My reflection

As the year starts to draw to a close I always sit down and reflect on my accomplishments and blessings that I have received throughout the year. I have had many firsts this year with working on trying to expand my product line by learning to formulate new products, to finally participating in my first craft show. This summer I received a unique opportunity to have my product featured in Curve Magazine for their December 2008 gift guide issue. I have made so many new contacts and met some fabulous people over the course of the year. It's been a wonderful year and time for me to finally get my vacation in the carribean.

I finally have time to sit and relax with my ipod and drink in hand at the beach.

Mica Swirls

I splurged a bit lately on supplies over at Oregon Trails with a sampler pack of new fragrance oils. For close to a year I have been dying literally to get my hands on some micas at this place but could never justify just buying that one product alone. I got my order of scents and mica a week ago. This scent reminds me of a fresh pine in a forest. It's clean, green and fresh smelling. I think it's more of a masculine note but could see how it could be deemed unisex. It's more of a muted white silvery swirl. However if the the light hits the soap at the right places you can see the sparkle. I may dust the bars a bit with some mica on the top. Now I am already plotting what other micas I want to try with them. Cellini Blue which infamously morphs to purple is next on my list.

Iced Orange

I am on a roll with making soap and finished all my mad dash soaping almost two weeks ago in preparation for my first show. I also contributed to a giveaway over at purplepinkandorange.com with two soaps and a soap dish. Head over there and you may win something too because Amy who runs the site does giveaways every week. For the next two weeks she is doing a Mega Giveaway where 30 Indie Shops are offering their wonderful creations as a prize. 30 prizes means there will be 30 winners. I think I may try my hand at winning something to.

Apple Fruitasia

I am having a blast with making so much soap in preparation for my upcoming show. Currently on batch number 10 with 5 more to go. This new soap makes me happy. It looks very tropical to me and I like bright colors. It's more of an apple kind of vibe with a mix of other citrus notes. My next project is my "Love Peace & Patchouli soap.

Swirl Envy

I have had a serious case of swirl envy lately while eyeing the beautiful creations on the dish. I don't own a log mold because I like to swirl in slab molds but I wanted to test a new blend and I just got my supply of activated charcoal. I was going for a dramatic type of swirl and just plain soap batter and the charcoal for a color contrast. I am curious to see what it looks like unmolded. It's scented with my favorite blend of spearmint and peppermint. Log molds are cool because you can get all types of cool swirl patterns going. However I am not too convinced yet to hand over my slabs.

Back to business

I took a nice long break away from making soap but gearing back up again to begin creating for the Charlotte Crafting Patch Market. It's the second annual craft fair that is made up of entirely Etsy artists. This will be my first craft show and I am very excited to be a part of it. I am a little nervous and a little overwhelmed with all of this but I am positive I will do fine. So if you are in Charlotte around Freedom Park Saturday September 6Th 2008 please stop by and say hello.

Lotion Bars or Massage Bars?

The concept of what a lotion bar was a mystery to me in the beginning. I learned about them a year ago on the dish but decided I just didn't have time in my already hectic schedule to start another project with bath and body. Well now I have plenty of time in my life for the next two months to play to my hearts content since I am off from school for the summer.

Lotion bars are a convenient way to provide a bit of moisture and conditioning to any areas of dry skin and it's usually packaged in a convenient push tube. It really reminds of a deodorant bar in terms of appearance. I didn't have any of those tubes so I just poured my mixture into some milky way molds and popped them out. Generally these bars are comprised of beeswax, a hard/brittle oil like cocoa butter or kokum butter. They also may contain shea butter and a liquid oil like sweet almond oil or avocado oil. Really you can come up with any combination of oils. They melt quite easily upon skin contact. I made this little batch strictly for my own use and have used them as a massage bar after showering. I scented these with Yuzu fragrance oil for a summer type of fragrance.