I'd like to thank...

Everyone who chose to buy their holiday gifts from me this season, you helped to make my first holiday season successful and  memorable!

I've had such incredible support from friends and family as I'm in the process of getting my business off the ground and I really appreciate all of you.

I'm looking forward to heading into 2011 as I continue to create wonderful products to share with everyone.

You can look forward to new soaps and lip balm flavors. The addition of sugar scrubs as well as new bath salt and lotion products!

Have a safe and Happy New Year!!

Checking in...

My computer still isn't fixed and it's turned into this huge frustrating fiasco. I was able to get my labels & such from the hard drive so I'm able to make and package product, phew.

I have Midnight Pomegranate and Cold Water soaps that I've recently made but no pictures to post yet. The Cold Water I just made tonight so it'll be a few days before I unmold it. I also made more Lemongrass & Lavender tonight, it seems to be a really popular fragrance...I can see why though, it smells fantastic. I think I'll make another batch of it tomorrow so I'm stocked up.

I've been scrambling a bit with keeping some of my stuff stocked but this is really good, so I have an idea of how prepared I'll need to be for next years holiday season.

I hope everyone is doing well and having a nice holiday season. I'll get some pics of the new soaps soon and get them posted.

Have a great night everyone!

been a frustrating week so far...

I'm switching some of labels over to waterproof labels and I finally got them on Friday. Sunday I turned my pc on to work on printing them up and was greeted by this lovely message...

no boot device available-
strike the f1 key to continue, f2 to run the setup utility

After an evening of frustration and a lot of worry that my hard drive had died on me, Monday morning I called an IT guy I know who took my machine and determined that some connection on my motherboard had gone bad and needs to be replaced. I was able to find and purchase one online but it won't be here until Monday... of course this had to happen during a holiday week, right?

In the meantime I'm stressing because I have a bunch of products that need to be labeled and I'm out of business cards and need to print them up. So, the IT guy was nice enough to put my soap stuff on a CD for me, I figure I can print from my laptop... yea, no.. my laptop had other ideas. I went to turn it on yesterday it somehow had picked up some nasty spyware or virus that was completely messing up my hard drive, I couldn't open any programs and couldn't uninstall this nasty guy. Finally I was able to boot into Safe Mode and did a system restore to the previous day then ran various spyware & virus removal programs to make sure it was all gone.

ok, problem solved, ready to print labels, right?     yea, no... my laptop doesn't have the fonts installed that I'm using on my labels and business cards... d'oh

My new motherboard should be here on Monday, hopefully the IT guy can install it same day and I can get back in business.

Until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, I have a couple new soaps to take pictures of and post... both turned out really great, they smell and look great. I may even have more made by Monday.

Happy Turkey Day tomorrow!

New Soaps!

finally, right! The weather has been cloudy for a while which doesn't make for great soap pics so I took advantage of today's beautiful weather and finally got some done!

From top to bottom we have Pumpkin Spice, Christmas Tree and both rectangle & round Castile Soap. The Pumpkin Spice and Christmas Tree smell fabulous, the Castile is made with 100% Olive Oil and has no added color or scent.

Keep an eye out, all of these will be available for purchase soon!

It was a spicy day today!

Made two batches of soap today... some more Summer Spice and a new fragrance, Pumpkin Spice. I'm really excited to see and smell how the Pumpkin Spice come out. I used a new orange mica that I have and I'm curious to see if it holds its color through the cold process.

I put together a couple of gift baskets for a customer that I'm considering selling through the holidays... Doing the shrink wrapping was not fun but I figure after I do a few I'll get the hang of it.

Here are pics of the medium ($25) & large ($35) basket... if you are interested in one please email me tranquilelements@yahoo.com

I'm still here!

Sorry I haven't done much blogging recently, I feel like I've been so busy lately!

The chocolate mint soaps are curing quite nicely. The green has really darkened up and the two greens have blended into the same color. As soon as we get some decent enough light around here I'll get some more pictures of them, it's been dismal & raining.

I made some Christmas Tree scented soaps the other day. They smell so great! I did a red & green swirl but I think I did it backwards. Red is the prominent color instead of green. The red I have is brick red so unfortunately it almost has a brown hue to it.. I think they'll be ok though. I'm certainly going to put them out in the kids/guest bathroom for the month of  December :)

I also made my first batch of 100% Castile soap the other day! I didn't add any color or fragrance to it so it's 100% natural and the bars turned out a beautiful white. I'd been wanting to make a soap that sensitive skin users as well as children could use and Castile kept coming up as the recommendation. According to an article I found at Livestrong.com-  Castile Soap is often recommended for people with sensitive skin and those suffering from eczema, or other skin disorders.

That's all for tonight, I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween tomorrow!

New blog url!

Welcome!!

All the posts and comments have been moved over from the old url (http://casimplepleasures.blogspot.com/) so you won't miss a thing! If you were "following" the blog you'll have to re-sign up.

I thought having the blog as the business name would be a lot better and easier for people to find.

Thanks for reading!

It's always a learning experience

So, the reason I haven't posted any new soap pictures lately is because my last 2 batches had some big issues!

The first one separated after I added the fragrance oil and ended up being this oily goopy mess.. it smelled great but there seemed to be no saving it so I ended up throwing it away.

This last batch ended up being way too soft. I let it sit in the mold for about a week and it still wouldn't harden up enough to come out. Maybe I should have waited to see if hardened up a bit but of course, I'm impatient and I ended up digging it out with a spoon, lol. It's not all lost though! I was able to get a couple bars out of it and the rest I'm going to let cure and I'll re-batch it at some point in the future.

I'm starting to wonder if the bottle of lye I'm using maybe got some condensation into it and that's what's affecting my soap. The next batch I make I'm going to try a different bottle and see what happens.

Tomorrow I'm going to a bbq at a friends and she has awesomely offered to let me set my stuff up there for people to check out! It'll be great to get my name out there and hopefully sell a thing or two! That reminds me, I need to print up some more business cards :)

Hope all is well with everyone, I hope to have some new soaps soon!

Chocolate Mint Soap

These turned out better looking than I thought they were going to!

The green really isn't that bad. Kinda funky in a good way actually! It's interesting how the green actually looks like two different greens.. with the darker on the top. I'm thinkin it must be the way it went through gel phase. Whatever it may be, I like it! ... and that brown! I love the brown, it's the perfect color of chocolate! I will definitely have to find more uses for it! It'll be interesting to see if or how the color changes as the bars cure.

These were made with Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Castor Oil and Cocoa Butter and will be available approximately November 20th

Just 4 more days...

and the Salt Bars will be up for sale! I'm really looking forward to hearing feedback from everyone who tries one of these.

I made a new batch of soap last night (not salt bars), it's chocolate mint scented and the colors are brown & Green. The green didn't turn out exactly the color I wanted it to, it's more of an army green where I want a light "minty" green, lol... I guess it's gonna be a work in progress. The soap is being stubborn though and doesn't want to come out of the mold yet... I figure I'll let it stay in there one more day then throw it in the fridge for 10 or so minutes if it's still being stubborn tomorrow. I'll be sure & post pics when I get the bars cut :)

Salt Bar Success!

It's been a couple weeks since I made the Salt Bars so I had to try them out and I love them!

I've been using them on my face and body and my skin feels fantastic. It feels smooth and the color is really even on my face. No redness or irritation or dry spots... just really healthy looking skin. I must note that I always use a facial moisturizer after washing my face.

I really can't wait to let people try these to hear back the responses I get!

Product Debut!

I had people over for a combo birthday/product debut party last night and I think it went pretty good!

People were able to test the lotions, lip balms & salt scrub and smell all the different scents I have so far. I sold a decent amount of product and overall I'd call it a success. It also let me gauge how comfortable I am with telling people about the different products I have to offer and what specifics I need to memorize to fully explain the benefits of certain ingredients to people.

I've also decided that I'm going to have my candles as a "made to order" product. Since I have so may different sizes of candles (6" pillars, 3" pillars, 6oz tins, 4oz tins, votives & tea lights) and so may different scents (vanilla bean, cinnamon stick, wildberry, gingerbread, pumpkin pie, lavender, white tea & ginger, pear, mulberry, red currant). I'll make sure I have something made up of each scent for people to smell and to buy I'll take an order and have them done within 3 days. That way they're fresh and I don't have an abundance of stock sitting around that may not get purchased.

I figure I'll try it this way for a bit and see how it goes. Can't hurt, right?

I'm going to be adding the bath salts, salt scrub, glitter gel, solid lotion bars and more lip balm flavors to ETSY very soon so keep an eye out!

More Salt Bars

I loved the way the first batch of Salt Bars came out so much that I had to make another batch!

For these, I used Orange, Lemon and Clove Bud Essential Oils and they smell heavenly. I've read that citrus doesn't hold up well long term in cold process soap so it'll be interesting to see (smell?) what happens. Hopefully the clove but will anchor the other two smells.

As you can see with this batch and the first batch, I'm trying to get a little more creative in the look of the bars. My SO says it kinda looks like whip cream. I'd love to hear what anyone else thinks!

Soap, Soap & More Soap...

The salt bars kept their color! I love the way they look and judging just by the way my hands feel when I rinse them after handling the bars, I'm going to love them! Too bad I have to wait 4 weeks to really try them out! Knowing me I'll probably just cut off a piece in a week and a half or so, lol

If you've ever been to the ocean and got wet, you probably noticed that afterwards your skin felt soft and smooth and your most basic skin problems disappeared within a few days of being in the salt water. Salt Bars do the same thing just on a smaller scale. Using this soap will actually exfoliate your skin very gently, resulting in wonderful clean, smooth skin!

I also realized I had two other bars that I never posted for all of you.

I'm calling the first bars Summer Spice because they smell like, well, summer and spice, lol, the second bars I've named Tranquil Outdoors. I'm fortunate to live in beautiful Sonoma County, Ca and we happen to have a lot of Eucalyptus trees around in our state parks and such. The smell of these reminds me of hiking around in those parks when I was a kid. Very calming... tranquil even ;)

Here are the bars and their ETSY decriptions:


Summer Spice

These bars smell amazing!

They're a blend of Peppermint, Lemongrass and Clove Bud Essential Oils for a nice light summery smell with a hint of alluring spice at the end. Truly an adventure for the senses. 

These bars have wonderful ingredients such as shea butter, cocoa butter and sweet almond oil.

Put one of these out for your guests or keep them all to yourself, either way I know you'll love them!

Tranquil Outdoors


These earthy bars were made with a blend of eucalyptus, peppermint, rosemary and orange essential oils. Similar to the Wake Up Bars they also contain aloe vera gel which is soothing and moisturizing, and also stimulates the growth of new cells and tissue.

The combination of the essential oils in these bars is a wonderful, calming earthy smell. Close your eyes and smell these bars, they'll transport you to the tranquil outdoors!

I'm so excited!

I had my first attempt at making salt bars today and they look promising!

I was able to take them out of the mold & cut them with only some minor crumbling at the end corners. Because they are made with mostly Coconut Oil, they get so hard that if you don't cut them soon enough you run into the possibility of the bars crumbling when you try to cut them or them being to hard to cut at all. I only waited an hour from the time I poured them until I unmolded them. I probably could've waited another hour or so and maybe saved the corners, I'll have to see if I can be that patient next time :)

The bars are a beautiful purple color right now but they're still hot so I'll have to wait & see what color they end up as when they cool down. Hopefully they won't change!

I'll take pics of them tomorrow!

Bath Salts

I'm still trying to work out the kinks on these guys to find the perfect salt mixture but I love them so far!

The salts in this picture were made with a liquid color, I've since switched to micas which are more natural and better looking overall.

In the picture, one of the tubes is Lavender scented and the other Orange, I also have Peppermint. I'm not ready to put them up for sale on Etsy yet but they will be ready by my Sept 25th party. I just ordered one more type of salt to add to them and it should be here by then.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend!

Updated Website!

I wasn't really happy with the design of my website so on the advice of someone who posts on a forum I read, I set one up with Weebly and I like it much better!

I'd love any feedback anyone has :)

I'm feeling a lot better about the new batch of Oatmeal & Honey bars. They're a lot lighter in color but now that they've had a few days, they smell just like the other batch. I'm going to let them cure a week or so before I test them out.

I'm so excited!

In the past two days I've had two separate sales in my ETSY Shop!

I put my soaps up for sale day before yesterday and I'm glad I did since both sales were for soap! Since these are my first few customers I've been throwing in a free lip balm with their purchases :)  I figure I'll do that for the first 5 or so online sales.

I'm really looking forward to my party on the 25th, it'll give people a chance to check out my stuff in person and also celebrate my birthday with me! I've been busy making extra batches of the Wake Up Soap and Ocean Breeze Bars since I have a feeling those are gonna be the favorites.

I tried to make another batch of the Oatmeal & Honey Bars but I tried them in my box which would have made a lot bigger batch and they didn't come out as great as the first batch. I did put the first batch in the oven and that may have made a difference in the smell and look. I'm gonna give them a bit to cure and see if the smell and/or color deepens and go from there. In the meantime, I'm going to dial it down and make a smaller batch to see if I can duplicate the first one. I hope I can because I love those bars!

I have in some new lip balm flavors but I haven't made new balms yet. It was super hot here last week and I didn't feel like doing much of anything except sitting in front of a fan, lol... plus, I'm not sure they would have set up very well. I'll get them made and labeled sometime in the next week so I can get pictures done and get them up for sale.

Doing some candle making tonight!

tick tock and more Wake Up Bars!

The countdown is on for my product debut! I'm going to have people over one month from tomorrow to check out all of my products and hopefully pick out some of their favorites to buy and take home with them :)

So, I've been busy trying to get my stock up. I have candles in various sizes, bath salts, lotions and of course soap!

I made these the other day, they're the Wake Up Soap but with some added color and no poppy seeds... I have one of the white bars in my shower right now and I love it!! I have a feeling these are going to be a favorite, they smell so amazing!

Plus, you have the added benefit of the essential oils I added:

Tea Tree Oil has wonderful properties that makes it a popular natural agent for curing all three types of infectious organisms: fungus, bacteria, and virus. More importantly, it is known to effectively fight a number of infections that are resistant to some antibiotics. Therefore, Tea Tree Oil is an excellent natural remedy for hundreds of bacterial and fungal skin ailments such as acne, abscess, oily skin, blisters, sun burns, athlete's foot, warts, herpes, insect bites, rashes, dandruff and other minor wounds and irritations.

Eucalyptus Oil  is considered anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic, decongestant, deodorant, antiseptic, antibacterial, stimulating, among other medicinal properties. It helps to relieve muscle pain and is great for those suffering from sprained ligaments and tendons, as well as stiff muscles and aches. Eucalyptus oil, which is stimulating, removes exhaustion and mental sluggishness and rejuvenates the spirits of the sick. It is also effective in treating stress.

Peppermint Oil  also helps to provide relief from stress, depression and mental exhaustion due to its refreshing nature. It is also effective against anxiety and restlessness.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!!

Massage Candles

I thought this was a great idea so I just had to make some!

They're up for sale on Etsy or if you're local, please contact me by email (tranquilelements@yahoo.com) to avoid shipping charges

You simply light the candle for about 10 minutes, blow out the candle, and pour the melted skin safe wax on your skin for a wonderful treat to your skin! They're perfect for a relaxing, romantic massage or anytime you need to soothe dry skin, such as elbows, cuticles and tired feet!

These are made with Soy Wax, Cocoa Butter, Avocado Oil, Shea Butter and Lavender Essential Oil.

 The seamless 4oz aluminum tin is perfect for travel and when empty can be cleaned with hot soapy water and reused or recycled.

Skin Pampering Ingredients:

Cocoa Butter has been called the ultimate moisturizer, and has been used to keep skin soft and supple for centuries. 

Avocado Oil is a rich and extremely deep penetrating oil, rich in vitamins A, D and E, lecithin, as well as potassium - known as the youth mineral. It is also high in sterolins, which are reputed to reduce age spots reduce age spots, help heal sun damage and scars.

Shea Butter has been used to help heal burns, sores, scars, dermatitis, psoriasis, dandruff, and stretch marks. It may also help diminish wrinkles by moisturizing the skin, promoting cell renewal, and increasing circulation. Shea butter also contains cinnamic acid, a substance that helps protect the skin from harmful UV rays.

 Lavender Essential Oil has been said to remove nervous tension, relieve pain, disinfect scalp and skin, enhance blood circulation and treat respiratory problems. Lavender has the Latin name Lavare, which means “to wash”, due to its aroma that gives the feeling of a clean aroma.

Soy Wax is skin safe and the soy wax used in my candles is made using soy beans exclusively from U.S. farmers. Soy is a highly renewable resource, unlike petroleum, and helps support agricultural growth.

Introducing our Lotion Line!

I am so happy with the way these turned out!!

As always, if you are local to me an interested in any of my products please contact me directly to avoid shipping charges: tranquilelements@yahoo.com

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Here is a copy of the Etsy listing for you to see: 

Our Luxurious Lotion is non-greasy & fast absorbing, yet leaves your skin feeling unbelievably soft & smooth!

Our lotions are packed with moisturizing natural ingredients such as Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter, Vitamin E and Botanicals!

We have 5 delicious scents available-

Black Raspberry Vanilla- This is an enticing, mix of sweetened berries with a warm, creamy vanilla.. When I close my eyes and smell it I can almost see a bowl of berries & cream!

Orange Dreamsicle- If you've ever had an Orange Creamsicle this lotion smells just like that! It's a wonderful blend of fresh orange juice and creamy vanilla... smells good enough to eat!

Lavender-Vanilla- The name says it all... The combination of smooth vanilla and relaxing lavender help make this a must have!

Yuzu- People often refer to Yuzu as Japanese Grapefruit. It has a fresh and sparkling citrus smell that everyone I encounter just loves!

Intoxicating- This fragrance is often called Love Spell. I call it Intoxicating for the effect it has on people.. I'll let you fill in the blanks on that! It has dazzling top notes of grapefruit, orange and fresh ozone. Mid notes include melon, apple and kiwi. Nuances of jasmine at the base.

Ingredients: Water, Propylene Glycol, Glycerin, Glycol Stearate, Stearic Acid, Cetyl Alcohol, Aloe Barbadensis (Aloe) Leaf Juice, Isopropyl Palmitate, Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter) Fruit, Dimethicone, Triethanolamine, Tocopherol Acetate (Vitamin E), Honey Extract, Citrus Medica Limonum (Lemon) Extract, Foeniculum Vulgare (Fennel) Extract, Salvia Officinalis (Sage) Extract, Achillea Millefolium (Yarrow) Extract, Buxus Chinensis (Jojoba) Extract, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, DMDM Hydantoin, Fragrance

Lotions coming tomorrow!!!

I'm just finishing up the labels and they should be ready to go tomorrow!

I have 5 amazing scents I'm offering (for now) and you won't be disappointed!

Check back tomorrow for pictures and the list of fragrances!

Add these to my list of favorites

I can't wait to try these out!

I stepped outside the box just a toe to try out a couple things I'd been wondering about. I substituted a bit of the water for this recipe with some Aloe Vera Gel added it at trace,  I also added beeswax to the recipe cause rumor is it helps to make a harder bar.

Then, I added this refreshing, invigorating, stimulating blend of tea tree, eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils. Not to mention, I added a bit of poppy seeds for some exfoliation. I almost want to call these Wake Up Soap. I can't wait to see what these are like in the shower.

These have no added color to them and in my opinion look just beautiful white with the poppy seeds sprinkled in.

I'll give them a week to cure a bit before I take them for a test run and let you know how it went!

Lemongrass & Lavender

These bars smell so fresh!

This was my first use of Essential Oils and it turned out great! The combination of the Lemongrass EO and Lavender EO was a great choice I think. The Lemongrass is the stronger scent but the Lavender creeps in there at the end for a calming effect. I will definitely be using the combination again in the future.

The colors didn't do exactly what I wanted them to (yes, I know they're probably not the most perfect match for the fragrance, lol) I was originally going to try and do some swirls but I let the batch get too far into trace and wasn't able to. I still think they turned out pretty :)

I've already tried using a piece I sliced off and so far they have great lather and don't dry my skin out. They were made with olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, avocado oil, castor oil & jojoba oil.

I used the Oatmeal & Honey Bars for the first time this morning to wash my face in the shower and so far so good. No irritation or break outs, I'm going to continue to use it every morning to see if my skin dries out at all. Granted, I do use a moisturizer on my face after I get out of the shower but who doesn't?

I'll keep you updated!

Candles

Made my first candles yesterday. I was really pleased with the way they came out, the tops are really smooth with no holes. I still need to wait a bit before I can burn it to test the wick, scent throw and burn time on the larger ones. I'm burning a tealight right now and so far so good! It smells great!

As soon as I'm able to test them and if everything turns out ok, I'll put them up for sale. The scents I have are White Tea & Ginger, Cinnamon Stick, Pumpkin Pie, Gingerbread, Mulberry, Red Wine and Lavender

I'm super excited about these, I love candles!

Essential Oils

I'm taking the plunge into using Essential Oils tonight.

I ordered a handful from a couple different websites the other day and one of the shipments arrived today so I'm anxious to try them out! I've been reading up on them quite a bit and some of these oils have amazing properties.

I thought this was a great definition:

Essential oils, known as nature’s living energy, are the natural, aromatic volatile liquids found in shrubs, flowers, trees, roots, bushes, and seeds. The distinctive components in essential oils defend plants against insects, environmental conditions, and disease. They are also vital for a plant to grow, live, evolve, and adapt to its surroundings. Essential oils are extracted from aromatic plant sources via steam distillation, and are highly concentrated and far more potent than dry herbs.

While essential oils often have a pleasant aroma, their chemical makeup is complex and their benefits vast—which makes them much more than something that simply smells good.
Historically, essential oils have played a prominent role in everyday life. With more than 200 references to aromatics, incense, and ointments throughout the Bible, essential oils are said to be used for anointing and healing the sick. Today, essential oils are used for aromatherapy, massage therapy, emotional health, personal care, nutritional supplements, household solutions, and much more.

So I'm trying to come up with the perfect blend of scents that will please and intrigue customers. Wish me luck!

Last night I also tried a new shave bar recipe and I'll post the results of that in about a week, after the bars have had some time to cure.

 Last but not least!

Tomorrow my new lip balm tubes and the rest of the new flavors should be here so I'll be hard at working making up some new balms to sell!

So keep an eye on my Etsy Shop for those, or if you live near me, contact me directly so I can wave the shipping costs and we can arrange for a pick up.

Now this is an awesome idea!

While reading forums yesterday I ran across a post about an organization called Clean the World. Here's what the front page of their site says:

Clean the World recycles soap and saves lives.

Every day in North America, thousands of hotels discard millions of pounds of soap and shampoo. These products often end up in already overflowing landfills and contaminate fragile groundwater systems.
Impoverished people around the world die every day from acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease because they have no soap. The death toll is staggering. Each year more than five million lives are lost to these diseases with the majority of deaths being among children less than five years old. Studies have shown that simple hand washing substantially reduces the spread of these diseases. Unfortunately, the essential items for proper hand washing are unobtainable for millions of people worldwide.

Clean the World gets soap to people who really need it.

In an effort to prevent these needless deaths from occurring, Clean the World distributes recycled soap products, along with appropriate educational materials, to impoverished countries worldwide, and to domestic homeless shelters.

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It never would have crossed my mind that there was a use for all those extra soaps most of us have laying around but here it is! All it will cost you is the postage to send your soaps but I think that's a fair price to help save lives. Not to mention, it keeps these items out of our landfills. If you live in Orlando, Huston or Atlanta you can actually go and volunteer at their center.

If you're interested, the address to send your extra soap to is:


Clean the World
8026 Sunport Dr, Ste 306
Orlando, FL 32809-8108

Oatmeal & Honey Bars

I'm in love with the way these smell!!

I didn't add fragrance to them and I'm glad I didn't. The smell of both the oatmeal and honey really comes through and they smell wonderful. Same thing with color, I didn't add anything to them. I'm thinking possibly the honey helped add to the color of the bars, maybe the oatmeal also.

I'm going to be anxious to test these since I'm hoping they'll be a nice facial bar. I'm sensitive to a lot of cleaners and such on my face so I'll be a good test subject. It would be great to not have to spend a ton of money on facial cleansers anymore and to have that product be all natural is just icing on the cake!

Now, my question to whoever is even reading this, lol... would you consider purchasing and using a bar that looks like this? Is it aesthetically pleasing? What could I do to make it better if you don't find it so? Any input is welcome, both positive and negative. I want to come up with products that people "want" to buy and use... otherwise "Huston, we have a problem" ;)

oh, one thing I did notice... I didn't make them with oatmeal on the top but I put a bit on there for the picture, I think next time I may put oatmeal on the top, I like the look of it.

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

A better picture

Here's a better picture of the Yuzu bars, you can see the green a lot better.. I think if I'm going to take pictures outside I need to do it when the sun is out so the colors show up more :)

Flowers in/on soap and CPOP

I think this is such a cute idea and I've seen so many creative bars with flowers, oatmeal, coffee, etc... that I had to try it!

The yellow flowers on top are Calendula which is apparently a fancy name for a type of Marigold, lol.. who knew?

I used yellow and green as my color scheme, I think I'll have to do more pictures tomorrow because most of the bars have more green in them so this really isn't the best representation. (or maybe I need to take a photography class and learn how to take a good picture, lol)

These were made with Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Almond Oil, Shea Butter, Castor Oil, Jojoba Oil and the scent is Yuzu which is an East Asian citrus fruit that just smells fabulous. Very clean and refreshing.

I made a new soap batch tonight, I'm trying to come up with a nice facial bar. I put honey and oatmeal in it and I'm anxious to see if they came out. I think they may have started to go through gel phase while I was still stirring so I stuck them in the oven to see if I could help it out a bit. This apparently has it's own fancy name.. CPOP, Cold Process Oven Process.. apparently the heat helps the bars go through gel phase. I had originally heard this cuts down on the curing time but I've been researching forums & websites and I'm not seeing anything that can confirm this so I'm not going to count on it.

New Mold!

I got this today :)

It's the 18-bar mold from Brambleberry.com and I can't wait to use it!

I think I'm going to test it with another batch of the Lavender Bars... I'm a little nervous cause it'll be the largest batch I've done yet, I think I'll be able to have more versatility with designs like swirls though... how exciting!

Test Success!

We've tested the Shaving Soap, Ocean Bars and Lavender Bars and they are all fabulous!

The shaving bars produce a great lather and leave the skin feeling smooth and moisturized, The Ocean & Lavender bars also have great lather and leave your skin feeling moisturized and smelling great!

I'm going to put the shave bars up for sale soon but I'm going to wait a bit on the Ocean & Lavender bars since they're still a bit soft.

Oh! I also created new labels for the Lip Balms, I like them more than the original packaging... they're a lot less "girly" as my boyfriend puts it, lol.

I'd love to know what you all think of them!

New Lip Balm flavors coming soon!

Very soon I will be adding Latte, Vanilla, Chocolate Orange Truffle and Mint Julep to my lip balm line.

Keep your eyes & ears open for these brand new additions!

I personally can't wait to try out the Latte :)

Need to sidetrack just for a moment...

and say Happy Birthday to my mom.

She is one of the most amazing, giving, strong, "insert all the good words here" person that I know... I can only hope that a bit of her rubbed off on me.

Thank you for always being there, being supportive and believing in me.

I love you mom

-M

Lavender Bars

These turned out better than I thought they would! Completely not what I was expecting them to look like. I thought the colors were going to mix together and they'd be mostly lavender but as you can see I was wrong by a long shot. I really like how it's simple and subtle.

The buds don't look like mouse droppings! I mean, they do if you really examine them but just by looking at the bar of soap they give it a nice textured look to it... I'll have to see how they feel when I'm able to test them.

Last but not least, the smell is so soothing... it's lavender with just a hint of vanilla to it.. very calming and relaxing...

If these pass the use test I'd definitely recommend buying them when they go up for sale!

Lavender Buds

My mom grows lavender in her yard and I absolutely love the scent so I figured I'd try to make some bars with lavender buds even though everything I've read says they don't keep their color, they actually turn brown and sometimes look like mouse droppings, lol

I made them night before last so i'll probably take them out of the mold later tonight & take pics tomorrow... I tried to do them with a lavender swirl but I added color at a really light trace so I'm afraid the color may have blended together and they'll just be a solid lavender.. either way they'll probably still be pretty as far as color goes... we'll see about those buds :)

Made these the other night

I think they turned out really pretty. They smell fabulous... it's kind of hard to describe, a combination of Ocean & fresh laundry I suppose, lol... I'll have to come up with my own custom name for the fragrance

I have one of the bars sitting on my desk & I keep smelling it :)

My first items are up for sale!

I put all four flavors of lip balm up for sale on Etsy today!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/tranquilelements

I'd love some feedback on the listing.. if you think it sounds good or if something else would sound more "catchy"

How exciting!

Lip Balm Labels

I came up with these labels for the lip balms made with lavender butter. In the picture they look blue but they're actually lavender in color. I'm not 100% sure I like them yet so any feedback is appreciated!

Shaving Soap

I decided to try my hand at shave soap... wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about your can running out right in the middle of shaving?? Plus you'd lessen you're environmental impact!

I made these guys with Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, Bentonite Clay, Sweet Almond Oil and Vitamin E. I didn't add any color or fragrance to them.. I believe the greenish hue is from the bentonite clay.

I think the hardest part about the whole soapmaking business is the initial waiting period. It takes about 4-6 weeks before a bar is cured enough to be tested. I still need to test my recipes to see if they need changing or if they're good as they are before I go crazy and make a ton of product.

tick tock

Lip Balm with Lavender Butter

I'd really been wanting to try a recipe with the Lavender Butter I have, so I put together a recipe with Sweet Almond Oil, Beeswax, Lavender Butter, Cocoa Butter and Vitamin E... I kept half plain and added Honey Flavor Oil to the other half and I just have to say these are fantastic!

I haven't tried the plain, just the honey so I don't know if the plain ones taste or smell of lavender or not.

I love both the consistency and the flavor of this batch though, I will definitely be making more!

I'm still having a challenge with making labels for the lip balms but as soon as I do I'm going to place them up for sale in my Etsy shop. There's nothing up for sale in it now but if you'd like to save the link for when there is, the url is:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/tranquilelements

Lip Balm Sucess!

I love it!

I'm a Cherry Chapstick addict so it was a big thing for me to try and switch to something else but the lip balm I made has pretty much the same consistency which is awesome! The only thing I need to change about it is more Cherry flavor in the next batch, other than that I've officially switched!

Next up... Honey Flavored and Root Beer Flavored lip balms!

I also think I'm going to buy different packaging, I got the plain white tubes but I think clear or "colored see through" would look a lot better...

Now to design labels...

My first batch of lip balm

I just poured them so it'll be a while before I'm able to test how they are. Half are no scent/flavor and the other half are cherry flavored.

It was pretty easy to do, I used a basic recipe of beeswax, coconut oil, cocoa butter, almond butter and vitamin e.

I'll see ow these turned out & tailor them from there...

I got a sunburn yesterday and my lips are chapped a bit and I've been putting aloe on them, I'm wondering if I can somehow incorporate aloe into a lip balm ingredient and if it would do any good or if there's something else out there that would be better to use for healing properties.

I also have lavender butter.. I wonder how that would be....

Got my table!!

Here's a before & after pic... it's still a work in progress :) We're gonna put up some shelves & something underneath to protect the floor from the oils... at least my house is finally starting to get cleaned up again though!

The first bars!!

I got impatient & wanted to see how they turned out so I popped them out of the mold!

They turned out kinda pretty :) They're still super soft and now have to dry out for 4-6 weeks before they can be tested but the smell heavenly... just like a tangerine :)

These were made from Olive Oil, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter and Castor Oil

The whole process was so much fun, I'm ready to do more!

I did it!!

Made my first batch of soap tonight! Should know in a few days how it turns out! I'm kinda nervous but excited.. I chose black & purple as colors with a Tangerine scent...

I forgot to take pictures while crafting it up but I'll take pictures after it's out of the mold & sliced up...

cross your fingers!

Finally!

Everything is here!! My house is a mess! Hopefully my new table will be ready this weekend so I can get organized again, lol

In the meantime, I'm going to be busy for the next few days so soaping may have to wait until Monday but I'll see how it goes.

I'm currently researching what recipes I think would be the best to try. Seems I'm gonna have to get good with math & percentages. A lot of recipes are like 40% of something, 40% of something else, 10% of this & 10% of that, lol... I think a lot of fun will come from experimenting with different formulas to find what I like the best. Here's to hoping it doesn't get frustrating!

Oh, I'm kicking around the idea of using Tranquil Elements as a business name... any opinions on that?

It's like Christmas!

Well, it was yesterday but I forgot to post this!

Four boxes were delivered yesterday! Of course, the one with the lye won't be delivered until later today so I still have to wait a bit before I can start on the soap making, lol. I think I have all the stuff to start on the lip balms & lotions though... trying to settle on a recipe now... I'll let you know how it goes!

Melt & Pour

Here are some different soaps I did a while back using M&P.... So much fun just to get a feel for it. The animals are erasers I borrowed from the girls, lol

oh, the scents from left to right are: tangerine, oatmeal milk & honey, hot apple pie & honeysuckle

Soap Dishes!

We crafted up these guys over the weekend... they turned out pretty good :)

I'm thinking about selling them individually or one free with the purchase of five soaps...

boxes boxes!

My stuff has started to arrive!

I received a couple little things on Friday, some scents & such and the Shea & Cocoa Butter came today. Looks like the bulk of products I ordered will be here on Wednesday, I can't wait! My table isn't quite finished being built yet though so the house is gonna be in a small state of disaster probably until the weekend...

I'm starting to get a little nervous, lol....

and I still am stuck on coming up with a business name!

The best chocolate chip cookies ever...

It's pretty much the Original Nestle Toll House recipe with a couple of personal tweaks to it :)

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups flour
1tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1c (2 sticks) butter (fully melted in the microwave)
3/4c granulated sugar
3/4c light brown sugar (packed)
3tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 12oz bag semi-sweet choc. chips
1 6oz bag white chocolate chips (or approx half a 12oz bag)

Preheat oven to 375°

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl
Beat granulated sugar, light brown sugar, vanilla & butter in a bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate & white chips.

Refrigerate dough for 5-10min

Drop onto ungreased cookie sheets. (my drops are around the size of a ping-pong ball, you do what works for you)

Bake for 7-8min but no more than that...
They will probably still look raw in the center and if you try to eat them hot they'll fall apart (still super yummy!) but trust me, after they've cooled they'll be awesome.

Order Placed!

I placed an order, well, multiple orders for just about everything I'm gonna need to get started on soaps, lip balms & lotions... I think the only think I haven't placed an order for yet is for the lip balm & lotion containers, I'll do that sometime today...

I can't wait.... sometime in the next week to a week and a half I should be receiving boxes of stuff, it'll be like Christmas!

In the meantime, maybe I'll whip up some yummy recipes to post instead :)

I was a little worried about the whole lye bit...

but now I'm good...

We know a couple who also makes soap (where I got the idea from) and I went to their place today to see the process in action. I had been a little scared about using lye but it was so simple that I'm good now. Tomorrow I'm going to start ordering my lye, oils, butters and whatever else catches my eye so I can get this show on the road!

They do HP soap though... I'll probably dabble in it a little since it has a shorter curing time but I think I'm gonna lean more towards some CP product since I love the whole artistic aspect of it.

I can't wait to get this going!

Post One...

I'm really just posting this so I have an idea of what my layout is going to look like....

I've recently ventured into the world of soaping and handmade bath & beauty products and I'm kicking around the idea of blogging to go along with it... oh, sometimes I cook good stuff too so that might be fun to post about also :)

So, I guess we'll see how it goes...