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Scent descriptions updated

Cutting soap in the morning sun

As promised, we sat with Dorothy in the soap room to get an updated listing of the scent blends in our soaps. It has been too long since we last did this and it was a great chance for us to look at how we’ve changed some products over the years. Here is the most current run down on what scents to expect from our bars. We hope these scent descriptions help everyone while exploring our site, shopping online, or planning your order!

667 Neighbor of the Beast

Lightly scented blend of fresh air, clean cotton, amber, patchouli, and musk.

Aloe and Oatmeal

Fresh aloe from the garden and ground oats.

Amaretto

A lightly sweet honey and almond blend.

Beeswax

No added scent, smells like soap.

Black Raspberry Vanilla

Sweet berry blend with vanilla.

Blood Orange

Orange citrus notes with a little floral background.

Burgundy Rose

Fresh roses with red wine notes.

Charcoal Bay Rum

Vintage scent- bay rum blends citrus with pine, cedar, cinnamon, mint, and clove.

Charcoal Tea Tree

Earthy tea tree with charcoal, done with a lighter touch than most soap makers.

Cherry Almond

Nutty almond with a not too sweet cherry addition.

Chocolate Orange

A seasonal blend of dark chocolate and orange, one of our kid’s favorite Christmas candies!

Cinnamon Oatmeal Milk and Honey

Clean, classic oatmeal and goat milk scent with a touch of honey and cinnamon.

Coconut Oil Unscented

No added scent, smells like soap.

Coffee

Freshly brewed coffee scent with a mild chocolate like background smell from the coffee grounds.

Cool Water

Water notes with citrus, amber, sandalwood, woodsy and floral notes.

Country Garden

Rose, lavender, lilac, jasmine, and a touch of dirt in a goat milk soap.

Cowboy

Mahogany, sage, teak, and a light touch of citrus blend for a clean manly smell.

Cowboy with Leather

Leather is the predominant scent but some noses will recognize the mahogany, sage, teak, and citrus.

Dirt

Just like it sounds like!  This smells like fresh moist dirt, ready for planting in the garden.  Great as a gag gift or for the hunters, gardeners, scouts and other outdoorsy folk.

Dragon’s Blood

Our version blends amber, black pepper, patchouli, and a few other goodies to create warm, incense like combination.  Unique scent blend you’ll remember from your past.

Eucalyptus Mint

Clean and crisp blend of fresh eucalyptus and mint.

Eucalyptus Mint Charcoal

Clean and crisp blend of fresh eucalyptus and mint with charcoal added.

Everything Nice with Charcoal

“Sugar and spice and everything nice…” a blend of lilac and jasmine with sweet candy notes in the back.

Fisherman’s Soap

A blend of lemon peel and anise that takes fish smell off.

Fresh Cut Roses

Fresh roses with a touch of green.

Galveston

Clean linen and sea salt- like a beach getaway without the sand!

Grapefruit Lemongrass

Clean blend of grapefruit and lemongrass.

Great Outdoors

Like a walk in the woods or sitting in the campsite- fresh earth notes with a touch of woods and campfire smoke.

Guinness Extra Stout

Guinness Extra Stout meets patchouli, sandalwood, pepper, and amber.

Jewelweed

No added scent, smells like soap with a touch of green plant.

Lavender

Simple and clean lavender.

Lavender Goat Milk

Floral lavender notes with goat milk.

Lavender Honey

Sweet blend of lavender and warm honey.

Lavender Mint

Mint comes out in front, followed by lavender and calendula.

Lavender Sage

Lavender mixed with sage, a more grounded earthy blend.

Lavender Sage Oatmeal

Lavender mixed with sage, a more grounded earthy blend with oatmeal.

Lemongrass Coconut Milk

Dried lemongrass mixed with coconut, coconut milk, citrus, and a light touch of sandalwood.

Lilac

Floral but not too sweet.  Great year round option.

Lone Star Sandalwood

We blend sandalwood with amber, black pepper, a little patchouli, frankincense, and Lone Star Beer.

Merlot

A light touch of spice with notes of vanilla and citrus to brighten it up.

Miller Lite

Lightly scented blend of fresh air, clean cotton, amber, patchouli, and musk.

Modelo Negra

Manly blend of citrus, cedar, grapefruit, bergamot, pepper, patchouli and more.

Monkey Farts

Fun fruity blend!  Bananas, cherries, strawberries, citrus, kiwi, and a touch of vanilla.

Nag Champa

Another blast from the past- sandalwood, patchouli, and dragon’s blood blended together.

Oats and Apples

Fresh ground oats, apples, and a light touch of cinnamon.

Old Fashioned Plain Soap

No added scent, smells like soap.

Old West

Leather meets mesquite, cedar, amber, and patchouli.

Olive Oil Unscented

No added scent, smells like soap.

Oatmeal Milk and Honey

Freshly ground oats blended with warm honey and goat milk.

Paint Brush Soap

No added scent, smells like soap.

Patchouli

Earthy patchouli and amber blend, not as strongly scented as most soap makers.

Peach Goat Milk

Fresh peaches and goat milk.

Peppermint Mocha

Peppermint meets coffee and chocolate for fun seasonal blend.

Pumpkin

Pumpkin, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and a touch of vanilla.

Raspberry Chocolate

Fresh raspberries and chocolate.

Red Velvet Cake

Bakery themed blend for red velvet cake including chocolate, vanilla, and a little butter cream.

Rosemary Mint

Homegrown garden fresh rosemary and mint blended together.

Rustic Belle

Spicy and sweet combination of peach and ginger.

Shiner

Woodsy blend with light touch of jasmine and green- a fresh outdoorsy scent.

Spiced Apple Beer

Warm comforting blend of apples and cinnamon.

Spiced Tobacco

Tobacco blended with spices and a touch of citrus.

Texas Rangers

Light and clean manly scent blends juniper, bergamot, citrus, and touch of spice.  Sometimes made with charcoal.

Tropical Smoothie

Reminds us of a strawberry pina colada drink, very fruity and fun!

Victorian Rose

Fresh roses with a touch of amber, a classic rose blend.

Whiskey

A touch of tobacco with the whiskey, followed by light touch of char to remind us of the whiskey barrels.

Whole Bean Mocha

Mocha coffee brings a chocolate touch to this one- topped with whole coffee beans.

Now, this list doesn’t include special projects or limited editions that are in progress. We also have a few surprises in store for you so stick around or visit us in the booth for details.

Enjoy!

Dorothy & the Team

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Still here and staying calm during COVID

Our supervisors hard at work

Like most of our city, we’ve made the painful decision to stay home amid the COVID-19 situation.  Luckily, our main base of operations is our own house and our junior staffers were on spring break for the first week.  The kids enjoyed their free time, caught up with their friends online & by phone, playing games and guitars, and watched more YouTube than their parents would probably want to calculate honestly.  The adults spent most of that time trying to remain busy and calm, counting the days until the next farmer’s market and our children back to school.  Dorothy finished getting the soap making and book keeping all moved into one room of the house (woohoo!)  There was massive progress on getting garden boxes and beds prepared, weeded, and planted.  Then week two kicked in and we faced the dilemmas of school closures, markets and events being canceled, and the general worries of being a parent and small business in this rapidly changing situation.  It’s been stressful on our whole city and we wanted to let you know we’re still here, doing fine but just like most of you it’s a bit crazy.

Our supervisors hard at work
Our supervisors hard at work in March 2020. They make sure we take regular breaks and get some fresh air.

We hope that you and yours are all doing well as you can in all of this.  We’re working with our local markets, fellow vendors, wholesalers, private labelers, and charitable groups from a distance to help share information and updates with our cherished customers and followers until this has passed.  There are no markets or events for the month of March, including Founders Day at Wunderlich; they have all been canceled as of March 19th.  We’ve been advised that Schulenburg SausageFest, Mancuso’s GatorFest, and Chappell Hill’s Bluebonnet Festival are now canceled also.  Fingers are crossed that all of these measures do the trick in ending this, everything will be normal again soon, just in time for spring crops and the farmer’s markets to reopen.  We’re looking forward to seeing everyone again soon, happy and healthy.  Please do keep reaching out to us for information as you need it.  We’re monitoring our texts, emails, and voicemails to respond to everyone as quickly as possible.   We’ll keep posting info as we get it here to the website and our Facebook page; plus more pictures from the scene here on the blog. We’ve also tried to ensure that the website inventory is up to date so your orders will be processed quickly and smoothly.

Great employee
Great employee in the booth at Wunderlich Feb 2020

As you can see, our supervisory crew has approved of the new layout in the soap room and will ensure that we find time to relax a little when stress gets too high here. The kids are back in school and staying busy. We’ve used this time to reflect on how we’ve expanded our skills over the past year, enjoy the little moments, and finished getting our liquid soap making back on track. Dorothy will get posts made for you about when the liquid soaps will be live, how we’ve finally conquered bread making, learned cheese making and canning and blacksmithing, grew new produce, crafted a vendor group of talented local artisans and makers that are outstanding in their fields, and the personal goals we hit over the past year. Make sure to subscribe so you’ll get notified as the posts go live; some of the stories out of it all were honestly funny and a good read.

Stay safe and healthy everyone.

Happy Washing!

The TPC Team

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Why We Support Local Businesses and Non-profits

Every once in a while, we get a chance to talk about why and how we support local businesses. Mostly, it’s to folks from out of town or those interested in having us switch to their company. I would like the chance to spend a moment explaining our reasons in a bit more detail about what it is we do locally because I can’t always while we’re out at an event! There’s a couple of reasons that are most important to us and I really wanted to spotlight them as part of our blog also.

We buy local ingredients or materials whenever possible because we can usually have the chance to see them first hand before purchasing. I can actually pick them up, view them, or smell them as needed before we commit it to soap. We like having the chance to see the place where it was grown or harvested, forged or crafted as much as possible. You can see if the shops are clean, the owners friendly and honest, other customers are happy, or if it is a place you should avoid working with. It also feels good to see the person you hand your money to, and know that it goes to support their family or further their business. We also like to promote local crafters, businesses, or events we like as often as possible to help spread the word about them. Lastly, there is just something awesome about being able to see something handmade in front of you! Why wouldn’t you support your local community?

We also like to give to charities and non-profits locally as much as possible. We like to donate our time as a family in addition to fundraising for them through our company. We have found that our preference is to go work hands on with the group, such as food drives, sorting items in donation drives, and helping work in an animal shelter, because they have had such a more long lasting impact on our children. However, there are some others we help financially as that is what works best for them. It also feels good to be able to see the results of your hard work make an impact in your community right in front of your own eyes. Our children have very fond memories of some of our local projects and we have made lasting connections with many of the people we’ve met along the way.

I hope that this post answers more questions some of you have had about how our company handles a few of our buying and giving choices. We hope that more people can do the same in their areas and would love hearing about your thoughts. Have a favorite store, events, craftsman, or show we need to know about? You can find us this weekend at Fenske’s Country Store to talk to us directly, email, or comment below or on Facebook. We are officially collecting food items for a HCC Food Pantry and will also gladly take your donations for them this weekend while we’re there. Fenske’s will be open on Saturday from 10-5pm and Sunday from 11-4pm. I am updating our show schedule this weekend and should have more information for those of you who were waiting to have it posted. We should be able to give you an idea of where to find us in person for at least the next three to four months. That may be just a quick Facebook post though as I’ve had a lot less time to blog lately between being a soap-making workaholic and parent, as many people can relate. Also, yes, I’m working on fixing those pictures in the shopping cart again! Have a great holiday season everyone!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy