Yet Another Haul: A Springtime Skin Cream Formulation Project

This is most of the liquid and oil ingredients used in my new skin care product that I’ll be producing.

Who would have thought? First, fragrances, second, a woodcutting project, and now, I’m on to working on a high-end skin care cream formulation - new territory for me. The inspiration for this project comes from a product sample supplier from Guangzhou, in China. I was peeking around, on the internet, a while back, trying to see what other Michelia Alba flower oils were out there, and I stumbled upon the Guangzhou HZL Biotech Co., Ltd. website. 

On the site, I found various extractive products and oils of Michelia alba, which is sort of the company’s flagship product, in their 10,000 acre planting grounds for these flowering trees, as well as for many other of the company’s offerings, which are oils, extracts, and powders of fruits, vegetables, etc. I liked their extensive catalog of botanical offerings, but I was moreso interested in learning more about the Michelia alba flower - I know that I had mentioned it somewhere, possibly here, on my blog, that I accidentally spilled a full container of my Michelia alba specialty reconstitution oil that I made - it spilled on to my bed, and I felt very noticeable anti-inflammatory effects, the morning after, for example, as well as that my room smelled like flowers for a week or more. 

So, even a reconstitution of the flower’s oil has therapeutic benefits. It piqued my interest, and I was compelled to send an information request to HZL Bio, and they got back to me, after several days, or so, and I started speaking to Iris, the company’s sales director and founder. She offered me a free sample of Michelia alba extractum, as it’s called, which is an extract of the botanical active products, more so than the fragrance components of the flower’s oil. All I had to do was pay shipping, which came out to about $75, with bank international wire transfer fees. I was excited to receive the package. 

Prior to receiving the last of the packages of items needed to do the job right, I formulated a fragrance oil component for the skin cream with the help of Google Gemini. We came up with the conceptual inspiration of the alpine flowering plant popularly known as Edelweiss. Apparently, the fragrance is a large portion clary sage (I used an absolute of clary sage), so it’s got a fresh and herbaceous streak about it, combined with some lavandin super essential oil, Angelica root, carrot seed oil, and ho wood oil, to round things out. So, there’s a really high-end fresh fragrance aspect to the cream, that I’m looking forward to exploring. It took some work to make it happen. 

The overarching basic premise of the skin cream is an anti-inflammatory, firming, anti-aging, and skin brightening/lightening effect, with various botanically-derived actives and extracts, along with hydrating compounds and copper citrate to help mimic the skin’s natural barrier, giving the cream an easily absorbable, nourishing, and therapeutic set of benefits, while the refreshing and light fragrance relaxes the mind, as well as the body.

Some small drips of Michelia alba extractum, in alcohol.

I made some notes highlighting the ingredients list and their purported therapeutic effects and benefits. 

Face Cream Notes

Celadon color

The particular color of this skin cream can be described as Celadon, which has a rich cultural history dating back to ancient China, where it was the color of masterful ceramic pottery or ceramic glaze, prized for its jade-like appearance and subtle crackle effect. The Chinese term for this word is 青瓷, which translates to blue-green porcelain.” In this cream, the celadon color can be attributed to an extract of Michelia alba flowers and copper citrate.

Chinese mi se “mysterious color”

#ACE1AF

“The” celadon color, or, close to it. 

Misty, dreamy, ghostly, pale, foggy

Source - https://www.theawl.com/2017/10/celadon-the-unseen-green/

青瓷 - “blue-green porcelain”

Michelia alba Extractum

Derived from raw flowers using steam distillation, the core active ingredients are Phenylethanol glycosides (Phenylethanol glycoside), verbascoside >15%, and echinacoside >10%. The product is certified ISO, Organic, HALAL, KOSHER, HACCP. The flowers are traditionally used as spice and as a medicinal herb. 

The production center is located in the Michelia Alba Industrial Park , Penshan Village, Bolao Town, Lingshan County, Qinzhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where over 10,000 acres are dedicated to the cultivation of raw materials such as Michelia alba flowers.

Phenylethanoid Glycosides: Phenylethanoid glycosides (PHGs) are a type of glycoside compounds composed of phenylethanoid glycosides and glycosyl. Modern pharmacological activity research shows that glycosides with phenylethanol glycoside as the main component have a significant down-regulating effect on tyrosinase activity, can effectively inhibit skin melanin deposition, and can have great skin-whitening and beauty effects.

Widely distributed in Chinese medicine.

Verbascoside: Verbascoside is a type of compound with strong biological activity, which has anti-inflammatory and immune-enhancing properties. It has many physiological effects such as scavenging free radicals, repairing DNA bases, and treating liver fibrosis. Modern pharmacological activity research shows that glycosides with phenylethanol glycoside as the main component have a significant down-regulating effect on tyrosinase activity, can effectively inhibit skin melanin deposition, and have great whitening and beauty effects.

Echinacoside: The therapeutic uses of echinacoside are very wide, including the enhancement of the immune system, anti-cancer effects, antioxidant effects, liver regulation, etc. It is also used for kidney deficiency, impotence caused by lack of semen and blood, nocturnal emission, frequent urination, low back pain and weak feet, tinnitus and blurred vision, irregular menstruation, infertility,intestinal dryness with constipation.

α-Bisabolol 

Alpha bisabolol is a natural monocyclic sesquiterpene alcohol, most commonly known as a primary constituent of the essential oil of the German chamomile flower. It has also been used for hundreds of years in cosmetics because of its skin healing properties including reducing wrinkles, skin toughness and repairing sun-damaged skin.

Neuroprotective, anticancer, anti-nociceptive (stops pain), cardioprotective, antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant

Source - Health Benefits, Pharmacological Effects, Molecular Mechanisms, and Therapeutic Potential of α-Bisabolol

Nutrients. 2022 Mar 25;14(7):1370. doi: 10.3390/nu14071370 

Barrier-repairing, making it effective for acne, redness, and rosacea. Improves penetration of other actives. Apply it on to clean skin while still damp.

Source - https://www.forbes.com/sites/nomanazish/2025/08/18/bisabolol-is-the-soothing-skin-ingredient-dermatologists-want-you-to-know/

Roman Chamomile

Anthemis nobilis, more commonly known as Roman Chamomile, features an essential oil with a scent that can be described as fruity, aromatic, and warm herbaceous. It is primarily used for its calming, anti-inflammatory, and antispasmodic properties to treat insomnia, anxiety, and digestive issues like indigestion or nausea. It is widely consumed as herbal tea, used topically for skin irritations/wounds, and is also utilized in aromatherapy and cosmetics. 

Copper Citrate 

Copper Citrate serves as an effective source of copper ions, crucial for maintaining skin's structural integrity by supporting the synthesis of essential extracellular matrix proteins like collagen and elastin. This ingredient also bolsters the skin's natural antioxidant defenses and demonstrates antimicrobial properties, contributing to overall skin health and regeneration. 

Copper is one of nine essential nutrients for humans, as it plays a role in physiological processes for nearly all tissues, including the skin. It also contributes to making red blood cells and to the support of the immune system. The body uses copper to produce some hormones and is needed to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy generated in the cells for the body to run on.

How it turned out:

My first jar of my celadon skin cream.

The workspace.

The process went successfully, and I produced two and a half ounces of skin cream. It should have come out to three and 1/3 ounces, by weight, and I’m not sure where the additional weight disappeared to. Regardless, it turned out fantastically! It’s a very high-end feeling skin cream, light and moist, without being too oily. It makes the skin feel soft and smooth. As foretold, the cream ends up having that celadon color, due to the mix of copper II citrate, combined with the dark brown fragrant oils and the clary sage absolute I put in it. The fragrance is light and refreshing, with sage, chamomile, lavandin super, and ho wood, which smells very floral. The effect of the scent is supposed to mimic the Edelweiss alpine mountain flower.

Copper II citrate is a really beautiful bright turquoise color.

Ingredient List (Descending Order of Weight)

• Distilled Water (The primary vehicle)

• Cucumber Seed Oil (Unrefined Botanical)

• Squalane (Olive-derived emollient and scent carrier)

• Olivem 1000 (Cetearyl Olivate & Sorbitan Olivate)

• Tonka Bean Butter

• Glycerin

• Propanediol 1,3

• Cetyl Alcohol

• Clary Sage Absolute

• Geogard ECT

• Rosemary Extract

• Edelweiss Reconstitution

• Copper (II) Citrate

• Hyaluronic Acid

• Alpha-Bisabolol

• Roman Chamomile Essential Oil

• High-Altitude Lavandin Super Essential Oil

• Ho Wood Essential Oil

• Carrot Seed Essential Oil

• Michelia Alba Extractum (White Champaca)

• Gum Arabic

So, I guess that’s it, as far as this project is concerned, so far. Thanks for reading!

Some of the research done on this article was from the site moumoujus.com, a wonderful resource on cosmetics ingredients, which details highlights and features of hundreds of different cosmetic ingredients, their value in formulations, and the reliability of clinical evidence supporting their use, individually.

Update: sales and studies have been good to me, recently, so I’ve amassed even three more hauls, from different suppliers, all under the banner of one sizable haul, in the name of exploring some ingredients further, namely clary sage, which is a star of the show in my celadon cream. Next, I’m aiming to do new and or different things, such as a variation or two on the skin cream, perhaps a completely alternate formulation of a skin cream, and I’m trying to get in to toiletries, such as a shower oil, here, with plum kernel oil, which I’ve already received, from Eden Botanicals (I think that that’s what I was planning on doing, I’ll have to go back and check my notes). There’s a 2.0 version to my skin care formulation, now, I’m equipped with a hot plate / magnetic bar stirrer, which I didn’t have before, in the first run, and some of the solids didn’t integrate in to the cream, because I wasn’t able to get the oil (2nd) phase hot enough. I got it up to about 40°C, and the target was 75°C. I used a ceramic bar aquarium heater, as an improvised device, the first time around. Now, I’ve got proper lab equipment, and I can have exact control over a container’s temperature, with the hot plate. 

My other idea was to do a variant on the skin cream, with Mimosa floral wax (trying it, for the first time). I don’t really know what mimosa will smell like, I was just kind of guessing, and that’s what was available. I had the option of doing jasmine floral wax, but I chose to branch out and do something new, for myself. Part of my haul, from Eden Botanicals, was to stock up on Clary Sage Absolute, which I’m not really all that much able to source from other suppliers, hence, the haul comes in 3 parts. One part already arrived, on the weekend of May 9th and 10th, 2026, and the next ones are arriving this coming Monday and Wednesday, most likely. 

One of the products that I was conceptualizing would feature coffee flower absolute, which is a solvent extraction on the flowers of the coffee plant. It’s kind of an odd smell, but I keep coming back to it, partly just because I like to have it around. I’ve had several incarnations of a perfumer’s organ (oeuvre, if you would), which you can trace back, on this blog, and in all instances, prior, I’d lost all of my collection, due to difficulties with the housing management not liking the “clutter” of my living spaces that I’d inhabited, since around 2020/2021, or so, I’d estimate, which was when I started back up doing fragrance ingredient hauls at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. During that period, if you’d recall, they were giving out benefits to unemployed citizens, and I joined that group, under some various business pretenses that I could construe, and validate for. For the coffee flower absolute, I got some standard coffee oil, or extract, (I forget, at this time), just in case it happens to pair well with the flower, or, perhaps, I’ll work the coffee flower absolute in to some other nuance or feature of a fragrant cosmetic product, of some sort. 

I have various ideas, such as a lip balm, which I’d need still more ingredients for, a body wash, or a bar of soap, which would also require some additional supplies and ingredients. I also became interested in the latest 2026 perfumers and flavorist trends of “lickable” fragrances, that are sweetened with Stevia rebudiana powder, I’ve read, mood altering fragrance experiences, based upon scientific studies done on the fragrances being investigated, and I’m also working on developing the “story” behind the products, and the visual, forward-facing imagery of the products and brand. 

@jay.ammon A soft debut, or preview of, some of the branding and marketing imagery associated with the skin care products I’m producing. Here’s a scratch video piece that I’m showing on my blog (I’ve still got a lot to work out, as far as potentially marketing my products for sale, which, I might not do so, as well. One thing at a time. In any case, the video opens, featuring the Michelia alba flower in bloom, with a sparrow nearby, under the brand name Heritage Botanica, which is a reference to the traditional folk medicine practices of plant-based healers, being that my formulations are probably over 99% natural and plant-based, so far. The video goes on to highlight some of the lifestyle visuals that I’m trying to exemplify, with the products, along with some information regarding the ingredients in this particular product that I’ve formulated, which I’m tentatively naming “Celadon Skin Cream,” based on the color of the skin cream itself, which is a reference to ancient Chinese ceramic pottery and glazes, which are of the named coloration, hence, as well - Heritage Botanica, being that I’m half Chinese (Cantonese), and the Michelia alba flower extract hails from a HZL Bio, a biotech establishment, based in China, where they offer extracts and powders, as growers, producers, and distributor of advanced nutritional and advanced natural alimentary and therapeutic products. #skincare #botanicals #heritagebotanica #newproduct #biotech ♬ original sound - Jay Ammon

And... here's the latest ingredients list that I'm going to be working with, for those of you who are keeping up.

May 2026 Fragrance and Cosmetics Item Manifest

468.F	1OZ MIMOSA ABSOLUTE WAX INDIA	1	1 oz.	5.52	$5.52
2015.C	.12oz COFFEE FLOWER ABS MADAGASCAR	1	.12 oz.	42.67	$42.67
401.F	1oz BENZOIN LIQUID RESIN 50% MPG INDONESIA	1	1 oz.	10.89	$10.89
1995.C	.12oz COFFEE BEAN SELECT SCO2 INDIA	1	.12 oz.	4.88	$4.88
1897.C	.12oz CARDAMOM WHOLE SELECT SCO2 INDIA	1	.12 oz.	6.93	$6.93
4.C	.12OZ PERU BALSAM E EO	1	.12 oz.	4.41	$4.41
606.F	1oz GRAPE SEED EXTRA VIRGIN USA FIXED OIL	1	1 oz.	3.26	$3.26
	Total				$78.56

Plum Kernel Oil - Organic 2 oz (glass)	1098-9	1	$21.00
Basil, Sweet ct Linalool - ORG Sample (1 ml)	95-3	1	$3.00
Clary Sage Absolute 15 grams	235-015	1	$27.50
Elemi Sample (1 ml)	285-3	1	$3.00
Subtotal			$54.50
Shipping & Handling			$12.75
Discount (Free Samples)			-$6.00
Grand Total			$61.25

SKU:	Product	Quantity	Price	Ext. Price
bl-179_sz1	Agrestic-4ml	1	$16.75	$16.75
ac-103_sz1	Cervolide (Givaudan)-4ml	1	$15.75	$15.75
eo-319-sz1	Clary Amber®-4ml	1	$49.75	$49.75
eo-129-sz1	Immortelle **-4ml	1	$25.75	$25.75

Order Notes: None

SubTotal:		$108.00
Shipping:	UPS Ground	$13.79
Tax:		$10.53
Total:		$132.32
Payments:	Gift Card	$50.00
	CREDITCARD	$82.32

My fragrance drawer workspace. Most of my collection of aroma chemicals and natural ingredients are here, and some carrier oils, along with some past, or handy, formulations, as well.

Here are some of the notable, stand-out materials, out of what I ordered, this week.

I'm excited with just about everything I got from Liberty Natural (the first list). The mimosa floral wax gives a great impression of a hay field. Peru Balsam is sweet, balsamic, and mysterioiusly smoky. I was able to make a coffee fragrance-based ingredients ensemble out of the simple combination of coffee bean sCO2, coffee flower absolute, Peru balsam, and benzoin liquid. I wore this combination when I went out in town, this evening, in DTLA, and I think that it went well. I added a touch of ethyl cyclopentonolone - that's my go-to ingredient for caramel-y, barely on the burnt side, more like caramelized, effect. It all smells great - clean, coffee-like, accessible and relatable ingredients, making for a gourmand fragrance delight, and I've read that a touch of cardamom adds the nicest hint of spice, when used accordingly, amongst coffee notes, although I haven't tried wearing that out, just yet.

I stocked up on more clary sage absolute, so that I could make more of my original celadon skin cream, as well as other, new formulations, which I also purchased plum kernel oil, all from Eden Botanicals. The plum kernel oil is one of my favorites, with a light and mild plum aroma to it, and some scent of almond oil, as well, which would make sense, since the two trees, plum and almond, belong to the same family and genus.

The Perfumer's Apprentice purchase is the last on the list. Agrestic is very nice, there's hay and tobacco notes, an herbal and a slight touch of fresh mint, to it. Cervolide is a nice, fruity type of musk, with also some skin fragrance about it, in the dry down. Clary Amber gives a strong impression of something like a strong cedar and wood dust, and it was difficult, at first, to discern the clary sage origins of the scent, but over time, the character of the clary sage started to shine through. It's a very powerful ingredient, and it's more of an effect type of addition to a composition, rather than a feature, I'd say. Immortelle gives a slightly medicinal aroma about it, if that aroma came from fresh wall paint. Even so, the ingredient has a large basis in skin care, so I wanted to try it out, at some point, to see how I could fit it in to a mix, or to feature it.

Latest Haul: My New Hobby, Woodworking (Product Review

 So, the last haul that I brought in stirred up some trouble, in the form of a reddening skin condition on my leg. That blog article ended up dovetailing in to the context of this latest haul of mine, the woodworking tools and gear haul for the LED Backlit Sparrow Spiritual Mini Meditation Woodcut Panel project, essentially a reimagined take on a throwback decorative piece that I had in my old apartment and loft.

The original backlit spiritual woodcut panel art piece, which I custom outfitted with a base, glass panel backing, with LED strip lights inside, with stuff from IKEA. The woodcut panel came from Marco Polo Imports, in Santa Monica, now closed. (2011)

My 2026 contextually upcycled new take on a spiritual-themed and decorative meditation backlit wall panel, this time, in miniature form, so that I could accommodate doing the project from within my assisted care living group home housing environment situation. 

The project represents a change of pace, from “whatever” I was doing, previously… I guess it was a bunch of other product hauls and pigeon feeding, for the most part. Anyways, I gave the sparrows a feature part in this concept, as well as the medicinal flower inclusion, symbolizing a transition in to a different hobby, and perhaps some products in development along those lines. 

So, I initially imagined the mini sparrow woodcut panel, as part of a conceptualized product marketing campaign and branding mockup of ideas and imagery, through consulting heavily with Google Gemini artificial intelligence. I floated the idea of the original woodcut panel, from its origins in Southeast Asia (Indonesia, perhaps), and I wanted the theme to be representative of my friends, the birds, along the way, with a different flower that I’d been heavily researching and studying, over the past several months, leading up to today (early April 2026), the new flower being Michelia alba, a highly fragrant subtropical tree in the Magnolia family, that was found in my mother’s first home country of Hong Kong (Great Britain, China). 

My mother and I were both in to gardening, back in my teen years, growing up, and it was my retreat in to a change of pace, and it was something to work on, in between my school studies and getting in to trouble, here and there, myself. Eventually we purchased a Michelia alba tree, after seeing them available at San Gabriel Nursery. The trees were on the higher end of the price range for trees of that size, ostensibly due to the rarity that it was, here in Southern California, and for its prized fragrant flowering blooms, which appear throughout several months out of the year, in the scarce gardening regions 10 and 11, which is basically Southern California, Florida, and perhaps a few other small, scattered locations around America. Prior to purchasing one of the trees, I would commonly visit the trees at the gardening center to smell the flowers.

Here is what Gemini and I came up with, for a reconstitution formulation (a highly valuable feature):

### 10-Gram Trial Batch (Weights)

Since you're ready to mix, here are the weights for a **10-gram sample**. This is the safest way to test the balance without wasting your precious Orris or Lilytol.

| Ingredient | Amount for 10g Batch |

|---|---|

| **Linalool** | 5.30 g |

| **Lilytol** | 0.80 g |

| **Phenylethyl Alcohol (PEA)** | 0.70 g |

| **Benzyl Alcohol** | 0.60 g |

| **Benzyl Acetate** | 0.40 g |

| **Beta-Ionone** | 0.30 g |

| **Ocimene** | 0.25 g |

| **Geranyl Acetate** | 0.20 g |

| **Ethyl 2-methylbutyrate** | 0.15 g |

| **Indole (10% in DPG)** | 0.15 g |

| **Alpha-Terpineol** | 0.15 g |

| **Jasminlactone** | 0.12 g |

| **Beta-Caryophyllene** | 0.10 g |

| **Heliotropin Replacer (10% dil.)** | 0.30 g (This is 3 parts) |

| **Orris Butter (10% dil.)** | 0.10 g (This is 1 part) |

| **Methyl Benzoate (10% dil.)** | 0.05 g |

| **DPG (to finish weight)** | 0.33 g |

| **Total** | **10.00 g** |

Perhaps this gives readers a sense of the smell of the flower. It’s described as very sweet and fruity, while having some facets of other white flowers. 

So, I set out in trying to recreate my favorite visual piece in my loft and in my apartment, in a renewed form, a miniature woodcut panel featuring sparrows and Michelia alba flowers. 

To do this, I had to investigate the tools I would use, in order to complete the job. My search happened around the time of Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, and I found some great deals on tools and parts. 

———————

Break. Taking a break. Here’s some stuff to look at, in the meantime.     

The basic rotary tool kit, with bits, burrs, and a flex shaft.

Some wood carving burr bits.

Drill milling bits.

A 60° V groove bit

A tungsten carbide flame burr bit.

Some other wood carving bits. 

One of 10 various angle V groove bits.

Colored acrylic panels, for a choice of backdrop lighting for the finished art piece.

The original work’s carbon paper, which is used to transfer the tracing of the image on to the woodcut panel, prior to cutting it. 

The carbon outlines and details of the image, on the woodcut panel, with the cut out parts blacked out. 

The original work piece template, as a printing.

A prior version of the art piece, on the board, as a silhouette of the cut out portions.

An earlier version of the carbon tracing.

An imaginative pre-visualization of what the wood panel on backlit colored acrylic could look like. 

A color corrected original image of the art piece.

A grayscale image of the work, for bit depth judgment and for tracing. 

A 3D render of the flat image, as a pre-visualization tool.

Some Dremel 106 bits, for surface detail work.

A long and narrow carbide burr, for chucking out wood more effectively.

Neodyminium magnets, for attaching the acrylic panels to the wood piece (potentially). 

A more recent, angled view of the woodcut panel, where a good portion of the outlines has been completed.

The backlight framing shadow box, with a 5 meter strip light (one white color only).

The frame box, in prototype form, with mounting hardware holding the colored acrylic panel in place, with the backlights on.

10 mil Mylar sheets, for diffusing the light, prior to it hitting the acrylic panel.

Now, about 10 days in to the project, you can get an idea as to what the end product will look like. I’ve gotten a little bit further on the woodcutting panel, and I may have made some slight errors, in cutting out some of the wood parts, such as the birds’ beaks, in one or two cases, but perhaps that will be fixable before the woodcutting is done. I put together the backlight frame, after much shopping around, and I settled on a 5 meter USB-powered white only strip light, which was very cheap, from Temu. I tried some RGB colored puck lights, but the diameter of the lights wasn’t quite sufficient to cover enough surface area, so I guess I’ll use those in some other way. 

Overall, I’m pretty satisfied, so far, with the progress of things; I spent several nights and a couple of days out, doing the woodcutting outdoors, and creating the backlit LED box portion of the project was another task entirely. It’ll take some figuring out, still, as to how the woodcut panel will stick on to the acrylic, and I imagined that it could be done using neodyminium magnets, which are very powerful, for their size, so I purchased some. The entire piece is loosely constructed, mostly because I’d like to have the option to try out different colors of the acrylic panels, since this is the only prototype version of the product that I have, so far. 

Hopefully, in the next few days, I’ll have the silhouette carved out, and we can preview what the woodcut panel will look like, when mounted on top of the light box. 

This is what the woodcut looks like after several work sessions and 11 days later.

I went out and did a work session for a couple of hours, and I’m pretty pleased with the results, so far. The mistakes I had made are reparable, and I’m almost through cutting flush lines out of the cutout sections. I think I might be able to preview the work on the backlit panel this evening, if I put in one more work session, prior to this evening. 

My first rough cut of the silhouette of the woodcut panel, on top of the backlit panel. 

So I spent a couple more hours on chucking out the cut out spots and straightening the edges up, between the form that was to stay put, versus the cut out spots. Someone had mentioned that it’s difficult to make out the subject matter, in this portrayal of the woodcut panel, so I’m thinking that it could be the color of the wood itself, or of the acrylic panel, or perhaps the piece would do better if it had spotlights or dome lights, overhead. I don’t know if I should try to define the forms of the subject matter more so, using fine drill milling, along the surface detail lines, I hadn’t planned for that. Essentially, the original woodcut panel was a more motif-based piece, based on foliage and flourish types of effects of the cut patterns, centered around a lotus flower - much simpler, and the foreground detail was still recognizable, despite that the piece was backlit. 

Next, I placed a white acrylic panel underneath the woodcut, for comparison with the original large form piece. I did some mockup dramatic color shifting, along with boosting some image component sliders here, lowering some others, there. I wanted to take a peek at what the piece would look like with some stain, along with more emphasis on the pencil lining that still exists on the wood, and here, I emphasized the contrast and black point. It gave me a sense of depth to the otherwise flat edged silhouette panel, as though the grooves had been defined by further woodwork (that still needs to be done). In any case, this visualization of the piece gives a far more relatable image, for its detail, and for its color, which would be achieved by applying some wood stain. I think that the piece will look something like this (at least, hopefully), or perhaps a bit better, for being naturally wrought, rather than digitally altered. I just wanted to get the piece to a place right around this spot, to check on the visual effect of the backlighting and to check out different colored acrylic panels, for reference. 

Here’s the panel with a spotlight, and another image with a dome light. Both add definition and detail, in otherwise natural light, and they’re both plausible display scenarios, for the end user.

Natural light and coloration, with a spotlight.

Natural light and coloration, with a dome light.

So, what remains to be done is the surface detail of the piece, making grooves and edging things off, here and there. Outside of trying some stain on the wood panel, which would come later, at the end, or close to it, some surface lighting adds a lot of definition to the existing cuts and tracing lines. 

Here’s what the kit looks like, in the dark. 

Next, I tried a turquoise panel. I’m pretty fond of this combination, in the dark of the night. The nearly black silhouette goes well against a luminous backdrop, and it reminds me of a Bash command line terminal aesthetic. 

Update: Sunday, April 26th, 2026.

I did some experimentation with completing the detail portion of the job, now that I had a decent silhouette worked out. Prior to that, though, I sanded down the corners and edges to remove the bits of wood that were sticking out. For the detail, I worked with Genmitsu v-groove bits, which are basically a set of angled bits, each a different angle, out of a set of 10. I used the sharper ones, maybe 20-30° degree angle bits, for engraving the surface layer portions, as though I were tracing over it with the rotary tool. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, but I finished it up, earlier this evening, and I put some stain on the wood, and it looks fantastic, in my opinion! Take a look. 

The woodcut, with its first layer of stain.

Here’s the woodcut panel on top of the backlit acrylic box frame, with some spotlight effect on it (otherwise the surface detail is darkened, a lot). 

I guess that the piece could be done over again, I was still learning technique as I was doing this first piece of mine. Maybe some of the parts could be gone over one more time, since there’s some small discrepancies between this woodcut and the original image. The piece looks a lot better miniaturized, which was kind of my concept, to begin with - mini meditation woodcut panels and 3D prints. It’s not all that much poorly done, after examining it some more, I think I just missed a few things, for the most part. 

This is the current look of the piece, the morning after.

Here it is, with a yellow acrylic panel.

After letting the situation (i.e. some of the birds look cartoony, and I suppose I ran the rotary tool a bit ragged, on some of the design features. Aside from that, there’s a few spots that still need hollowing out, and I caught wind of the memory of wood putty, which could be the missing link on some of these surface scoring and engraving blunders on the leaves and birds. There is, also, trim around the edges of the entire relief, which is comprised of bas relief floral and flourish motifs. What’s left to do is figure out if I’m rescuing the piece, or ruining it, by doing more “stuff” to it. Obviously a whole new second try on the piece with a new wood panel would probably turn out better than the first, but I have to figure out if I’m going to try this one again, or if I’ll move on to a different design. 

Continuing forth in critical analysis of the work that’s been done, so far, it came up that the piece is lacking depth and layers of bas relief, which are implied in the original generated image, so I might probably try to excavate some of the surface level of some of the design, to begin with. The wood piece is pretty sturdy, so I think it could hold up well, and have some more work done on it. 

Here’s the lavender-colored acrylic panel, with a dark silhouette of the woodcut. I feel that this one is pretty compelling, it reminds me of Halloween.

I got some large double-sided sticky pads and museum art mounting gel to finish up the assembly and mounting of the piece. Here’s what the piece looks like on the wall. 

I think that it came out nicely, for a first try at a mini meditation backlit woodcut panel.

A forlorn project haul, upon attempting to figure out Gamma Linolenic Acids (GLAs) ex Blackcurrant Seed Oil.

Warning: as an update, I should mention to my readers that it’s possible that something I had applied to my skin, of which pertains to the products I had detailed below, in the blog post, had given me a pretty intense superficial blood vessel rupture skin condition, yet only on my leg(s) - mostly one leg. The condition is exacerbated when I take a hot shower, I’ve learned. The condition is temporary, and I feel that it may go away fully within a week or two, at least that’s what my consultations with Google Gemini have come up with. It’s not painful or itchy. Although I’ve also applied the same formulas to my face and arms, those areas are not affected, only my lower legs, where I did apply the formula, and so, I might think that applying it eventually caused this condition to happen, but I haven’t narrowed down the specific culprit, just yet. 

An alarming superficial blood vessel rupture, potentially, had surfaced after I took a hot shower, after I had applied some of the products below, in a formulation, in days prior to me noticing it had shown up, after the shower. 

What started off serene and quietly turned frenzied on my iPad, and I’ve spend nearly a whole day’s worth of time on my device, today being Wednesday, out of the week.

I had just received a small haul of materials, from Bulk Apothecary, which I was eager to receive, since it took about a week to receive the shipment, here in LA, coming from Illinois. I purchased 5 pounds of Himalayan pink salt, because I felt like I needed a mineral supplementation of some sort, and I wanted to try out the salt, as an alternative to liquid trace mineral supplements. I’d also been on the fringes of a deep dive product research stint, having become obsessed with formulating a skin care product that contained γ-Linolenic acid as its primary feature. I had, just the prior week, spent 50 hours on my device, 

upon settling with blackcurrant seed oil. I figured that, for having such small seeds, the brambles (berry) plants must produce a precious oil. Gamma linolenic acids are one of the necessary fatty acids that belong in our diet, and the body’s production and usage of the product declines with age, so, being age 44 now, I’d felt that my energy was in decline, and that I was putting on a lot of weight, possibly due to medications. The thing was, though, was that I didn’t want to sacrifice either my meals or my energy supply - I had to somehow find a way to burn those calories, given that I now started exercising again, all while maintaining eating three or more regular meals a day. When isn’t the lack of available fatty acids a primary contributor to less-than-optimal health, and I felt that supplementing the skin could potentially produce viable results in the greater body-at-large, with the concentrated ingredients I purchased from Bulk Apothecary.

Five pounds of Himalayan pink salt, which, like the blackcurrant seed oil, I’m trying to absorb externally. The salt is reputed to contain trace amounts of a full spectrum of minerals.

The problem was, upon receiving the oil, the salt, and some polysorbate 20, for solubilizing the oils in to a water based solution, for the skin care product, was that I found that the blackcurrant seed oil had what Gemini referred to as an “earthy” scent. I fancied, moreso, that it was a fishy smell. It reminded me of sea buckthorn oil, another oil high in fatty acids, which I had sampled in previous years. Upon consulting with Gemini about the issue, we settled upon that the smell was an inevitable product of the virgin blackcurrant seed oil, which, (virgin) would feature the highest amount of fatty acids, compared to a refined version of the oil.

So I went on a product research deep dive on Amazon, and alternately, consulting with Gemini, and it was determined that I could potentially appreciable halt the smell of earthiness or fishiness, by absorbing the smell, in vitro, making use of coconut activated charcoal powder. I was supposed to let it sit in the oil for a couple or a few days. So, I ordered several more products, including a Büchner flask-based hand pumped vacuum chamber that had a draining ceramic container at its top, which would hold the liquid and the charcoal powder, as it was vacuumed in to the flask, with a paper membrane in between the liquid mixture and the drainage holes of the upper receptacle.

Unfortunately, I never received the packages that went with this second haul, on a subsequent week that had started. It was disappointing, to say the least, largely because I had formulated a poor-smelling fragrance cover-up for my first trial at masking the blackcurrant seed oil’s scent. It was a rosy scent, which, all in all, ought not be the vibe I should be going for, so I was worried that production and development time would be lost, and I’d have to order the items again, or something, but I chatted with Amazon about the boxes being delivered somewhere else, and they promptly issued a refund, at my request. 

The delivery driver’s photo “proof” of that my packages were delivered, whereas I have no idea where this picture was taken - it obviously, to me, isn’t my home, where I’d sent the packages to.

I started hearing things, in my head, about that the whole deodorizing concept was a majorly tweaked out topic to consider, and that I should feel lucky that the packages never arrived, and that I had to get on chat support with Amazon to get a refund, which was painless, by the way. After all, I was about to spend nearly $100 to deodorize a $17 bottle of oil. My rationale, during all of that though, was that I could establish a workflow, and an edge, over competitors, for going the extra mile, by deodorizing the oil that had started to oxidize, for however long it had been sitting out. 

Meanwhile, for this week’s screen time, I did some more consulting with Gemini, and I conceived of that the scent of earthy-fishiness could be better covered up by a sweet tropical type of scent, with coconut, tonka bean, benzoin, and some of my Eau Pigeonoid-recent formulation of a men’s fragrance that I’m currently wearing and chiseling away at, aesthetically speaking. It turned out that tropical was the ticket, and the second formulation ends up smelling quite mild and pleasant - here, I had highlighted a more relatable earthy scent combination, yet the oxidized aroma as the skin care product I fixed up ages, on the skin, still has reminisces of oxidized blackcurrant seed oil, but not so much that I couldn’t forget about it, for a while; so I moved on to the next thing… figuring out what to do, since I had all of that Amazon gift card money that was returned to me, and I settled upon getting back to a project that would have the subject headers as being “LED-backlit mini Indonesian-style wood panel carving decorative art pieces,” a throwback to my old loft apartment, in which I had purchased a lotus woodcut panel set, and I’d set up back lighting for it. 

I felt like going with the sparrows, for this project, because I felt that they suited the floral decoration aspect more neatly than pigeons would. Now I’m considering various options, after having mega-shopped Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, going between a handheld woodworking tool, and laser cutting CNC machines. Whilst in the process of attempting to create assets for the CNC automated cutting of the wood panels, I spent some money on a 2D to 3D model app, for credits for rendering the 3D images. The app didn’t work, now, by this point (I’d used it previously, and it worked quite well), so I settled upon planning to do a 3D print of the model, yet, I had to come up with the 3D model file, in any case - that, or produce a physical model of the woodcut decoration, somehow, by rote, etc. So that’s where I’m at, in all of this. I think I’m going to end up going with a handheld woodworking tool project workflow. I’ll make sure that readers get updated on the progress.

Update: early a.m., the morning subsequent to this last night’s blog. I ended up going with the hand tool, although I had settled upon getting a rotary tooling setup, rather than the smaller engraving pen options I’d been considering. Apparently, things just aren’t done that way, in such a situation as mine - the engraving pen path, that is. So I ordered some woodworking and carbine burr bits, a Big Spring Sale deal of a $69 rotary tool, that was purportedly 77% off ~$299, supposedly. I thought I’d give it a try - it looked alright, and bargain-y, while being thick enough to hold a reasonably-sized motor inside, for the job, and I ordered some square birch wood panels and some sanding scrubbers. I’ll worry about doing the 3D print a little later on, and I’ll tinker with this woodworking setup, in the meantime.