New Year New Start

16/01/12

Well here goes, it’s the New Year so my work room has been top & tailed, its been stripped, cleaned, mould proofed, painted twice and in some places 3 times, everything has been sorted, tidied and put back together, so its as fresh as a daisy all ready for me to crack on.

My first mission is to make Heart soaps ready for Valentines & Mothers Day, I will be doing these in Sunflower & Calendula and Rose & Ylang Ylang, and possibly Lavender & Thyme, but we'll see how the others turn out first. I will up load photos when they have cured for 48hrs, so fingers crossed.

Then I have my usual stock to build up then hopefully next week I will start playing around with some of my new recipes, it works out instead of 10 I have 12 new soap recipes, the first 3 will be the Kitchen Scrub, which is made with Coffee & Vanilla, Just Olive which is mainly made with Olive oil and Sea Spray, which is made using seaweed & green clay. These will all be ready for sale hopefully by the end of February as promised, all three of these soaps will be cut into cubes and sold as they come.

Soap of the Week

Lavender & Thyme Soap

This Lavender & Thyme Soap offers Antiseptic benefits, protecting, nurturing and moisturising the skin. Our Lavender & Thyme Soap contains natural bacteria fighters such as lavender, and thyme essential oils, along with moisturising Olive Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Coconut Oil and Lavender Petals.

Our lavender and thyme cold pressed soap is designed for frequent use. The ingredients gently remove soil and bacteria without drying, chapping or irritating skin.

Your hands will love our NATURAL Handmade Soaps.

Due to the handmade nature of our soaps weights and shapes will vary, We endeavour to make all soaps to am approximate weight of 90gms.

No Artificial Colourings, No Artificial Fragrances and No Parabens.

Ingredients:

Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Prunus Dulcis (Almond) Oil, Aqua, Lavandula Angustifolia, Thymus Vulgaris.

Texture:

This soap has a fairly strong and long lasting clean/ fresh fragrance, it is a medium hard soap and lathers up beautifully giving plenty of small soft bubbles.

My Soap Diary

Reviews On My Soaps

Hi Everyone

I just thought I would review some of the soaps that my family & I have managed to try, so that I can give you as the customer a good idea of what you might expect.  All the soaps have been used by myself, my husband, my 3 children  (all of varying ages the youngest being 4yrs old and having sensitive skin) & some unsuspecting guests that have visited us. And the feedback especially from my children (who are my hardest critics) has been positive. So here goes I hope you find it informative & helpful making your decision a little easier:

Lavender & Thyme

A rustic soap made with Lavender & Thyme essential oils which give this soap a strong and long lasting fragrance. It’s a soft soap which gives off lovely soft bubbles and a good lather. Its suitable for most skin types. Vegan Friendly. Lavender oil is very calming on the skin and thyme has antiseptic properties.

Sunflower & Calendula

A Bright, sunny & soothing soap, infused with Calendula petals & Sunflower Oil. It has the light, gentle fragrance of Bergamot, Chamomile & Neroli. This is a soft soap which gives off a lot of soft bubbles and a good lather. Its suitable for all skin types and is especially good for those who suffer with dry & callused hands from manual work . Vegan Friendly.

Rosehip & Geranium

A delicate soap pebble dashed with ground rosehips and enriched with moisturising rosehip oil. The soft pink colour will darken & mellow over time.

This soap is Slightly grainy but firm, it doesn't give any obvious bubbles and very subtle lather. Its very good for using as a massage soap for the thigh & bottom area. Rosehip seed oil contains Vitamin A, which helps with cell regeneration helping the skin to heal itself. Geranium oil is also a good hormone balancer so aiding problematic skin to restore its natural balance

Rosewood & Honey Shaving Soap

This shaving soap has a good earthy aroma with the sweetness of honey, its gives a gentle lather with soft bubbles giving a smooth & gentle shave, especially for those men that suffer with sore skin after wet shaving. Rosewood oil is a good oil for cell stimulant and tissue regeneration, making it a valuable ingredient in skin care. Honey has now become one of the top researched natural ingredients for skincare as it helps support the skin's ability to rejuvenate and refresh depleted skin, leaving it feeling silky soft and supple.

I also welcome and value your feedback as the customer, so please let me know what you think of my soaps.

Soap Of The Week

The Gardeners Soap

This soap is perfect for people who love to do a spot of gardening. Made with 100% pure and sustainable oils creating a wonderfully natural mild bar of soap with no chemicals to irritate the skin. We have added Shea Butter for extra luxury.

Made with the antiseptic qualities of Tea Tree and Eucalyptus essential oils combined with the rough texture of ground pumice, ground rosemary and poppy seeds should help to remove mud after a hard days gardening.

Tea Tree essential oil has a clean fresh medicinal aroma. Tea Tree is one of only two essential oils (Lavender being the other) that can be used neat on the skin in small amounts. It is a non-toxic natural antiseptic ideal for cuts, insect bites, blisters, warts and other topical infection.

Similar to Tea Tree essential oil, Eucalyptus essential oil has a medicinal earthy aroma. The principal active ingredient in the oil is ‘eucalyptol’ which gives it its strong disinfectant properties.

Ingredients:

Aqua, Olea Europea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Elaeis Guineensis (Palm) Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit, Melaleuca Alternifolia, Eucalyptus Globulus, Papaver Somniferum (Poppy) Seeds, Rosmarinus Officinalis (Ground), Pumice Powder.

In the making of this soap we use Palm Oil, Now "Don't Panic" We source our palm oil from a supplier that is registered with The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) this means that all of our Palm Oil comes from sustainable sources and is guaranteed not to endanger animals such as the orangutang. We pride ourselves on our Environmentally Friendly Stance and source such ingredients only after researching the supplier in depth.

This soap is sold in cubes only so you can get a good grip on it without it slipping out of your hands. £3.25

Also sold as part of our Gardeners Gift Set, which also includes our Gardeners Hand Cream: £9.50

Regards

Laurinda

My Soap Diary

07/09/11

Well all three children left for school this morning, our house was like "The first day of the Next Sale" lol I didn’t know whether I was coming or going, I needed a brandy in my coffee once they had gone lol….

So now on with the important stuff, SOAP MAKING….

I have just taken my Gardeners Soap out of the mould with a little help from the freezer, yes that’s right, it was being stubborn so I put it in the freezer for half an hour and hey presto out it pops, I also checked on the 1st batch of the Sunflower & Calendula (that was the disaster at the beginning of the week) and it looks lovely, I'm still not going to take it out of the mould until Friday to give it a better chance. I made my 2nd batch of Lavender & Thyme Soap, this one is going into the chunks while the first one was sliced, hopefully this afternoon I am going to make the Sunflower & Calendula one, again this one will be in the form of chunks as well and then that will be it for the day as I have just about run out of Moulds. Yippeeee my Cornish Spring Water has just turned up, thank you Just Water Ltd.

Well over the past couple of days I've learnt so much about soap making, some of it is basic common sense, which is in very short supply in my life and some of it you learn as you go and hope beyond all hope that it turns out ok, here are just a few, for those of you that are just starting out:

1. Castor Oil seizes the mixture, so you need to move quick.
2. The Sunflower & Calendula mixture is sloppier than all the rest, even though I do nothing different.
3. The freezer is a god send when having difficulty get the soaps out of the moulds, even if you loose a little with the fragrance.

            And finally

4. 48hrs is better than 24hrs for curing.