32 posts tagged “soapmaking”

Today I'm batching Spiced Orange Tea soap.  It's an organic green tea based soap, infused with 5 fold California orange essential oil, Egyptian clove oil, and a generous addition of ground fresh spices for exfoliation.  This is one of my fave soaps to make.  (And use.  There's always a bar of this in my shower.) It's one of the soaps that I let cure in the public areas because it makes the place smell so amazingly good.  

In other news, I had to take our puppy back to the pound to be spayed.  I don't know why they won't let me use my vet, but they won't.  You have to take adopted animals back there.  Poor Bugaboo did not want to get out of the truck.  She kept giving me this look like "I'm sorry I chewed your bed, sat on your cat and pooped on the carpet!  I'll be good, please don't leave me here!"  Heartbreaking.  But then, I'm a big ol softy.  I can go get her after I pick up Boy from school.  It was insane getting there this morning.  There was some accident that shut down all 6 lanes of the main road through town. There were helicopters, 3 fire trucks, a gross of cop cars...it was crazy.  I really hope that whomever was involved is ok.  

So anyway, back to the soap pot.  I hope everyone's day goes smoothly!

Today I'm batching Tea Hee.  It's a green tea based soap with the essential oils of Bulgarian wild harvest Lavender, American organic Patchouli, and Egyptian organic Geranium. It's a surprisingly great smell, even for people that run and hide from patchouli normally.

If there's time, I'm going to try and batch some Pirate Bay into traditional soap.  It's wildly popular in glycerin, but I've had a lot of requests for a traditional version.  

Speaking of wildly popular; Christmas soaps are now on sale for a huge discount.  Get your Frankincense and Myrrh (Boswellia carterii and Commiphora myrrh)  and Galilee (Frankincense, Rose of Sharon, Spikenard, Cedar, Myrrh, Hyssop, Cinnamon, Cassia, Calamus, Aloes, Sandalwood and Styrax)  while supplies last. Help me make room for Spring soaps.  ;)

It's the new year, and I'm back in the studio making stuff. As I was doing inventory, I realized that I was out of damn near everything. Big production starts again as soon as I can clear space for the drying racks. Today I'm making Winter Salvation Body Butter. I love making it, my hands and elbows and arms are always so smooth and good smelling by the time I'm done. This year, now that I've nailed down a really great supply for evening primrose oil, the butters are even richer than before. Hopefully it'll stay cool enough to ship them for a few more months, as the butters tend to go liquid in temps over 90 degrees.

I'm infusing them with roman chamomile and bergamot this year. It smells amazing. I'm really happy with this product now.

This week I'll need to get some Spiced Orange Tea and some Tea Hee into production, I'm almost completely out of both of them. Yay for making soap. I always build up stocks significantly before the holidays, and then I spend most of my time shipping and making custom orders, so I'm pretty excited to get back into the studio and start making stuff again. That's my fave part, the making of the soap. It's so very zen. I tend to take the slow route, and stir and think, and stir and think. Soapmaking is my very own quiet philosophy time, as silly as that sounds. ;) I mean, it's not like I'm defining new metaphysics or anything, but hey, remind me to tell you the one where Socrates and a platypus walk into a bar....

Lotion. Shea butter, first press cherry oil and evening primrose are the big players in this blend. Yum! Making lotion is so much easier with a planetary mixer. How I survived without one for the soap studio is a mystery. I have a pro level KitchenAid for the kitchen, but there was zero chance I was going to put that one to work in the studio. But last year one of my friends donated an extra KitchenAid for the studio...and my goodness it's made things so much easier when I'm doing lotions and frozen soap.

Which reminds me, must find the cake decorating tools and do some frozen soap, I see a soap "gingerbread house" in my future.

Today, I'm batching a ton of Honeysuckle Bears.  (I'll have to get a picture, they're adorable!) They're going in the Promo kits that are being sent out at the end of the month.  For the promo I'm doing a 1.5" cube of Pumpkin soap, wrapped like a candy in green tissue, a honeysuckle bear, a small spritzer of Babylonia, a description card, a business card, and a discount card.  All of it will be wrapped in a champagne fabric bag with green shred, and tied with ribbons and a hand cast ceramic flower.  I think they'll make a really great impression.  It's going out to a bunch of decision makers in the cosmetics industry, so I've got my fingers crossed that it could lead to some new big accounts. (hope, hope, hope)

In other news, Boy started his dance classes yesterday, and he LOVED it. Loved it. It's sort of a combo class, they do some ballet, some tap, some jazz and some tumbling. He excelled at the tumbling, and did his best to follow along with the choreography that the other kids already knew. Bless his heart. He picked out some really cute jazz shoes that he'll be wearing in lieu of ballet slippers, and we still need to get him some tap shoes. (A thing which I and my hardwood floors are dreading. Heh.) I was pretty surprised that he picked dance out of all the options I offered him for activities, but who knows...he could be the next Baryshnikov.

Today I'm making Galilee for the xmas season.  It's a really gentle olive oil based soap scented with Frankincense, Rose of Sharon, Spikenard, Cedar, Myrhh, Hyssop, Cinnamon, Cassia, Calamus, Aloes, Sandalwood, and Styrax.  It's amazing.  One of my faves.  Because organic full body olive oil is green in cast, I enhanced the natural olive shade with a bit of blue and a bit of dark green, and it came out the grooviest color.  I hope it cures as cool as it looked going into the log molds. 
  

This week I've made more Lemongrass Sage (on sale, btw, at Soapyhollow.com), Fig, and Pearberry.  I've just now put a big batch of Sandalwood Vanilla into the molds.  I need to gear up for Xmas shopping, so sometime in the next week I'll probably do Three Kings soap (Frankincense, Myrrh and gold mica) and Babylonia (Frankincense, Rose of Sharon, Spikenard, Cedar, Myrhh, Hyssop, Cinnamon, Cassia, Calamus, Aloes, Sandalwood, and Styrax).  Although perhaps I'll drop the Three Kings and just do Babylonia.  I dunno.  I'm not a huge fan of just Frankincense and Myrrh by themselves.  The blend just seems too harsh.  Not enough mellow notes.  I think maybe I'll use the Babylonia EO blend and call it Wise Men or something. 

There are a ton of people who are imitating my Three Kings soap, except they're doing it with cheap fragrance oils, rather than using the actual essential oils and resins...and it seems to be cheapening the brand.  Since I'm one of the only people in the industry who's got the middle eastern connections for the oils I use in Babylonia, I'm tempted to just do that, since it can't be imitated.  At least, it can't be done cheaply.  There are no synthetic versions of a lot of those resins. 

I dunno.  Three Kings does sell well.  I can't decide if I want to do both or not.  The problem with doing Three Kings by itself is that if it doesn't sell out by January, I'm kinda stuck with it.  I'm sure the shelter would love to get it, as they seem to love when I give them boxes of soap, but my goodness, it's such an expensive soap to make that I hate to have to remainder any.  Whereas Babylonia I can sell after the holidays.  And I'm really starting to run out of space, so I may have to eliminate some product lines, just so I've got enough storage for everything. I just can't make up my mind...    

So, I don't have the all yet, but I made significant inroads today on getting product shots done, descriptions written, and all of it up on the site. 

Behold the Glories that are Soapy Hollow Microbe Gift Baskets of Dooooom!

Do you think the text is too over the top?  What about the pictures, are they ok?  I'm not a great photographer...I mean, I try...but it's like graphic design...I'm not really sure I have the innate talent. 

Anyway, there they are, tell me if it makes you giggle.  :)

In other news: Buzz Kitten found a mouse. A tiny field mouse, who is apparently related to the Kangaroo, as this mouse can hop about two feet off the ground. Picture it, if you will; hopping mouse being chased by hopping kitten being chased by short, round woman holding a mayo jar.

(Why a mayo jar? I don't really know. That just seems to be the universal "catch whatever of the wilderness has made it inside" tool.)

Then, without warning, the mouse hopped at me! At me, mind you, the very person trying to rescue it from the cat! So, I did the only thing I could do. I jumped and shrieked like a 1950's housewife.

At the same time, Buzz pounced, caught the mouse in midair, and by the time her teeny paws hit the ground, there was only the tail sticking out of her mouth...like twitching rodent linguine. Except that the mouse was too big for her mouth and her jaws would open a little as the mouse squeaked and bounced.

I grabbed the cat, and held her head over the mayo jar and and tried to convince the kitten to release the mouse. Kitten was having none of it. Kitten really wanted to play with this furry, squeaky, bouncing thing. So, I put the jar on the floor, and try to shake the mouse out of the cat.

Kitten drops mouse into jar. Mouse tries to hop out of jar. Mouse is really stupid. Were it not for the possibility of diseases, I would let Buzz eat the mouse, if only on Darwinian principles. Kitten looks betrayed and angry. Gods I hope she doesn't widdle on my pillow. Mouse still trying to escape into the jaws of waiting kitten. Stupid mouse. I do the only logical thing. I open Boy's aquarium, mercifully free of the parade of disposable goldfish, toss in some newspaper shreds, some water and cheese (I dunno, mice eat cheese, right?), empty the mouse jar into the aquarium, then pile about 10 pounds worth of stuff on top, to stop Flying Walinda Mouse from doing an grande jeté into my kitten's tummy.

Epilogue: Boy wanted to keep the mouse. Mommy was having none of that. Boy and Man released him in the back yard, out by the willows at the duck pond. Hopefully, ducks don't eat bouncing mice. I'm still trying to figure out how the mouse got in the house. Kitten, who Did Not widdle on my pillow, seems to have forgiven me after judicious application of tuna, catnip and attention, and all seems right with the world.

Today, while I wait to hear from my dog's surgeon, I'm keeping my hands busy by making tons of shaped glycerins. 

In strawberry shaped molds we have - Strawberry Cheesecake

In wedge shaped molds we have - Ginger Peach

In bottle shaped molds we have - Pirate Bay (which smells *so* good.)

Hearts = Chamomile/Bergamot

Stars = Kiwi

Ducks = Vanilla Pear

Sea Shells = Neroli

Cute bears = Honeysuckle. 

Boy is helping.  He's so cute.  Says he wants to finish school, then take over the business so I can retire to Vancouver.  Such a cutie. 

I'm also going to be attempting to make Body Caviar today.  Notes on that formulation:

Caviar: Anhydrous formulation - Original formulation include

Today's batch list:

Orange Brulee - a cocoa butter/olive oil soap scented with Madagascar vanilla and sweet Seville orange essential oil and laced with orange jojoba microspheres. 

Organic Lemongrass and Sage (with poppy seeds?  I dunno about the seeds).  I'm doing this one with organic palm, coconut and olive oils, and fair trade organic essential oils of Lemongrass and Clary Sage, in an infusion of lemongrass tea.  This will be a new product for the line, but it's something I've been making for spa clients for a while.

Blue Banana is taking longer to cure than expected.  Probably one more week before they're ready to be wrapped and shipped. 

Also currently steeping in the studio are AromaBeads...which are these little silicate spheres that can absorb up to 300% of their own weight in oils. I've got one set steeping in a Spiced Pomegranate, and one batch steeping in Ginger Peach. I got some of the most gorgeous oval glass bowls today that would look magnificent with these beads in them. Once the batches are done, I still need to test scent throw and longevity's. I mean, I can read the MDS, I know how long it *should* last, but I still want some empirical data. But, if it works, I'm thinking about doing a couple of aromatherapy blends; one to relax, one to energize, one for restful dreams, that sort of thing. And, what's really groovy is that the beads can be "refreshed" by just adding a little essential oil...so, yay!  I love when customers can recycle something over and over without the product losing any of the appeal.

New blends I think I'll be adding to the soap, salts and lotion lines in the next few months...note that all names are subject to change...as are the blends. Totally brainstorming here.

Pirate Bay: Pimenta Racemosa (West Indies Bay), orange, clove, nutmeg, lemon, lavender, patchouli.

Make a Ring Around the Rosie traditional soap. It's going to be a tricky one, 2 of the oils are really difficult to work with, but I think if I use the frozen methodology, it should flow really well.

Bergamot and Chamomile - for delicate and sensitive skins.

Lavender and Rosemary - I make this one for myself, but I think lots of people would like it.

Ginger Peach - this really is an incredibly soft, yet sireny scent. I find myself going back to it over and over just to sniff.