Vegan Mamere's Punkin' Pie Hand Milled Soap

I made a block of custom Vegan soap for Christina. Instead of my standard emu oil I used mango butter and evening primrose oil. Mango butter has suberb emollient properties and evening primrose oil is known widely for it skin nurturing benefits. This soap was an adventure for me! The first batch I made had too much fluid in it and would not set! It was the first time I have ever had a batch of hand milled that ruined, my first ever mistake! Oops! Threw it away and made it again. I used pumpkin puree like usual and for the first time, pumpkin powder for exfoliating. And this wasa wiht the pumpkin shortage, you don't know what i went through to get a can of pumpkin, then I end up with several. Mom came to the rescue of course! Through all this, Christina was more than gracious and patient! I used a new fragrance and it had a high vanilla content, unbeknownst to me, and the soap turned from orange to brown! This is normal but was unexpected, I did not know it had that much vanilla in it but it smells lovely! Anxious, I awaited Christina's feedback...she is delighted with it! Yay! Thank you Christina for being so patient!

New Soapie Direction: Vegan

I have noted some people are asking about my emu oil and indicating they would prefer not to have it in the soap and soy tarts. I have been wanting to offer a Vegan line but to be perfectly honest, emu oil is spectacular snd provides benefits that really can't be matched. There is no comparison. But last week I took a custom order for 2 pounds of Vegan hand milled soap and after quite a bit of research I am taking out the emu oil and adding evening primrose oil and mango butter to it. I cannot add much evening primrose oil to the soap so we will see what the customer thinks of it after she uses it. When I pour and cut up this batch of Mamere's Vegan Punkin' Pie Soap I will post a picture of it here. I will make some soy lotion tarts with almond oil which is nothing more than just a vegetable oil with no special properties and a touch of evening primrose oil and see how they test out. The tarts with emu oil will be a hard act to follow, feedback is awesome for them, they are simply better than any lotion tried and the skin moisturizing lasts for hours, far better than the best lotion.

Seducing Swap

That's right, Patrice over at The Soap Seduction put a double whammy on me! She kindly agreed to a swap with me and I hit the jackpot! First up is her luscious Lip Lush Trio, handcafted lip loving balm with a hint of color and a nice taste. Patrice does not use sweetener in her lip balm feeling it just makes us lick our lips and waste this lovely lip balm and she is right! I opted for Cherry Berry, Mango Peach Fusion, and Pina Colada. This formulation of olive oil, castor oil, beeswax, caranauba wax, candelilla wax, fragrance, lip safe colorant, lip safe mica goes on silky soft and stays on, tastes good, and makes my lips nicely moist and soft.

I also swapped for a bar of her wonderfully moisturizing cold process soap, Pinky Muskadero, a delightful mixture of olive oil, soybean oil, avocado oil, castor oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, distilled water, sodium hydroxide, oxide, and fragrance. This beautiful soap is scented with notes of jasmine, musk, and a hint of peony. I rushed to test it out and found it gave loads of creamy bubbles, scented just right and not reeking, just the way I like it, and left my skin soft and clean. All products came packaged in a pretty muslin drawstring bag, a nice touch!

I encourage anyone wanting to use premium handcrafted lip balm instead of chemical laden store bought stuff and fantastic cold process soap to rush to The Soap Seduction and shop to your heart's content, you will be happy you did! Thank you Patrice!

Holstein Heaven Hand Milled Soap with Emu Oil

Just cut my batch made 7/17/2009 of all natural Holstein Heaven Chocolate Vanilla Hand Milled Soap with Emu oil. This heavenly scented olive oil soap named tongue in cheek for our lovely black and white Holstein cows is full of natural goodness and so good for the skin. Fragranced and colored naturally with pure cocoa powder and vanilla oleoresin, it is chock full of exotic butters and oils, like avocado oil, shea butter and emu oil. This soap will be ready August 7; it is curing now to get a nice gentle, long lasting hard bar of soap made to spoil your skin. You can get this soap now here!

Cooked New Batch Handmilled Soap Today

I made my first new batch today, all the better so I won't be overly fretting about my mother. I made a robin's egg blue and white marbled Moon Lake Musk Handmilled Soap with Triple Refined American Emu Oil. It smells oh so divine and hopefully will come out halfway pretty. Swirling in the mold with rebatch is difficult, it comes out more a marblized effect but still nice and two toned. I added a bit more water to this rebatch in order to get a better two toned effect. anxious to unmold it but must wait till it cools down. I will pic it when I do and see what you all think! this is what it looked like the last time I did it.

Taking Charge

A year and half ago I discovered soaping. I had long been trying to find a handcrafted niche that would suit me. I am an artist but my hands are being destroyed by nerve damage so i don’t do pen and ink or charcoals any more. I also have serious health problems, am disabled by it, and i am not one to sit back, worry, and await the bad. I knew I needed a creative, positive outlet to get personally involved with. I can’t knit, crochet, or draw and I stumbled upon soaping. I wish I had found it years ago. It is right up my alley: math, science, creativity, artistry, marketing, socially involving, lots of alone time, improve my own health, something I could be in charge of; everything I could ask for and more! I can’t use lye so I use premium bases to make my products. I am quite proud of them and am making the move on my glycerin melt and pour soap bases to a more natural glycerin base as my goal is to avoid synthetic chemicals in my products. I also LOVE animals, Maltese dogs in particular, and have been able to combine my love for soaping with my love for dogs in my 3 D dog breed collectibles made from soap. They’re pretty unique and I love doing them. I also handmill cold process soap and I am quite proud of it. Since using my own products my skin has cleared from the terrible itchies and rashes I have suffered from for years. Even my dog soap is all natural and my dog does not have the itchies either and I know what I am using on her is safe for I made it and i know exactly what is in it. I firmly believe the widespread infliction of skin allergies we and our dogs are now suffering from comes directly from the chemical stews stores sell us as bath and beauty products. I also believe in aromatherapy and I find lovely scents from essential oils do indeed make me and my dog feel more relaxed and happier. In some of my products I do use pthalate free fragrance oils, if it is a scent that is not found in nature or the cost of the essential oil is prohibitive. I use as little as possible and all my fragrances are used in absolutely skin safe ratios, mathematically correct, so my products will not reek, (they shouldn’t anyway) you can be assured they will be safe to use. My goal is to provide safer, more natural bath and beauty products made with luxury ingredients at an affordable price. If you have sensitive skin, or skin allergies, I urge you to get off storebought bath and beauty products and find poeple who handcraft these things, but make sure they are truly knowedgable, for natural is NOT always safer and better, expecially if one does not do the research and know what they are doing. Many crafters drench their products in scent, using NON skin-safe ratios, this is not healthy for you. Read the ingredients, read up on the ingredients so you will know what is bad for you, and switch to high quality (not necessarily high priced) handcrafted bath and beauty products. Your skin and hair will love you for it! And you will be putting more money into our community instead of fat cats’ pockets.

new direction: marketing spa bags

Happy Monday everyone! since I last blogged and told you about the retail company that flaked out on me bigtime and I had to fire leaving me stuck with bottles and bottles of lotion and shower gel and vinyl spa bags, I am going to take these around to all the local gift shops and boutiques around me. I am confidant some of them will be interested in buying these wholesale as they are unique and in a unique scent that knocks the pants off everyone and if there is enough interest I will continue to invest on my own in this spa bag venture. I am currently offering them in oh so sexy Black Knight of Avalon and they contain: one 8 ounce bottle of hand & body lotion with goatmilk, honey, & emu oil, 8 ounces moisturizing shower gel, one 4.25 ounce bar of beautifully layered Black Knight of Avalon glycerin soap, one 2 ounce bottle of dry cologne, and a bath puff or loofah. This is a men's spa bag, I am not sure what I will wholesale it for yet. OK, my wholesale price will be $25.46. They will retail for at least $38.00. I should be ready to market these by the first. Wish me luck!

MaMere's Punkin' Pie Soap with Emu Oil and Shea

Granny's wonderful handmilled cold process vegetable soap with shea butter, cocoa butter, real pumpkin with its skin nurturing caroten, vitamins A & C, and fantastic Emu Oil. Gentle at least @4.5 ounce bar with good suds. Great for your sensitive skin, contains NO artificial colors or synthetic chemicals except for a bit of skin safe pthalate-free Pumpkin Brulee fragrance oil. A delectable indulgence and perfect for any season!

Ingredients: Water, Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Carthamus Tinctorius (Safflower) Oil, Persea Gratissima (Avocado) Oil, Elaeis Guineensis (Palm) Kernel Oil, Glycine Soja (Soybean) oil, Ricinus Communis (Castor) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Goatmilk, Emu Oil, Cucurbita Pepo (Pumpkin), Vanilla planifolia oloeresin, Fragrance, Turmeric Powder

http://2VirgosDesigns.etsy.com

New Wholesale account for Primo's Pawtourage Dog Themed soaps

This morning a very good friend whom I get my custom incense and some fragrance oils from asked if she could feature my dog themed soaps on her wholesale site! YES and YES! suddenly, I have 2 !!! wholesale accounts! I will make less money per item but more sales therefor more money. She makes big buck compared to me and has an established customer base. We shall see. Things are happening for me and it is such a blessing and time will tell.

Midwest Crafts & Recipes soap Review

Shannon at Midwest Crafts and Recipes kindly sent me an absolutely delightful bar of cold process Angels in the Garden Soap she handcrafted. It is the bar in the middle in the above photo. This is a wonderfully creamy bar of soap scented with a fruity floral combination consisting of magnolia blossoms, apple, peach, strawberry, jasmine, rose, raspberry and lavender. Simply divine with a wonderful scent "throw." The bar is silky smooth with a nice slip with the addition of jojoba and is nicely hard, creamy white with sweeping amber swirls. A pretty bar of soap crack that left my skin soft and smooth. Thank you Shannon so much, let's swap again sometime! You can find her blog here:

Ingredients: Coconut Oil, Palm, Castor, Canola, Olive Oil and jojoba...a touch of beeswax to keep that white ash from forming, Fragrance.