Sunday, March 30, 2008
Spring's Here!
Or so the calendar says...but we're supposed to get up to 8 inches of snow in
the next 36 hours.
Sigh....
This feels like THE longest winter ever. I made a bunch more
soap today though, and that's always fun. I made more Vanilla Sandalwood, Bella, cocoa soap for shavings in
the Peppermint Patty, Bare Naked, and a new one...Pomegranate, which smells fantastic! I'm hoping the coloring turns
out good, I'm not sure if the fragrance will discolor or not, but I used some pink ultramarine and bronze mica and it's
a beautiful dark pink/rose color with a little shimmer to it.
A customer requested some new scents last
week, and I've ordered the fragrances. Hopefully next weekend I'll be knee deep in Cucumber, Cilantro and Lily
of the Valley soaps! That should put me in a spring mood.
But for now I guess I'll just make sure the
snow shovel is still around...
5:48 pm cdt
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Water, water, everywhere...
but it's not all the same!
I had a pretty cool revelation as I spent the
past week in Wisconsin at a condo near Devil's Head ski area with my best friend. I had taken along a
lot of slices of soap to use, because I wanted her opinions and I wanted to try them in different water, because I knew that hard
or soft water affects lather differently, but I was amazed at how much of a difference it really did make.
At home we have well water, which isn't really hard, but we don't use a softener either. It's just
generally good water. I usually get very nice lather from my soaps, but there are two that seem to have a pretty
low bubble, creamy lather at home (Tres and Oh Honey, Honey). I took samples of those along to try, and was absolutely
amazed at how they performed in soft water.
They had the most wonderful lather, I couldn't believe
they were the same soaps I use at home! And that makes me wonder about the statement I have on their descriptions that
they're a low bubble soap, because it totally depends on YOUR water. If you have soft water, you'll get
fantastic lather from them (in hard water it'll be creamier, less bubbly).
One day we had both showered with
Tres, and then left for a day of shopping. When we returned, we both sort of panicked when we walked in the door because
it smelled so good in the condo that we thought we must have left a candle burning by mistake. It turned out
it was just the aroma of the soap we had used that morning, and it was wonderful! I don't get that effect at home
because our house just smells like all the soaps all the time.
It was such a good week, I got to spend a lot of
time laughing, scrapbooking, beading and shopping, and of course always learning more about soap!
6:06 pm cdt
Friday, March 7, 2008
No more boring showers!
This morning, as I was taking my shower, I started smiling to myself when I realized that I enjoy taking
showers now. Ok, so that might sound a little funny, it's not like I used to not like taking showers, but
as I was grabbing yet another bar of soap to smell and play with, I realized that showering has become a joy. Really.
A joy.
It's now one of the favorite parts of my day. I never really used to think much about showering,
or getting any enjoyment out of it. It was just something you do every day...another "chore" to be done.
Before I started making soap we used whatever was the cheapest at the store, whether it was bar soap or shower gel.
And we'd all use it, and never think much about it. After all, it was just your regular daily shower. But
we did go through a LOT of lotions, and my elbows especially were always red and dry.
Now though, things are different.
I start by using one of two (ok, sometimes I use them both) of the best bars for a facial soap (Oh Honey, Honey or
Tres). Then I move on and might pick up one I haven't used in a few days, or maybe try something new, and then another,
and then usually another, almost always ending with my beloved Patchouli Orange!
What got me thinking this
morning though, was that I pretty much wash my skin with 4-5 or more kinds of soap each day (no, I'm not OCD...I
just enjoy playing with the soap and the bubbles!), and, I wondered...if I were using a harsh commercial soap
and doing that, just what would my skin be like?? I'm betting it would be cracked, dry, and in need of tons of lotion
all the time.
But it's none of the above, which really tells me a lot.
4:59 pm cst
