Shop Under Maintenance

So if you've tried going to the shop you'll notice a cute little maintenance sign right now. I am in talks with a graphic designer to redesign the web store. I've discovered that while my graphic designing skills might be alright for me as a blogger they are not alright for a shop. They just aren't. So I'm discussing what I want with a designer, figuring out a price and going from there.

This may take a few days this may take a month. I am not sure. I'm still going to be soaping and blogging of course! That will happen here, which is why whenever you type in the domain you'll now be directed here but if you click the link to the shop it will bring you here.

I hope you'll all love it when the store re-opens and that you'll enjoy my blogs about soaping in the interim. Plenty of misadventures and exploits to be had because soaping is never dull.

DIY: Sea Clay Mask

Holy crow, Make Up Monday and a DIY in the same post? GET OUT OF TOWN. No seriously, I have been slackin' major on the Make Up Monday posts. I really am just super consumed with other projects *cough*Spellbound Soaps*cough* and blogging is on the back burner. :/ But I shall make it up to you today because I am going to teach you how to make your own mud mask!

Sea Clay, also known as Dead Sea Clay, makes for a fantastic facial mask and it's something I use in my soaps. For example, my Green Monster Bar is made with sea clay and naturally colored with it. Sea Clay has high levels of calcium, potassium, magnesium and sulfate, making it fantastic for the skin & ideal for a face mask. The bonus is that you can tweak this in any way you'd like, using products that are geared towards your specific skin conditions. If you'd like some anti-aging melt a little shea butter and mix the sea clay with shea butter. If you'd like to tighten the skin mix in a little bit of ground coffee (the grinds will also exfoliate your skin). The most important ingredient is the Sea Clay. It will cause the mask to dry on the skin and give you the consistency you want in a facial mask.

Sea Clay Mud Mask
For this particular recipe you will need:

• 1/4 Cup of Sea Clay (Bentonite and Kaolin are also good alternatives too)
• 4 Drops Eucalyptus Essential Oil (Optional)
• 2 tsp. Water PER treatment 
• Other optional ingredients to add to your mask mix: 2 T. Dried/Ground herbs, 2 T. milk powder or 2 T. Honey.  
• You can also replace water with milk, herbal tea or aloe vera juice.

A word of caution before you go mixing a bunch of stuff together and glop it on your skin. If you have sensitive skin, don’t mix too many ingredients that you’ve never used before.  Do a test spot. The best place is in the crook of your arm. If no irritation occurs proceed with an application on your face. It's fun to play around but no one wants to make something that irritates or makes their face swell.   Try this basic recipe the first time and then add or replace one ingredient at a time. For example, powdered goat's milk is great for the skin and could be used as a substitute for water (you'd actually add it to the water but go with me here). Don't add honey, goats milk and green tea to the mix and put it on your face. First try a treatment with the goat's milk. If everything works out fine, next time you do a treatment add the honey. Then switch out the goats milk and honey and try just the green tea.

Steps:

• For each application use a 1:1 Ratio. That is mix 2 tsp. clay mix with 2 tsp. water (or alternative liquid).
• Apply to skin and let dry for 5-15 minutes. 
• For sensitive skin, leave on for less time (5 minutes). 
• If you have oily skin, keep on longer (15 minutes). 
• Rinse with warm water and moisturize.

VIOLA! You are done and you should have lovely skin to show for it. I would do these at max once a week. You do not want to over work your skin.

If you cannot find Sea Clay, Benonite or Kaolin clay at your local health food store (I'm about 85% sure that Whole Foods does not carry these and I know Sprouts doesn't. I have a "Mom & Pop" that carries Sea Clay and Benonite but no Kaolin down the street.) then I would order some online from one of these suppliers:

• Wholesale Supplies Plus - For every dollar you spend you get a rewards point that you can later use to purchase items with.
• Brambleberry - they give out free fragrances every month which is lovely. Also, if you have any questions Anne-Marie (owner & CEO) is VERY on top of social media. She replies to most tweets and youtube comments.
• Soap Goods - They don't offer incentives but have a HUGE selection and great prices.

Have you ever made your own beauty supplies?

If you make this, tweet me pictures!

Soapy Saturday: Handmade Vs Commercial

Why buy handmade?
There's a multitude of reasons, in fact here's 101 Reasons to buy Handmade! Mainly you are supporting small business (ME!) rather than a corporate giant. When you have an issue you will be talking to me. Not an outsourced customer service rep to whom you are just another phone call during an 8 hour shift. I care about you

Handmade has a sense of value. It means more because it is more. There is care, thought, effort and endless amount os creativity poured into every bar of soap I make. I'm not just thinking about profit margins, decreased overhead and marketing strategy I am also thinking "Does this benefit my customer? Is this product something I would use myself? What are the health repercussions?"

The soap you buy from a huge retailer is not actually soap. It is a mass produced harsh detergent filled with chemicals and synthetics. Handmade soap is created in two ways: Melting Glycerin base  or by a method called the Cold Process. (There is also hot process and rebatching but those both work off the cold process initially.) These are then combined with FDA approved essential oils and/or fragrance oils and FDA approved colorants and/or natural colorants to create beautifully crafted and scented soap.

Soaps made by the cold process are made by mixing sodium hydroxide (lye) with oils and butters warmed to a certain temperature. When these two substances mix together a process called saponification takes place; this is the sodium hydroxide turning the oils and butters into soap. During this process a substance called glycerin is created.

Glycerin is a humectant, meaning it attracts water to your skin and keeps it moisturized and supple. Handmade soap retains all this natural glycerin and deposits it on your skin as you use the soap, along with scrubbing away the dirt and germs, of course. This leaves your skin moisturized afterwards, and moisturized skin looks and feels younger, retards fine line and wrinkles, and is less irritable.


"Treasures are handmade with love and thought,
not mass produced."

Commercial soap starts out the same way. But instead of using vegetable oils, manufacturers use animal tallow and lard (these come from the fatty areas of butchered livestock).  After the sodium hydroxide is mixed with the tallow or lard, all the natural glycerin is removed and sold for use in other high-end products. Then the soap goes through a milling process, where it is first shredded and then chemicals and preservatives are added to make it smell good and to retard mold growth. Then it is re-melted down into the typical bar shape you find in the stores.

Skin is an organ, the largest one human beings have and it needs to be protected and nourished as much as any other organ. You don't eat rancid food just because it's cheaper, why is this any different?

If you are interested in buying handmade, summer is a great time to start with all of the craft and community festivals, art shows, farmer’s markets, and open air events. Make sure to check out activities in your area. 

Soaping Disaster

Who out of my readers like to cook or bake? Do you experiment in the kitchen? How many of your experiments turn out good? How many turn out bad? So tonight I may have made the best loaf of soap ever or the worst. I still consider myself relatively new when it comes to soaping. I've done a lot of melt and pour and I now have three batches of cold process soap under my belt. Well, I'd make that two because tonight's little incident may or may not mean I get to venture into the world of rebatching or the hot process.

I made a rookie mistake. I've been warned about it, I've read about it and now I can officially write about it. My batch tonight seized up on me. :(

I wish I panicked when this happened but I'm not one of those people. When something horrific happens I am always calm and collected - I freak out later. But in the moment I'm a cucumber. Now is when I'm ugly crying. Oh, I'm sorry. You have no idea what I'm freaking out about do you? For those of you who don't know what sezing soap is or looks like, don't you worry buttercup I got you.

Yum! Just kidding, don't eat that.

Soap can seize for any number of reasons but the bottom line is it heated up too fast and hardened too quickly. Soap is supposed to be a nice and thin pudding like substance when you pour it into the mold and after 24-48 hours it hardens into a cut able loaf and you can make bars which then harden further until they are safe to use.

Now the funny thing about this is it didn't have to go down like this. I was trying a new recipe (BAD IDEA) with a fragrance in which I hadn't used before (IDIOT) and had no clue what it would do (Now you know Brainiac). Worst of all it was a citrus blend which is notorious for accelerating soap but I can't help myself I love fruity scents! To top it all off I didn't make a test batch I made a full batch like an idiot! I was just going to fragrance part of it too but then when the first part hardened on me I put it into the soap that I hadn't touched and then BOOM all of it went nutso. I was able to beat it into submission. No literally, I beat it with the stick blender until it became workable and then I just globbed it into my mold.

It looks really bad being all lumpy but maybe I can say it is rustic? It looks like pureed pumpkin to me. I kind of wish it was pumpkin scented now. I used Tumeric to color it and it was supposed to make it yellow. It's not yellow, it's orange. :( It smells ridiculously good though, even my mom thought so. So either this is going to be my favorite bar of soap or the worst bar of soap ever made and a good lesson.

I'm going to let it sit for a few days before cutting it. At that point I'll determine whether or not to rebatch it, which is where I grate it down and then heat it up and put it in the mold to cool all over again or whether I keep it as is and have some lovely orange soap!

Update 01/30/12: I cut the soap this morning and it looks perfect! I was so lucky. It may have looked bad all together from the top view but now that it is cut it looks like I intentionally made the top look that way and it smells DELICIOUS. Seriously, if I didn't know it was soap I'd want to eat it. Yum.

What's the worst crafting blunder you've encountered before?

I'd Rather Be Soaping

So as you've heard I like to make soap. Actually, I should amend that last statement I love to make soap. I've been making Melt & Pour soap for the last couple of months and when I get to California I am going to try making soap using the cold process. That way is a little more complex and uses a little bit more science (yay) well chemistry (uh I never took chemistry) and it takes longer to produce a usable bar of soap but the benefits definitely outweigh those cons.

Things needed to make soap using the Cold Process Method

For example, you chose what ingredients go into your soaps. Don't want to use animal fats? Don't use animal fats. If you like shea butter, put some shea butter in there! Want to use all natural colorants? Go ahead. I'm not saying that you can't do these things with regular melt & pour but you are restricted to the type of base you use, sometimes the colorants and you don't get to control how the glycerin is made.

But you guys are lost aren't you? Most people have no idea how to make soap or what soap even is. I just told my co-worker today that lye was used in making most soap and he was like "Lye? Time to stop using soap." Lye isn't bad you guys. It can do bad things to your skin or any kind of organic matter yes but when you make soap properly all of those bad properties vanish. That's called letting it "cure" or "curring." All that means if the bar of soap was exposed to the air for a period of time to lower the pH levels (typically 4-6 weeks).

Let me explain a bit more. Soap is made by a term called Saponification (Sap-on-if-ication). Saponification is the name for a chemical reaction between an acid and a base to form a salt. When you make soap using the cold process soap making method, you mix an oil or fat (acid) with Lye (base) to form soap (salt). 

Told you it has science (and math - ew)

You don't have to use lye either. There are so many different types of soap like glycerin soaps, animal based soaps, castile soaps and different ways to make them like melt & pour (melt glycerin and add additives), rebatch (where you make the soap, grate it and re-mold it), cold process or  hot process (which is made the same way as cold process only the cold process never gets heated up - go figure).

There's so much to get into on soaping but I'm just going over very minimal stuff that is important and well, maybe share my story and my website. 

 I discovered soap making by accident really. I live in Florida and Florida has some God-awful storms.  While babysitting my room mate's baby I was trapped in Hobby Lobby without an umbrella or anything to shield the child from the torrential downpour. I decided to wait the storm out and went up and down every isle in the store. I discovered the soap making section near the candles and I became intrigued.
Once the storm had died down I went home and immediately began researching. I watched hours of video's on How-To.... basically do everything from melt and pour, to cold process to embedding and swirling and making fun shapes with cookie cutters. It opened my artistic and creative Goddess inside to a whole new set of possibilities.

I decided to start putting these creations up for sale as a way to make some space in my apartment, LOL. I came up with the name Spellbound Soaps for my business, bought a dotcom and have actively started advertising. I chose the name because as I said, I was intrigued by the idea but more over I became enchanted, like someone placed a magical spell on me and I am now compelled to make soap. More soap, better designs, cuter names, funky ideas and incorporate all of it into soap making. I am spellbound by making soap and I hope that you will be enchanted and spellbound by them too.

Have you visited my web store yet?

http://spellbound-soaps.com

Holiday Soaps

Good Afternoon everyone, a few updates if you please:

Holiday Festiveness

• Firstly, I have made the purchase of a domain name.
• Second, I have upgraded my Big Cartel to a monthly subscription
• Third, I am currently redesigning the store front
• Finally, I am in the process of making holiday soaps to sell.

Check out the holiday soaps....

Peppermint Rose
Colorant: Red Mica Powder
Scent: Eucalyptus Peppermint
Base: Clear Glycerin

Pink Peppermix Rectangle Guest Soap
Base: Goats Milk & Clear Glycerin mixed
Colorant: Red Mica Powder
Scent: Eucalyptus Peppermint

Pink Peppermix Rose SoapBase: Goats Milk & Clear Glycerin mixed
Colorant: Red Mica Powder
Scent: Eucalyptus Peppermint

Pink Peppermix Square Guest Soap
Base: Goats Milk & Clear Glycerin mixed
Colorant: Red Mica Powder
Scent: Eucalyptus Peppermint

Peppermint
Red: Clear Glycerin & Red Glycerin with Eucalyptus Mint Scent
White: Unscented Goat's Milk base

Making Soaps!

So I bought a silicone 4 mini loaf pan at Joann's and used the rest of my white and clear glycerin bases coming up with some new soap.

It's multi-layered pinks and purple scented with Spicy Apple.

Because of this I am going to call it Barbie Bar, because the shades are just like Barbies Jeep.

Who wants one?