Monday, January 31, 2011

Whole Soap Loaves For Sale

Lavender Twist
 I don't know why I haven't done this sooner. I am so fortunate that I have many loyal and repeat customers who buy the same soap repeatedly-3 or more bars at a time, and I feel really badly when they come to me for their favorite scent-and I only have 1 or 2 in stock-or even worse-completely sold out!

Cafe Mocha Loca
 To remedy that, I'm now offering 2.5 pound soap loaves on my indie site The Soap Seduction. For now, I'm only offering hot processed loaves because the cure time is virtually minimal, and I can turn these around very quickly. I'm loving the response so far. Soapers: something to think about if you don't already...

Friday, January 28, 2011

An All-Natural Soap

 

I L-O-V-E this soap...fo' real! I've decided to do an entire line of all-natural soaps. "Well, aint that what you already do?" Not entirely. I use synthetic fragrance oils (until you can prove to me that Lemon Chiffon comes from a plant, then it's synthetic), and man-made oxides in many of my products, but I think I should get some extra credit for using only pthalate-free fragrances. Anyway, here is my first official soap of the "Au Naturale" line. I call it Naturale 1106, but it smells so....natural and clean-like you would really expect a soap to smell if-you-know-what-I-mean. I can definitely say that my olfactory senses are becoming much more sophisticated and accustomed to the aroma of essential oils. At first, I could not stand the smell of any essential oil! They smelled like, well, plants! Duh! They are derived from plants, and pure essential oils are expen$ive as hell! I have to really budget for pure essential oils. The good thing about them is a little goes a long way. This batch was almost 3 pounds, and it only took 1.7 oz of pure essential oils to scent it-and it's strong! To the unsophisticated palate, it will smell very medicinal and plant-like. But the more you inhale the aromas, it sort of brings a calm to your overall senses. I'm smelling this one constantly. I cannot wait to try it!


Oh, I forgot to mention exactly which essential oils I used for this batch: rosemary, lime, and bergamot. The soap is uncolored, and the little brownish streak you see throughout is actually rhassoul clay-mined deep beneath the Atlas Mountains in Eastern Morocco*.







*source

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Groovy Man...Soap!


One of my blog buddies, CC Groovy, who happens to be a man, commented on one of my blog posts the other day something to the effect of, "Why don't you make any stuff for men?" Well, CC, this one's for you...and all the other mens out there.

After inhaling the scent for a few days, this one could actually go both ways. It's very clean and fresh-like sun-dried laundry, but it definitely has a masculine edge. I chose blue as the color because, well, I wanted the soap to be as "masculine" as possible. It looks like a pair of well-worn denim jeans. Sadly, I doubt I'll be able to make another batch of this one because the fragrance has been discontinued, and I don't know what all the notes were. Anyway, CC, hit me up, so I can send you a bar...on me!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Sweet Feets Creamy Foot Scrub

I had a crapload of pumice laying around and had no idea what to do with it. I think I won it in a giveaway, but I can't remember. Anyway, I got the bright idea to make a foot scrub because sandal season will be here in a few short months, and if I see another crusty foot this spring, I'm going to hand out samples-seriously! It's one of my most pettiest pet peeves...

I scented this scrub with all essential oils: tea tree to deodorize, peppermint to refresh and energize those tired, weary tootsies, and lavender to cut some of that medicinal smell of the tea tree. I know some folks love the aroma of tea tree-I aint one 'em!

This scrub looks kinda purplish in the pic, but it's really grayish. I added no color to this as I wanted to keep it as natural as possible. The base is unrefined shea butter and avocado oil so it's scrubby and mucho moisturizing at the same time. I would not recommend this for the face-it's really made for crust-busting: feet, knees, and elbows....

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Sensuous Rose Soap


I've been a lazy blogger lately. I just don't feel like doing NADA-but I managed to squeak out a new batch of rose-scented soap. I call it Sensuous Rose. The bottom layer is scented in English Tea Rose, and the top is scented in aromatic sandalwood. I love it! Yep, that's about it, lol...

Sunday, January 16, 2011

New Look, New Formula for Lotions

While I liked my first couple of batches of lubes, they weren't quite to my satisfaction, so I went back to the lab for a little tweaking. I'm much happier with the final results. They're thicker and creamier in consistency, and I've added avocado oil in place of apricot kernel oil. I thought these would turn out greasier with the shea and aloe butters, but they didn't! My skin as well as my testers' soaked it right up with no greasy after-feel. Whew! I've also added new scents including unscented, coconut lime (my newest fave), mango sorbet, and nectarine & honey (a close second).

 New Labels

Old Labels

I've also lightened up the packaging to be more reflective of my graphics. I splurged on these fabulous clear, gloss labels from Online Labels. They're the most affordable that I've found so far, but if you've got a good label supplier, please share! I'm slowly changing labels on all my products-but not before I use the old ones! Label-making is expensive, ya know?!

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Mango Mania!


It's time to lighten and brighten things up around here! Did you see where there is snow on the ground in 49 out of these 50 United States? And the lone holdout? Florida...of course, heehee. Anyway, I'm dreaming of warm skies and tropical destinations, and my newest emulsified scrub, Mango Sorbet, takes me there with each use.


I love how thick and creamy this scrub is, and this is the truest mango I've ever smelled. The texture reminds me of pureed mango, and it's now a mainstay in my already overloaded shower caddy. I use unrefined shea butter as my main moisturizer. My skin just drinks it up. I love how the scrub goes from scrubby to lotion-y when I rub it in. It rinses clean and imparts a nice, smooth after feel. Yum.....

Offered in a 1 oz sample, 8 oz full-sized, and in my new Triple Threat Creamy Scrub Trio:)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

The Morning After Soap

 (I'm in love with these little rubber duckies...)

I'm so naughty. Now use your imagination....


I love the look of this white-ish soap. The poppy seeds really make it-pop. These bars are refreshing and invigorating. I named it The Morning After because it's the perfect soap for purging all the evils of the night before...I scented them very lightly with pure peppermint essential oil, and the poppy seeds really provide a scrubby boost. I hot processed these (Yes, I turned a method of soap making into a verb) which is becoming a major obsession. My technique is getting better and better because the finished bars aren't all choppy and gunky-looking like some traditional bars look (And, no, that's not an insult, just an observation.)

I'm going to dig into my Saponifier archives and attempt a hot processed swirl. I just got my order in from Soaper's Choice, so I have a little room to play and experiment!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

First New Soap of 2011


Again Happy New Year! Is it me, or has readership fallen off? Nobody comments anymore, and I miss that (sniffle, sniffle....)!

Anyway, here's my first soap of the year, and it looks like I was celebrating a little too much when I made it. The colors are all wrong-but it smells nice! It's Wicked-version 5 or 6. This is the one soap that I change the design of each and every time, and it seems to get wickeder each time. Fool that I am used that brick red oxide which is really nothing more than orange/brown if you ask me...I tried to offset it with a lot of purple, and this is what I came up with. The scent is Black Raspberry & Vanilla-probably one of my top 3 scents of all time. I do love the black swirls though. This is also a palm-free soap. I'm really low on palm oil, so I'm reserving what I have left for a more elaborate batch I'm planning. I used extra virgin olive oil and unrefined shea butter, so my batter was a greenish-orange tint before I colored the soap. As a result, the top is kinda orange-ish-go figure. I really wanted more bells and whistles for this one, but I was so pressed to make some soap, that I didn't design my project before starting. Well, here's to you Wicked: You prove every time that beauty's only skin deep...yeah, yeah...