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Acne facial soap

Posted on September 3, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

One of my brothers has a teen daughter who is struggling with acne, as we all do (welcome to hormones).  He asked if I had anything that could help and wildly enough I had just been reading about natural items that help with acne and greasy skin, so I asked that he give me a bit of time and I would see what I could come up with.  That night I found a recipe on my wholesaler’s site to start with, ordered the remaining items that I needed, and got them in the most recent delivery.  I’ve kept researching in the meantime and finally got in to make my first attempt at acne facial soaps.

My kitchen smells fantastic right now!  I used the Spa FO (Almond & Honey), which is one of the most relaxing scents I have ever smelled, along with oats (for mild exfoliation), lemon powder (which is a natural astringent, antiseptic, and kills bacteria, while clearing grease and oil), shea butter base (protects skin and super moisturizing), bentonite clay (removes toxins and absorbs oil, among other benefits), and even a little bit of refined sweet almond oil (moisturizing, yet doesn’t clog pores).  I did a mixture of chopped oats and finely ground, too, which gives the soap a little more umph.  I poured the thick brew (I created a quarter recipe, so I only used 4 oz of soap base, instead of the full pound) into a few rounds in my silicone mold for easy removal once they set.  I figure that the oats and clay will make them very tough to remove, so I had to go with silicone.  I learned with my Mechanic’s Soap, which has a lot of pumice, that thickening items make soaps very hard to remove from traditional plastic molds.  *rolling eyes*  That was a very frustrating lesson, let me tell you. 

Anyway, they are sitting on the counter under a blanket of wax paper setting up.  It’ll take a few days since it’s so warm (in the winter they can set in just a couple of hours sometimes), but I look forward to testing the tiny partial overfill soap.  I really hope this works!  I’d love to help my niece and I’d seriously love to get further into the teen market. 

On a side note, some of the cancer ribbon soaps that I poured the other day were a total fail.  *disappointed sigh*  The super thin molds make it almost impossible to unmold the soaps without breaking the “legs” of the ribbons off.  What made it through will be the ones that I donate to the survivors, since they actually smell really nice.  The rest go into my “melting bowl”, which are scraps that become mysteriously scented soaps later when I melt the wild mixture down.  That’s how I ended up with the  “At the Fair” soaps.  I’m sticking to my old mold from now on! *grin*

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Repurposing

Posted on September 3, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

I had a really cruddy day Wednesday, so as a treat for surviving I got to go to the candy making supply store in Topeka.  I absolutely love looking at candy/chocolate molds.  There are so many possibilities that clutter my mind, since they’re made to stand up to higher heat, so I can use them for soap making.  I found an awesome website with thousands of molds, but I like being an informed buyer.  *grin*  I want to personally look at and touch molds.  I guess I’m like a shoe or purse shopper, but a little quirkier.  When looking at a wholesale website, it’s really hard to get an idea of what the soap would really look like and I seriously bite when it comes to dimensions.  I may have done great in school, but I still have no idea how I passed the measurements portion of school.  *rolling eyes with a sigh*  Anyway…

I’m happily twirling the racks, filing in my mind a few to get later on for holidays and what have you.  Suddenly I see this incredibly odd-shaped mold.  It has a really deep impression for each candy and as I lean over to look closer at it, I realize that the odd shape will work perfectly for the lump of coal soaps!  I’m so insanely excited over little things, I tell you.  I finally get a good look at it and it’s a mold for really cute 3D ghosts.  The little guy is holding a pumpkin and in full boo mode.  *grin*  Really cute and I can so use it for Halloween, so I have a few options available at my booth in a few weeks.  I think that if I put a little dot of playdoh over the pumpkin part and some other random ones, the soaps will be very oddly shaped, and be a lot closer to a rock shape than I otherwise probably would have been able to do with just a flat pour and breaking.  I can’t express just how excited I am over this mold!  I haven’t been feeling the greatest, so they’re going to have to sit on the back burner, but I’m just tickled that I found a mold that I can use.  It is so much easier to use a mold than try to break MP soap into pretty anything but slivers.

I also got two more small cancer ribbon molds, so that when I feel up to making stuff for the event in a few weeks, I can do thirty at a time.  I got all wound up Thursday afternoon and set out supplies, heated up the base, added the goodies, and then went to pour…um, the new molds are maybe half as deep as the original mold.  *sigh*  Remember, I suck at dimensions…*rolling eyes*  The nice thing is that one batch pour nearly filled both of the new molds and I’ll have a cheaper alternative as well (not that the others are expensive in bulk, really).  At least I’ll get a lot of them made pretty quickly.

I also found some Christmas molds I had bought on sale years ago (I’m a sucker for a sale, let me tell you) and tucked away.  Cute little ornaments, reindeer, and the like.  I think I’ll have some cute stocking stuffers and guest soaps available this year.  *big grin*  I think Christmas has the cutest options available.  I have a few larger molds, but I think I’ll do more of the small ones for my first official holiday season. 

Making bath products is one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done.  When I walk through a store or flip through a catalog, I always see something that I can repurpose to use in my business.  I’ve even found some silicone ice trays at Dollar Tree that will be perfect for soaps.  I’m in awe of the crafters that make their own molds, since that’s a lot of work and totally cool, but whenever I’m tempted to hit the “add to cart” beside a starter kit, I think about all those easy options that I would never have thought of on my own, and skip it.  So when the next year’s city-wide garage sales start back up, I’ll be there with a new purpose.  *grin*  Repurposing!

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Sunset Stroll

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

I have an event next month called Sunset Stroll where I’ll have a booth.  It’s in Overbrook, KS at the fairgrounds (if you’re in the area, please stop by!  It’s Wednesday, Sept 28th).  The Stroll is actually at 6pm, but vendors will be set up at 4.  It’s a one mile walk to raise money for The Race Against Breast Cancer.  First off, I’m honored to have been given a booth at such an awesome event.  Second, it’s a near and dear cause.

Anyway, I have one preorder for around 100-150 sample breast cancer ribbon soaps.  I want to have some available at my booth anyway.  What a great way to raise awareness and have some fun – give them a scent ribbon soap!  I’ve made 20 so far. lol  I don’t want to make them too far ahead, since I want to give customers the longest shelf life that I can (typically 1 year is recommended).  I’m also trying to keep the pink color consistent throughout the created soaps.  That’s actually a lot harder than one would think! *grin*  Vanilla is actually in most FOs.  If the FO has a moderate or high percentage of vanilla, then it will change colors.  Vanilla will turn most anything a brown color after a while, no matter what it has been dyed.  I have blended a few colors to make a close pink to the ribbons that I have and prefer to have them all match.  The longer that these soaps sit, the more chance that by the time of the event they will be brown.  It’s not bad, just not as attractive and the color isn’t appropriate to the theme.  I just got in some vanilla stabilizer, but honestly I really hate the idea of adding chemicals to keep something a specific color.  I want to have natural benefits, and although there are chemicals in everything, I try to keep mine to a minimum.  There isn’t nothing beneficial (or harmful!) to this other than to keep the color.  It’s a tug of war with how to get things sold and what I feel is best for my line.  Anyway, if I make the soaps right before the event, they’ll still be pink if I don’t use the stabilizer.  What do you think – add the stabilizer or keep as natural as possible with the caution that the color will change due to the natural nature of it?

I plan to have a stash to donate to cancer survivors.  I’m not doing the greatest financially, but sometimes you just have to do those things since it’s the right thing to do and makes you feel better. 

They’ve also requested that I have some Christmas products available since some people will be doing their Christmas shopping.  I plan to have a few of those available with quite a variety of my standard products.  I will put some lotions in my 1 oz body oil samplers and then the spatulas will let me put a few others in some jars for easy sampling.  I’m debating having oil samples, since you don’t get that off and they may not want to be doing the walk with it on. *grin*  I may have a package of disposable baby wipes on hand.  Anyway, if I can get it to a satisfactory stage, I want to have my acne facial cream to sample too.  Just to get a feel for it.  I’m debating having the different types of items in baskets (the ones that won’t be sampled).  I have a lot of deciding to do!

When Larry took me to Hobby Lobby recently he found the cutest little glass jars half off.  I think that I’ll do the holiday bath whips in those.  They’ll hold a little less, but be a lot nicer for gift giving than my plastic jars, I think.  Being half off, they make them affordable for customers too.  I so suck at decorating stuff and making them look all artsy that I have a friend giving me tips on what to do to make things look better for gift giving. lol  We’ll see how that turns out.  I got a lesson in using my new sewing machine and managed to break it the first time I used it.  *embarrassed smile* Larry’s working on fixing the machine, but honestly, I don’t know that it’ll matter in the long run.  I may have a few cute little squares for jar toppers, but it’ll still end up looking odd.  That’s just one of my quirky issues. *grin*

At Hobby Lobby they had a few molds that were perfect for the holidays, too, that I plan to use for Stroll items.  I am loving my little gingerbread men mold.  There’s another with some harvest shapes; pumpkins and leaves.  I admit that it’ll probably be disappointing if no one wants the new soaps from these molds.  They’re so cute!  That’s just part of the roller coaster, though, I know. 

Anyway, I have the Stroll stuff all percolating in the background and am slowly working on them.  It’s always exciting to plan stuff for events.  Soon I’ll write about the November event that I’m the most excited about. *grin* I think that’s really where I have a good chance at sales and actually fitting in.

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My love of fragrances continued

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

I’m really excited to get a new FO for the holidays.  I’ve been pondering what would be a really cute soap that would make a great stocking stuff.  Finally I found it and am as antsy as the kid that will be opening said stocking – “Lump of Coal”.  Before you wrinkle your nose, rest assured that it’s a blend of vanilla and licorice.  Licorice is a logical choice for a black soap (by the way, anise EO smells like licorice and has some awesome natural benefits) and I just found a black soap dye, so I’m pretty excited.  I even got a pre-order of 4 just in talking about it!  No cute little holiday mold for this one though.  I’m going to take a medium sheet of foil, crinkle it up really well, and then make a nice tall rim on all sides.  When I pour the soap into it, it’ll get this neat texture from the jagged crinkles and it’ll be broken up into shards.  Not quite a lump, but it’s soap, so I’m not too worried about being precise. *grin*

Santa’s Tree Farm and Root Beer Float are two others that I’m pretty excited about.  I have Christmas Wreath, which is an awesome balsam fir scent (interestingly most people identify the scent of balsam with Christmas over evergreen I read), but the thought of a crisp evergreen scent had me clicking add to cart immediately.  I might blend the two, but I kind of want to play with the idea of putting some of this with some baking scents into my oil burner, and seeing what I think.  A lot of blend ideas come from the random mixtures I add to my oil burner.  *shrug* I guess inspiration comes from even the most simple places.  Now, root beer float is a whole other kettle of fish!  I have this mental image of a luxurious body scrub that reminds you of a soda fountain.  Swirls of brown and white, brown scrub and white being the creamy bath whip, looking beautiful in a small glass jar.  I think I’ll scent the plain bath whip with vanilla buttercream.  When you dip your fingers in to get some scrub, you’ll get a bit of both swirls, and you’ll get a delightful treat for your body.  Come to think of it, maybe I can do that with gingerbread and the new “naughty or nice” FO, since it’s mostly Christmas spice scents…

I have another fun one that is in the works that I think I’ll need to make two names for.  The FO itself has a risqué name that isn’t quite blog appropriate, which kind of explains why I need a second label name.  The risqué version will be for the adults and I’ll have a cute, child-friendly name for the younger or more conservative customers.  The scent is very similar to a popular fruit punch that we’ve all grown up on that is trademarked rather well. *grin* Honestly, I never would have thought of having another fruit blend in my line, except for the name.  As I’m scrolling through the “s” FOs for more Santa variations, this one dragged my attention right to it.  We’ll say it’s “‘fun’ in the shower”, but with an s variation. *wink*  Um, yeah…who can resist seeing what in the world that is about?!  Even a good girl has to check that out!  I read it and scrolled on, then scrolled back and hit add to cart when it dawned on me that if it made me look at it, then it’ll catch the attention of others who are just browsing.  I guarantee that there will be some more fragrance only entries, but for now, I’m just about out of space.  I hope you’re as anxious as me for the new scents! *grin*

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Just starting out

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Georgia's Pampering

It was recommended to me that I start a blog to give an inside look at the mad scientist behind my homemade bath products. I can’t guarantee that you’ll find this a very witty blog, but I’ll strive to be interesting and informative. A word of warning, I love to emote. *grin* I’m also incredibly eccentric.

A little about my business. I’m all about “pampering with natural benefits”. The sad truth is that we are surrounded by chemicals and we slather them on, drink them, eat them, or breath them. It’s a fact of life. I figure that I can at least try to have a few chemicals in my life that are beneficial. I ended up researching aromatherapy and first started out making my own melt-and-pour soap (MP). Now, MP soap isn’t really making my own soap, but I can pick which base I use, what to add to it, and make it into neat shapes and colors to suit what I need or want. Somedays I just need a cute reindeer smiling at me when I’m grumpy. Don’t we all? That was a few years ago. I now make various MP soaps, bath salts, shampoo, multipurpose spray, lotions, and body oils. There are so many fun options that I am working on or dreaming about trying once I have the money, too.

Now, I don’t make some of my items from scratch. Much like MP soap, there are tons of bases out there, and if they’re more beneficial than what I can do on my own, and safer for everyone involved, then I’m all for it. When I order a base I do a lot of research. I find out what beneficial ingredients are in it, the reviews of other crafters who have used it, and what version will best suit the needs of me and my prospective customers. I have a very picky body with lots of sensitivities, so I figure that I’m probably the pickiest customer, and often shop with my own limitations and needs in mind.

When I make something I try to have a purpose behind it. Start with lotion…I love a certain not always in my budget bath store at the mall. My complaint is that I’m shelling out $9-$15 for a lotion that smells incredible and moisturizes, but doesn’t do much else. Plus, I have to be fluent in latin to know what’s in it. So, when I picked a lotion base, I found one that had less ingredients, had sunflower oil and allantoin (I’ll go over benefits of ingredients in other posts) in it, and didn’t cause irritation. I found an awesome wholesaler that has great explanations, incredible customer service, and lots of products that are so great that I can stand behind anything I make with them. And then I really had fun! I bought fragrance oils (FOs for future reference). I’m constantly looking at, buying, and making my own FOs. Love ’em like crazy. Then I started thinking about what scents would evoke a response…

And I’m out of space so I will pick this up later *grin* I hope I haven’t bored you too much yet!

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