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Orange Teakwood Scout Soaps

One of our most recent fun projects was creating soap medallions for some local Cub Scouts at their crossing ceremony. Our local customers and friends have helped us support the local Big Cypress District Scouts and my little den of boys was graduating into Boy Scouts. Of course, I had to give them a little something to remember their goofy den leader as they moved on to bigger and more exciting things so I created little soap medallions for them in some molds I had found. Young boys aren’t exactly known for wanting to get showers while camping so I had hoped that these soaps MIGHT make them want to clean up- at least once in a campout! These fun little soaps come with designs like the BSA emblem, an eagle with BSA across him, and the Cub Scout emblem. We had a few that were round that I managed to get a picture of before they disappeared but I will need to get some pictures of the diamond-shaped ones once the next batch is done!

Round scout medallion soaps
Scout medallion soaps
Round scout soap medallions
Scout soap medallions

I used a plain soap base and used one of our popular men’s scents, teakwood. I wanted to keep it a little lighter since this batch was going to preteens so I added some orange peel for a lighter citrus touch along with a little scrubbing power to remove a little more of that camp grime the scouts always seem to collect 🙂 These fun little soaps are hand sized and fit perfectly into their gear bags. It was a lot of fun making this project and we decided to offer it in our gift sets for everyone to enjoy. It is completely customizable to your preferred scent and colors. If you have a scout or know a dirty one, here is your perfect gift for Blue and Gold, Crossings, or any other time before they head out into the woods. I hope your boys enjoyed it like ours have. And to my boys who have graduated and are moving on, I wish you the best in all you do. I know you will go far and I’m proud of you.

Happy Washing!

Dorothy

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Honeysuckle Soap

I had written this post in early December but had to hold it so I wouldn’t ruin someone’s holiday surprise.)

There are two lades we love in Mississippi who were waiting very patiently for me to make more Honeysuckle soaps. I had promised them a batch but I really had wanted to improve the colors of their favorite soap over the last time. That was the tricky part for me. As the blog followers are aware, I have reservations about colorants in my soaps. It’s got to be a natural product- no FD&C colorants in my soaps! I first learned to color soaps with a waxy kind of colorant but they really never gave me the results I wanted. I refused to touch a lot of soap colorants that I researched as I found out what they were made from. Some of the “sure fire” herbs that I’d had recommended to me over the years gave me interesting results- at first. Color morphing is a bit of an issue for the cold process soaper as your gorgeous blue become purple overnight. A tie dye looking soap became brownish purple by the time it was ready to deliver and a deep emerald green slid into the color of something you’d almost step on in a pasture. Or the time my pink became brownish- yuck! Yellows became tan and don’t even ask about what we decided some of the results reminded us of. Let’s just summarize some of my soap coloring research as enlightening to me and fun for the household. But I kept making my research batches with the hope I’d get the colors I wanted if I just kept trying. I absolutely love looking at other people’s pretty soaps and admire their artistic work they create in colors. There are incredible soapers out there that I hope to one day come close to in great designs. In the meantime, my job was to try again to create a colored layer soap that stays the color I wanted it to so I could make these two little ladies happy for the holidays.

Green & White Honeysuckle soap curing on the rack
Honeysuckle Soap Curing on the Rack
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After many failed attempts, I got a herb green to work reliably. This batch of Honeysuckle soaps in the catalog still has the not too sweet fragrance with a layered green look. I has planned a swirl in them for the holidays but it started to get too thick so we went for the layers instead. We used one of our milder recipes for the batch to get a great smooth feel while not drying out your skin. (One of these two ladies has to wash up quite a bit in her job and tends to dry out this time of year so it was a high priority for us.) The feedback on this batch tells us it is great for all ages and even liked by the “no flowery scent” users. We hope you’ll enoy it as much as we have!

The sun is now rising on another cold day here and I must head out to check on the soap herb garden. I wish you a great day out there and an even better time in the shower!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy

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Pumpkin Soap

One of our favorite things about fall and winter are pumpkins.  I know you can grow and/or purchase them year round but Halloween really gets our celebrating in gear.  We love the color and shape of the whole pumpkins, use them for decorating, but our favorite part is to eat them, admittedly.  This year, I decided to harness some of pumpkin’s power in soap before we baked it all away!  You didn’t know it was good for your skin?  Let’s explore this together…

Pumpkin has been known for years to be good for our bodies.  It provides fiber, magnesium, potassium, antioxidants, and iron just for starters.  It is overflowing with alpha- and beta-carotenes which help support skin health.  It also has many vitamins including C, E, and B5, which help revive and restore your skin’s health.  This is one awesome fruit and tastes great too, in my opinion.  But why would I put it in soap instead of my stomach?  It has a comforting smell, pretty color, and also leaves your skin smooth and soft – perfect for dry winter months.  Why not?

Pumpkin Soap Cooking
Pumpkin Soap Cooking

I started with one of our creamier soap recipes and added pureed pumpkin to the mix.  As you can see in the picture, it created a gorgeous orange color as it cooked in the crock.  (I had a request to make this soap with the hot process method so it cooks for a few hours in a crockpot in that method of soaping.)  When it passed the test & was done, I mixed in a wonderful fragrance that includes a touch of cinnamon, clove, slight sweetness of carrot, nuts, pumpkin (of course), and a hint of rum in the background.  It created a marvelous harvest scent in one of my favorite soaps of the season.  They were cut into large hand bars and average about 5 oz each.  We made enough of this batch to share but this soap will probably remain in our fall/winter lines so grab it before it goes away!

Uncut Hot Process Pumpkin Soap & Wavy Soap Cutter
Uncut Hot Process Pumpkin Soap & Wavy Soap Cutter

As you can see in the pictures, pumpkin soap provided another chance for us to enjoy color morphing that is so common in natural soap making.  No colors were added at all to this batch, for those who find that an issue.  The soap started with this pretty burnt orange color while cooking, muted to a tan-orange by the time it finished cooking, and then started a gradual browning from the little bit of vanilla in the fragrancing.  As you can see, at 24 hours its colors resembled banana nut bread.  By four days later, I had mostly brown bars with beautiful dark chocolate-colored swirls throughout it.   The entire soap is dark caramel swirl color now and it hasn’t darkened anymore at this point. What fun!

 

Cut Hot Process Pumpkin Soap
Cut Hot Process Pumpkin Soap

As of posting time, I’m still fighting to get these pictures loaded for you to see. If you can’t see the pictures, please check back again later!  Have another soapy idea or challenge for us?  Contact us and let’s brainstorm!  I must now get back to the kitchen and wash a few molds before I start these other soaps this week.  Ready to cook this week will be Peppermint and another batch of our beer soap, Texas Suds.  Check back in with us later this week to see the update on our Honeysuckle Soap and don’t  forget to sign up to follow our blog here or like us on Facebook for the latest updates!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy

 

Finished updating on Dec 11, 2012 at 10:29am CST with all pictures loaded and better description of final color.  -Dorothy