With my wax melter in place, I had to try it out. After reviewing what soaps are needed, I decided I needed more Baby Bee soap. I utilize the same base oils for a couple other soaps, so this seemed like the perfect recipe to take my new wax melter for a spin. I got the baby bee soap out of the way first. I like to cool my lye mixture outside when its cold out, so yesterday was perfect (about 0 degrees F). Everything came together beautifully! Next was a new soap. I decided to make a cedar bergamot soap and I have had an essential oil blend that was waiting for a soap. I decided to color this batch with orange illite clay and add a bit of walnut powder for a bit of scrubbiness. Oh, and I added some buttermilk goodness. I'm not sure what I will be calling it, so for now it is just cedar bergamot soap. If you have naming suggestions, I am open. I still have some Baby Bee soaps, so I will be selling those first, but the Cedar Bergamot soap will be ready March 1st.
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I am now going into my "soap making season". It is when I get most of my soaps done for the summer market season. One thing that is new this year is I just purchased a wax melter, which should help immensely by allowing me to masterbach my solid oils. I wish I could masterbatch the whole recipe, but the wax melter isn't big enough for that. If I have things figured out correctly, I should be able to melt about 4 batches of solid oils at once. Just to try things out, I tried 3x oils and had plenty of room. Of course this meant that I had to make soap!
Now with 2 batches under my belt, I can safely say it ROCKS! I have a scale set up under my mixing bucket and can decant the correct amount straight from the tank to the bucket. Last Saturday, I was approached by a local store about my bubble bath. After a meeting later in the week, I came up with something fun... bubble bon bons. They are single use semi-solid bubble bath nuggets that are wrapped like candy. These bon bons bubble profusely and smell wonderful. I can't wait until tonight for my Sunday evening ritual Bath. Yes, I capitalized "Bath" intentionally. While I take showers the rest of the week, my Sunday Bath is less about getting clean and more about relaxing, unwinding and taking some time for myself. For now, I am offering the bonbons in 3 scents (Lust, Innocence, and Lavender Vanilla - feel I sound like a broken record) and unscented. I think I will offer these up individually and as a multi-pack.
I should make a side note about my essential oil blend "Lust". It also shows up as aphrodite. I was trying to make the name a bit more approachable, but when I mentioned the original name for the blend (it first appeared in my aromatherapy pulse point oils), she loved it. So, for the bubble bon bons, "lust" is what it is called. The same shop owner also asked about my massage oils. After some discussion, we decided that an oil that had a slightly different form than the traditional would be usedful. So I now have the same wonderful oil that I currently offer, but thickened into a sort of solid gel. It melts easily on contact, but is a lot less messy to use. Since my massage oils were formulated originally for a massage therapist for use in her business, it has great feel and lots of working time. It is also washes out of fabric easily. I have decided to call it a massage balm. It is offered unscented or 3 wonderful essential oil blends... Lust, Innocence, and Lavender Vanilla. Thanks to all for making the 2011 Art vs Craft event a great success!!!
I will be making some additional products over the next week or so, for those items that were sold out. I will post when I have them completed. The felted soaps literally flew off the shelves and there were a number of people that needed more. This is a rare opportunity to get something custom made for no additional charge, Send me a message with your scent and color choices and if possible, I can get those made up for you. Turn around time is about a week. Right now, I don't plan on keeping more than a handful in stock. I have been making and using a number of products that I think are finally ready for sale.
A while back I offered a face elixir that was part of my Argan Oil line. I have tweaked this to include a couple different and wonderful oils. Right now, I am only offering it in one blend that I recommend for use on normal to dry and mature skin. I decided to use my coveted Monoi de Tahiti oil which is a coconut oil infused with the tiare blossom. It smells heavenly! I should also note, that I am now calling it my Tiare Rose Argan Face Serum. To go with that, I am also offering a really nice toner. It has some wonderful hydrosols and aloe vera juice and honey and royal jelly and all sorts of great things, and it smells nice too! I know there is more, but I'm not remembering what, so I will post more as I think of them. I've been busy! (doing honey and soap stuff)
The good news... We finally got all of our honey pulled and extracted. Now the honey side of things can settle back into a routine. On the soap side, I have been busy getting restocks of popular soaps made and a few new ones that I am excited about. I re-invented a soap I made years ago that I really liked. At the time I called it Cardamom, which is one of the essential oils used, but since I now have a Cardomom line of products that have a different blend of essential oils, I am calling this one Kashmir. I also made a soap that I hope will satisfy some of the requests for anise soap, which I am calling Green Fairy. Since I can't leave well enough alone and jsut use aniseed essential oil, I started thinking that anise is one of the primary ingredients in Absinthe. So, I blended aniseed, star anise, fennel and a couple other essential oils to come up with my interpretation of absinthe (AKA Green Fairy, hence the name). It has two shades of green and smells of licorice. For holiday soaps, I have a trio of soaps made... Yule, Marzipan, and Pommander. Yule is definitely my favorite and is a blend of conifer oils, icy peppermint, smokey vetiver and cedarwood. It is a mostly white soap with a touch of emerald green mica on top. I also created a soap in the same general scent as my cherry almond liquid soap. I added a few extra extra oils adn some grapeseed powder for a hint of scrubbiness and now call this one Marzipan. The last of the holiday soaps is one I call Pommander. It is primarily ornage and clove, but I added a few other oils the round out the scent a bit. It was a quick mover even with some precautions, but I think it will be OK. I used a Australian pink clay as the background color, which in soap has an earthy redness to it. I topped it all with a dusting of gold mica powder. Lastly, I made a couple complexion soaps. Although I generally use my soaps head to toe, I have found that sometimes people need the reassurance of something formulated specifically for the face. These are poured into my heart shaped molds and will cure to a smaller bar than my usual soaps. Just a reminder about the Boulevard Bash this coming weekend. Looks like a wonderful event. You can view the poster here. We will be located close to 52nd St on the North side of the boulevard. Stop by and say Hi.
I LOVE it! If your not familiar with it, it is a really dry feeling oil which is naturally high in antioxidants, carotenoids, and essential fatty acids. It has been popluar in Europe for a number of years, but just recently has come into the spotlight here in the US.
I make an eye cream, face cream and all-over body milk. I just restocked my argan oil eye cream and need to replenish my supply of argan face cream. I have also been working on a hair oil that together with some broccoli seed oil, delivers shine and a bit of moisturization. I have a formula that works, but I want it to have a bit more body (it was a bit runny in my hand), so I have been playing with various ingredients to hopefully come up with something soon. I forgot to mention that I will also be involved in a neighborhood event - Boulevard Bash on August 27th. I am donating one of my new gift sets - 'My Sunday Ritual' for the event's silent auction.
'My Sunday Ritual' contains my favorite regime for Sunday nights... right before bed I fill the tub with a bubble bath. While in the bath, I first clean my face then apply a face mask and relax. (I focus on nothing but bubbles popping in my ear.) Once the mask is all rinsed off I go to work on my feet and other problem areas. Once I'm out of the tub, I slather on lotions and foot cream and crawl into bed. PERFECT! There is an event that happens here every year around thanksgiving. Every year, I have people asking me if plan on being there and every year, I kick myself because I missed the deadline to apply. This year, the organizer was at my farmers market and she let me know when the window for accepting applications opened. Of course, I *almost* forgot about it AGAIN.
I believe I will be one of 100 hunderd vendors. Which sounds daunting, but I believe they put a lot of thought into getting the mix of vendors right, that it will be awesome for everyone involved. I will post more information once more becomes available. Yippee!!!! |
AuthorI like to walk the line between the creative and the analytical. Making soaps and other body care products allows me to explore both sides. I am always in awe of bees and what gifts they provide for us. There are many things to be learned.... Archives
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