New Online Shop!

I hope some of my readers will be as excited as I am for the launch of my brand new website: 

www.GoNudeSoap.com

 A few of you have already tried my soaps, but if you haven't you might want to ;) You can read all about the ingredients I use, my business philosophies and all the products i create at the website and at my other blog nudesoap.wordpress.com.  I only use natural oils, pure essential oils, and the occasional botanical infusion for a hint of color. No fragrance oils, perfumes, lathering agents, preservatives, chemicals or dyes are used in my soap. I have some darned sensitive skin and i started making soap for my own use - and have since expanded to small scale/ small business. The new website makes ordering online easy and safe, and is awfully pretty, in my opinion. :)

I'll be making a bunch more soap in time for the holidays - so feel free to recommend or request your favorite essential oil blend if you don't see it already available. I even do custom packaging for large orders- great for bridal showers, baby showers, or any goodie bag.

That's enough shameless self promotion, but I really am excited about it and would love it if you'd check out the site and comment back here with any feedback you might have. If you love it - tell your friends! I'll also be writing a not-too-frequent newsletter that you can sign up for on the website, sure to be full of witty remarks and dorky, out-of-date slang - as you're accustomed to from me! 

I might even be inclined to do a giveaway in a few weeks -- would you be interested?

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Wholesome Wednesdays: Shea Butter

Learn all sorts of great information about Shea Butter at the Nude Soap blog, Bathtime!

Both photos in this post were sourced online.

Second Batch of Soap

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll know that i don't always succeed and am happy (sad) to write about my failures as well as my successes. After the great success of my first batch of soap: happy friends, happy me-skin, happy customers - i got a little too confident and decided to add some goat milk powder to the recipe. I'm not sure if the milk messed up the recipe, if i didn't blend long enough, or if i started mixing at the wrong temperature or what. Whatever i did, it was not right, and the soap is not good. I'm very hopeful that in a day or so it will firm up and the ph will lower - but i'm not optimistic.

2 hours and $20 in supplies later, i sure hope it becomes usable.

My husband was nice enough to take pictures of "Beeker at work," so at least i have some documentation of the soap making attempt.

I'll give it another day to dry out, then i'll slice it and retest the PH. Right now the PH is at a high end of the safe zone, so i hope it gets a bit milder and firms up. We may have to wait the full 3 month curing time to get a good lather though - so hold your orders for this batch of soap until i'm sure it's ready to go.

Wholesome Wednesdays: Lavender

This week i'm focusing on an ingredient i use in soaps, verses food stuffs: Lavender! You can eat it, but i'm more inclined to sniff it and slather it on my body. After the success of my last batch of castile soap, I'm making another batch tomorrow, chock full of lavender essential oil. (**Note: i've since changed my mind and plan on batching a tea tree/ sandalwood castile soap. Next will be a shea butter lavender soap - place your orders now!)

One of many websites that have great information on the benefits of lavender is this one.
In summation:
Lavender is commonly used to calm the nerves and please the senses - the soothing aroma soothes one to sleep and calms an anxious mind. Plus it just smells really darn good. Lavender isn't just relaxing and yummy smelling, however - lavender is antiseptic, great to use on insect bites or other abrasions and cuts. Lavender can help sooth headaches and is a great addition to massage oil, relieving pain in joints and muscles. When inhaled, lavender can help relieve breathing issues (make a hot water bowl, add some lavender, breath in: voila!) and calm bronchitis and other related cold symptoms. Lavender is great for your skin, relieving eczema, acne, burns and healing scar tissue. Eczema is particularly healed when lavender is combined with chamomile (i think that's what i'll make this next batch of soap with!). Finally, lavender is also great to help blood circulation and digestion.

Well, boy howdy - lavender is just great. Plus it's gorgeous in the garden and bees just love it! I sadly lost my lavender bush in this winter's freeze - but it was always covered with the most bees and butterflies than any of my other perennials. It tends to be hardy, love the hot, dry weather, and can be cut back to the nubbins every year to grow back anew. Simply dry the flower heads and use them as you wish. The essential oil needs to be distilled out - i'm not that advanced yet, but the flowers (ground or whole) are a lovely addition to soaps and potpourris.

Lavender is also really fun to throw at a new bride and groom at their wedding: the whole place smelled great, and my dress and hair were full of little aromatic lavender flowers for hours (right down to my underthings!)

This post appears at Simple Lives Thursday.

South Austin Urban Farmers Market

We had a lovely time with Robin and the other south Austin vendors this Saturday at 5109 Manchaca - a lovely, treed front yard just north of Fair Oaks. We hope to be sporadic regulars to this venue, and are applying to the Cherrywood Market happening in early December.

It was really great to bring our projects out to the open air and get responses from the public.

I would also like to make my soap, salts, and hair rinses available for online orders - pick up locally, or pay a little extra for shipping (within the usa). I'm working on a banner link for the side of this blog to make ordering easy - for now click the 'contact me' at the top of the page and let me know what you would like to order. Currently in stock:

• Herbal hair rinse, 3 blends - all natural with homegrown, organic herbs to sooth and beautify your scalp and hair   $8 - 8 oz
• Growth
• Shine
• Dandruff relief
• Aromatic bath salts   $6 - 10 oz

• Lemongrass/Rosemary for an invigorating bath (or foot soak)
• Lavender/Jasmine for a relaxing bath (or foot soak)
• Castile soap with soothing oats, calendula oil, and lemongrass essential oil (among other delightful ingredients)  $4.50 - 4 oz bars

My next batch of soap will be a shea butter soap with lavender essential oil, followed by another castile soap with tea tree and perhaps sandalwood. Feel free to email me at any time to see what i have in stock! And of course, thanks for supporting your local (or not so local as the case may be) gardener and budding herbalist!