SOAPS CURRENTLY FOR SALE

The following soaps are currently on the website for sale. At the end of May I'll be uploading the Spring collection.

All of these soaps are made with skin loving butters and oils: almond oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, babassu oil, shea butter, and mango butter. 

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WE HAD FUN AT THE SHEPHERD'S HARVEST FESTIVAL!!

My daughter and I have been attending the Shepherd's Harvest Festival for years and this year I decided it would be fun to apply to sell my soap there. All artists are juried so I was ecstatic when I got in. It's always nice knowing event organizers love the look of my soaps as much as I do. 

Here's my daughter Maya bundled up in the morning before the sun warmed up the building. 

The Shepherd's Harvest Festival is always held over Mother's Day weekend and due to covid the festival was cancelled in both 2020 and 2021 so it was super exciting to not only be selling there this year but also being able to see so many people at once in the same place. It was such a wonderful time with all of the positive energy swirling around us. Everyone was happy and just glad to be seeing the sheep, alpaca, and all of the yarn and raw fiber for sale. Of course we didn't just sell, we also bought. When you knit, spin, and weave there is no way you can leave the Shepherd's Harvest without buying a bunch of fun things to play with. 

Here's the stash I walked away with:

My first knitting bowl.

Fun fibers to experiment with on the spindle.

I bought this yearn from my vendor neighbors. Stitch Stuff Yarn is run by a mother daughter team in Wisconsin. They currently run their business out of their basement. They were so very nice and extremely helpful. I'm not a fantastic knitter so they gave me tips on how to improve and even bought some soap. They had some of the prettiest yarn at the festival so I bought to hanks. One hank is currently being turned into a hat for me by a friend who is much more skilled at knitting than I so I can't wait to share it here.

One of my favorite fibers to spin: Superwash BFL (Bluefaced Leicester)

And life is not complete without raw wool. This is a blend of several fibers: 1/2 Teeswater, 3/16 Romney, 5/32 Blueface Leicester, 5/32 Suffolk.

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SOME FUN SPRING SOAPS ARE HERE!

I was feeling extra creative recently so decided to make some fun designs.

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IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR: HOLIDAY SOAP TIME!!

I love this time of year so much because of all the wonderful holiday soap fragrances that come out and then thinking of cool soap designs to go with them. The following are some of the soaps I made this year. My favorite is the fruity gum drop batch. I just love the bright colors and that gum drop mold is too cute! I intended on making 12 small batches of soap before December 1st but didn't quite reach my goal.  Maybe next year 😀🎄⛄

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SOAPY TIME!

 I've been working on a few batches of soap for autumn but got sidetracked on the designs. I really need to be making soaps with colors like orange, black, yellow, green, and using embeds like fall leaves or ghosts but I ordered some new and interesting fragrances, molds and glitters so I wanted to give them a try and my design ideas didn't fit the season very much. I have one batch of soap that screams autumn and that's this one (below). It smells like pumpkin souffle. 

This what the 2nd design idea. I coveted the honeycomb mold for a while and was finally able to get it so of course I had to use the honey, milk, and oatmeal fragrance with this.

I finally ordered some eucalyptus spearmint fragrance which I love, love, love. I wanted to make the design simple since all I see when smelling this uplifting scent is a spa and what color fits spa better than a light calming sage green. 

This batch idea came after the glitter arrived. Little stars just seemed to fit perfectly with the autumn fig fragrance and dark grey/blue mica. My daughter named it starry night because she said it reminded her of Vincent Van Gogh's painting by the same name.

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TIME FOR AUTUMN SOAPMAKING!

It's that time of year again. I love Halloween and autumn, it's  my favorite time of year.  My first batch of soap is Halloween Harvest, scented with Bramble Berry's pumpkin souffle, my favorite pumpkin fragrance oil. I used Van Yulay's cute little jack-o-lantern soap mold. 

 

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ANOTHER REVIEW - BRAMBLE BERRY LYE

On May 17, 2020 I purchased more lye from Bramble Berry. I've not had very good luck with their lye lately, hit and miss on whether it ruins my soap recipe. It took a long time for me to figure out what the problem was because the problem was so inconsistent so this time I purchased a brand new container of lye and this is the result after mixing the lye and distilled water and of course my tried and true recipe came out soft!!

Lye should never be this weak. Even Bramble Berry admits this on their website.

https://www.soapqueen.com/bath-and-body-tutorials/tips-and-tricks/expired-lye/

I've had terrible luck with Bramble Berry products lately and considering I've been buying from them since 2007 it is really a shame to have this experience. All of the fall scents I purchased also smell very weak for the first time EVER and I'm hoping that is not the case when I make soap and candles with them.

I definitely won't be purchasing lye or silicone molds from them again in the future, I'll post about the fragrances in a couple weeks. 

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NEW SUMMER SOAPS

Sharing some new soap creations that I'm really happy with.

I've had this little fish tail for a while now and had an idea how I wanted to create the soap but I was using a fragrance I'd never worked with before so I wasn't sure how the process would work out. The base of the soap didn't exactly become what I wished for, mainly because I used shredded luffa, something I now know I hate, but the rest of the soap turned out great! The little pearls and the eco glitter were exactly what I needed for this project. So cute!!

My daughter wanted me to make some Pride Soap for her friends. I find working with multiple colors challenging when trying to create the perfect layers so I kept putting this project off. Finally I made it. I didn't get the perfect straight layers but what I did get I thought turned out awesome! :-)

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LOVING THE JOJOBA BEADS

I made some yummy scented peach soap a couple days ago and added some jojoba beads to the top. It turned out beautifully. The color is perfect, the scent is to die for, and the design is exactly what I wanted.

Here is the soap

Here is a close-up of the tiny jojoba beads

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PRODUCT REVIEW

I made several batches of soap recently and was really pleased with the fragrances so I wanted to share my thoughts here.  All FOs are from Bramble Berry.

Electric Lemonade is #1 because it is one of my favorite BB fragrances. It smells so fresh and uplifting and it soaps really, really well. No ricing or acceleration at all and the scent holds a long time in the cured bar.

Pineapple Papaya is #2 because it is my second favorite. I am not sure if others like it as much as I do since I never really get too much feedback on this fragrance but I love working with it because it smells so good. It does accelerate trace though so it doesn't leave a lot of room for design time.

Chocolate Mint is #3. It's not a BB fragrance, it's actually two of their FOs blended. I used their dark rich chocolate and blended it with candy cane. It came out perfectly. No ricing, no acceleration and it smelled exactly like I wanted, like a peppermint patty.  Their dark rich chocolate is to die for.

Blueberry Jam is #4. I love the fragrance. It smells just like blueberry jam. I am not pleased with the design of my soap though. It didn't turn out at all like I planned and I don't remember why.

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RASPBERRY TRUFFLE SOAP

My latest creation: raspberry truffle soap. I purchased this fragrance from Bramble Berry. It soaped up beautifully. No ricing, no acceleration. The chocolate scent is much stronger than the raspberry which comes through lightly. I love the way the colors and berries came out also. I was nervous at first since the FO was suppose to color the soap brown but initially it looked like a mustard color. After a couple days it became the brown you see in the pic.

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MORE SOAP AND PRODUCT REVIEWS

The last batch of soaps I made were for Valentines Day.  I used grapefruit lily and baby rose fragrance oils from Brambleberry. Both smell amazing but the baby rose is to die for. Smells exactly like the rose bush I have in the garden. I also used the Brambleberry heart silicone mold for the first time. It is super easy to use and comes out perfect!

I am disappointed in the soap cutter I purchased. I bought my first wire cutter and I am not liking the result. It has nothing to do with the cutter itself, that was built perfectly and works very well, it is the little bumps it leaves on my soap which I've read is caused by air bubbles. If I cut the "old" way those bumps don't appear, it is only with the wire cutter which I've also read is very common. 

You can see the bumps in the soaps below.

I'll be making some changes with the next batch to see if it prevents this problem when cutting with the wire.

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HOLIDAY SOAPS WERE A HIT

Over the holidays I made a nice variety of soaps with fragrance oils from Brambleberry.  They were well received! Here they are:

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MORE HOLIDAY SOAPS!

Made another batch of soap for the holidays. This one is scented with sugar plum fairy fragrance from Brambleberry. Smells so good. I’ve used this FO many times in whipped bath butter and everyone likes it so I decided to use it this time around in soap.

My daughter picked out the colors for this batch, she also created the photo set up and the watermark.

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TIME FOR CHRISTMAS SOAPS

After a bit of a rough 2019 with health issues and then surgery, things are finally starting to look before. I guess my astrology chart was right! I had a reading back in late August and the astrologer said that things would start to improve in November. Thought I'd never get here but here I am 😊 Much better and finally able to make some soap again just in time for Christmas.

I originally thought I'd make this batch with a whipped white top but decided at the last minute to just add the gold eco glitter. I love the way it turned out. I finally found the perfect red mica for my soap. Yay!

I was thinking candy cane when I made this so I scened it with peppermint essential oil and then decided just red and white wasn't enough so I added a little green. It turned out better than I had imagined.

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COFFEE SOAP

I made a batch of coffee soap today scented with Bramble Berry espresso fragrance oil.  Smells just like a cup of fresh brewed coffee in the morning. Yum!!

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SUNSCREEN: I PREFER TO MAKE MY OWN

I've been making my own natural sunscreen for a few years now with various degrees of success. I originally started with just oils known to protect skin from the damage of uv rays but oils alone are not very effective.  I then formulated a product that I considered sending to an spf testing lab but I didn't like that what I had created required a preservative.  So now I am using a simple recipe I came up with based on the research I've read on using sencha green tea topically.  This sunscreen is very heavy, perfect for swimming and if sweating a lot.  I'm really happy with what I've created because it's as natural as it can be and it keeps my fair skin from burning.
For my sunscreen I use sencha green tea infused olive oil, coconut and almond oil, shea butter, beeswax and zinc oxide (uncoated, non-nano - mesh size 325 nm).

Sencha green tea has been well researched and found to be effective in sunscreen formulations.  READ HERE

Green tea has been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects in both human and animal skin.[78] Animal studies provide evidence that tea polyphenols, when applied orally or topically, ameliorate adverse skin reactions following UV exposure, including skin damage, erythema, and lipid peroxidation.[79] Since inflammation and oxidative stress appear to play a significant role in the aging process, green tea may also have antiaging effects by decreasing inflammation and scavenging free radicals. Researchers have found that the main active ingredient in green tea, epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), works well as an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and sunscreen.

Infusing sencha green tea in olive oil

Great consistency for bottling

Smooth cream

Goes on white but can be rubbed in, skin feels silky smooth

Perfect!

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PUMPKIN SOAP

I recently made some pumpkin soap using pumpkin puree for the first time. It turned out great! I colored half of it with titanium dioxide and the other half using copper sparkle mica from Brambleberry.  I'm not impressed with the way the TD appears in the soap but I like the copper sparkle mica.

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SHORT REVIEW ON MAD OILS

I placed my first order from Mad Oils recently; love the fast shipping, the personal touch "thank you" gift with FO sample and the quality of their essential oils and micas.  Unfortunately, after using their Lemon Cupcake mica my cp soap ended up looking a little orange instead of yellow :(  Their website says it isn't unusual to end up with orange the first 24 hours but it has been 2 weeks and it is still more orange than yellow.  Their micas do mix up nice and smooth in the raw soap though, better than other suppliers I have used.  I'll try using the yellow again in another recipe, this time with a different essential oil, and see how it turns out.
As for their Grape Nehi mica, that came out perfectly.  A perfect purple that lasts.  Also, their lavender essential oil has the truest and best scent of all those I have used from soap suppliers.

Mad Oils is definitely on my list of go-to shops for soap supplies.

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HANDMADE SOAP GIVEAWAY!!!

My friend Teresa over at Raising Our Own...kids & food is having an awesome blog giveaway. Don't miss out! Teresa will be sharing some of her sisters amazing handmade soaps with fellow bloggers so make sure you follow the link above to get all the details and enter for a chance to win.

This giveaway is for residents of Canada & the U.S.

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