Saturday, April 26, 2008

Scrapbook Paper


Scrap booking is not one of my strong points. I am however addicted to the cool looking papers you can find. These decorative papers have a so many uses for outside scrap booking. I had a few pieces laying around and decided to wrap some bars with them. My mom is celebrating a major event in her life in May, so these soaps will be part of a gift package to her. Now I am on the hunt to find some Origami paper.

Monday, April 21, 2008

I am back to playing in mud


Don't you remember playing in mud and making mud pies when you were a child? I remember doing it vividly because it was so much fun, and also made a huge mess of my clothing that my mother was not so forgiving of. I decided to do it again by incorporating some dead sea mud into a recent soap batch. I scented this soap with tangerine and lavender essential oils. Okay many probably wonder why on earth would someone add mud to soap that is designed to clean? Well this is not the mud you would find in your backyard, and I doubt I would use that kind of mud because that just sounds weird. However, Dead Sea mud is very unique. This mud comes from no where else but the Dead Sea and is the second saltiest body of water on the earth. Within the sea contains this mud that contains many vital minerals of magnesium, potassium and calcium that are great for the skin. It can help to exfoliate the skin, and provide a wide range of cleansing properties to soothe the skin. It is very common to see people bathing themselves in this mud while relaxing in the dead sea. I may never get to visit the Dead Sea to enjoy this experience but I can enjoy a somewhat similiar experience in my own bathtub. I also gave myself a mud facial mask just for fun. My face felt wonderful.

Friday, April 11, 2008

My Etsy Find


I like to sit and look at the many beautiful listings on Etsy from time to time. So I stumbled across a listing for facial scrubbies. I wasn't satisfied with the first listing so I decided to do a search for face scrubbies and was eventually led to this shop that is run by Pam. It's called The Crocheted Baby. I think the reason I decided to try Pam's product because in her photos she was able to capture just how luxurious this product is. This is no skinny facial scrubbie. It's very thick almost cloth like and has soft fibers that feel like silk rubbing against your skin. It also has the most beautiful jewel tone colors I have seen in a facial accesorie. It's gentle and sure to clean well. If your looking for a luxurious product to accompany my soap bars I would definitely recommend The Crocheted Baby as a must have product. Thanks Pam for offering your beautiful items on Etsy for folks to indulge in.

Monday, April 7, 2008

I hate florals


I really would love to know the real reason why floral fragrances are such a major pain in the behind. It seems I do the best I can with soaping at low temps and hand stirring with known accelerators. Florals are just a pain. The recent batch of jasmine was no exception. All was well with this until I added in my fragrance oil and immediately what was thin to medium trace reached heavy trace in a nano second. It also riced slightly so much that I had to beat it back into submission with my stick blender. This clearly was a nice save with this batch considering I still had time to do a textured top despite having to literally glop this into the mold. No more florals for me for quite some time.