I must admit I’ve been a bit of a nerd lately burying myself into research and planning. A few conversations with some great people at Donna’s and the Klein festival sent my geekiness into overdrive and derailed my typing time. Between bouts at the computer, stirring at the cauldron, overheating my stick blender, or burying myself in books at my desk, I lost track of blog time and I truly apologize. Please forgive my research bug and laugh at me a bit. Mind if I share a little of my research notes with you though?
I learned about a new-to-me allergy that has slowed some of my soaping over the last few weeks. A nice lady came by the booth who had a family member diagnosed with a formaldehyde allergy and they shared with me what they have been dealing with. I personally knew of formaldehyde in the use of embalming, some uses in dissolving or extracting ingredients, and in some cosmetic uses but they shared with me how widely it was used in everything- supposedly even in foods. That freaked me out on a level that was hard to describe even to hubby. We use food grade oils and herbs in our soaps to avoid a lot of nasties and I had been assured by our suppliers that none of these kinds of chemicals had been near our ingredients but I felt a need to really double check a few of them. I just had to know for sure, you know? We work hard to make sure that our soaps are safe for the whole family and the idea of how much this family was going through weighed on me. I’ve gotten almost all of my questions answered so far from the suppliers so I hope to be able to give that family an update soon. I’m also happy to say that our ingredients, whether we grow them ourselves or get them from our suppliers, are safe. The health and safety of all of our families are still our biggest concern. (Although kids vote that the size of the soap bubbles is their biggest concern!) I also need to thank our wonderful suppliers again for their patience in answering all of my questions.
I also sat down and took a hard look at the summer soap lines and how to approach them. We have been working with a growing request for us to keep both the unscented pioneer and olive oil soaps in stock year round now and I’m pushing those up in the to-do list. By the end of the month, they will stay on the regular stock list in the catalog and be there year-round. We also have two more men’s soaps that should roll out around that time. If these two keep going as well as they have, they might make the regular list too! I’m also moving up a fun color project to this week or next so I can have more excuses to play in the kitchen and post pictures. Another batch of Honeysuckle is brewing along with more of the Raspberry & Chocolate. As most of these will be cold process projects, everyone will have to wait until around the end of April or beginning of May to get their slice to take home. I really truly love the results we get from cold process soaping but have to admit my long, agonizing wait each time is torture…..
I again apologize for the delay in posting. And, yes, getting me to sit still this morning did involve coffee and chocolate for those who wondered. I must now return to the kitchen. The stick blender is raring to go for the day and the soap pots are all waiting. Hope your day works out well for you and we will see you out and about this month! We will definitely be at the Crawfish Festival this month and I’ll get more info updated for you on all the dates and places. More posts to follow soon- especially since I’ve figured out my phone’s voice recorder for keeping my blog post notes. Hooray for technology!
Happy Washing!
Dorothy
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