Nearly natural soaps, lotions, scrubs and more! Always finding ways to incorporate the awesome creamy goodness of my fresh goats milk into bath and body products meant to soothe and care for the skin! Also as time rolls on adding some other things to the line up to spice it up a bit....a touch of crochet....some plushies....random things ;) Makes my day a little more interesting.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
OOPS! Latest supply haul, last video to go up :(
Meant to get this one up first and somehow it is the very last thing I am getting to today :( Here is my supply haul from last month...
I really do love these new fragrances....still trying to decide which cranberry I like best...but overall I am pretty excited to start pulling out the Christmas stuff and getting it going!
The making of...THREE soaps :)
Well - really it's the making of a normal batch of "Country Skies" and then two tiny test runs of "Hansel and Gretels House" and "Saffron and Cedar". But it's not the size of the soap it's the info in the video that counts eh?
Hansel and Gretels House I think I shall rename to "Gingerbread Man"...or maybe "Can't Catch Me" and when people ask ??? what does that mean I'll say: "Run, run run as fast as you can - can't catch me I'm the GINGERBREAD MAN" and I'll laugh wildly at the end. What? No? Sounds Crazy? Okay, so maybe I'll stick with Gingerbread Man....probably keep it simple like it is here too....perhaps a flat, short bar instead of a tall normal bar, but still with icing and sprinkles? Oh how mama needs a froo froo mold for that...one day.....anyways, top came out like this:
Then there is "Saffron and Cedar" - I dunno....I was thinking I might call it "Drop Dead Sexy" or "Awesome Sexy Man" or something! I love it! Didn't think I was going to love it as much as I do...but it really is a nice fragrance! I was just playing with the colors there - but I will probably keep it just as simple when I do a big formal batch of it....the fragrance did seep out a little the first day or so...but it reabsorbed back in before I even had the chance to cut it...so no biggie there, I still love the way it smells!
This is the top of "Country Skies" - a remake really, it's the Fresh Outdoors scent from Nature's Garden - but I hadn't done a video of it (I don't think anyways) and since I was splitting off the other stuff from that one I figured "eh why not"....just love how it looks all fresh in the mold! Smells good too!
All three claim to accelerate trace - and maybe a little yes - but really all 3 did very well for me and came out pretty perfect...if this slow as heck old internet ever gets the first video up, I MAY post the video where I cut them LOL....and here it is:
Anyways...on to the next video lol...have that ready about Christmas time haha! Actually, with any luck it'll be up before the day is out ;)
Hansel and Gretels House I think I shall rename to "Gingerbread Man"...or maybe "Can't Catch Me" and when people ask ??? what does that mean I'll say: "Run, run run as fast as you can - can't catch me I'm the GINGERBREAD MAN" and I'll laugh wildly at the end. What? No? Sounds Crazy? Okay, so maybe I'll stick with Gingerbread Man....probably keep it simple like it is here too....perhaps a flat, short bar instead of a tall normal bar, but still with icing and sprinkles? Oh how mama needs a froo froo mold for that...one day.....anyways, top came out like this:
FINALLY! A making of "City Slicker" video :)
This is the one I do with the zebra/tiger stripes in black and white...just loving it how it goes together...
Off to allow another video to upload while I do other stuffs then :P
Lip Balm...hmmm....
Not real sure how I feel about all that....I didn't get any pics either....but let's just say I now have 85 little tubes of the devil with a lid on it!
Actually, it's pretty good stuff - I'm cheating the system a bit...not gonna lie about it. I bought a base from Nature's Garden and just melted it down, sweetened it, flavored it, and got it into the tubes....pretty basic right? We'll see how it goes over next time I hit the markets - if it moves pretty decent there, I will for sure make up some more. I have already sent out testers to my loyal groupies - they are loving it, I am loving it. It's just all the "itty bitty" stuff that makes me a tad bit crazy LOL.
Itty bitty tubes, with teeny tiny tops, and small little sticky icky labels and tiny little shrink wrap bands.....yeah...I like stuff that's bigger and easier to work with can you tell? FOR SURE if I do any more of this I will be investing in the easy peasy filler tray thing-a-ma-jig! I figured this time, since I was only playing with it, I could use a dropper and fill stuff by hand...um, yeah, NEVER AGAIN! That was some royal crazy madness - for real!
I did kinda have fun doing it though - it's simple, not much thinking involved, no preplanning of colors or designs or any of that extra brain power that goes into soap. Just pick a flavor, melt stuff down and voila! Lip balm :)
But for real though...filler tray thing-a-ma-jig...it's the word of the week where lip balms are concerned :P
Actually, it's pretty good stuff - I'm cheating the system a bit...not gonna lie about it. I bought a base from Nature's Garden and just melted it down, sweetened it, flavored it, and got it into the tubes....pretty basic right? We'll see how it goes over next time I hit the markets - if it moves pretty decent there, I will for sure make up some more. I have already sent out testers to my loyal groupies - they are loving it, I am loving it. It's just all the "itty bitty" stuff that makes me a tad bit crazy LOL.
Itty bitty tubes, with teeny tiny tops, and small little sticky icky labels and tiny little shrink wrap bands.....yeah...I like stuff that's bigger and easier to work with can you tell? FOR SURE if I do any more of this I will be investing in the easy peasy filler tray thing-a-ma-jig! I figured this time, since I was only playing with it, I could use a dropper and fill stuff by hand...um, yeah, NEVER AGAIN! That was some royal crazy madness - for real!
I did kinda have fun doing it though - it's simple, not much thinking involved, no preplanning of colors or designs or any of that extra brain power that goes into soap. Just pick a flavor, melt stuff down and voila! Lip balm :)
But for real though...filler tray thing-a-ma-jig...it's the word of the week where lip balms are concerned :P
Cannabis Flower...aka "Pimp Juice"
Okay, so to be honest, Monkey Farts was getting old - played, tired, too many reruns! Random way to begin things when the title mentions cannabis right? See....what had happened was....
Monkey Farts is always the soap that makes people stop and smell things...it's the name. At markets, at the feed store, even here at the house - when people see "Monkey Farts" they ALWAYS say: "I have to smell that, what DOES a monkey fart smell like???" And then from there they smell everything else, and especially at the market I have noticed they usually will find at least a few soaps to buy after that....When I placed the monkey farts soap right on the corner where the most traffic came from I would without fail stop a good portion of people "to see what it smelled like".
But now everyone has seen and smelled that one...lord knows I myself have smelled that one...and while it's still a nice soap, I was over it. I wanted to do something new, something different. Have I mentioned this before? "Pimp Juice" was my husbands idea. He is just nerdy enough to come up with it. What is pimp juice you ask? Hmmm.....let my friend Nelly tell you:
Pimp Juice - Nelly
So as we sit here one day the hubby says, "You should make a soap called pimp juice!" (keep in mind I also refer to pg600 - used to bring the goats into heat for breeding - as 'pimp juice', which is where the phrase was being used at the time and I am sure what sparked the hubby to think of using it with soap). We talked about it, and decided that Pimp Juice the soap should smell like Cannabis Flower Fragrance oil from Nature's Garden.
So, my fragrances came, and I swear to you, as soon as I cracked the bottle open to sniff it I coughed, I giggled, I had flashbacks to younger days! Oh my goodness! It's one of those scents that inspires you to be naughty and get in trouble like highschool style, I swear! Really - the fragrance gave me the giggles and made me hungry...I'm really having fun with this one even if it smells naughty, thought I admit, I plan to take all my receipts and such to the market with me...and a print out from their website just in case I get pulled over on the way there....ya know...to prove it's really soap.
So I split my batch three ways, and I WAS going to do the whole "mantra swirl" thing....but DANG it was hot that night, and I was all out of patience as sweat dripped in my eyes (and no one wants a bar of soap made with love AND sweat - YUCK!) I just flopped it all in a mold and swirled it up and added a little gold mica swirl tot he top with some green sprinkles too! I was shooting for the whole Mardi Gras/Rasta/Bob Marley kinda bright and colorful thing ya know?
Not my favorite top ever - I set it down in front of a fan (not thinking) and the paper lining in the mold blew over the top and smooshed it all around a bit....not bad, my mica still shows up nicely, but the very edges look a little ugly ya know?
The house smelled of, well, smoke for a few days too - even though I had a batch of Pink Sugar AND Black Tie AND Rosemary Mint soaps all curing! I went LIGHT on this fragrance too! Thankfully no one stopped by to have to explain it to...
I know, crummy lighting right? But I like it! Now if only it will be my new show stopper for a while....I think I will have fun with this one....I know it still makes me giggle when I walk by and smell a bar of it!
Monkey Farts is always the soap that makes people stop and smell things...it's the name. At markets, at the feed store, even here at the house - when people see "Monkey Farts" they ALWAYS say: "I have to smell that, what DOES a monkey fart smell like???" And then from there they smell everything else, and especially at the market I have noticed they usually will find at least a few soaps to buy after that....When I placed the monkey farts soap right on the corner where the most traffic came from I would without fail stop a good portion of people "to see what it smelled like".
But now everyone has seen and smelled that one...lord knows I myself have smelled that one...and while it's still a nice soap, I was over it. I wanted to do something new, something different. Have I mentioned this before? "Pimp Juice" was my husbands idea. He is just nerdy enough to come up with it. What is pimp juice you ask? Hmmm.....let my friend Nelly tell you:
Pimp Juice - Nelly
So as we sit here one day the hubby says, "You should make a soap called pimp juice!" (keep in mind I also refer to pg600 - used to bring the goats into heat for breeding - as 'pimp juice', which is where the phrase was being used at the time and I am sure what sparked the hubby to think of using it with soap). We talked about it, and decided that Pimp Juice the soap should smell like Cannabis Flower Fragrance oil from Nature's Garden.
So, my fragrances came, and I swear to you, as soon as I cracked the bottle open to sniff it I coughed, I giggled, I had flashbacks to younger days! Oh my goodness! It's one of those scents that inspires you to be naughty and get in trouble like highschool style, I swear! Really - the fragrance gave me the giggles and made me hungry...I'm really having fun with this one even if it smells naughty, thought I admit, I plan to take all my receipts and such to the market with me...and a print out from their website just in case I get pulled over on the way there....ya know...to prove it's really soap.
The house smelled of, well, smoke for a few days too - even though I had a batch of Pink Sugar AND Black Tie AND Rosemary Mint soaps all curing! I went LIGHT on this fragrance too! Thankfully no one stopped by to have to explain it to...
I know, crummy lighting right? But I like it! Now if only it will be my new show stopper for a while....I think I will have fun with this one....I know it still makes me giggle when I walk by and smell a bar of it!
Friday, August 2, 2013
Crochet - A soap related Hobby?
Crochet - yarn, a hook, and your own 2 hands. Simple stuff, but highly entertaining for some of us (myself being part of the "some" here). I haven't crocheted anything in AGES! 1) It's too hot - no really, who wants to have a 5 pound blanket made of yarn sprawled across their legs in the middle of summer? 2) WHEN would I squeeze in time for such a project? Sure, there are easy peasy cute little baby things you can make that go fast...but I don't have any kids, and I don't know anyone about to pop a baby out any time soon...so there's not much need for cute little baby stuff at the moment.
THEN it hit me - BAM! Cute can be functional AND soap related! Don't get me wrong, I know I can always make stuff for babies and turn around and sell it...but why not make something that anyone can enjoy? The answer, crocheted in 100% cotton yarn is this:
See...I often find myself awake late at night. In case you hadn't heard, my husband snores - BAD - so I (for many reason) am up until pretty late most nights. Let's be honest, I am NOT going outside in the dark, in the woods, with coyotes, snakes, and everything else creepy crawly to do "yard work" at night. Not doing it, the end....BUT...what I can do is sit in here and crochet...small easy things, like wash cloths! I can churn out one or 2 of these in an evening, and I have been. Then I set them aside in a rubbermaid tub.
My thinking is this: come the holidays (and even at regular markets through out the year) I can offer these for sale OR I can include them in gift baskets. To me this is SOOOOOOOoooooo much nicer then the shower poof thingies, or even regular wash cloths....it's hand made, it's personal, and it's somewhat "organic " in nature (though not certified or any thing. By organic, I mean "natural" - what's more natural than cotton? NOT polyester that's for sure lol :)
So....part of what I have been up to (though in small bits of time here and there) are these little devils...if anyone wants the pattern, I'll post it - heck, I may post it just because. I figure it will be a nice, personal touch of sorts in gift baskets to come.
THEN it hit me - BAM! Cute can be functional AND soap related! Don't get me wrong, I know I can always make stuff for babies and turn around and sell it...but why not make something that anyone can enjoy? The answer, crocheted in 100% cotton yarn is this:
My thinking is this: come the holidays (and even at regular markets through out the year) I can offer these for sale OR I can include them in gift baskets. To me this is SOOOOOOOoooooo much nicer then the shower poof thingies, or even regular wash cloths....it's hand made, it's personal, and it's somewhat "organic " in nature (though not certified or any thing. By organic, I mean "natural" - what's more natural than cotton? NOT polyester that's for sure lol :)
So....part of what I have been up to (though in small bits of time here and there) are these little devils...if anyone wants the pattern, I'll post it - heck, I may post it just because. I figure it will be a nice, personal touch of sorts in gift baskets to come.
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