Chapter eighty-eight
Yu Ying left the inn only after she calmed down, following the direction of the market pointed out by the servants from the inn yesterday.
She checked the lip balms at the stall selling rouge and powder, carefully examining both the cheap and expensive ones, and then bought a few small bottles to try on her wrists.
After further inspection, I found out that these lip balms are all made of animal fat. The cheap ones are paste-like, while the more expensive ones are slightly solidified.
Yu Ying carefully recalled the development of lip balm in ancient times. It seemed that using beeswax to make lip balm was something that happened after the Tang Dynasty, and now it seems to be a dynasty before the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, if you can find a beehive to make beeswax, you can make a different lip balm.
These small bottles of lip balm are estimated to be almost twice the amount of lipstick in later generations.
The cheapest lip balm cost eight coins. Both the pottery jar and the lip balm were very rough, and the color was not evenly applied.
The better ones are around fifteen cents, but they are only slightly better than eight cents.
In the shop, the better quality ones are 25 wen a can, while the more expensive ones go up to thousands of wen.
Yu Ying had an idea of the quality and price of the lip balm, so she began to look for the materials for making it.
Lip balm doesn't require a lot of ingredients, but what is used is a bit expensive.
Tea oil, comfrey, dried flowers, and finally the beehive for making beeswax.
Dried flowers are available in the spice shop, and Yu Ying chose roses.
Rose has fragrance and also has the effect of beautifying the skin.
This dried flower is quite expensive, fifty wen per two ounces. Fortunately, one two ounces can be used to make good lip balm, so the more expensive it is, the more expensive it is.
Comfrey can deepen the color of lip balm, effectively prevent chapped lips, and even has a repairing effect. When paired with tea oil, beeswax, and rose, the color not only looks good, but also has a better repairing and moisturizing effect.
As for tea oil, she looked for it in many places and after asking many times, she found out that it was sold in medical clinics.
She also went to the former Renshan Medical Clinic to buy tea oil and comfrey.
Tea oil is very precious, and one ounce of oil costs thirty cents.
You can buy lithospermum officinale at the pharmacy. It costs ten cents per ounce.
After all, it was just a try, and the Chinese New Year was only half a month away. Yu Ying didn't plan to make too much lip balm, so in addition to four taels of tea oil, she needed two taels of each of the others, spending a total of two hundred and twenty coins.
After the medicine boy had packed the tea oil and the comfrey, Yu Ying took the things and was about to leave when she happened to meet Doctor Wu.
When Doctor Wu saw Madam Yu, he was also stunned for a moment.
Yu Ying smiled, nodded to Doctor Wu, then turned and left.
Watching the woman leave, Doctor Wu hesitated for a moment, but still chased after her.
"Madam Yu, please stay."
Upon hearing this, Yu Ying turned around and asked, "Doctor Wu, is there anything I can do for you?"
Doctor Wu said, "I'd like to discuss the facial cream with Madam Yu. Would it be convenient for Madam Yu to come sit in the side room?"
Yu Ying really didn't expect that Dr. Wu would come to her again to discuss the facial cream business. She thought about it for a moment before agreeing.
After entering the side room and sitting down, the little medicine boy brought tea.
Doctor Wu said, "I have discussed with the director before. We can offer Madam Yu's facial cream for 45 coins per can. We will set a target of 100 cans. We will provide the cans."
Doctor Wu finally understood. The price offered was low, but Madam Yu said she would not sell it and was ridiculously determined.
He also heard that Madam Yu's people had set up a stall in the county seat a long time ago. The medicine boy went to inquire and learned that the facial cream business and reputation were very good.
After thinking about it, he knew that if the price was lower than what Madam Yu had said before, she would probably still not agree, so he thought it would be better for him to set up a stall himself.
In this case, Doctor Wu simply stopped talking about the few cents and directly set the price she had mentioned before.
Besides, the facial cream on the stall is sold for fifty cents a jar, and that jar alone costs at least ten cents. At forty-five cents a jar, the clinic can still make a profit by selling the jars.
To be honest, more than a month ago, Yu Ying would have nodded in agreement immediately, but now she hesitated.
Seeing Madam Yu hesitate, Doctor Wu continued, "The customers who buy facial cream at the clinic and at the stalls are completely different. Those who can afford to buy facial cream at the clinic are almost all wealthy or above. Furthermore, the price is different too. It will only be more expensive, never cheaper. This will not affect your business."
Indeed, the clinic bought the goods at 45 cents and then sold them at double the price, which certainly did not affect their business.
Even people who have used both may feel that a facial cream costing fifty cents has the effect of one costing eighty or ninety cents, and therefore Ru Yufang's reputation will be better.
Doctor Wu wasn't afraid that Madam Yu wouldn't agree, so he continued, "Madam Yu's ceramic jar for her facial cream is exquisite, and it must have cost her a fortune. Our Renshan Clinic has a long-standing partnership with a ceramics workshop. Regardless of whether or not this deal with Madam Yu is successful, I will introduce her to them. It's my way of giving face to Shopkeeper Luo."
It was hard for Yu Ying not to be shaken when she heard this.
Although she switched to facial cream from a medical clinic and it sold well, the reputation was not hers, but this did not conflict with making money, nor did it conflict with her own facial cream business.
After pondering for a moment, Yu Ying's thoughtful eyes suddenly became clear and she made a decision.
She smiled and replied, "I'll do the deal."
Doctor Wu smiled upon hearing this and said to her, "The clinic will give you a deposit of one thousand coins first, and we will settle the bill after the facial cream arrives. What do you think, Madam Yu?"
Yu Ying nodded in agreement, saying, "It's just that I won't be in the county seat for long, and making facial cream takes time and labor, so could you please send me fifty jars first? I'll have another fifty jars sent over in ten days."
Doctor Wu: "That's fine too. I'll send the jar of facial cream to Madam Yu tomorrow. Where should I send it to?"
The clinic also makes facial cream, so Taofang has it in stock, but the name of this new facial cream needs to be stamped on the bottom.
Yu Ying directly told him the location of the stall and asked him to deliver it there.
Doctor Wu nodded, gave her the deposit, and then called the medicine boy over and instructed, "Take Madam Yu to Gu's Pottery Shop and tell her that Doctor Wu from Renshan Clinic sent her there. Ask him to try to pay her the same price he supplies to the clinic."
Yu Ying stood up and bowed slightly to Doctor Wu: "Thank you, Doctor Wu."
Doctor Wu smiled and said, "It's just a piece of cake."
Facial cream is good after all, and cooperating with Madam Yu is just mutually beneficial.
Yu Ying collected the deposit and left the clinic with the medicine boy and went to Gu's Pottery Shop.
After arriving at the pottery workshop, Yu Ying chose two ceramic jars that were similar to the ones she had now. Because an acquaintance had recommended them to her, even though the price didn't drop much, the cost of the facial cream was reduced by three cents each.
The good ones cost nine cents each, and the ordinary ones cost five cents each.
She ordered one hundred of each.
Finally, she picked out two small jars of different styles to hold the lip balm. These small jars were more beautiful and cost six cents each.
Yu Ying made a small amount of lip balm, so she only ordered thirty each.
After seeing all this, she asked the potter for the smallest pottery bottle.
The waiter told her that the smallest one was the jar for lip balm. If she wanted something smaller, it would have to be custom-made and would take at least two days to make.
Yu Ying wanted to make lip balm as a gift, but she couldn't put it in a bamboo tube. She also had to improve the quality of the gift so that customers would feel that it was worthwhile to get lip balm for free when they bought facial cream.
The amount is not much, so the container for the lip balm must be exquisite.
When giving away lip balm, the amount must be small. This will save costs and allow people to use it up earlier and repurchase it sooner.
Yu Ying planned to use the three cents saved from the cost of facial cream to customize a smaller container.
It's about an inch in diameter, narrower inside, and only one-third of an inch high including the lid.
At that time, you only need to pour a shallow layer of lip balm inside. Even if you use it sparingly, you can only use it about ten times at most.
Yu Ying ordered 150 pieces, but they can only be picked up two days later.
These pottery pieces would cost about two thousand five hundred coins in total, and after deducting the cost of the pottery jars and lip balm from the money I earned yesterday, I would have to spend nearly half of it.
Sure enough, money was hard to earn, but fortunately the clinic also paid a deposit of one thousand coins, which allowed her to have the money to buy the materials for making facial cream.
After paying the deposit, Yu Ying continued to go to the market, hoping to find honeycomb honey.
There should have been people who kept bees in this dynasty, but it was still relatively rare.
After walking around for a long time, Yu Ying finally saw a stall selling white honey.
Yu Ying walked over quickly. There was ready-made white honey on the stall, and the sign said it was 15 cents per ounce.
There is honeycomb honey on the stall that has not yet been squeezed out of the white honey, and a jar next to it contains the honeycomb that has been squeezed.
The material for beeswax is honeycomb, and this is what Yu Ying wants.
Yu Ying thought that Fu Wei still had to stay in the county seat for four days and would inevitably have to drink some alcohol, so honey water could make him feel more comfortable.
Thinking of this, she asked the vendor to buy two taels of honey and put it in a bamboo tube.
After buying the honey, I asked the vendor how to buy the pressed honeycomb residue.
Although beeswax was not used to make lip balm in this dynasty, it was probably used to make candles. I guess the beehive was not cheap.
After asking, I found out that it is indeed not cheap.
It’s sold by the jin, 80 wen per jin.
Yu Ying used to make beeswax. This pound of honeycomb residue could only yield about 3 taels in decimal form.
It is difficult to find this honey nest in Yu County. I have to continue making facial cream in the future, and I can't ask someone to buy it back. Besides, this beeswax can be stored for a long time. After thinking about it, Yu Ying took out all the honey nest residue in the pottery jar.
The total weight is 3.12 jin, so it is no problem to get one jin of beeswax.
After paying the money, Yu Ying went to buy some gauze, and finally went to the stall to find Song Sanlang and gave him the silver money that had been calculated yesterday.
Yu Ying gave Miss Su's wages to Song Sanlang and asked him to pay it.
Miss Su had apparently heard from Song Sanlang that there might be a reward at the end of the year, so she was particularly enthusiastic when she saw Yu Ying.
After stopping at the stall for a moment, Yu Ying talked to Song Sanlang about the business cooperation with the clinic, and then told him that the clinic would deliver the pottery jar tomorrow.
After the pottery jar arrives, take it directly back to his place, and the facial cream will be made there.
After giving the instructions, Yu Ying set off to return to the inn.
When he returned to the inn, Fu Wei was not in the room. After asking the inn's yamen runners, he learned that Fu Wei and the magistrate had gone to the county government again.
Fu Wei was not at home, so Yu Ying quickly ate lunch and then began to sew small bags with gauze. After finishing them, she went to the kitchen to borrow a ceramic stove, pots and pans, and a small steamer, and started to prepare beeswax in the house.
Boil the honeycomb in water until it boils, then let it cool down after a while.
After the beeswax solidifies and is completely separated from the water, scoop up the solidified beeswax, break it into several pieces and put it into a gauze bag. Then put the wrapped beeswax into a large bowl, and finally put it in a steamer to steam.
The evaporated beeswax seeps out of the bag, and the bag also effectively filters out impurities in the beeswax.
After repeating this process again, the pure beeswax is ready.
Yu Ying poured it into a small bowl while it was still hot, so that the solidified beeswax would be smaller, making it easier to carry and use.
After she finished, she looked out the window and found that it was already dark outside. She thought Fu Wei would be back soon.
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