Catch-up!

I'm playing catch up here lately! We are having some family issues that have definately slowed me down. Eventually everything will get back to normal but for now I'm just doing my best to keep moving forward! ;)

I have gotten a couple of things made up since my last post. I made some Coconut lotion/lip balm stick, some neem tree oil soap, and some goats milk peppermint soap.

I hope all of you guys out there had a wonderful Father's Day yesterday!

Goats Milk Peppermint Oatmeal Soap

The other night I also made up some more of my Goats Milk Peppermint Oatmeal soap! That stuff goes pretty quick! It seems like I just can't make the peppermint soaps quickly enough! LOL! I was very excited because with it being a larger batch than the Neem Tree Oil Soap, I was able to use my new slab mold! It worked very nicely! I hate cutting soap because I am such a perfectionist that if the bars get cut all wonky, it really drives me nuts! So the new mold prevents all of that since the dividers mean I don't have to cut each bar!

The Spotted Box

I participated in The Spotted Box again this month! My box just arrived today. I love getting these things and checking out all the goodies inside. Thank you to all the others who contributed goodies!

St. John's Wort Soap

This soap was a custom order. It is a 100% olive oil castile soap. The olive oil was infused with a St. John's Wort blend. This olive oil has sat infusing for a couple of months now so it should turn out really nice! I can't wait to see how the finished soap turns out!

A slab for mother's day...

Look at the beautiful mold that I just ordered from Kelsi's Creations! I'm so excited! My husband asked me what I've been wanting for soaping within a certain price range and told me he would get it as a mother's day present. So because I hate cutting bars of soap so I had to get a slab mold with dividers. I see a lot more experimentation coming up with swirled soaps! ;)



I made a batch of swirled soap last week. It was cupcake scented and I added in cocoa because it's cocoa and because I could see the swirl forming right away. The cupcake fragrance oil would have turned the soap brown while curing because of the high vanilla content. I am a little to impatient to wait that long to see my swirl though!

I've been kind of wrestling around with the idea of coloring my soaps. Thus far I have only done colors that are as a result of herbs or oils that have been used. I would like to keep my soaps as natural as possible. I have made the exception of using fragrance oils though just because I love all the different options out there and I think there are a lot of others that do as well. I love a natural colored soap and it definately appeals to my desire to keep things natural. I'll be the first to admit though that if I see a pretty colored bar of soap I have to go check it out! I've looked at the oxides and ultramarines for coloring because they sound like they would be more natural. However, because of the toxins that can be present in them naturally they are all created in a lab now. This creates a further dilema. These definately have more "label appeal" but I would have a lot more control over the effects I was able to acheive with some other options that are currently available. I'm still going to think about this some more before I invest in a bunch of colorants but I think I will eventually add some of one kind or another.

I feel that so long as I have lots of options available that everyone will be able to find something they love. I definately want to keep plenty of options as far as soaps that are completely natural. Those are the ones I use on my son and that I recommend to others with little ones and sensitive skin. That was my main focus when I started this journey and I refuse to lose focus of that!

Out of the bag...

Or make that in the box! I got my shipment of soap boxes yesterday! I'm so excited, they look so nice and they will really cut down on production time. I had been holding off on labeling my soap for a little while now in anticipation of the boxes. So yesterday I spent the better part of the day (and night) boxing up soaps! Now I need to order more boxes. LOL!

I also got some supplies so that I can start to add a few more items to my inventory. I got some really pretty soap decks, some tubes for solid lotion, and bags and scoops for laundry soap!

I've also made up several batches of soap, lip balm, and bath bombs the last couple of weeks. I'm exhausted from not getting nearly enough sleep! Regardless, I'm still really excited that things are moving along and that I've got a decent start on my inventory.

Some of the things on my to do list:
Finish boxing and labeling cut soaps.
Bag and label soap samples.
Bag and label lip balm samples.
Get samples sent in for The Spotted Box.
Make up some more lip balm.
Make up some more coffee kitchen soap.
Finish a couple of custom orders that still need done.
Mix and pakage laundry soap.
Take pictures of all the new items and better pictures of some existing ones.
Work on solid lotion.
Mix up some more regular lotion.

Of course there is always more but this is a good chunk of the higher priority stuff that I need to get done.