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DvisualArts Review and Soap Pictures

This post is not so much about making soap as to show some great pictures and review a local independent photographer in the Houston, TX area. Those who have followed the blog for awhile can tell you that my photography skills are, shall we honestly say, barely passable? Frankly, they’re pitiful so I spent some time looking for a good local photographer to take our soap pictures. Hubby told me about his coworker who runs a side business in photography and I added him to the pool of choices. The more I saw of his work, the more I loved it. He has a passion for sports photography but such a wonderful eye for color and perspectives! His wedding pictures are just beautiful. I was interested to see what he could do with our soaps. We challenged him with naked bars of soap and nothing more to go on but my request to keep it natural. I really wanted to see what he could do with the colors and textures if given free rein. We were thrilled when he gave us back the results. No kidding, I did a little dance and giggle. Just ask hubby; he was laughing at me. Vu, you must post more of your work to your Facebook page- soon! So without further ado, I’m going to post some of his work here. You’ll be able to spot his other pictures all over the website also- they’re much prettier ones lol If you are in the Houston, TX or surrounding areas and in need of a great photographer, DvisualArts does awesome work with a great turnaround time. Check him out at www.dvisualarts.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DvisualArts to see more great pictures!

"Frosted" Chocolate Soap
“Frosted” Chocolate Soap
Oatmeal Milk and Honey Scrub Bar
Oatmeal Milk and Honey Scrub Bar
Green Tea Sand Soap on the Rocks
Green Tea Sand Soap on the Rocks
Ginger Peach Tea Soap
Ginger Peach Tea Soap

Chocolate Soap
Chocolate Soap

Most of these soaps have a few bars still left in stock in the catalog. Feel free to provide some feedback here on the post or on our Facebook page about the new layout and Vu’s photos. If you enjoy looking at cool soap pictures, please feel free to check out some of the links now appearing on the right side of our pages! Thanks for stopping by and visiting our page today.

Happy Washing!
Dorothy

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Mad Scientist’s Stock Update

Well, the racks are all overflowing again with new soaps and the stick blender has begged for mercy.  All possible soaping pots came out for work this week and I was caught cackling and dancing more than once over a bubbling stock pot.  Love my job!  Most of this week’s soaps were heavily olive oil based so expect them to be very mild, smooth, and creamy when you get your hands on them!  Thanks again to cute Baby Lex for inspiring some new soaps.

As promised, here is the in-stock update.  The website is still in progress (one of the hazards of being a chronic do-it-yourself-er who has a habit of researching things almost to death) so I apologize that we haven’t gotten a shopping cart set up yet or launched the site.  If required, I’ll go stand in the corner once I finish this post 🙂  All bar soaps are currently priced at $4.25 each, plus any shipping costs or sales tax if you are in Texas.  If you are local to the Cypress, TX area, we can be caught at Donna’s Market in October or arrange a pickup to save you shipping costs.  All others can order by emailing us directly at txpioneercreations@yahoo.com or contacting us thru this blog and Facebook.  And yes, we can always create a gift set for you- just drop us a line and let’s brainstorm!

Ready to ship/pick up:  Chocolate (both Vegan and Old Fashioned), Sage & Citrus with Shea Butter, Rain, and our regular Sage & Citrus.

Ready by Sept 30th (currently preorder only):  Moroccan Mint, Indonesian Teakwood, Unscented Olive Oil, a vegan Sage and Citrus , and a vegan Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey Scrub Bar.  The Green Tea Sand Scrub will also be ready by then but was made in oversized bars so they have a separate price of $5.25 each.

Samples:  Ginger Peach Tea, Texas Suds (the beer soap), Vanilla, Chocolate (both kinds), Olive Oil, and Moroccan Mint are currently ready to go home with someone.  We will have a few of the Moroccan Mint, Unscented Olive Oil, Indonesian Teakwood, and the Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey Scrub at the end of September also.

I do get the question about letting people have soaps before they are done “curing”, also known around here as “their month on the rack.”  The short answer is no, we can not let you have any cold processed soaps until they are done.  They need that time to mellow out and we need some time to make sure they pass our quality control testing.  Yes, we check our soaps by the batch, even if it’s a recipe I’ve made so often I can make it in my sleep.  Never know when a scale will be off in measuring or the mad scientist soaper will get so into the song playing that she forgets to add the fragrance so we make it a policy to double check each batch.  Please help me practice being patient and I will gladly keep you updated on your soaps.

Also asked is about our samples since we don’t always have samples on hand for every soap on display.  There are a few reasons for that.  First, there are only a limited amount of samples so when they’re gone, they’re gone.  I don’t make soap specifically for samples; they come from any extras leftover from the larger batch.  It is one way I have found to help keep our costs down which allows us to keep our prices lower for you.  Secondly, Texas considers samples to be sales taxable which means we have to decide between charging customers for them or we pay it.  Currently, we do not charge anything for samples and we try to include a few samples with shipments whenever possible.  If you are interested in having only samples mailed directly to you, please contact me directly so we can find a cost-effective way for both of us.  I realize that not everyone is interested in the motives behind why a company charges for things, but I believe some are and I try to be completely honest about how we calculate the prices as we do.

Over the next few weeks, I will post some of the pictures of the new soaps along with information about each so everyone can see.  Hope all of you have a great weekend in your neck of the woods and I will now step out to clean out my cauldron for the last time this week.  Oh yeah, then I guess I might be off to stand in the corner for not finishing our website……

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