newest - StUfF + tHiNgS

Rosemary Peppermint

tingly freshness

slight spark of earthy

Rosemary Peppermint

Handcrafted with 

edible vegetable oils

Rosemary + Peppermint Essential Oils + 

Rosemary powder for natural color

new sOaPs for 2016

I've been admiring some newer scents 

of Essential Oils and decided to give 

some a go.....

First up - Rose Geranium

handcrafted with Moroccan Red clay 

for a

 people + earth friendly 

natural colorant

simply divine!

Another new one -

Rosemary Peppermint

handcrafted with 

rosemary powder for a 

natural colorant

(photos coming soon!)

Not a new Essential Oil for 

Dusty Tree Soap

but oh so popular.... 

Drunken Hippie

made with

beer and Patchouli Essential Oil

- raw soap in the mold - 

will be cut tomorrow

Stay tuned for an even BIGGER reveal soon......

an ecommerce website - YES!  

Watch this space !

SoAp...YES soap!

With Market (quickly) approaching, I set out to make some soap. 

 During the Winter I cleaned and organized my work-space and I must admit I'm a bit more efficient when things are scattered everywhere in a big mess....almost like it is a bit of an inspiration to be 'IN THE MESS'.  With everything put away all proper, I wasn't sure what 'type' or design I wanted to make.  I knew I wanted to use: Cinnamon, Mint and Moroccan Red Clay, but I wasn't sure what I wanted my design to be so I turned to the internet.  

I did a quick Google search and found this inspiring.......

To me I see colorful stripes with green and orange accented with some brown.  I have to admit it is a bit hard to get a true orange in naturally dyed cold processed soap but I knew my Moroccan Red Clay would give me somewhat similar results.

so I made this.......

Moroccan Spring

A quick run-down of my process......

divided my batch into thirds and added my natural colorants

and started layering.....

 and layering.....

and layering until all the soap was gone!

It is nice to be back in the soaping seat again...look out for more bubbly goodness in the weeks ahead.  Thanks for stopping by!

What I did yesterday

Another four batch soap session!

from top to bottom I made:

Nettle & Red Moroccan Clay

Green Tea with Lemon Balm (from my garden)

Tomato & Sea Kelp

Chocolate Spearmint (also from my garden)

Can't wait to cut into these and see those colors!!  Totally natural, no dyes.

Then a bit of an error.  Lesson learned do your research before you turn on the heat.  So, I made a batch of black bean soup from scratch (meaning I soaked the beans overnight).  In the AM I looked at the water and thought what a cool color, I want to do something with that.  I thought about making soap with it, but figured it would turn nasty grey with the lye so I decided to dye some yarn.  I got everything ready and put it on the stove to simmer and THEN started reading about black beans and the natural dye process online.  There is a ton of info on it, just google it.  OOPS....everything states NOT TO HEAT IT!  Mine was simmering away by the time I read that bit of important info.  I guess if it gets hot, you get a murky grey/brownish color (see mine!).  If you let it be in a sealed glass jar for a few days you get BLUE!!  Seriously blue.  I can't wait to try it again.  I decided to let mine sit around for a few days longer and actually dumped in a strong brew of Chamomile tea to help with some sort of better color.  I think it will be fine in the long run and I'll still use it.

and now the SNAPS

In my previous post I mentioned that I would post the pictures of the soap I recently made....so here are the snaps.  Enjoy!

In the molds....

Peppermint Orange Lip Balm

I was running low (aka scrapping the last bit out of the last tube with my pinkie) on Lip Balm and decided to make a batch and thought I'd share my recipe (if you can call it that) with ya'll.

You can really use any combination of oils you'd like but you want to keep your oil to beeswax ratio to 3:1.  I chose Grapeseed Oil.  I know it is excellent for chapped lips and has lots of antioxidants.  Read this to find out more. I also chose to infuse my Grapeseed oil with some dried peppermint and dried orange peel.  I simply put the dried peppermint and dried orange peel in a sterile glass jar and topped with oil.  It sat on my kitchen counter for a few weeks and every AM I gave it a shake.  I'd open it and smell occasionally and when it smelled delicious I strained the dried herbs out and was left with my infused oil.  Here is my really basic recipe:

1 oz beeswax pellets (melted in microwave)
3 oz infused Grapeseed Oil
a few drops of Vitamin E (I thought about using ROE, but thought it might cancel out my infused scent)

That is it....pour the oil into the melted beeswax...return to microwave for a few seconds to re-melt and pour into Lip Balm tubes.  This recipe filled approximately 20 tubes with a bit left over.