Category: Soap

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Laundry soap and an apology

Laundry Soap Shreds
Shredded soap for homemade laundry soap

I admit I’ve been pretty quiet here on the blog lately and felt I owed an apology and explanation.  I haven’t dropped off the face of the planet- promise!  Summer gets pretty crazy around here between soaping, brainstorming with customers for fall gift projects, playing with a new soaping oil, and the youngsters off of school.  Please forgive me for the less frequent postings in these summer months but I’m hoping that we’ll all be happy with the pay off here soon!  We’ve got quite a few varieties working their way off the curing racks and some great ideas for the soaps to be whipped up next.  Yes, Herbert, even another round of beer soap with your name on it!

I’ve been asked a few times about how we make our laundry soap around here so I’m hoping to make someone’s day today.  Ours is pretty simple and you are welcome to whip up some of your own!  I just checked on my soap shreds again so I could snap a picture or two for you and placed them back onto the drying racks.  They should be ready to mix up by tomorrow.

I start by making a plain 100% coconut or lard soap, depending on what I’m looking for in the final mix.  After it has been soaped up and molded for 24 hours, I pop the soap out of the mold and cut it into large bars.  The bars rest for anywhere from 24 hours to three days before I shred them down.  I find the younger the soap, the easier it shreds.  These shreds go back on the rack for one to three days to dry out a bit more.  Once they’re where I want them, they get tossed into the soaping mixer and go for a quick spin.   (I learned from personal experience to keep a separate blender and mixer for soap stuff- soap still doesn’t taste good!)  The soap shreds get washing soda and borax mixed in; that’s it, unless you add a little fragrance when mixing it all together.  Everything gets placed into a bucket that sits on the washing machine.  How easy can you get, right?  It only takes us about a teaspoon to tablespoon to wash up our clothes- even the very muddy ones my kids have brought to me lately.  Do you have a favorite way to make your laundry soap or have you even tried before?  It was kind of intimidating at first, like soapmaking, but it’s a lot of fun!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy

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Back to work after day camp

Luckily, I’m better with soaping than I am with a drill press or hammer.  I’ve mentioned before that I can be hazardous to my own health with some power tools and I managed to prove it without a doubt.  In my amazing display of talent, I managed to beat up myself enough to need a few band aids over the two weeks, injure half of my fingers, but not teach any Cub Scouts bad words 🙂  We had to take a small hiatus to let my thumbs heal up enough from working at day camp but it was full steam ahead this week!

All the racks are full again and the kitchen smells great.  There had been requests for more Sage & Citrus and Rain so we got both of those poured and cut.  Both batches are still color morphing as of today so I’m curious just what color they will be when done.  I took some initial pictures and will post them with the final results.  Cold process soap making is notorious for bringing a little excitement to the color schemes and not always following your best laid plans.  My impatience also might have ruined one Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey batch but I’m still contemplating rebatching it so I’ll save that whole fiasco for us all to have a good laugh on a Friday .  We also made more laundry soap base this week and should be shredding it by this weekend.  All in all, it’s been great getting back to work!

Currently in stock and ready to ship are our Chocolate, Ginger Peach, Vegan Beer Soap, and the Shea Butter Sage & Citrus.  These new batches that we whipped up this week won’t be ready to leave us until mid-July.  Preorders are still available for some of them though so drop us a line if there is one you want held for you!  We are also waiting on a shipment of some of our favorite scents so there should be another round of soapmaking very soon in my future- woohoo!  Now I must run as the giant mud puddle out back somehow lured my children into it and they are in serious need of some soap.  Hope your neck of the woods gets some of this much needed rain too!

Happy Washing to you all!

Dorothy

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New soap pictures

We’ve been busy around here playing with colors and summer scents!  I apologize for being a little slow in posting but hope I can be forgiven with a peek at what we’ve been up to!

Sage & Citrus May 2012

As you can see, I’m still playing with colors.  I love the natural colors that can be created based on the oils or fragrances I use but it’s great to see something interesting every once in a while.  This picture is of our Sage & Citrus colored batches.  The other batch has no added colors; we use our own garden grown sage in it instead.  Sage & Citrus seems to be a hit with both the guys and gals- a great option for the whole family!  It combines a light sage with lemon and lime notes for a fresh, clean, lasting scent.  This one is quickly moving up my personal summer scent favorites list and might even make it into our regular stock.

I will be off the blog and Facebook for the most part next week as I am volunteering at our local Cub Scout Day Camp from Monday thru Thursday.  I can be reached by text or email for those four days and will continue to ship orders in the late afternoons.  We are currently booking markets for the summer and fall so we hope to catch you guys while we are out there!  Please continue to email us your soapy ideas and we will feature a post later this summer with pictures of some of the best ones.  Enjoy yourselves out there everyone and I will see you late next week!

Happy Washing!

Dorothy