to Revlon and when he was at Estee Lauder I used to sneak in there during the the school holidays and I would sit on the production line and you know see what the guys were doing and how and it was fascinating I mean you know just to sort of see these drums of chemicals and things coming in and then people sort of putting it all together and as luck could have it later later on we actually started our own company where we were we did packaging of cosmetics and chemicals and in those days I don't even know if it exists anymore the mum dry stick the deodorant stick you know we actually got the contact from Bristol my squib in those days and I used to actually make mum dry sticks which involved getting to their factory very early in the morning and all of these steam jacketed vessels and it does it was very alchemical but there was something there was something kind of special about it and so when I saw that that you did the same thing okay this she's a cosmetics chemist she must know her story you say two-year diploma but it's it's not sort of walk in the park is it no it certainly isn't I mean I always joke around it's not rocket science it's cosmetic science so it's just a lot of the first year particularly is a lot of theory a lot about the emulsion technology your actual chemistry behind it skin biology hair biology knowing because I mean that you apply it to your hair and skin so you need to know a lot about that as well and then in the second year focus is a lot more on production manufacturing packaging and all of those things are plural so it is a lot of information and it's not undoable I mean we've had amazing people go through the course but it's just it is a lot of work and you need to have a fair understanding of chemistry or a fair love of chemistry okay so then you qualified then what then you did you work in corporate for a while well I worked for various cosmetic companies so at the stage I'd started out to actually working at a contract manufacturer which also they did a lot of cosmetic well color cosmetics turn your lipsticks nail polishes but they also did your aqueous creams and basic body care products and I'd worked there for a while and then got a job at a bigger cosmetic brand where they actually had their own brand which is a company in Pretoria they did a lot of ethnic haircare products and I just kind of moved around in the industry decided to try being on the supplier side we actually supply the ingredients but they always have a technical lab to test the ingredients before supplying it and then after that I eventually decided to start my own consulting business about ten years ago and I formed the formulation development for other people who wanted to start their own cosmetic brands okay now when you say formulations I would come to you and say Connie I want to start David's cosmetics Inc and I want to sell and I give you a list and then I say okay if you're going to make something pretty is that is that how it works yeah basically I would help a person from product idea to product launch so all I would need from you is you would say I want to make an anti-aging skin cream and I wanted to have amazing benefits on wrinkle reduction or whatever it is and then I would compile the formulation for you I'd actually make samples so that you would have to test them and feel them see if you like them make sure it's within your target costing all these things play a role and then eventually once you get the product that you love the feel of that you've tested and other people have you would approve that and then I would set you up with contract manufacturers that could help you assist with all your legal requirements because of course cosmetics are legislated and making sure that everything is okay so that you can launch a really good cosmetic product that does well and can even be exported fantastic stuff and then that wasn't enough for you and clearly not we'll get on to what was enough for you and where you are in just a little while my guest in studio from the cosmetics chef it's Connie Oberata and she's written an amazing book we'll talk about that as well when we come back and stay listening because she has agreed to give away a fantastic prize towards the end of this evening's hour so looking forward to that David Watts on mix 93.8 nice laid-back and lazy on a Monday evening I hope you guys maybe you're still in traffic because it was a mess let's be honest getting here by the first came from sort of Pretoria side today Connie you just managed to miss the worst of it yes I did and was was one of the clever ones sitting in her car when I arrived here and after and sort of rather long car journey I needed to go to the bathroom quite urgently and it was this toss-up between how long could I sit in the car and whether the rain would ease up needless to say didn't so I looked like a drowned rat but anyway we made it here safe and sound it is what's involved on this Monday night my guest in studio Connie Oberata from the cosmetic shift so you were consulting to people you were making formulas is it is it like I imagine it to be because I kind of imagine it to be very alchemical and I'd see all these sort of test tubes and you know beakers and flasks and bubbling and all those things or is it not nearly as exciting as that no unfortunately not I think it's always like if you if you're involved with CSI and you watch CSI on TV it's always a lot more glamorous in what it really is and I suppose if you went into a perfume company that was actually extracting perfumes or a company that was extracting some kind of natural extract there'd be a lot more of your flasks and bubbling beakers but a normal cosmetics lab is really kind of almost like a kitchen that you can actually just whip a couple of things together you have water products you have oil products you mix them together with a mixer so it's not really actually all that fancy but it looks fancy when it's done so you were consulting they'd what possessed you to go and write a book because I mean I've spoken to many many authors and even more people who've always gone I want to write a book and there's this theory that everybody has at least one book in them and I'm not sure I buy into that but this I mean clearly was it was a labor of love what possessed you why well on the one hand the consulting side I mean I've been doing it for a number of years and as much as I really loved it I also realized that consulting is you selling hours and of course hours are limited and I needed to make a decision about where am I gonna go with my business do I want to employ people do I want to grow this big consulting business or what is it that I want to do and my whole thing has always been I love making the products I love being at the lab bench which was one of the reasons I left the corporate world to become a consultant because I was moving up in management positions and having to do management reports which I really hated so I want to be that lab rat at the bench making product so with the consulting if I had to expand it would be once again moving away from what I love so then I needed to think about a way to do a business where I could still do what I love but have a business that will grow beyond me and a lot of your entrepreneurs will have all said this in their show it's it's always got to be something that eventually becomes something that you could either sell or that becomes something that you can be proud of or grow and employ people or whatever so going the cosmetic chef journey was quite interesting where it was actually a friend of mine who just randomly asked me a question one day I had bought a really great kitchen appliance called a Thermamix and she had said to me well you know this thing heats it does all sorts of things it emulsifies could you make cosmetics in it and in your kitchen so initially I laughed at her and I thought you mad you've got to have a nice lab and you've got to be fancy and you've got to have all the good equipment to really make stuff but she planted the seed and then it started growing in my mind and I thought actually why can't you make cosmetics in the kitchen if I know how to make in a lab why can't I simplify it so that everybody can make it in their kitchen and then I realized well actually I could do a recipe book because who better to get a proper recipe from than an actual cosmetic chemist and I realized there isn't really anything out there like that I thought well time to get a book cracking and that's how the cosmetic chef was born how long did it take because because I've got a copy of the book in studio with me and it's absolutely beautiful I mean it's been very very well put together and I see here you were very you were very modest now I'm reading the back again okay past president Society of cosmetic chemists of South Africa yes really VIP contributor at Japan CIT CIT Wow technical committee members CT FA cosmetics toiletries and fragrance association you where do you find time to write a book in all of that weekends and after hours this must have taken some time well I'm the kind of person once I put my mind to something and I say I'm gonna do it I need to make sure I get it done quickly otherwise I'll lose interest halfway through so I had decided on this idea over the December break in 2016 so January 2017 I'm like okay this is what I need to do so I decided I wanted to make 50 recipes and I just broke it down and because my consulting business was actually really busy my Monday to Friday normal working time was completely full so I literally on weekends would spend the entire Saturday and Sunday in my kitchen and my husband can attest to it the kitchen was taken over and I was trying to adapt all my normal kind of formulations into basic recipes and I spent six months creating the recipes perfecting them testing them getting friends to test them to make sure that I've made it properly and so it literally took me six months to create everything so there was a January I finished all my recipe testing by the July of that year and then I started working on the theory bits because in the book is also a bit about cosmetic science why you need to have emulsifiers what are preservatives what do they do and also skin biology hair biology so you understand the science and how cosmetics react so then I worked on that and then I decided I wanted to do this properly so I made sure I got a proper professional editor I had to send everything off to her got a professional product photographer to come and do the pictures and put the whole thing together so that it could go to the publishers by the October or September October because I wanted to launch in November I wanted it to take me less than a year and that's what happened in November 2017 I launched the book it's a mammoth task though when I when I have a look at the book and I've got to tell you it's absolutely beautiful and you've you've obviously put a lot of time in it but I'm going to start asking you questions now because the first thing is when you said you can make stuff in your kitchen like yeah I remember back in the day there was something which you could buy and they would post to you and it was a little manual called formula and process and in it you could learn to make anything from dishwashing liquid to whatever but getting your hands on the chemicals was at that stage also quite quite a difficult thing and I mean to me and let's talk about that in just a little bit I want to talk to you about what goes into cosmetics and everything because I mean we just got and we buy and we slap it on our faces and hope for the best so we're gonna talk about that but then the book was launched people started obviously buying the book reading the book contacting you when did you then transition into being full-time the cosmetics chef about a year ago we now realize that to really do this brand justice I needed to focus on it so I closed my consulting business it wasn't fair to work on other people's brands while working on my own and also the passion had shifted so I wanted to build my own so also part of the planning with the launch of the book was that I knew that I wanted to also make a lot of those ingredients available the specialized ingredients exactly as you said a lot of ingredients are difficult to get and what I found when I first started the book I first tried to see exactly what products I could make with your basic ingredients that you could buy at a disk and wellness warehouse or health shop and I realized it was very limiting and they didn't feel as great I mean we all are used to buying amazing products and that feeling really great on our skin so that's when I realized I needed to actually use industry specialized ingredients that you can only get in industry you're not gonna find it on a supermarket shelf I realized the only way I can then make recipes like that is to make those ingredients available and I made sort of ingredient kit starter packs or cream kits that fit with the book and they were ready to go when the book launched as well so that when you came across a recipe in the book that needed Beauty Mouse which is one of my emulsifiers it's an organic emulsifier that gives the cream a beautiful feel so that you can really have that you know your body shop type of beautiful luxurious feel so I had to know that you know I had to make sure that that was available to people because it's pointless people can't get the stuff but this must have been quite an investment for you because when you do something like that this kind of stuff isn't available in small quantities I mean the guys that manufactured or wherever you get it from are used to manufacturing in bulk so do you have now a garage full of 200 litre drums luckily I do have a warehouse so it's not necessarily the garage but my lab at home that I'd converted is also full of stock so through my involvement in the industry I have very good relationships with a lot of the suppliers and even through my consulting I used to deal with a lot of the brands that would need to buy smaller pack sizes and when I mean smaller pack size I'm talking 10 kilos so I would buy I've now buy the 10 kilos and I repack it and sell it in a hundred grams because that is more than enough for somebody to make stuff at home you certainly don't want to buy 10 kilos always joke that will be part of your inheritance if you had to yeah okay well listen if you'd like to have a chat to post comment or anything like that you can SMS is 4 1 3 4 8 SMS is charged at 1 ran 50 otherwise whatsapp as 0 8 4 8 double 2 0 9 3 8 somebody's just gone you guys okay maybe the auto correctors working you guys are not talking about this book first products are test for at least 50 years in my reasoning I'm sorry I thought I had to do this not sure if I get there but maybe they're going you have to test products for 50 years surely sciences has moved on from testing because we're gonna get on to this testing but because everybody's got this idea of testing but let's just talk for now about so you made the kits you've got the the product available but that wasn't enough for you because now you have to go out and you still actually host what workshops yes I do workshops where people can actually come and make products with me so it's a three-hour workshop I run them at the Miele kitchen in Bryanston and I try and do them once every two months and we actually make various products so there at the workshops I go into really specialized products we make anti-aging serums and firming body lotions beauty masks so we really go premium in those and you I make the products with you so it's just a nice introduction and it's a fun morning making your own products and you walk away with three products are these organic are they all natural and organic or I mean are they some chemicals that you have to add well the weird chemicals is a bit tricky because in all honesty water is a chemical it's made up of chemicals good point so I always play around of the word chemicals but all of my ingredients are natural or naturally derived and some of them are organic it is very difficult to get organic ingredients in South Africa yeah most of our cosmetic or materials are imported from Europe or the states or elsewhere so it is difficult the South African market the whole cosmetic market is a tiny tiny drop in the ocean in the global market so it is difficult to get a lot of the ingredients here but I try and get organic where I can and as long as it's also reasonable I don't want to get something in that's gonna cost 2,000 rand and then nobody's gonna actually want to be it by that so it's got to be reasonable and affordable but I mean you've got in this book you've got 50 handcrafted recipes so you cover the spectrum yes wonderful stuff we'll talk more about that and I'm gonna ask the difficult questions about cosmetics and chemicals and all the bad things that people put on their skins we'll do that in just a bit Connie Oberata my guest in studio tonight it is what's involved this Monday night my guest in studio this evening the cosmetics chef at Connie Oberata we're discussing the business the evolution of the business and you know a lot of people out there there are those that are of an entrepreneurial nature and then there are those that are not the journey is not an easy one as an entrepreneur so you know if nothing else hats off for that because it hasn't all been a bed of roses I'm sure no certainly not I think we always like to show the good side particularly on social media we'll do the wonderful like oh life is great and they're so successful and you'll blow out of you know how good things are but the reality is it's sleepless nights there is a lot of stress you worry about things a lot of days I feel like I'm in way over my head I don't know what I'm doing I've completely left my comfort zone which is the lab you know there are some days I'm like I have no idea what I'm doing today but you just got to get up figure it out and move along and that does come with its own stress and and obviously as you said you you love being in the lab and now having to kind of go out teach people and I mean this is taking your passion and putting it in a book and in your business and going there it is you know this is my baby this is something I've nurtured and I love and you stand the chance of people going well okay and yet fortunately to date this has not happened but now I need to ask you some difficult questions because you know we look at this and I go oh it's it's like oh we can do it you can make it at home you know you're you're a cosmetic chemist I mean you've been twice the the president of the Society of cosmetic chemists in South Africa this is no small feat you've done VIP contributor at CIT Japan and you've been a what is technical committee member of CTFA mean so CTFA is the cosmetic toiletries and fragrance association in South Africa they are responsible for the legislation around cosmetics so being on the technical committee we keep an eye on legislation we look at all the issues around cosmetics we make sure that people in South Africa it is self-regulated so we do make sure that there's proper standards in place that advertising is done correctly so it keeps an eye on the industry really and we look at all those issues let's talk about let's talk about advertising and marketing because I have become very confused over the last while and it's not just in in terms of cosmetics and stuff one minute but is good for you the next minute it's bad for you then margarine then margarine's bad then we bet now we hear all of these horror stories about the stuff that people are putting in our everyday toiletries cosmetics toothpaste you name it okay and and the one I just I was we were chatting a fair earlier the one that just recently came across my desk was this whole horror story about sodium laurel ethyl sulfate which if you look on the back of most bottles of shampoo for example that's when I immediately scurried off to have looked but it's in a lot of stuff and that's bad for you parabens or methyl parabens bad bad bad I don't know what it is but it's bad why do we hear that these things are bad and yet we're slopping it onto our faces bodies in our baths daily well the truth is that they actually aren't bad this is part of what drove my passion with the cosmetic chef is that I've always been I'm actually at quite our rate with the amount of bull that is out there in the market about these toxic chemicals and I needed to find a way to educate people that actually that's not true so your sodium laurel sulfate yes it goes into shampoos it goes into toothpaste it goes into various products it is a cleansing agent and does a fantastic job guess what it's actually 100% safe yeah so people come across these stories that you're gonna get brain cancer when you wash your hair with it or something and the fact is all of these supposed scare stories including the parabens on the cancer side they are not based on real scientific evidence for instance the parabens story I mean parabens for those who may not know are preservatives so preservatives protect your product from any kind of microbial growth so you which you don't want because you can get funny little new news growing in your products mm-hmm but parabens was actually that whole thing came out by one scientist who did a completely flawed study like 15 odd years ago where she found a link to parabens and breast cancer tissue now part of the flaws of the scientific study is that the area she was testing she first cleaned the area with a parabens solution so of course you're gonna find parabens in the tissues because you've just cleaned the area with parabens so that was one of the critical areas the other was that she never did a control study when you're doing a proper scientific study supposed to have a complete control so that you can analyze in the control study that wasn't supposed to have parabens they were parabens so her whole study wasn't actually even peer-reviewed or accepted in scientific communities but however it was leaked the results or the conclusion of her test was leaked and next thing you know of course media parabens cause cancer I mean bad news sells magazines so before you knew it and that was all over the show and by the time the little lab rats who we like to sit in the lab and not be bothered by the time scientists reacted it was already on page 3-4 of Google nobody mattered anymore and now you come with the real scientific fact and unfortunately the science is hard to understand so people don't take the time to read and they just like oh well that's it parabens are toxic and cancerous and that's all there is to it which is not true because we've heard so much in the media and that's one of the reason what I speak to is is about the bad things you know that that cosmetics contain whale products and aminal animal products and that there's labs stashed somewhere where people deliberately you know throw shampoo into bunny's eyes and that I can see maybe maybe maybe maybe many years ago to have a desert it doesn't happen today surely no in South Africa right now and for at least the last 15 or 20 years no cosmetic products finished products or ingredients have been tested on animals in South Africa so we don't even have facilities that specialize in cosmetic testing of animals and even worldwide the animal testing has stopped long long ago so the little bunny that you see on the side of the bottle of marketing that not tested on animals look it is that's also a bit of a controversial yeah a bit of a controversial one of course animal testing is a very emotional issue so it's a difficult one to just delve into very quickly yeah but I mean no animal testing was done decades ago and it was part of the safety so let's say you use an ingredient that will stick with like the sodium lauryl sulfate I mentioned it so that ingredient for it to be used in a cosmetic product has to undergo stringent safety testing and as it is in the food industry and pharmaceutical animals were used for that years ago but in cosmetics they no longer use because they found replacement tests but those tests were done whatever let's say 20 30 years ago so this beauty without cruelty or the non-animal testing whatever that also has a time limit date because you might find a shampoo that has sodium lauryl sulfate in it that was tested on animals but it was tested let's say 30 years ago there's a cutoff date for when it was last tested on animals and if it hasn't been tested on in the last 20 years you can say it's okay yeah and it hasn't been tested the reality is most products at some point were tested but it is decades ago okay well thanks for clearing that up so so those things are not necessarily bad for you but I couldn't go off the street and go knock on mr. chemical supply company and say I'd like me you know 500 milliliters of sodium lauryl sulfate that that has to come from somebody like you well I could but you could but I mean they wouldn't sell you 500 because that they would only sell you in a like a one-ton quantity so I mean they would send it to you but even if you had it in its pure form the worst thing about sodium lauryl sulfate or sodium lauryl sulfate is that it's got a very high pH yeah and that is what makes it a skin irritant but if you think back to the original Johnson and Johnson's baby shampoo that had that no tears formulation that's got sodium lauryl sulfate in it but it is formulated with another product called kokomoto propyl betaine and using those two together makes both of them milder and also it's about the pH so then the citric acid added in which brings your pH down and this is where it helps having the chemistry and the formulation knowledge because when you combine certain ingredients together you can make a product incredibly mild and also the thing is you're not using straight sodium lauryl sulfate on your skin you're using it in a percentage and listen let's be fair we used to wash with cobalic soap so let's just listen he has a very interesting message just come in with regard to the organic content of her products what kind of organic products is she looking for she being you Connie I'm in Zimbabwe and we have quite a range of organic products that can be used in cosmetics by the way I love the show love your station so that's days in Zimbabwe hi James thanks for the message so so I tell you what would you be happy to give out your your email address later on absolutely there's good contact you directly then with pleasure talk about it maybe we can use some Zimbabwe and organic products absolutely I hear baobab seeds are the in thing at the moment baobab is the in thing did I get it right you did there's a wild stab in the dark I've just heard something about baobabs a while ago anyway okay so let's get on to very very quickly you've got this you've got the book what happens if I'm sitting at home and I want to get a couple of the girls around and I want to have a cosmetic chef party is such a thing possible absolutely I've done a few of them I'll come to your home do a demo for you show you how to make a product and just have some fun with the girls and talk about the products and ask whatever questions you want to all right you are chatting to Connie or Barata from the cosmetic chef to all about crafting cosmetics in your kitchen yes you can do it it's a beautiful book the book is available and Connie has been good enough and kind enough to say that tonight she's gonna give away a copy of the book and a kit so that you can make some of the products in the book am I correct that's valued in excess of 500 rand so there we go she's gonna be doing that I do look forward to that so there we go daisins and bob we stay listening we will give out Connie's email address in just a little while David Ward's on mix 93.8 common leave it I was almost up almost time for us to say goodbye and we haven't even gotten to the good parts so essentially the book is available where Connie that's on my website which is the cosmetics chef.com the cosmetics chef now don't forget it's the cosmetics okay cosmetics chef.com you can get the book there how much does it retail for 350 rand it's not bad when you consider what's in here I mean I've been paging through this I'm thinking okay there's a part of me that actually wants to kind of try and do the the mad scientist and go I mean edible lip polish holy guacamole what I liked is and I've seen this is there's a there's a body soak about muscle bath soak now what you've got in here now listen to this I mean it's raw almonds citric acid sodium bicarbonate baking soda salt epsom salts something similar to this in a retail store I was in there the other day and I looked specifically at this okay selling anywhere between 180 250 ran for what you can make for 40 50 bucks at home 20 20 at home for double the amount there you go you see so well with getting hold of a ticket out the cosmetics chef.com and if somebody wants to get hold of you Connie what is what is your email address so my email address is info at the cosmetics chef.com info at the cosmetics chef.com if you could leave the crazies behind only people are generally interested even crazies are welcome listen the prize that we're giving away tonight we're giving away the book and then a kit yeah it's a starter kit so with the starter kit you get enough ingredients to make a few of the recipes or one of my favorite recipes in the book is a nourishing night lotion you actually get to make yourself like a year supply of this night lotion and you use a preservative so it stays for a year yes so all of the recipes that I did develop I did do them as proper cosmetic relations and they all have a very good shelf life of at least 18 months so except for the fresh food ingredients like the avocado hair mask or something or the pineapple mask those obviously you need to use straight away but all of the other ones are actually tested to have a proper shelf life so that you can use them up without needing to store them in a fridge in a dark cupboard or anything like your normal cosmetic you'd buy this is an amazing gift for somebody it's it's an absolutely amazing gift and to have that kind of party I mean we all had you know these storage container parties and you know everybody can only buy so much of them and the lids always go and disappear on the desert island now I promise you they live on a desert island where all of the other socks are yes socks socks and yeah but this would be amazing I mean think about it if you get the book you can make this stuff and you can then give it as a gift and one of the best things about making it yourself is if you hate coconut oil well then you can use olive oil or sunflower oil you get to choose what you want to put in it and you can fragrance it the way you want to with whatever essential oil so you really get to play and be creative and make your own product exactly the way you want to so you do workshops you mentioned that the Miele kitchen in Bryanston when is the next one coming up the next one is coming up on the 4th of May okay so they can then once again info at the cosmetic shift that's here to today they can book there and they can go out and do anything I love this it's coming yeah okay then baabab and moringa are huge here thanks for reading my message I can only wish Connie well what a wonderful initiative p.s. I'm a woman in case you want to it's from days in Zimbabwe thanks days thanks so you know then lady I was just you know passing on the message but I glad you guys are listening in Zimbabwe you need some sort of light in your life over there I guess in day homemade cosmetics what better thing okay so how does somebody enter what are we gonna ask them we're gonna ask okay I'll tell you what I'm gonna ask let's do this okay you gonna we're gonna give out a whatsapp number okay people are gonna whatsapp all they got to do is whatsapp mix FM and their name and email address so mix FM name email address what's app that to zero seven to four three one seven two double nine I'm correct correct okay so you what's up that Connie's in gonna put it into the randomizer one lucky person will then win the book the cosmetics chef crafting cosmetics in your kitchen and the starter kit anybody else got and get those starter kits man it looks like so much fun I'll give you that number once again okay so don't whatsapp mix FM okay very important this is another number so you got to give mix FM your name and your email address to zero seven two four three one seven two nine nine again okay because people are now jumping on our whatsapp line this is another whatsapp number zero seven two four three one seven two nine nine get those whatsapps going one person will be lucky enough to win it it is a fantastic book Connie we wish you all the best I love hearing from entrepreneurs I love hearing from people who are taking their passion and becoming successful with it we wish you all the best I think it's a brilliant venture and who knows you might even see some of the mix gang it's one of your workshops awesome thank you so much David some of us could do with a bit of help in the facial department right so there we go wraps it up on a Monday night it is mix 93.8 I said tonight was going to be the night for our second hour apparently we're not doing a second hour tonight that's gonna kick off from next week all things being equal I'm going to be chatting in the second hour next week first hour we're going to be chatting to as you poll second hour we're going to be chatting once again to Andy Brocklerhurst all about internet marketing and how to go get your products and your content and everything online and make yourself a bit of residual or passive income so that all still to come until then have yourselves a fantastic one thank you so much for listening David Wallace on mix 93.8