Lavender Eucalyptus & Beer Soap

Just relisted some of my soaps that sold out on etsy! 

I just love the smell of this lavender eucalyptus soap. It's such a relaxing blend. Whenever I have a bad headache or sinus cold, I just unwrap a bar of this beauty, get me a bath bomb in the same scent and soak! It does wonders...I always feel like a new person. Even if I don't want to take the time to wait on bath water in the shower just putting the hot bath towel over your face really helps.

"Lavender Eucalyptus"

"Unscented Beer Soap"
- Made with Budweiser American Ale Beer

What is Soap?

What really is "soap"?

You would be surprised how many people really "think" they know the answer to that question. LOL I must admit...before I started researching and reading, reading, reading...I thought that I was really using good soap, when actually they were just "moisturizing or cleansing bars". Go figure! Why not read the label of your soap and see what it says. Many commercial manufactures use strong fragrances to cover up the harsh chemical smell of their "soap" (I guess that's why some of them smell so good) Handmade/crafted soap smells so much milder and better though.

Only when a product has been created through saponification can it be called soap. Saponification  is the chemical process that occurs when fats/oils are mixed with distilled water and sodium hydroxide (lye) to create soap & glycerin. The root word "sapo" is Latin for soap and the Italian word "sapone" means soap. There are many ways and a variety of oils, butters, fragrances, and additive combinations used to make soap, but the basic formula will always be the same:  fats or oils, distilled water, and sodium hydroxide (lye).

Oils, butters, distilled water, and lye ready to slow cook in this batch.

One of the joys I've found in soap making is creating my own unique recipe. It's time consuming but so much fun! Each oil and butter has specific properties to aid in producing a well balanced soap recipe. The combination I use depends on how I want my unique bar of soap to turn out! Sometimes the recipe doesn't work out so good on the 1st try and sometimes it does...it's just like with a recipe I may experiment with in the kitchen to cook....just fine tune it (add a little more of this or that) and try again, that's all.  


I write everything down like it's a master plan or something! Well, I guess it IS my master plan...and I guard my recipes with my life! lol (I'm exaggerating ok ) But seriously I don't give out recipes that have taken me a long time to create...just buy the bar of soap it's so much easier :-)

My mom used to always go to the whole foods market and buy handmade soap and I would be like "you're going to spend $5 on one bar of soap when you could get a whole pack for that??!!" How soon did I learn that it was so much better & nourishing for my skin with such a creamy fluffy lather. My skin is so worth it -- and yours is too! Try a bar of handmade soap and you're guaranteed to fall in love! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

 White Tea and Ginger Bar (Finished and cut)

"Cherry Almond"

"Oatmeal, Milk & Honey" made with local SC honey

June Update

OK, so I seriously needed to update this blog! Blogging is hard for me because it just seems like mindless rambling and I often wonder if anyone even reads this...however, I will try to continue. I have been so busy these past few months. I've been working on lots of gift baskets and gift bags and formulating recipes. Welcomed my new little niece into the world in March! That was the highlight of my spring, she's so beautiful! I will post her hospital picture since that's on a public hospital website that should be fine. I've been busy with that among other things that I will refrain from mentioning! I have been working some.... I will share my birth announcment hand sanitizers a little later. But if you would like to take a look they are on my facebook page here:

I made a moisturizing Almond Cherry soap that will be ready this week. And I made up some more lip balms! Lip balms are in 9 great flavors (listed below)! You can also order them unflavored. They are made with shea butter, cocoa butter, mango butter, coconut oil, beeswax, grapeseed, oil, jojoba oil, and vitamin E. All things great for the lips :-)

• Strawberry
• Almond Biscotti
• Creme de Menthe
• Coconut Milk & Peaches
• Cherry Berry
• Orange Sorbet
• Lemon Cheesecake
• Brown Sugar
• Mango Peach

I have also now added a vegan lip balm for my customers who don't want the beeswax in their lip balm. My vegan lip balm also has sunscreen spf 15. Vegan lip balms are currently unflavored but if you would like one with some flavor just ask and I'll make it happen! Any of the flavors listed above would work fine.
Lip balms are $3.00 each and can be shipped for free with the purchase of a bar of soap! 

Created a New Banner

I just played around some more and created a new banner for my etsy shop and blog. What do you guys think?

IT SNOWED

Well.....IT SNOWED!! I just had to post the pictures since I didn't believe that we were really going to get anything. I love looking at freshly fallen snow b/c it looks like a clean blanket on everything. Here in Winnsboro I believe we got about 5 inches of snow they may have gotten more in Columbia I'm not sure. These are just a couple of pictures my sister sent me...my camera is broken so I couldn't take any pictures of my yard. My husband took a few with his camera phone so I'll see if I can figure out how to put those on here.

Lovely!

Snow in South Carolina?? We'll see..

We may get snow in SC today!!! What is it about the south that makes even the threat of snow so exciting? I went to the grocery store to get some olive oil to make a batch of soap and it was total CRAZINESS! People are in there buying up all the bread and milk. I must admit I was guilty of picking up a loaf of bread LOL but I really needed it. ;-) Two or three inches of snow would do me just fine and then it'll be gone in a day or two.

According to the news reports it should have already started snowing by now (3:52 pm). But I have not seen the first snow flake. Everyone is so excited I hope we're not disappointed. We'll See...

In the meantime I will be working on labels for 2 different clients and making a few batches of soap.

Have a good safe weekend everyone!

Baby Shower Favors

I had a super busy weekend but I enjoyed it so much! I was able to help with my sister's baby shower and it turned out really nice. She got so many cute itty bitty clothes. And to end the weekend with a bang I went to a super bowl party ( GO SAINTS!!!) I loved being with family and friends the entire weekend. I laughed so hard until I cried!

I was able to do the favors for the shower and I think they turned out rather nicely. We had 50 hand sanitizers and 50 candles (recycled baby food jars) and they ALL went. I hope everyone enjoys them. ;-) The pink candles were scented in Geranium Lily and the lavender was scented in Lilac. Enjoy the pictures!

Gift Boxes with curly ribbon I had 100 of these to do (whew)

1 oz. Hand Sanitizers with a personal message

Sanitizers before the labels were put on

100% Soy Candles in 4 oz. Baby Food Jars - Each Jar Recycled from my little nephew ;-)

Too cute!

Beer Soap & Coconut Lime Verbena

OK, so today I woke up with an EXCRUCIATING migraine. I haven't had one of those in a long time. I could barely stand up, but the one thing that got me up after about two hours of taking an excedrin is this: realizing that I had soap to unmold. Yay! I love unmolding and cutting my soap bars down. It's exciting seeing what the final bars look like. Well sometimes and other times it can be a real pain in the butt. My hubby always comes to my rescue when I'm in the kitchen screaming at a mold! Why oh why are pvc soaps so difficult to unmold. Makes you wonder why do I keep using the pvc pipes?? Weeelll, because I love round bars of soap. I think they fit nicely into male or female hands and it's probably just my imagination but I think they last longer too.

So, yesterday I made two batches of soap. (1) A beer soap scented with apple and (2) a coconut lime verbena soap. I'll post pictures soon. They smell wonderful.

It's funny I'm using beer in my soap and I don't even drink the stuff. I've always thought it was nasty but that just my personal opinion. So why beer in soap? Well I wondered the same thing when I first ran across people using beer in their soap. It's really rather nice and nostalgic. It has all the butters and oils as my other soaps (cocoa, shea, coconut, olive, canola, safflower, etc.) so it really is nice and luxurious lather on the skin. And depending on which beer I'm using sometimes it's a nice natural scent of the hops coming through.

I personally prefer mine with some other fragrance but that's just the girlie side of me ;-) Great for your hair or shaving too! So why just drink beer when you can bathe with it too! Men really love it! These two particular batches need to cure about 4 weeks and then they will be ready to sell and list on our website for $5 bucks a piece.

Etsy shop starting to list products yeh!

I did a lot of work today. YEH!!! I have made 3 batches of soy candles (sea breeze, clean cotton, and Georgia Peach) for a wonderful customer and I have been working on my etsy shop. Just finished making the banner for the storefront. I am so proud of myself! I think it looks pretty decent.

Check out my etsy shop here : www.carolinasoapco.etsy.com I only have one thing listed but it's a step in the right direction.

I am determined to make 2010 a great year for my business!!