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Last week I got a big box o’ goodies in the mail from Mountain Rose Herbs, so I decided to do some experimenting with some of them this week. I ordered some brightly colored herb powders to try in my cold process soap, and also had a few other things already on hand that I had just not gotten around to trying out yet. Well today was the day, so thought I would share my initial results. This picture was taken right after mixing in the colors, so the soap is still raw. I also decided to test 2 essential oils I haven’t used yet – anise and a root beer type blend. I’ll update in a few days once it’s hardened – can’t wait to see how these progress!
top row (from left): beet root powder, ground tumeric, sandalwood red powder, bayberry root powder
middle row: spinach powder, alkanet root powder, calendula pedals, ground anatto seed
bottom row: yucca root powder, anise essential oil, root beer essential oil blend
I made a 1 pound batch of basic soap and split it into 11 different cups that were pre-measured with my herbs. I mixed each one in and made sure to label the cups. Just after mixing the colors in I was already surprised by a couple of them. I ordered the beet root powder because of its super bright pink color (and didn’t bother to do any research to see what others have said about using it in soap), thinking it would make the perfect pink soap. We’ll see what it does after it cures, but as of now it’s brown. The red sandalwood, on the other hand, is a beautiful shade of burgundy, but the powder is orange. I’m expecting them all to change once they’ve set for a while, so we’ll see how they turn out. Stay tuned for part 2!
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I’m hosting a giveaway on this great green blog, Going Green with Noah. Melanie, who runs the blog, came by my booth at the Cowtown Indie Bazaar last month and later contacted me about reviewing my products. I sent her a few things to try, and offered up some freebies for a giveaway. It’s always nice to hear such wonderful feedback from someone new to my products – read her review here.
Now for the good stuff – freebies! You can win 2 bars of soap and a lotion bar, and the giveaway runs until October 25. Lots of ways to enter, so head on over to the blog and check it out 🙂
P.S. – don’t forget to subscribe to my new blog address: www.thesoapaddict.com/blog . I won’t be posting at this URL for much longer.
This is week 3 of the fall show extravaganza, and I have 2 markets planned for this weekend. On Saturday I’m heading to the Deep Ellum Market in Dallas. This is my first time doing this new monthly market, but I hear it’s pretty good. It’s right in the heart of Deep Ellum (by Cafe Brazil) and there will be live music. And raffle prizes. And a smart car rally cruising past. AND it’s a free event. If I wasn’t a vendor I’d be heading down there to check it out ’cause it sounds like a good time (hint, hint).
The Deep Ellum Market is from 11am – 5pm on Saturday at 2820 Indian Blvd.
Next up, the Beach St. Market. This is a monthly market I have been doing on and off since the spring. It’s always the third Sunday of the month, and it seems like every other third Sunday there is a holiday or something that prohibits me from attending. Ok, last month I was on vaca, so I guess that’s a lame excuse for not going. Anyhoo, I’ll be there this Sunday with some great local food vendors. Last time there was a local Mexican restaurant there selling fresh tortillas and chips….soooo good. I hear they’ll be there this time too (yea!). That reminds me, I need to remember to bring a jar of salsa this time….
The Beach St. Market is this Sunday from 10am – 2pm at 3789 N. Beach St. in north Fort Worth
See you at the market!
So I think I’m finally getting the hang of this ‘swirl in the pot’ soap swirling thing. I even managed to swirl 2 colors this time (this is where you ‘ohhh’ and ‘ahhh’). This soap was actually inspired by a crafty friend, Stephanie of Robot Pop. She has become one of my ‘testers’ and has given me several great ideas for new scents. This is one that she suggested to me, down to the swirl. I’m saving a bar for Stephanie for the great idea on this one – it smells fantastic!
chocolate cherry almond cold process soap, swirled with cocoa powder and rose clay
I’m going to make a bigger batch this week so it will be ready in October…I hope the swirls come out this nice on my big batch!
I came across a link to the Clean The World site today while reading another soapy blog (Great Cakes Soapworks), and immediately decided I needed to be a part of this program. They collect soap (from hotels, soapmakers, whoever can donate), re-batch the soap to make sure everything is sanitary, and send it off to impoverished countries all over the world and to homeless shelters here in the US. They explain on their website that simply having access to supplies to properly wash your hands can help kill germs and reduce the spread of illnesses, like acute respiratory infection and diarrhea, illnesses that people die of everyday. It seems like such a simple thing, to have access to soap to cleanse yourself and keep yourself healthy, and something that I clearly take for granted.
Here’s the big box of soap I packed up today to send off to Clean the World. It weighed in at about 15 pounds, and after I taped it up I found more to send. I’m planning to send a box once every few months, or whenever I’ve collected a bunch of unsellable soap. Most of these bars (and pieces of bars) where early test batches that I ended up changing in some way, so I won’t be selling them. Some of them have been sitting on my shelf for months, and now they have a place to go! I’m so excited I found this site and am happy I’m able to contribute to a great cause.
You can donate soap or shampoo by mailing it to:
Clean The World
8026 Sunport Drive, Ste 306
Orlando, FL. 32809
Or visit their website to learn how else you can help.
This morning my products were on TV for the very first time! I’m so ridiculously excited about it…even though the mention was all of 10 seconds. I’m participating in a craft show this weekend called the Dallas Flea, and they are doing a bunch of press to promote it, including TV appearances. I sent some of my products to the event coordinator (Brittany, featured in the video), and she picked my stuff to include on this morning’s appearance! My products are featured about half way through the video, which I encourage you to watch here.
I’ll be available for autographs all week 🙂
Tomorrow is my first day to have 2 shows in one day, and I’m a little nervous. I knew it would be a lot of work to get everything ready for 2 shows at the same time, but I think I underestimated how much work. I’ve been wrapping soap, making lotion bars, lip balms and scrubs and packaging like crazy this week. I’m just about ready and am going to set-up for the Cowtown Indie Bazaar later today.
Here’s where we’ll be:
The New Public Market is happening from 8-2 tomorrow. Word on the street is the Cooking Channel is going to be there filming one of the local vendors (Machacek Bakery) for their show Food Crafters. Pretty exciting for our little farmers market, and so great for the bakery. I won’t be at this market, but Mr. Soap Addict (Joey) will be ‘manning’ (haha) the booth all by himself.
I’ll be at The Cowtown Indie Bazaar just a few miles away. This is my first major show of the fall season, and I think it’s going to be great. It’s being hosted by Etsy Fort Worth, a group of local Etsy artisans that I’m a part of. There are going to be more than 80 local, handmade artisans, live music, goodie bags for the first 50 in the door, raffle prizes and activities for the kiddos. It’s a free event and goes all day from 9-6.
I think it’s going to be a great way to kick off the holiday weekend!
I’ve been trying (unsuccessfully) to get a swirled soap that I think looks good for a while. Every time I do a test batch, something seems to go wrong and it doesn’t swirl. It either traces too quickly and is too thick to swirl, or doesn’t get quite thick enough and just blends together. I even made the mistake of trying to swirl a light color into a dark and the light just disappeared into the soap. Oops.
Well here it is folks – my first successful swirl. I like it – what do you think?
pine orange scented soap colored with Spirulina
This is a new soap I’m testing out that I may do for the holidays. It’s scented with pine and orange, and colored with Spirulina powder. When I first cut it, it was this beautiful bright green color. After curing for about 3 weeks, it’s faded quite a bit to a brownish green. I think the color works for a pine soap, but I’ll have to try something else for a true green.
Tomorrow is the first Saturday of the month, which means it’s New Public Market Day in Fort Worth. This is my favorite monthly market – I wish it were more often. For all you Fort Worth locals that haven’t checked it out yet, it’s at the corner of Hulen and Camp Bowie in the parking lot of the ‘Into the Garden’ store. Everything at this market is locally produced within 150 miles of Fort Worth. There are usually at least 10 different vendors, plus lots of other local stuff on hand. A great selection of local produce, baked goods, tamales (my favorite!!), meat, cheese, homemade pasta, olive oil, honey and lots of other goodies.
I’ll be there with the other local vendors braving the heat from 8-1, or until sell-out. Would love to see you there!
Here are a few new soaps I’m testing out right now. I’m working on my fall and holiday scents, and have more ideas than I’ll be able to do, so only the best will make the cut. Let’s start with the soaps I don’t have pics of yet (either because I just haven’t taken them, or I’m not quite happy with how it’s looking so am not going to show you 🙂
Last week I made a spiced cider soap, with apple cider instead of water mixed with the lye, and orange, cinnamon and clove essential oils. I also added some brown sugar, which gave it a weird texture. Not sure I’ll keep the brown sugar, but it does smell really good.
Earlier this week I made my second batch of a chai tea soap. It has black tea as a base instead of water, half and half, honey, and an essential oil blend of cinnamon, cardamom, clove, ginger and black pepper. Smells pretty good to me.
And here are my 2 favs so far: triple mint and Mexican hot cocoa. I made these on the same day, and the smells mixed together and made the most heavenly mint chocolate smell ever. I’m already thinking of how to combine them.
Mexican hot cocoa soap
triple mint soap = peppermint, spearmint and wintergreen. Spirulina used for the green bottom.
Next up in the test kitchen: an orange pine blend and a white chocolate almond soap. Too many ideas!!
I'm a soap addict 