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Showing posts from January, 2015

The "Plop Layer" Method

Coconut Lemongrass! My first soap batch made in 2015 is cut and curing.  Made with coconut almond milk and shea butter, it's going to be super silky smooth.  I froze the nut milk in an ice cube tray and just defrosted what I needed - worked great! For fragrance I used a mix of essential oils and perfume, each in their individual colors.  I had big hopes for a really cool swirl, but the fo set up waay too fast and had to "plop layer" it into the mold, which accounts for some of the air pockets you see. The tan color is scented with  Coconut Milk Lavender  from Bulk Apothecary.  It smells wonderful but the acceleration was a major bummer.  Next time I will add this to the warm oils, before the lye, and see if it behaves any better.  On the upside, it should not discolor much. The blue is scented with lavender essential oil and the pale yellow is lemongrass eo.  The lemongrass also ran fast for me; hence the plop method!  Although this certainly has a "rusti

The Importance of Slowing Down

Early last fall I got cracking on holiday soap projects, candles and the like. As time slipped by I began to feel frenzied, and worried about product inventory for the holiday sales events and opportunities I had on my calendar.  I ordered too many holiday fragrance oils, certainly more than I used., had supplies strung all over the house and attempted two projects I was unfamiliar with  (these were doomed to fail).   It all started to feel pretty  STRESSFUL - like WORK even!   The holiday season is always a bit crazy for us makers who also sell - that's to be expected.  But looking back, I feel I lost a bit of the excitement and passion.  I felt like a one woman assembly line trying to meet deadlines and the demands of holiday shoppers I had lined up, dying to get their hands on my soap. Sadly, they didn't materialize the way I'd envisioned.  In the end, my events kinda turned out to be stinkers-  without throngs of soap buyers.  So what did I gain:  overspending and o

The Big Reveal!!

Hi Everyone! One of my resolutions for this year was better blogging, and I've been hard at work.  I've spent the better part of this past weekend putting all the details in place for purchasing here with Pay Pal.  "Challenging" is an major understatement :) However, after a few sleepless nights (I can be a teensy bit obsessive) and most of yesterday (the warmest spring like day we've had in a long time - I missed it!) I think it's ready to go. So...Drum roll........Check out the left side bar for everything you need to start shopping! Of course, I am confident that my many supportive friends and readers will inform me of any glitches that may surely arise.  I can't do any of this without all your support and encouragement , which I appreciate immensely. Have a great week!

Still Learning

Guess what I learned to do today?  Yes, I made myself a light box for photo taking!  I've been pretty slow in studying up on picture taking, but now am making up for lost time.  These are my very first attempts and I'm pretty pleased.  And it was easy - even for me.  YouTube is amazing and I so appreciate all you smarties who are willing to take time to show some of us slower models how to do things! This is a custom order of Honey Soap that's now curing.  I love my logo stamp, but I tend to try it too soon after cutting.  These were cut about four days ago, and I stamped them yesterday.  I should have stopped at one or two...sigh.  I'm pretty sure my customer will be ok with it, though.   On a technical note, this batch was put in the fridge after pouring.  I wanted to prevent gel, due to the honey I was afraid it would get too hot and crack or creep up in the mold.  I kept it refrigerated for 24 hours, but as you can see, it looks like it still gelled partial
Non-soap related but.....I can't resist this. Happy 71st Birthday to the One and Only Guitar God Jimmy Page -  In case you were wondering... I flippin LOVE Led Zeppelin!   And now you know :)

Available Now

Here is a better description of what's still on hand.. L-R Autumn Afternoon (one bar)- crisp sweet           outdoorsy clean Pumpkin Souffle - rich vanilla pumpkin Christmas Forest - fantastic sweet pine Oatmeal - Neutral with a hint of oats Eucalyptus Spearmint (one bar)- clean and uplifting, lightly scented L-R Riptide - sexy ocean scent- unisex Festive Almond - light "cherry almond" scent Apple Jack - Rich spicy apple Woodland Path - outdoor fresh and clean Miracle Mud - neutral scent, dead sea mud (Not Pictured - Peace Be with You - Smoky Frankincense and Myrrh, golden color). Thank you to my friend Cheryl, for keeping me on my toes!  I appreciate your feedback.  :)

Happy New Year!

Reorganized Supply Closet :) My oh my how the time flies - it's really been over two months since my last post..!  November and December had me hoppin with holiday craft and sales events, not to mention the entire Christmas season's activities.  And as usual, I was sick in bed for a few days, too.  I'm just now catching my breath and starting to dream up some new soap ideas.  Today has been the first quiet day I've had at home in weeks, full of coveted unstructured time.  After finally getting the Christmas tree and decorations put away, I started a much needed revamp of my soap supply closet to make this small space more functional. Tomorrow I start on the curing room...it's a bit of a disaster, but it feels sooo good to get things in order and start fresh for the upcoming year. I don't normally set New Year's resolutions for myself, but this year I've been inspired by Kenna of  Modern Soapmaking .  She posted a wonderful example of her own planni