Does it Lather?

That's a common question I get when people are checking out my booth. I think I need to set up a portable sink so I can give them the answer to their question with a demonstration, because look at this stuff!!

Still working on it

Inspired by the turquoise bar I did a while back, I've done a batch of soap "rocks" to test out how it works with cold process in the first pour rather than a rebatch style which is how I did the turquoise. Most rock or gem type soaps are made in melt & pour which is a different beast altogether and not my forte. So I'm trying it out with my method, and my first attempt was interesting and instructional if not quite what I was hoping for. Some things went right and others not so well, but I hope to do better with the next batch. Since they aren't up to the standard I am going for, I'm not planning to put them up in my Etsy shop.

Mosaic Soap for Spring

My latest Mosaic soap, each tile placed by hand. These bars are a bit thicker than my usual bars, a very generous 6oz, and are the perfect fragrance for spring - a blend of bergamot & chamomile.

Soap is Big

in my world. :)

Sweet Lavender For Mother's Day

When I was a little girl, someone gifted me with a bar of Yardley's English Lavender soap. It was a special treasure that I kept in the box and savored before I finally brought it to the tub. Now I can make my own lavender soap anytime I want! Here's yesterday's new listing, a lavender bar that would make a sweet Mother's Day gift or a special treat for yourself.

Soap Gem

I played around with some soap yesterday and came up with this:




They are fun to make but more time-consuming than making a regular batch. I'm trying to decide whether to list it at my shop and make more... I'd have to list it at a higher price point than my regular bars. What do you think?

It's a Keeper

Today I have a helper to present the latest soap on the curing rack:

Sock Monkey presents to you his favorite soap -

This bar is scented in pure almond, yum!

It's a sunny soapy day

and the right way to start a sunny day is to get up, have your tea and unmold a couple of logs of soap... stare at them while sipping, pondering what might be inside. Go about your morning chores with a feeling like there's a surprise waiting for you - that's a good feeling. Put it off a little longer to make it last. Finally, go get your soap cutter. Take one last look at the long smooth sides of those gorgeous logs, and cut them up. Ahh. Now that's how to start a sunny soapy day.

Yes, Saponification can be Fun!

I know I just posted about lye, but I ran into this page and had to share it. Even kids will understand this super cute explanation of how lye and oils turn into soap, with a little extra info about how soapers must calculate their ingredient amounts properly and why it's important.

How Soap is Made.

New Item!

I've added one of my favorite products to my Etsy shop - a deodorant made with (of course!) unrefined shea butter. I've been using it for a couple of years now and absolutely love it. Before I started making my own, I tried switching from typical commercial brands to some of the "natural" deodorant brands on the market. I liked their convenience but found that they didn't work all that well. My formula works much better for me, and I like being able to customize the scent with my favorite essential oils for their antibacterial and fragrant properties. My favorite right now is my Orange & Tea Tree blend. I also offer an Unscented variety for those who prefer to go fragrance-free.

The Lowdown on Lye

I've often received the question, "Does your soap have lye in it?" from potential customers who worry that soap made with lye may be harsh and unpleasant to the skin. In the past, lye was made from wood ash and the strength of the solution was variable, so that the soap maker could not measure precisely how much to use. Grandma's lye soap was remembered by generations as being awfully harsh. Now of course we can measure quite precisely, and research has been done to determine exactly how much lye it takes to saponify each unit of every type of fat a soap maker might use.

So what was that word, saponify? That is what happens when you mix a fat or oil with an alkali or 'base'.(lye is an alkali). As explained at Wikipedia: "The fats and the bases are hydrolyzed by water; the free glycerol heads bond with the free hydroxyl groups to form glycerin and the free sodium molecules bond with the fatty acid tails to form soap".

Huh? All that means is the chemical reaction breaks up all the molecules of the lye and oils, and they go back together in different formations. The newly formed substances are glycerin and soap. No soap can be made without an alkali like lye, and no lye is left in properly made soap - it has all been used up creating the soap and glycerin molecules.

So no, there is no lye in my soap. :)

How I Started Soaping

A recent forum topic asked how the members got their start soapmaking, so I thought I'd share here as well.

In 1996 I was a single mom living in the center of a small town. My way of relaxing was to research "lost arts", and learn them. This satisfied my creative needs as well as provided useful and pretty things that I couldn't afford to buy myself. One day I was browsing inside a local bookstore/boutique just to look at all the wonderful treasures for inspiration, and I came across Anne Bramson's book Soap. I was immediately fascinated with the idea of being able to make something so completely necessary and useful, and not being a fan of commercial bar soaps that stripped my sensitive skin, I was excited about making a soap I could actually use.

I walked over to the local grocery store. At that time, grocery chains still cut some of their own meat and the store had a tallow bin. I confused a couple of employees with my request for tallow, but eventually they got me to a butcher who knew what I meant and he reached into the freezer bin and pulled out a wrapped lump the size of a ten pound bag of sugar, and equally heavy. I lugged that thing home, and spent the next couple of days rendering it. Not the most pleasant task, to be sure, but the satisfaction of seeing the pot yield a clean, white disk of tallow was all the encouragement I needed to keep going.

Next chance I got, I set up my soap making assembly line and mixed the ingredients with my fingers crossed. I had no stick blender at the time, the book I had referred only to hand stirring, and the internet was not a common household name then; I was on my own. So I stirred, and stirred... eventually the mix came together into a creamy thick consistency and I added some cedar essential oil and a decoction of rosemary (It amazes me that even with my first batch, I jumped right in to scenting and adding botanicals!)then I poured it into a shoebox lined with plastic.

Little did I realize when I started this batch that I would end up with about 12lbs of soap!! But I still remember turning out that gorgeous, white block of soap... what a beauty it was, even with all its wrinkles and bumps... I was hooked.

Tea Tree

I've one more Castile-style soap on the curing rack right now, and while the fragrance isn't exactly the kind you'd wear for perfume, I'm finding myself inhaling deeply when I walk by it. Tea tree is an essential oil with antiseptic and antifungal properties, with an herbal, medicinal smell, and it makes me feel squeaky clean just thinking about it. This bar would be appropriate for skin that isn't perfect, like most of us have. Studies have shown that a preparation of Tea Tree Oil can be as effective for acne as bezoyl peroxide. I've added French Green Clay as it is traditionally used for acne-prone or oily skin. These bars will be available for purchase at my Etsy shop the end of April.

Featured At...

It's always fun when other artisans take note of your work, and this week a fellow Etsian has featured my Soapstone Hand Soap at her blog. You can see the entry at Lucky Duck Designs. She's created a perfect gift pairing of the Soapstone with one of her cards, a clever duo to give to someone who could use a little appreciation.

Shea Butter musings

I have been enjoying my shea butter Body Scrub Bars so much, I got to thinking about why for the past three years I have kept some unrefined shea butter on hand at all times.

I started out with shea by purchasing some refined shea butter to soap with. It was pure white, smooth, odorless and, well, an awful lot like shortening. I couldn't see what the fuss was all about. So for my next purchase, I chose the unrefined version. Then the light bulb came on - this was totally different.

The unrefined shea tells you that it is a product derived from nature. Pale greenish tan in appearance, it has an earthy look in contrast to the factory-uniform refined shea. The nutty, almost smoky scent gives you a hint of the manufacturing being close to the land.

Using the unrefined shea was a different experience as well. When applied to a rashy area, the redness and itchiness diminishes significantly within a few minutes. The creamy butter softens any scaliness and helps stop peeling. It is so soothing, there are clearly active constituents within the butter of which I know little - what I do know is that they work!

I normally like to use shea straight as a balm because I feel that it is most effective when it is not diluted with other ingredients, but I'm glad I decided to use it in my Body Scrub Bars. Besides being just plain fun and decadent to use, it's an easy way to moisturize with Shea Butter. I like not having to get my hands all lotioned up after I step out of the shower. I think a few tweaks of the recipe to help increase the longevity of the bars, and these might make it into the permanent recipe file.

Hint of Spring

Here in California, the narcissus has bloomed, and plum blossoms are beginning to give the plum trees a pink misty look as they begin to unfurl. We always say that when the plum blossoms are in full swing, then it snows! In spite of the balmy days we are enjoying now, there will be a few more weeks of blustery coldness coming up in March. So in anticipation of spring, and to encourage us through the last of the gloomy winter days, here is the latest listing at my Etsy shop - Fresh Mint, a leafy green bar with spring written all over it. Not a pure mint scent but a blend of a sporty juniper fragrance with a touch of brisk mint, this bar cheerfully reminds us that winter always, well, leaves!

Shea Butter Scrubs!

I decided to make another batch of shea butter scrubs to offer at my Etsy shop. Although they are not as long-lived as the cocoa butter recipe, I've been using one and it is so nice on my skin, I haven't had to apply any lotion after my shower. The shea sinks in so well and leaves my skin soft. I just couldn't keep them all to myself! This batch has lots of soothing oatmeal as well, so they are a creamy natural color instead of the bright swirls I've done on past scrub bars. I added Blackberry Sage fragrance, and it's the perfect sweet/tart/fresh scent, lingering lightly on my skin after I get dressed. Click on the photo to go get some - Enjoy!

The Soap Bar blogs about Savonara

Joanna of Product Body has published a lovely post about my soap at her blog, where she says some very nice things and shares a few photos of bars I did a while back. Thanks for the mention, Joanna, very kind of you. :)
I hope to cross paths with Joanna again soon as I will send a few soaps for review once they are cured.

New and Upcoming

Here is a look at a few things that I am in the process of adding or are curing now for addition to my Etsy shop. From the top left: Orange Patchouli Olive Oil Soap, Shea Butter Scrub Bars (non-soap), Scrubby Pumice Soap, (already listed) and China Rain Original Soap. More on the way soon!


visit Savonara's Etsy Store now

Rebatch Tutorial

Sometimes the "soap fairies" show up and get their sticky little fingers into the process of creating your latest masterpiece, and the result is, well, entertaining (as in the case of my famous ham colored soap, lol) or just plain disappointing. Or, maybe your flurry of soaping activity has resulted in a bin full of trimmings, scraps and end pieces. Whatever the reason, every soapmaker finds themself facing a rebatch now and then. I happen to enjoy the opportunity that a rebatch presents, so I thought I'd share my method of reclaiming those bits and nibs of soap and turning them into something entirely fabulous and interesting.

1. Choose your scraps - select compatible colors and shades.



2. Weigh it all out so that you will be overfilling your mold by about a quarter inch.
   
3. Have your mold lined and ready.
   
   
4. If your scraps are not all mixed, you have the choice of selecting which will become part of the background blend, and which will be more prominent. Separate the color/s you want to be more distinct, and save them to add at a later step. If the soap scraps are older or very dry, you may want to mist them with water til they are just damp. Newer, softer soap doesn't normally need any water to start.





5. Begin melting the soap. Some use a double boiler, but I prefer to microwave the soap. Keep a spray bottle of water at hand and mist the soap after stirring every few minutes.



6. Continue melting and misting and stirring til the soap slumps off your spatula like thick oatmeal.





7. Now you are ready to add any colored shreds that you left out earlier. This is also the time to add fragrance oil if you need to. When you mix in your shreds, they will cool and thicken the soap so it will need to be heated and stirred again.
   
8. As soon as the last shreds are well mixed and any fragrance oil is fully blended, drop by spoonfuls into the lined mold. Push it into the corners with your gloved hands. If the soap seems dry when you glop it into the mold, you can mist it a little with water before the next scoop and that will help prevent the individual scoops from creating a seam that separates later. It may help to bump the entire mold on the counter a few times to get the soap settled. Smooth the top as best you can with your hands. It will look very rough.





9. Allow the soap to cool overnight.
10. Unmold and cut the rough top off the loaf, then cut into bars.

Here are a few different rebatch soaps I've done: