New Products coming your Way

I know it has been a while since I have posted and that is because I have been busy with Christmas coming, taking care of my Mom and working.  There is light at the end of the tunnel, thankfully :).  Since I have been home with my mother, I have still been able to squeeze a few batches of soaps out, lol.  I also wanted to work on improving my recipe and instead of having several (like 20+)  I wanted to keep like three main recipes and improve on them.  I wanted to provide more lather, improve the conditioning properties and have the bar last longer.  Well, I think that I have come up with a pretty nice bar of soap or should I say soaps.  I am phasing out my other bars and putting my new bars up on my website and in my ArtFire Store.  Let me tell you, that's a lot of work, changing out everything, but I am getting close. (Thank God!)  I also wanted to add a few new products and those will be introduced after the New Year, YAY!!!  Here are a couple of my newest soaps and they have been listed on my website.

The first is a Dead Sea Mud Bar with Dead Sea Mud and Seaweed.  I fragranced it with Sea Glass, which is a nice green fragrance.  I am very happy with the way it came out.  What is so special about a Dead Sea Mud Soap, you ask, well let me tell you.  Many Spas use Dead Sea Mud to cleanse and detoxify your body.  This does the same, only you won't get "muddy" so to speak.  People have been using Dead Sea Mud for years believing that it will make them look younger, revitalize them and so on.  I don't make any medical claims with the soaps that I make, but I will say that you will feel refreshed after using it.  I have also put seaweed in here as I thought that it would go along nicely with Mud.

If you are a coffee lover, you will LOVE this one!  Not only can you enjoy your fresh cup of coffee in the morning, but you can bathe in a lovely scented Cafe Mocha Bar.  I also though that I would add a little twist to this soap and offer it in a coffee mug and spoon.  The soap in the mug is about 12 ounces of soap, you can slice off the size you want and enjoy your shower.  Scented with Coffee, Vanilla, and Chocolate.  I piped the tops of the bars as well as the soap in the mug. 

I formulated a beautiful shampoo bar with Olive Oil, Avocado Oil and Beer just to name a few of the ingredients that I used.  This didn't orginally start out as a shampoo bar, it was a beer soap.  I decided that I would try this one on my hair.  I have used cold-processed soap in my hair in the past but they usually left my hair brittle, dry and unmanageable.  When I tired this one, it was love at first lather!  My hair is manageable, soft, silky and bouncy.  I have not used commercial shampoo since and that has been about six months now.  I have had family use it and they too have fell in love with my shampoo bar.  I was using a Honey Ale fragrance but now I am using a fragrance similar to Herbal Essence.  I plan on making some more with other fragrances so you will have a few to choose from.  I also made a batch without beer and it is also a good bar, but I personally prefer to use one with beer.  the first one pictured is with beer and the second one is without.  The lather from this bar is amazing, you can't really tell the difference between it and the lather from a commercial shampoo.

Another one of my favorites is Green Springs, it smells just like Irish Spring, A lovely unisex, fresh clean scent.  All I can say is that I love this one!

So I am not only making body soap, but I am also making laundry soap and a stain remover.  My laundry soap is shreds from my stain remover so you get the additional benefits from my stain remover in your laundry soap.  I have had a stain on one of my night shirts and had tried everything to get it out with no success  (It had been on there for months).  After I formulated my stain remover, I tried it on that stain.  I wet it and rub the stain remover on it and made a paste.  I didn't even let it sit very long, before I threw it in the laundry.  To my wonderful surprise, the stain was out!  Others who have used it have told me that they have gotten stains out that they tried everything else with.  Now, I'm not going to say that it will take out every stain you have but it does get out many staiins.  You just have to try to it beleive it.  With the laundry soap you use 1-2 tablespoons per load.  I tend to use a little more but you will be surprised that it does get your clothes clean.  It doesn't make a lot of suds; if any at all but it is doing it's job.  I not only make the powder laundry detergent, I also make the liquid, but I usually use that for myself :)  Who knows, maybe I will offer the liquid is a quart size.

I will be sharing more in the upcoming weeks and hope that you have found this to be informative and insightful to some of the products that I offer to you.

Mommy and Me Shopping Spree

It's been a while since I have posted.   A lot has been going on in my life but I know that things are going to be looking up.  I had the opportunity to participate in a Christmas Event locally called the Mommy and Me Shopping Spree.  This was the first one but they plan on having this at least a couple of times a year.  I had so much fun and it was nice to get out for a while.  Here are some pics of my table and most of the items shown will be listed on my website, www.earthernmagicessence.com and www.artfire.com/users/earthernmagicessence. 

My Latest Project

I've been doing a lot of reading and researching and in my "travels" I came upon talk of laundry detergent and stain sticks.  Well I've made laundry detergent before and I usually made it by grating a bar of soap and melting it and adding borax and washing soada.  I usualy make it with Zote Soap. (I love the fragrance of it).  Well I had read about making it by making a batch of 100% lard or 100% coconut oil cold process soap and adding water and borax and washing soda.  I've made a batch trying this method and waiting to see how it turns out.  I also read about stain sticks and reading the rave reviews of several people who have made it as well as tried it and thought that I would give it a whirl.  Well, I must say that I am very pleased with the stain stick.  Not sure who to thank specifically for the recipie but I will say thank you to the members of the Thedishforum.  They are a very helpful, insightful group of people and I have learned so much from them over the years.  The results of my latest project was AWESOME!  I had a night shirt that had a stain from who knows where and I can't remember how long that stain had been there but I can tell you that it has been months and I had tried everything to get that stain out.  Not that anyone would see it as I slept in it but still, I wanted to get it out.  I tried Shout, Spray and Wash, Iron out, soaking it and everything and couldn't get the stain out.  Well..  I made a batch of this wonderful stain stick and didn't even wait for it to really set up before I used it.  I wet the stain, rubbed the stain stick on it and threw it in the wash.  I didn't really have any expectations but figured it couldn't hurt.  Guess what?  It came out!  I couldn't beleive it.  I didn't let it set for a while, I just rubbed and threw in the wash.  Wonderful stuff.  I gave pieces to some friends and family for them to try and waiting to hear what they have to say.  My mom used it and she said that all but one stain came out and that one stain that didn't come out was lighter than it was before and she is going to give it a second treatment to see if it will completely come out.  Here is a pic of the shirt before and after and tell me what you think.

BEFORE

AFTER

The stain stick recipe that I used on this one was 100% lard.  I made two more batches.  One 100% Coconut and one 50/50 Coconut/Lard.