phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES SEPT 9TH – SEPT 15TH, 2021 State Licensed Dispensaries & Doctor Certifications | CANNABIS | | ASK A STONER | Runway from p 47 a minute.’ She won’t let me look at the ma- jority of the designs, but I’m still like, ‘Oh, my god, this is going to be so neat!’” Momolu agrees about the potential for catwalk neatness, though she’s equally un- clear about how much of her new line will be made from hemp. “The struggle now is that hemp is scarce,” says Momolu, whom New York magazine called “one of the Top Five designers to watch” in 2019. “With COVID, you can’t get it readily. A lot of the hemp-infused fabric is overseas in Thai- land.” And so Momolu’s focus has shifted to hemp-adjacent ideas. “There might be some cannabis-leaf imaging on some of the fabrics,” she says. “Also, I’m using other fabrics like linen and burlap and silk, raw materials that come from the earth, which is reminiscent of hemp, a plant that also comes out of the ground.” Thomas says that runway models pos- ing with vape pens might make the Egyp- tian-themed event more pot-centric. And the models themselves are women of all ages and body types who work in the can- nabis industry, she says. So there’s that. Choreographed dance routines are defi- nitely going to be a thing, she promises, and pacing is going to be pretty fast. “We’re gonna whip in and whip out,” she says with a laugh, “in an hour, hour- and-a-half.” Her facial products empire really got started, Thomas says, because buying toi- letries for the residents of her group homes was so expensive. She decided to save some money by making the products her- self. Thomas was inspired to add CBD oil to some of her products after hooking up with Women Grow, an organization fo- cused on female leadership in the cannabis industry. “I wasn’t a smoker, and I thought the meeting would be average people who were pot-heads,” she admits. “But I was to- tally wrong. It was all these professional men and women who use cannabis as al- ternative medicine.” Not long after, a vape pipe blew up in the face of a resident of one of her group homes. Thomas gave the woman some of her cannabis-infused soap, hoping it would help with the healing. “Her face was a mess, all kind of greyish-green,” she re- calls. “After a couple of weeks you could see the difference in her skin. I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, we got something here. That’s how I started Fourtwenty Skin Care.” Edibles and a clothing line soon fol- lowed. And how better to launch a clothing line than an Egyptian-themed fashion show? “My whole brand is all built around Egypt,” Thomas swore, “because women are all goddesses, and because the cannabis plant is female.” She’s looking forward to seeing what her new women’s fashion line will look like on the catwalk. “But what I’m really looking forward to is me dressing up in a goddess outfit and hitting that runway,” she says. “Which is going to be so awesome.” Queen of the Niles will take place Saturday, September 11th, from 2 p.m.—3:30 p.m. at Fabric, 132 East Sixth Street in Tempe. BY HERBERT FUEGO Dear Stoner: What does it mean when the description on the marijuana says “live sugar” or “live butter”? of the extract in final form. Sugar is high-quality concentrate that SHAWNA Dear Shawna: The pantry-like names of mar- ijuana concentrates come from their consis- tencies and don’t have anything to do with their relevance in the kitchen. “Live” refers to the pre-production process of live resin, which is an umbrella term for extracts made by freezing the plants before extraction to preserve certain oils and flavor compounds. Terms like “sugar,” “budder” and “shatter” relate to the consistencies and appearance looks like a glob of brown sugar, with sticky, crystallized THC. Budder is whipped after extraction, drier than sugar; shatter is like resinous brittle, purged of solvents to look like hardened sap. All of them can be used in oil, butter or fat infusions for cooking, but avoid spending the money on live extracts for that. Live resin is meant for vaporizing, and the higher quality carries a premium price tag that won’t translate to food. Send questions to marijuana@ westword.com. 49
