Whipped Tea Tree Salt Scrub

Here's a sneak peak at the salt scrub I made yesterday.  They will be for sale once I get labels made.  What's all in it?  Sea salt, fair-trade shea butter, olive oil, rice bran oil, apricot kernel oil, coconut oil, activated charcoal, organic tea tree essential oil, and topped with Dead Sea salt.

Whipped Tea Tree Salt Scrub
with activated charcoal

So thick!

Nope, no puddles of oil here.  Because there is so much shea butter, it tends to stick to the skin after rinsing along with the charcoal powder.  Did you know that activated charcoal powder can absorb many times its weight in toxins and gases?  I would recommend scrubbing onto the skin in a soft, circular motion, rinse, allow the shea butter, organic tea tree oil and charcoal to nurish, moisturize and detoxify, then washing with your favorite handmade soap.  My skin felt amazing afterwards.  No need for my skin salve or moisturizer after towel drying which is pretty amazing in this weather.

Tea tree oil is a natural antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial, and antiseptic pressed from the Australian tea tree, Melaleuca alternifolia.  I know not everyone likes the smell as much as me, so the scent in this scrub is not too strong but also not too light.  Tea tree has a fresh and clean smell, but can also be described as somewhat astringent smelling.  I think that astringent smell comes from lesser quality oil.  The oil used in this scrub is organic tea tree purchased from Bramble Berry, so you know it's a quality product.

Salt was added when the oils were still pretty warm in hopes that it would cool the oil quickly.  Not quick enough, so I put the bowl outside.  Not cold enough, so I made an ice bath.  After the oils were thick, I whipped the oil/salt mixture with an electric mixer.  After a little fluffing, it was spooned into my cool amber plastic jars (#1 recyclable plastic).  Now I'm just waiting for my first waterproof labels to arrive before I can print, stick, and list.

I have a Word template made for my large jar labels, but does anyone know of an easy to use label making program?  Avery has a free program on their site but I'm feeling kind of eh about it.  Thanks in advance, my fellow soapers and trusty readers.

New Products on Etsy

Two new products have been listed on my Etsy including a new lip balm!

Herbs & Salt is 8.5 ounces and approximately huge.  This guy will last you forever and it's only $8.00!  That's a crazy deal.  Take a bath and soak in the mineral-rich bath water from the natural sea salt or make a great addition to your kitchen sink.

Herbs & Salt
sea salt, coconut oil, water, lye, apricot kernel oil, castor oil, cinnamon, parsley powder, rosemary leaves, lavender buds, Dead Sea salt
essential oils of rosemary, lavender, peppermint, lemon

Introducing my new lip balm, Cocoa Java.

Cocoa Java
coffee butter, candelilla wax, coffee infused olive oil, avocado butter, cocoa butter

Cocoa Java faintly smells of coffee and is naturally light brown in color.  Glides on clear and leaves lips soft and supple.  No added colorant or flavoring.  This is my favorite lip balm to date.

Butter Bar will be available tomorrow.  Remember that my Curin' page always lists future soaps along with their ingredients and availability date.  Happy browsing!

Soynut

I've made a new soap that I am pretty excited about.  The recipe contains various nut products and soy milk.  These pictures were taken on my new kraft paper that I'm excited to try out for my labels.  :)

I love me some speckled soap.

See all those pretty white and brown specks?  (The white specks are harder to see.)  They are from almond meal and walnut powder.  The complete ingredient listing:

sustainable palm oil, coconut oil, olive oil, soy milk, water, lye, sweet almond oil, fair-trade shea nut butter, macadamia nut butter, glycerin, almond meal, walnut powder, cocoa powder

I was intrigued by soy milk soap and found a few blog posts and reviews by people that have tried it.  It's supposed to mimic real milk in soap making for a super creamy lather.  What a great alternative for the vegetarian and vegan customers!  So I started thinking, what would be great to pair with soy milk?  Ah, nuts.

I got my almond meal from Pennsylvania Macaroni Company in the Strip.  I saw it and knew.  Who's the crazy lady buying an 18th of a pound of almond meal?  I finally used my walnut powder from forever ago.  When I mixed the two together I rubbed a pinch between my fingers to figure out what it would be like in soap.  It was soft but gritty.  I think it will be interesting in the finished soap.

The liquid phase was split between water and soy milk, with an ounce more of soy milk.  I added the lye to the water and added room temperature soy milk at a light trace and the mixture became very thick.  My initial design was to add soap colored with cocoa powder to the top and then plunge a small wisk into it, pushing the brown color into the soap for a pretty swirl.  The soap was too stiff for that and the wisk was plunging and pulling out soap with it.  This air bubble is the only evidence to show for the failed attempt at a wisk-swirl.

sad little air bubble

Oh well.  I'll try it again with another soap.  I slapped on the brown, did something to it, covered it up to gel, uncovered it up, did some more stuff with a spoon this time, and got this design.

The soap was made with a 6% lye discount but with the macadamia nut butter added at trace, the total superfat is 9.5%.  Soynut was fully gelled and is unscented.  I have a thing for that lately.  Something about it being natural and untampered with and just plain soap makes me smile when I look at it.  Then I have to hold it.  Then I have to smile more.

New Soaps

These have been curing for a few weeks now and I just got around to taking a few quick photos.

First up, Herbs & Salt.  I did not allow this soap to gel before I cut it.  At first it was too soft, then I think too hard because it started to crumble.  It wasn't tough to cut though, so I don't really know.  I think perhaps allowing it to gel would have provided the needed consistency to achieve a nice cut.  Also, the Dead Sea salt that I sprinkled on top dissolved and dripped down the surface of the soap, leaving a mark in its path.  Oh well.

Herbs & Salt

Herbs & Salt
sea salt, coconut oil, water, lye, castor oil, apricot kernel oil, cinnamon, parsley powder, Dead Sea Salt, rosemary leaves, lavender buds
essential oils of lavender, rosemary, peppermint, and lemon
available December 13

I had my first attempt at a Tea Tree soap that could be used as a facial soap.  I reduced the coconut oil considerably because it can be drying to the skin and added some palm kernel flakes to increase the hardness.  I waited too long to cut and got some major crackage in some of the bars.  My friends will be pleased.  They always get the rejects.

Tea Tree

Tea Tree

Tea Tree
water, sustainable palm oil, olive oil, lye, palm kernel flakes, coconut oil, shea butter, castor oil, apricot kernel oil, charcoal powder, tea tree essential oil
available December 15

My mom asked me to make soap as Christmas presents for her coworkers.  I made a white soap scented with Fresh Snow fragrance (not very picture worthy) and then I made an unscented Camo hunter's soap.

Camo

Camo

Camo, unscented Hunter's Soap
water, olive oil, sustainable palm oil, coconut oil, handmade beef tallow, lye, castor oil, cinnamon, charcoal powder, parsley powder

Although I would go with less white next time, I really like these.  I used the spoon swirl method and kind of globed the different colors to get the camo look.  No added scent to blow your cover plus cinnamon to exfoliate and charcoal to detoxify after a dirty day in the woods.  These will be available if my mom doesn't hand them all out at work.

All soaps shown will be available on my Etsy in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out.

Etsy Shop Update
Every order receives a free Margarita Lip Balm while supplies last!  Sweet and limey, smooth and nurturing!  Yummm...

Margarita Lip Balm
Free with any purchase!
candelilla wax, shea butter, almond butter, macadamia nut butter, sweet almond oil, avocado butter, flavoring, vanilla flavored stevia

Lip balm paired with a bar of handmade soap makes a great holiday gift. ;)