Light Scents of Summer

While I have started working on the fall line of soaps...I can't help but still play with some of my lighter scents. I knew I wanted to make a bar with poppy seeds, but I wasn't sure what would be a nice fit at first. After digging around for a while I found the perfect light scent...Vanilla Pound Cake! It smells delicious and will make a wonderful addition to the summer soaps I still have in the shop.

The Vanilla Pound Cake soap ended up being a glycerine and Shea Butter blend. I love the feel of Shea Butter on the skin, and I can't dispute the moisturizing properties of glycerine soaps. I've read on various sites (I honestly couldn't quote them all) that most glycerine is cooked out of the soaps sold in stores. That is just so sad to me, because it really does feel wonderful and works to draw moisture out of the air onto your skin.

Once I had everything in its liquid state I mixed in my fragrance and let it cool. I have a tendency to want to pour into my molds too hot. I knew I wanted the poppy seeds to stay suspended so I added them and then stirred constantly until it cooled down considerably. I poured my base into the molds around 130F. Then I added my Shea Butter on top and swirled it around with my skewer. In hindsight I believe I may have waited too long to pour. I'm not sure what a happy medium would be yet...still experimenting with pour temps.

 (Once I added the Poppy seeds I let it cool down, but constantly kept it moving.)

 (Adding the Shea Butter swirls)

Overall I'm still happy with the results. I do love the sweet scent of Vanilla Pound Cake and the poppy seeds offer a light exfoliating experience. Not sure if you can tell, but I'm a big believer in soaps that offer some exfoliation! They help to remove dead skin cells and promote growth of newer skin cells. This turnover leaves skin feeling smooth and soft. 

If your interested in seeing all of our soaps currently in stock visit us HERE 
 

A Taste of Fall

I can feel all of the fall related products I will be making just swirling around in my head. They keep me up at night...and I KNOW its time to get started. So far I have created 1 new Bath Gift Set...and its an ode to Candy Corn. For those that know Candy Corn...no introduction is needed. For those that don't know what Candy Corn is...well let me just say that it is this addictive little triangular candy that comes out in the fall, close to Halloween. They are simple...yet oh so wonderful. I felt it only right to go ahead and jump in with this wonderful scent.

The set as a whole contains:
Candy Corn Bath Salts
Candy Corn Sugar Scrub
Pumpkin Soaps
Candy Corn Soy Candle

What are your favorite fall scents?  I know I have a Pumpkin Souffle line coming out, and there is a Spiced Amber Ale scent that I have fallen in love with...any other suggestions? I'm always looking for new ideas! 

Interested in seeing our other sets...check us out HERE

Making Lemonade Out Of Lemons...Or In This Case Leather Soap

So I was so excited to start making pumpkin soaps...its by far my favorite fragrance. It reminds me instantly of fall and since it is so miserably hot here I thought I could use a little fall. Well the day came when I was to receive my shipment of supplies. I was so excited because I even bought some ground up pumpkin seeds to add to this soap...it was going to be glamorous. Once the package came I ran to open it up, only to find to my dismay...there was no pumpkin fragrance. I was incredibly disappointed...then I realized in its place I was sent a difference scent...Leather. Leather?! WTH am I supposed to do with that? All of my dreams of feeling a touch of fall during July just vanished. 

So I did what any good crafter would do. After calling my supplier to explain the situation and making sure my pumpkin fragrance was officially on its way, I decided to turn this Leather scent into something....something...anything. I have so much of it...Dear Lord, so freaking much Leather scent. I open the container and instantly feel like I have just shoved my face into a boot. Hmm, this may be harder than I originally believed. I decided to bring a man's perspective in on this one because it is a more masculine scent. My husband was more than happy to oblige so after much discussion we decided on Leather soap. Using a few extra left overs from our melt and pour experimentations we decided to try to make the soap look like leather as well. 

We had some glycerine soap base and goats milk soap left over. So first we melted down the clear and tinted it a nice sparkly cappuccino color. Simultaneously we heated the goats milk soap to get it back to a liquid consistency. Once we had everything melted we poured the cappuccino color into the loaf mold first. Then we slowly poured the white into the loaf mold...creating a swirl as we went. 

The end result....not too bad, even though we didn't quite achieve the Leather look we were going for. Considering I wasn't all that interested in this scent in the first place. It seems to be the perfect scent for a man cave, so maybe adding in a leather scented candle will be the way to go. Should make a nice little gift basket for Christmas...or in this case a gift crate (gotta keep it manly ;) haha)

Come and check out our other soaps HERE

Shea Butter Experimenting

So I thought I would start today off by doing a little experimenting...which in my opinion is what most crafting is all about. I had really been showing Goat's Milk Soaps some love lately, but I decided I wanted to try another outlet. Shea Butter just seemed to be the natural next step for me. It was readily available for me to play with, and I hear it has some wonderful skin loving properties that peaked my interest. Shea Butter Soap is used to treat dry skin, diminish wrinkles, treat acne and even help soothe eczema. Since my middle son has eczema, I figured this was worth a try.

First I needed to make the Shea Butter...

When trying to decide on a scent I decided to go with something fruity and natural smelling...so Apricot Honey was calling my name...plus I had left over Apricot Seeds and since I'm a fan of gently exfoliating the skin, this seemed like a perfect fit.

 
Adding the Apricot Honey...

So then we wait...and wait...and wait some more.

I honestly had no idea how this soap would turn out, but I'm really glad with the outcome.

 

It's so creamy and smooth and yet the apricot seeds offer just enough texture to help remove all the junk off of you...truly a wonderful clean feeling. 

If experimenting is your thing I highly suggest giving it a try...if you rather take it for a test drive first, I encourage you to try a bar HERE

DIY An Adventure Into Goat's Milk Soap!

If your going to do something...do it right. If you are someone like me that will take you many, many, many tries!

I had this idea...ingenious idea if you will...that I wanted to make a soap loaf. One small problem with this fairly normal idea...I didn't own a soap loaf mold. Now for most people you would go and buy a mold, or wait patiently for the one you had already ordered to arrive. That's not this girl obviously! I decided to push through and use what I have.  So what did I have? I had a silicone pan...a square silicone pan...a 10x10 silicone pan. In theory this should be easy...take all of my pieces thrown them in and make this into something wonderful. Nope...Nada...Not how it works. I thought I had planned and measured and accounted for the amount of soap and supplies I would need to fill this pan. I WAS WRONG haha...so wrong. I had plenty of delightful lavender smelling soap embeds...but not enough goat's milk soap. I scrambled to save this project halfway through...some of the bars are a wee bit wonky (If you examine the picture up top closely you can probably see some craters and such)...luckily for me my mother bought them off of me (aren't moms the best)!

Now a little about what went RIGHT with this DIY. Since I'm sure you are all wondering what the point is. My point is that while I may have messed up the process...I did choose to make this bar with the best ingredients I could find and I had fun doing it.

This is a goat's milk soap. Goat's milk is used in soap because it is wonderful. It doesn't change the texture all that much (still feels creamy and lathers well) but it does bring a whole host of skin loving benefits to the table. Why choose goat's milk to be a part of your soap team? Well I'm so glad you asked. Goat's milk offers vitamins! Vitamin A in particular, which is necessary to repair damaged skin tissue, and maintain healthy skin. It also has some anti-wrinkle properties (and who doesn't like that). The mineral Selenium is also found in goat's milk. Selenium is believed to play an important role in preventing skin cancer and repairing damage from the sun.

 Overall this soap project was able to be saved. I also had the bonus of my whole house smelling like Lavender Vanilla....oh wow is it delightful! Truly one of my favorite soap fragrances...I honestly wish you could scratch and sniff the picture, because it is wonderful.

For all of you DIY'ers out there...have you ever worked with goat's milk in your beauty projects? If not I highly recommend it!

Please take a second and check out my other products  HERE...I will be adding more blog posts as I make new products...I'm thinking something with Oats is in my very near future. I also have an Apricot Honey fragrance that I think will really lighten up the room as well so I guess I will have to start experimenting.

Getting To Know Me...Getting to Know All About You

Today started off like most of my Summer days. As a teacher, I have a lot of free time during the summer...not that I'm complaining.  :)  Every year I struggle to fill the summer with meaningful activities, but there are only so many chores you can do in a day. I have three young sons, as in 6yrs old and younger and while they do keep me busy, I still felt something was missing. I couldn't quite figure out what I needed to do, but I could feel that I had a creative side that needed to be released. 


Fast forward to today and you can see this creative fuel has been put into making bath and beauty products. It has become a passion of mine. I love making things for my family and friends. I love knowing that I'm using a product that I made with my own two hands. I know what ingredients are in it...and I know that it is good for them and me. 

Jumping into soap has been a wonderful journey! It has taken hold of me and planted deep roots. There are so many techniques and ways to achieve a look or design...the possibilities are endless. Its had such a strong impact on my life that my two year old (who only knows a handful of words) can walk into the kitchen and point out "Soap" from a distance away. I'm so grateful to have finally found my passion, and I can't wait to share all I have learned with you!

Now that I've shared a little about me and why I'm here...lets here about you! How do you release and express your creativity? Whats your medium? Whats your muse?


Want to see my latest products visit me here:   ScentedGifts