Just popping in really quickly to say that I was honoured recently to be interviewed by the fabulously talented Bee of Sorcery Soap. Check out this link to find out what we talked about!
Back soon with a full post 🙂
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Category: Uncategorized
10 (Yes 10!) Reasons my Soap is Better than Commercial Soap
Ever since I started making soap, I’ve been asked why? Why do I bother making soap when it can be bought so cheaply in the supermarket? Clearly, first and foremost I love doing it. You know what they say – ‘Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’. There’s much more to it than that though. Traditionally crafted, handmade soap like mine is superior to commercially made soap in so SO many ways.
*Please note, the reasons listed below apply specifically to MY soaps – they may apply to many other handmade soaps, but I can’t speak for the ingredients in anyone else’s handmade products
- It is vegan- (and therefore by definition, vegetarian-) friendly. I use no animal fats or derivatives, not even beeswax (which can be used in soap to give a harder bar). According to Vegan.com most commercial soaps contain some degree of animal fat derivatives (look for sodium tallowate or sodium lardate on the ingredients list)
- I never use palm oil. Palm oil is a popular ingredient in both commercial and handmade soap (for good reason – it’s cheap, and makes great soap) However it is also extremely contentious, as palm oil production stands accused of the destruction of the South American rainforest, and of human rights violations due to the forced relocation of indigenous peoples. There are, of course, two sides to every story, and some soapmakers who do use palm oil have been able to source sustainable, ethically produced palm oil. There is also an argument that cutting out the use of palm oil completely could cause economic harm to those people who are employed within the palm oil industry. As I’ve never used it, this isn’t a concern for me. Palm oil will appear as sodium palmate on the ingredients list of a bar of soap should you wish to avoid it.
- My soap is never, ever tested on animals, just (very!) willing humans.
- Glycerin. GLYCERIN! Yep, I’m shouting. This is important. Glycerin is a byproduct of the soapmaking process, and is fantastic stuff. It’s a humectant, which means that it draws moisture from the air and helps lock it into your skin. It’s not technically a moisturiser, but it has moisturising properties. Commercial soapmakers almost always extract the glycerin during the production process for use elsewhere (eg lotions or nitroglycerin production). Glycerin is found naturally within every bar of traditional handmade soap and is one reason that people with sensitive skin CAN use handmade soap but can’t use commercial soap
- Traditional, handmade soap is…. soap. Obvious right? Well yes, except that some commercially produced soap isn’t soap at all. It’s detergent. Take a look at the packaging on a Dove Beauty Bar. You won’t find the word ‘soap’ on the label because actually, it can’t legally be called soap. It’s a combination of various ingredients put together to create a detergent that closely resembles soap in appearance. Clearly all those ingredients have been approved for use on the skin so it’s not necessarily inherently bad, but many of those ingredients can cause skin irritation.
- My soap does not contain parabens, sls/sles, phthalates. As above, these ingredients have been approved for use in skincare products, but they can cause skin irritation (and worse) to those with skin sensitivities, and many people will avoid them at all costs.
- My soaps do not contain triclosan or any other antibacterial compounds. The use of triclosan in soap has been banned in the US, but is still permissible in the UK/EU. It was claimed in the US that antibacterial soaps were no more effective than regular soap and water and they could even play a part in increasing antibiotic resistance.
- For many of the reasons listed above, my soaps are FAR gentler on your skin than commercially produced soap. If you are one of those people whose skin is sensitive to commercially made soap and you ‘can’t’ or ‘never’ use bar soap, please contact me via The Soap Mine FB page for a sample (UK only) – you may well find that you can use it without any of the problems that commercial soap can cause.
- Your skin WILL notice the difference. Do you need to use a moisturiser after washing your hands with commercial bar or liquid soap? You probably won’t after using my soap. The generous amount of cocoa butter and shea butter in each and every bar, along with all that lovely glycerin, will ensure that your hands feel clean, soft and moisturised after every use.
- My soap is made by hand, in small batches, with an awful lot of care and attention to detail. Yes, you will pay more for it than you would a bar of commercially made soap, but you know what? You absolutely get what you pay for.
There you go, 10 really good reasons why I believe my soap is better than commercially produced soaps. Try some 😀
Well, that was June…
I can’t be the only one who’s gobsmacked that we’re halfway through the year? The days are already getting shorter and I’ve started thinking about Christmas specials – and all this before the summer holidays officially begin 😱
At the beginning of the month I posted some goals for June – here’s how I got on…
1. Research, and make some test batches of, lip balm ✅ After a bit of research I came up with a few recipes that I wanted to try, and made up a first batch:
I already love this one, but I’m only keeping one for myself – the rest are going out to testers. I still have a couple of recipes to try.
2. Finish making the summer specials ✅ I’m considering keeping one of them – ‘Yr Wyddfa’ – all year round as I think it’ll be pretty popular, living as we do at the foot of said mountain!
3. Create a ‘Core Range’ post for bathbombs ✅ This link is proving so handy to send out to potential stockists!
4. Post at least nine times here on the blog – oh so close! Still, I posted 8 times, and if I’d got my backside into gear and posted this on Friday night like I should have, I would have hit my target.
Not bad going eh? Thanks for reading 😊 back soon!
The Core Range – Bath Bombs
This is the current range of bath bombs. I have two main ranges – bombs fragranced with pure essential oils only, and bombs made with fragrance oils.
There are two sizes – small & large. The small size retails at £2.00 and weighs a minimum of 80g (although in reality most are closer to 90g) and the large size retails at £3.50 and weights a minimum of 120g (but in reality most are around the 130-140g mark)
Please be aware that these are handmade items and as a result bombs won’t all be identical. Fragrances will remain constant, but designs may vary slightly from bar to bar.
I should soon be able to offer bath bombs to match every bar available in the core range of soaps, but currently the range consists of the following seven varieties:
Essential Oil Bombs
Luscious Lavender
Simply fragranced with pure Lavender essential oil, loved by all ages.
Serenity
‘The one that smells like a spa’. That’s how customers describe Serenity, and with good reason – the heady blend of Patchouli and Ylang Ylang essential oils combined with a citrus fragrance oil will have you relaxed in no time.
Clarity
Fragranced with Lemongrass and Clary Sage essential oils, Clarity is a real unisex fragrance, and one of my best sellers.
Fragrance Oil Bombs
Sugar Drops
A warm, caramel, vanilla fragrance, reminiscent of Aquolina’s Pink Sugar designer perfume.
Bewitched
A fruity, floral fragrance with notes of peach, cherry blossom and white jasmine. Reminiscent of Victoria Secret’s Love Spell perfume.
Oatmeal, Milk & Honey (OMH)
The ultimate comforting scent, OMH has strong almond notes with honey and creamy oats.
Welsh Rose
A classic fragrance, the luscious scent of fresh rose petals.
It’s my Blogaversary!
Or is it a Blogday? Either way, I published my first couple of posts on the 28th June 2013, Woohoo!! At that point I hadn’t made any soap since the birth of my daughter two months before, nor for a good few months before that due to day-long morning sickness and an extreme aversion to the smell of fragrance AND essential oils. (I’d had to ask my husband to put all my supplies up in the attic as even catching an accidental whiff of any of my soaps had me heading for the bathroom – urgh..)
Fast forward and that newborn is now four years old (funny that :-D) and she’ll be joining her big brother at school full time in September. That will mean much, MUCH more time for soaping and the business as a whole (including the blog!). I’m also hoping that I’ll have a bit more time for myself, and of course my poor, long suffering husband who has spent more evenings than I care to mention alone on the sofa while I focused on The Soap Mine.
I have loads of ideas for new products, blog posts and growing the business generally, so please stick with me – I hope I’ll still be here in another four years time, and I hope you’ll still be reading. Thank you all!!
Oh, here’s a little bit of soap in the mould from a couple of days ago, just because it’s pretty lol…
Slate and Things – A New Stockist
I first met husband and wife team Jon and Gill a few years ago when I started taking a stall alongside them at the monthly Porthmadog Craft Fair, and I’ve seen them almost every month since. Jon is a photographer by trade and he prints his images of local scenery (amongst other subjects) onto slate, turning them into very popular gifts:
50 Things That Make Me Happy
And now for something completely different. Sometimes it does a lot of good to take a moment and count one’s blessings. I’ve realised how lucky I am that this really didn’t take me very long to put together…
- Making lists. Win-win!
- A large mug of tea. Strong, just a drop of milk, absolutely NO sugar (urgh). Oh, and a quiet 10 minutes to drink it!
- Gardening. I don’t have much of a garden at the moment – it’s a work in progress, but I even enjoy the heavy, clearing work.
- Spotify. Music while I work – yey!
- A hot bath. With a good book – often the only time I ever get round to reading for pleasure.
- An empty ironing basket. I REALLY don’t like ironing, so I don’t often have an empty basket 😀
- Trying new fragrance oils for soap
- Making soap. Obvs…
- A long shower. It’s my child free, thinking time, so it inevitably goes on for a little longer than it should.
- Running. I’ve got out of the habit recently – must get back to it, for so many good reasons!
- An early night. Getting enough sleep is rare – must try harder!
- Linguistics books. I love language, and languages. I studied linguistics at university and it’s still a passion.
- Warm sunshine. Need I say more?
- Camping. Just me, the other half and the kids, and NO wifi. Heaven.
- Pink / purple hair. I like jazzing it up sometimes. I’m not ready for frumpiness!
- Homemade Pizza. My husband makes the absolute best pizza in the world – his pizza dough is the stuff of legends.
- A good novel.
- Kickboxing. I only started at the beginning of the year, but I’m hooked. Trying for my orange belt in a couple of weeks time.
- A glass of good red wine. Malbec is a current fave
- Living here. ‘Here’ is Beddgelert, in the heart of Snowdonia. It’s often wet, but it’s also very green, very picturesque, very Welsh, and I never EVER take it for granted. I’ve done city living, now I’m home.
- Cheese. Love love cheese. Except for goat’s cheese, bleugh…
- Barbecues. With friends, sunshine and a couple of beers.
- My filofax. I’d be lost without it. PLEASE don’t let me ever lose it!!
- The Archers. I don’t watch any soaps on TV, but I do like my daily 15min fix of this.
- A tidy, clear kitchen. It’s rare, but yeah, I like it 🙂
- Baking. Cakes, cookies, scones, shall I go on?
- Netflix. I don’t watch much TV, but when I do get a free evening, House of Cards and Dexter are current faves. The Sopranos, The Killing & Breaking Bad were just incredible.
- Learning languages. Currently it’s Russian. I did a short course at Uni, then did evening classes in my 30s and got to GCSE Level, and now I’ve taken it back up again with the Duolingo app. Now I just need someone to practice on!!
- Long walks in the countryside. But at the moment they’re never long enough for me as we’re trying hard not to go too far and put the children off walks for good!!
- Days on the beach. With the children. Building sandcastles and playing in the waves.
- My children laughing. I could have just said my children. And they do, of course make me happy, but they also drive me utterly crazy at times. But hearing them laugh? That’s just the best
- Blog feedback. A little click on that ‘like’ button, or even better, a quick comment, is always appreciated, and guaranteed to make me happy! Unless the comment is to tell me you hate my blog. That wouldn’t make me happy…
- Greek yoghurt with fresh berries. Not that horrid low fat rubbish mind – it has to be full fat!!
- Fresh bedding. Show me someone who DOESN’T like fresh linen on the bed!
- Modern Technology. My fitbit is never off my arm, and I don’t know what I’d do without my bluetooth speakers!
- My mum’s trifle. She brought some to hospital after the birth of my first child. Best post-delivery snack EVER. But it mustn’t have jelly in it. Never ever put jelly in it. Maybe I should share the recipe?
- Reese’s Peanutbutter Cups. Not a huge fan of peanut butter really, but add it to chocolate and I could eat it all day.
- Christmas at home. Surrounded by family.
- My husband’s cooking. I already mentioned his pizza up there ^^ But it’s not just pizza. He does most of the cooking in our house and he’s flippin’ good at it. I’m a lucky bunny.
- Climbing mountains. It’s been over 7 years since I last climbed a mountain. Not since I was pregnant with my eldest. The youngest starts full time school in September and I’ve already told my husband that he needs to book a day’s holiday THAT VERY WEEK and we’re heading to the top of the nearest mountain.
- Swimming in the sea.
- Roller coasters and water slides. I’m a thrill seeker at heart.
- Adventures abroad. I’ve done a bit in my time – Asia, Australia, Europe, but the last time we were overseas was when I was pregnant with our eldest, and I’m getting itchy feet. Plans need to be made!
- The Big Bang Theory. Binge watched it on Netflix last year, and was bereft when we got to the end. Are they making more episodes?
- Nutella. My guilty pleasure – I try not to indulge too much!
- Star Gazing. I used to be a member of the British Astronomical Association, and I’m fascinated with all things space-related. Another of those hobbies that I hope to pick up again one day.
- Waking up really early, and actually getting up…
- Good grammar. I’m a Grammar Nazi. I can’t help it, it’s in my DNA 😉
- Going to the cinema. These days it’s usually to see kids’ films, but I still enjoy the experience.
- Second hand book Shops. Big ones, that I could get lost in.
So there you go. A little insight into what makes me, me. Have you ever made a similar list?
Thanks for reading, back soon!
Let’s Connect!
The Week in Soap: 9th April ’17
A day late, but better late than never eh? Anyway, this weekly update will be super-short. The kids are off school for the Easter break, and I have even less time than usual to get all the things done…
I only managed one night of soaping in the last week – I made double batches of Boho Baby and OMH. I tried using a mica called ‘Arctic White’ instead of Titanium Dioxide for the white portion of the OMH, and I really wish I hadn’t, but hey ho, it’s good to try something different occasionally (shan’t be trying that one again though!):
Last week I also managed to hastily put together a post outlining the core range of soaps. It’s a poor substitute for a website, but at least now when I’m asked what I have it’s all listed in one place and I can just send a link. It has however highlighted the fact that I need to do some work on product descriptions and on photography (though luckily my husband just bought a DSLR camera so that might happen soon) before I launch the website.
The second bit of news is that I made facial soap – finally! It was on the goals lists for the last two months and while I’ve been working on the recipe for quite a while, I just never got round to actually making it. I put a lot of research into this one, and while it’s colour and fragrance free, it’s chock full of some other amazing ingredients. I’ll post separately about it soon.
Now I’m (kind of) back on track goals wise, I should be thinking about April’s goals but you know what? We’re already 10 days in and I’ve got 14 days of school holidays to get through – I’m cutting myself some slack and not setting goals for April. I’ll just keep on building inventory (starting to feel a little more comfortable with the numbers on the rack now), wrapping / labelling, fulfilling orders and doing my weekly soapy presentation / monthly market.
Thanks for reading, back soon!
The Core Range – Soap
This is the core range of soaps. Each bar retails at £4.50, please contact me for wholesale prices. I have two main core ranges – soap fragranced with pure essential oils only, and soap made with fragrance oils.
Each bar weighs minimum of 100g, but in reality most are around the 110 – 120g mark.
Please be aware that as these are handmade items and no two bars will look alike. Fragrances will remain constant, but designs may vary slightly from bar to bar.
Essential Oil Soaps
Clarity
Fragranced with Lemongrass and Clary Sage essential oils, Clarity is a real unisex fragrance, and one of my best sellers.
Blodau
A feminine, floral scent comprising of a blend of Lavender, Ylang Ylang and Rosewood essential oils.
Botanica
The newest variety in the essential oil range, Botanica is fragranced with a gorgeous blend of Lavender, Lemon and Lime essential oils. A fresh scent, reminiscent of summer days.
Luscious Lavender
Simply fragranced with pure Lavender essential oil, loved by all ages.
Serenity
‘The one that smells like a spa’. That’s how customers describe Serenity, and with good reason – the heady blend of Patchouli, Lemon, Orange and Ylang Ylang essential oils will have you relaxed in no time.
Peppermint Scrub
Fragranced with pure Peppermint essential oil, and chock full of oatmeal (to soothe) and ground apricot stones (to scrub), this soap is PERFECT for gardeners or mechanics who might need a bit of extra oomph to get their hands clean. Also great for feet which need a little attention before sandal season!
Fragrance Oil Soaps
Sugar Drops
A sweet, warm, caramel, vanilla fragrance, reminiscent of Aquolina’s Pink Sugar designer perfume.
Bewitched
A fruity, floral fragrance with notes of peach, cherry blossom and white jasmine. Reminscent of Victoria Secret’s Love Spell perfume.
Oatmeal, Milk & Honey (OMH)
The ultimate comforting scent, OMH has strong almond notes with honey and creamy oats.
Tutti Frutti
Tutti Frutti is fragranced with a juicy jellybeans scent. Loved by children and adults alike.
Welsh Rose
A classic fragrance, the luscious scent of fresh rose petals.
Locally Themed Soaps
Eryri (Snowdonia)
A stylised representation of the hills and mountains of Snowdonia, under blue skies and whispy white clouds. It’s fragranced with my own blend of pure essential oils, including rosemary, peppermint, lime, patchouli and a touch of eucalyptus, which give a fresh, outdoorsy scent to the bar:
Traeth Craig Du (Black Rock Sands)
As well as the mountains, Snowdonia has plenty of coastline and beaches too. Traeth Craig Du is named after the beach closest to where the soaps are made – Black Rock Sands. It’s scented with a marine, sea-salty fragrance, with hints of ozone and salt encrusted driftwood. The bottom third of the bar contains ground apricot stone, to replicate the exfoliating benefits one gets from walking barefoot on sand:
The PERFECT Yorkshire Puddings (I promise!)
Yorkshire puds. Those crispy, crunchy yet soft in the middle mopper-uppers of homemade gravy are the perfect accompaniment to a Sunday (or-any-otherday) Roast. They’re traditionally served with roast beef, but I’d be very unpopular in our house if I dared serve ANY type of roast without Yorkshire puddings. Luckily I have the perfect, fail-safe recipe to guarantee golden crispy loveliness each and every time:
When I posted a few weeks ago that I’d made some Yorkshire Puddings, Sarah of Sas-Oki Soaps challenged me to post the recipe so that she could decide for herself whether it truly is foolproof, so here it is! I hope more of you will give it a try too.
To make 12 delicious Yorkshire Puddings you’ll need:
- 150g plain (all purpose) flour
- 300ml semi-skimmed milk
- 2 medium sized eggs
- plenty of salt & pepper
- lard (for cooking)
Pre-heat oven to 230c / fan 210c / gas 8
Whisk the two eggs into the milk, and season the flour well with the salt and pepper.
Slowly beat the eggy milk into the flour until it’s all combined:
then pour it into a jug and let it sit for half an hour. (When I’ve been in a hurry I have made them without letting them sit for very long and not noticed much difference in the result, but I still let it stand if I can):
After half an hour or so, put a generous knob of lard into each cavity of a 12 cavity muffin tin:
then place the tray into the preheated oven and let it get smoking hot. Really, REALLY hot. Take the tray out of oven and place it on the hob, over some heat – the aim is to prevent the lard from cooling down before/while you pour the batter.
Pour the batter into each cavity of the tray, filling them about two thirds full. If you have a little left over top up some of the cavities – it doesn’t matter if some are fuller than others. While your pouring you should see that the fat is so hot that the batter begins sizzling and bubbling immediately:
Pop the tray straight into the hot oven, and cook for approx 25 minutes, or until they’re puffed up, brown and crispy. Keep an eye on their progress, they might take a little less time, they might take a little longer, but at this high temperature they could burn quite quickly if you leave them in too long. Oh, and don’t open the over door before the cooking time is up, or they’ll collapse…
I took some snaps of my last lot every five minutes or so – apologies for the picture quality, the oven door doesn’t make for a great window!
Serve as soon as possible after taking out of the oven:
There – told you it was easy! There is absolutely NO excuse to buy ready made Yorkshire Puddings ever gain 😀
Castile, a quick update
I made the first batch of Castile soap back in mid January and, while convention dictates that it should cure for at least 6 months before use, the devil on my shoulder insisted that I try it out this week, a mere 10 weeks later.
I helped myself to the thickest of the end pieces, and snapped a quick photo:
It’s already a very hard bar, easily as hard as my regular bars after their full 6 week cure. This surprised me somewhat as I’d read that one of the reasons for curing for so long is because it needs longer to harden up.
Detractors of Castile soap often use the word ‘slimy’ to describe it, so I wasn’t expecting too much when I lathered up. I ran a little warm water and started turning the bar over and over in my hands. After a few initial biggish bubbles, the lather soon settled into a creamy lather with very small bubbles, an almost lotion type texture. I would definitely describe the feel of the bar as ‘silky’ rather than the ‘slimy’! I would have got a photo or a quick video but there were no spare hands around 😀 After rinsing and drying my hands felt soft and smooth, and I can see why Castile soap is recommended for dry or sensitive skin.
I’ve spoken to other soapmakers who say that they’re more than happy to use their Castile soap before the traditional 6 month cure is up. Others tell me that there’s a distinct difference in the texture of the lather if the soap is left for the full 6 months (or longer). I’m going to enroll an extra pair of hands to help and get a couple of photos or a video of the lather as it is now, and again in two and four months time. I should then have a better idea of the beneficial effect (or otherwise!) of the extended cure time.
If you have any thoughts about Castile soap, be they be for or against, please post below – I’d love to hear from you.
Friday Favourite: OMG Serum by LJ Natural
Way back at the end of January I was lucky enough to win a prize draw run by Lisa of LJ Naturals. Lisa makes handmade, organic beauty products and the draw (run on her Facebook page) was to win this lovely lot of goodies:
The prize comprised of mini Organic Deep Cleansing Balm, mini Organic Moisturiser, mini Organic Scratchy Balm and the star of the show (for me), a full sized (30ml) OMG (Organic Miracle Goddess) Serum.
Now, a bit of background. During my teens and twenties, I suffered (first world problems!) from fairly oily skin. Spots were common, and the battle against ‘shine’ was constant. During that period of my life I would have recoiled in horror at the thought of putting oil of any type on my face, but at some point during my thirties that’s exactly what I did. I was persuaded to try an expensive, fancy facial oil by a very convincing sales assistant in some smart department store. I kinda liked it. I was surprised by how good it felt on my skin (which by this point had edged towards the middle of the skin spectrum, and was probably kind of ‘normal’). But for some reason I never finished that bottle. Guess I didn’t like it that much eh?
These days I think I’m reaping the benefits of that oily skin early on as I have relatively few wrinkles for my age (though looking at my mum, genetics have played a part in that too). But, now that I’m in my mid *cough cough* forties, I definitely feel that my skin needs a little extra help. I’ve used the same popular, mass produced day moisturiser for a few years, but rarely get around to using any night time products as, to be honest, I don’t really have a night time routine other than a quick wipe over with one of those cheap facial cleansing wipe type things <Blush> (To be honest, my regular morning routine isn’t generally any better – I use a facial wash in the shower, then apply, without fail, a slather of moisturiser).
All this preamble is my way of saying that until recently I didn’t really ‘do’ skincare products, and was unconvinced as to their efficacy. Well that sure has changed. And what was it that changed my mind I hear you ask? If you guessed it was one of Lisa’s products, you’d be right. I have fallen utterly and totally in love with her OMG Serum.
OMG Serum is made from a careful blend of 7 natural oils and butters, and fragranced with nothing more than pure essential oils. That’s it. It’s 100% natural and 99% organic. It’s supplied in an airless pump, which makes dispensing completely mess / spill free, and removes the need for an added preservative (as bacteria cannot transfer from hands to the product).
When I first started using the serum, about 6 weeks ago, I used one single pump worth, once a day. It (unsurprisingly!) has an oily texture as it goes on, gliding silkily over, and into, the skin. For that reason, in the early days, I tended to avoid using it in the morning as I wasn’t too sure how my tinted BB cream (I don’t use foundation) would fare on top of it. However, a couple of weeks in, I realised that the serum was absoutely not sitting on the surface of the skin. It was being completely absorbed, leaving no trace of ‘shine’ on my face. This was a revelation. I tried applying my BB cream about 10/15 mins after applying the serum. Still no shine. Happy days! Since then I’ve been using it after my shower/facial wash routine every morning.
I cannot overstate how good my skin feels these days. It’s perfectly moisturised all day (I don’t use the mass produced moisturiser any more) and looks healthier, plumper, softer, more elastic. This morning, I applied the serum (two pumps a time these days folks, just because…), waited 15 mins, brushed on the teeniest bit of transluscent powder, and off I went. That’s how good my skin is these days.
Let’s talk hard figures. OMG Serum retails on Lisa’s website for £17.95 for 30ml, and should be used within 6 months of opening. I reckon I’ve used about 1/8 of it so far, but of course I’m using much more of it now than I was in the beginning, so I reckon there may well be about 6 months worth in there. If there’s less, it won’t be much less, and if there’s more, well I’ve never worried TOO much about use by dates, so if it lasts me 7-8 months, I won’t worry too much about it. So assuming one uses approximately two 30ml containers a year, that’s £35.90 a year for the most amazing results – an absolute snip! (And I just checked – that fancy pants facial oil that I tried years back? Retails for £33 for 30ml today, and it’s nowhere near as good, take my word).
For those cynics out there (I know you’re there, I’m one myself :-D) please be aware that although I didn’t pay for this product, I won it fair and square in a prize draw (check out the post on the 31st Jan on her FB page) and at no point has Lisa asked for my opinion on it, or asked me write a review. I’m simply a total convert, and will be buying more when the time comes.
If you’d like to know more about the OMG Serum you’ll find it here on the LJ Natural website.
You can follow LJ Naturals on Twitter and Instagram.
Thank you Lisa for an amazing prize! Oh, and I nearly forgot, the mini samples were fab too, but as you already know, I’m a bit crap with the whole cleanser / toner routine <blush again>.
It’s Competition Time Again
It got to Monday evening of this week before I even realised that I hadn’t written my weekly round up. It’s been incredibly busy again, lots of making and wrapping and dispatching, but nothing really new, so I’ll catch up next Sunday. I’ve also got loads of different draft posts lined up, but am struggling to find the time to write them up properly. Ah well, first world problems…
In the meantime I’m running a prize draw all this week on my Facebook page. This is how it works: I post one photo a day for five days, Monday through to Friday, and all you need to do to be in with a chance of winning any FIVE different bars of luxury essential oil soap is to like the page, then like and comment on each of the five photos in the draw. This is where we’re up to so far:
It doesn’t matter at all that we’re halfway through the week already, you can add likes and comments at any point up to Sunday, 19th March at 7pm GMT.
The winner will be chosen at random on Sunday evening from all those who have liked the page and liked and commented on each of the five prize draw photographs.
The draw is open worldwide, and I’ll even cover postage costs, but you’ve got to be in it to win it, so what are you waiting for? 😀 www.facebook.com/TheSoapMine
Good luck!!
January 2017 – Goals Roundup
So that was January! Four and a half weeks of my least favourite time of year, but you know what? It’s been pretty productive. Back on the 3rd January I posted my goals for the month, and I’m really happy with what’s been achieved since then.
I completed my tax return. Deadline was today, 31st January, but I made sure it was one of the first things I ticked off my list. Missing that deadline was not an option!
I finally got round to making some Castile soap – something that had been on my list of things to do for aaaages. I’ll be posting an update on the cure is progressing towards the end of next month:
I’ve done a fair bit of research for my facial bar. I’m planning on making two – a charcoal bar for younger / combination skin, and a bar aimed at older skin. I have a good idea of the recipes now, and hope to make some trial bars next month.
Finally I hoped to post on this blog at least 8 times. Well, this post is the eighth of the month, so a big fat tick for that one too…
I was gentle with myself as far as the personal goals went – I wanted to run 30km, and read a book, any book, just to try to get back into the habit of reading again. Well, I smashed the running – I’ve run 65.5km (!!) during January, and it would have been more had I not picked up a bug which morphed into a cold towards the end of the month which meant I only really ran for the first three weeks or so. I’ve also started kickboxing once a week, which is hard work but amazing fun.
The reading went pretty well too. I finished the book that I’d been crawling through for the last three months of 2016 – Lingo: Around Europe in Sixty Languages by Gaston Dorren It’s an extraordinarily interesting book (if you’re as fascinated by languages as I am) and a very easy read. Each stand alone chapter is only a few pages long but packed with facts that made me ooohh and aaahhh with delight as I learned about the vast similarities and differences that exist within the languages of Europe. I also got halfway through a novel – The Magicians (Book 1) by Lev Grossman. I enjoyed it enough at the beggining, but I had a nagging feeling that it was aimed at a younger readership – maybe a YA novel? Turns out it’s not, but I can’t get excited about the characters, and have decided life’s too short, and reading time too precious, to continue with something that I’m not ABSOLUTELY loving. I only found out today that it’s been made into a TV series in the US. Have you seen it? Is it any good? Anyway, I now need to find a better book to read for February, ‘cos it’s going on that goals list again 🙂
So there we go – January goals smashed… I was going to include my February goals in this post but it’s got a bit longer than planned, so I’ll leave them for tomorrow – which gives me a little longer to think about them too 😉
Don’t forget to comment below if there’s a particular novel that you would absolutely, definitely recommend I read – I’m open to all and any suggestions and genres (except horror – I don’t do horror)
Thank you if you’ve read this far – the fact that someone might actually read what I write is definitely an incentive to stick to my plans.
Making Castile Soap
Traditional castile soap is made of nothing more than olive oils and a sodium hydroxide solution, and its origins lie in the soap that has been made for many centuries in Aleppo (Syria), from local olive & laurel berry oils. When the recipe was brought to Europe (specifically the Castile area of Spain, with its abundance of olive trees) it would appear that laurel berry oil was hard to come by, leading to it being dropped completely, becoming the 100% olive oil soap that we know today. It’s considered to be the gentlest of soaps – kind to sensitive skin often used as a baby soap (though personally I don’t think very small babies need any soap at all!)
At the beginning of the year I decided to make it one of my goals for January, and hey presto, last week I made my first ever batch of castile. I don’t always bother with test batches, and I didn’t think an awful lot could go wrong with this one, so dove right in with a full sized batch. The recipe was simply:
- 1500g Olive Oil
- 570g Water
- 193g Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)
I used my usual method – made up the lye solution and left it to cool down to room temperature. For my regular bars I melt together the hard oils/butters, then add the liquid oils and let it cool down to room temperature, but there was none of that faffing about with this one – I just measured my olive oil out of the bottle and into my mixing bowl.
Then added the NaOH and whisked until it was emulsified:
Gave it a bit of a mix with the handblender until it traced:
And poured it into the mould:
I knew from my reading that I probably wouldn’t be able to unmould / cut after my usual 48 day wait, so I left it a little longer, then kind of forgot about it for a couple of days (oops) and eventually unmoulded it 8 days after it was poured. I was happy to note that it was a lot whiter than it originally appeared to be:
Perhaps I’ll only leave it three or four days next time as it was the hardest batch I’ve ever cut, and I feared for the wire on my poor Bud soap cutter. I took it slowly, and the end result was this:
The usual recommendation is to allow castile soap to cure for a good six months, if not more, as it’s notoriously slow to harden. I’m not convinced though, and will be testing it often in the next few months to see how it’s developing.
By the way, I’ve never actually used castile soap myself. The things I’ve heard haven’t always been particularly positive – the lather has even been described as ‘slimy’, so I’m going to (try to) put the opinions of others out of my head and be as objective as possible. Stay tuned and I’ll keep you updated 🙂
Tooth Soap, a review
Have you ever somehow got soap in your mouth? It’s not generally considered to be a nice experience, indeed once upon a time, actively washing out someone’s mouth with soap was done as a punishment. It’s a phrase that’s still heard today, but I thought it to be a largely apocryphal phenomenon – surely nobody would force soap into another’s mouth? A quick fact check via Wikipedia confirmed that yes, they really did, and for relatively minor transgressions such as chewing tobacco, using foul language or being intoxicated. Well recently, I’ve been voluntarily and eagerly brushing my teeth with soap, and let me tell you, it’s been a revelation.
To backtrack a little, some time before Christmas I entered into a product swap with an Instagram friend of mine, the lovely Sabine of Cebra Ethical Skincare. I saw an IG post of her for Tooth Soap Paste and really wanted to give it a try, and she was kind enough to agree to swap some of my soap for a bottle of her paste:
As you can see from the photo, she also sent me one of her vegan wooden toothbrushes as a little added extra, which was incredibly kind of her.
Anyway, I’d been curious about tooth soap for a while. I’d heard about it of course – the world of soapmaking isn’t that big and I’d seen it discussed in various forums. I really really wanted to try it, but I wasn’t certain it would be for me. To begin with there’s that whole ‘soap in the mouth’ thing going on (because let’s be clear here, this isn’t just ‘natural toothpaste’, it’s bona fide tooth SOAP, made with saponified oils, just like the soap I make). I also – wrongly, as it turned out – had this vague notion that it belonged in the realms of hippydom and was the preserve of lentil weavers and crunchy mommas.
Well, thank heavens I got round to trying it, because I absolutely love it. It IS a different experience to using the regular toothpaste that most of us are used to, but in a good way. The main differences are:
- The biggie I guess is the flavour. Sabine uses a clever blend of grapefruit, peppermint and myrrh essential oils to flavour the paste and add other benefits such as freshening the breath, and she doesn’t use any sweeteners. Consequently the paste tastes very different to commercially made toothpaste, but it does NOT taste ‘soapy’. To me it’s a very cleansing, refreshing flavour.
- Another big difference is that the tooth soap paste doesn’t contain any foaming agent, and so you won’t get the mouthful of toothpaste bubbles that you get with commercial toothpaste. Those bubbles are made by adding sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) or sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) to the toothpaste, and a quick internet search will give you hundreds of sites telling you how bad these two are supposed to be for us. Trust me, once you get used to the lack of bubbles, you won’t miss them.
- A third difference, and a big plus for me, is how much cleaner the whole of my mouth feels after using this paste. My teeth feel super-smooth clean, much more so than when I use regular toothpaste, and my whole mouth feels refreshed in a way I just didn’t expect.
- A minor difference – Sabine recommends that you put the paste onto a dry toothbrush and brush immediately. Don’t add water before brushing. I confess that sometimes I’m on automatic pilot prior to brushing my teeth and automatically run the brush under the tap before brushing but mostly these days I remember not to. It does make a difference
I continue to enjoy using this product immensely. Yes, it’s a little pricier than regular mass produced toothpaste, but it’s handmade, it’s vegan, it’s organic, it’s ethical (check out the facts), it’s VERY effective and it lasts for aaaaaages. Really, what more could you want? If you’ve ever been curious about trying tooth soap then I would urge you to try Sabine’s first – I’m very glad I did!
You can find Cebra Ethical Skincare on the web here , on Facebook here , on Twitter here, and on Instagram here.
Please Note – I was NOT given a free sample to review, and all views are entirely my own.
The Week in Soap: 8th Jan ’17
Where did the week go? The first week of January has come and gone, and it’s time for me to get back into the habit of weekly updates – it’s been a whole month since I last did one of these!
It’s been a fairly quiet week, but I have managed to make a start on restocking the shelves – last Monday saw me making the first two batches of the year, Oatmeal Milk & Honey (OMH) and Serenity:
I had this crazy idea that I’d try the Thermal Transfer method for the OMH, and as I could have predicted had I thought about it for longer than a couple of seconds, it didn’t go so well (keep an eye out for another post on that little adventure very soon). These have now been cut but I’ve not got round to taking any photographs yet (and to be honest, I’m not sure I want to take photographs of the OMH – seriously, it’s a bit of a hot mess…) but there’ll be some up on my Instagram (@thesoapmine) account soon enough.
Tonight I made another three batches. The left hand one is a brand new (to me) Fragrance Oil called Flora, which I’ve done in white, yellow and green (thoughts of spring already…), then we have restocks of First Kiss and Clarity.
The soaping gremlins were well and truly out to play tonight. The only one to behave properly was First Kiss. Clarity really surprised me by thickening up super-quick. Not sure why – same recipe, same colours and same ratio of eo’s, although the lye water was possibly cooler than usual so it’s likely that was the cause. Anyway, I can usually get wispy drops in this one, but tonight it was a bit, hmmmm, ‘ploppy’. And Flora…well, it’s a floral fragrance, notoriously bad for acceleration, so I wasn’t entirely unprepared. I used extra water with the lye, and tried not to over mix but it was still thicker than I would have liked, so my dropswirl was a bit, well, ploppy again. Ho hum, these two won’t be perfect but they WILL smell flippin’ gorgeous!!! 😀
In other news I’ve confirmed a new customer with a sizeable order for my mini guest bars, and I’ve taken a booking to do one of my soap talks in a few months time, so all in all it’s been a productive week.
Hope you’ve all had a great week. Thanks for reading – back soon!
Personal Goals 2016 Revisited
Back in January I wrote this post about how I don’t really ‘do’ resolutions, and instead had a couple of simple (ha!) goals for 2016. I naïvely thought that posting them here, with the odd update throughout the year, would keep me accountable. Unfortunately I was wrong. Not only have I not written a single update this year, I haven’t remotely succeeded in completing either goal.
Goal one was to run 1000km by the end of December. Ok, so the year’s not over yet but, as I’ve only run just over 200km so far (and only 10k during November to date), I think it’s fair to say that this goal is not going to be achieved. The reasons are legion, but when I’m motivated and I have the time, running is the best exercise for me, so I’ll definitely be running (more?!) in 2017
Goal two was to read 12 novels during 2016. I started with Life after Life by Kate Atkinson. I didn’t finish it. I’m sorry Kate, it wasn’t because I disliked it, nope, not at all. I just found that I was reading a page, maybe two at the most, per night, before my eyes refused to stay open any longer, and somehow it became a chore rather than a pleasure. I gave it up in the hope of finding something (apologies again Kate!) more engaging, but it wasn’t to be. Whatever I tried to read, I had the same problem. Every. Single. Night. I started The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, a book I’d look forward to reading for a long time as her ‘The Secret History‘ is utterly compelling, and I loved her ‘The Little Friend‘ almost as much. Once again I gave up as, by the time I got to bed and tried to read, my brain and body started to shut down and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I’ve always been a reader, and in my head I’m still a reader. I suspect that, in order to read as much as I’d like, I need not to be parenting a sleep-shy pre-schooler while trying to build a business. Sleep comes first 😀
Don’t be surprised if I have similar (if less optimistic :-D) goals for 2017, but this time, like my recent commitment to post at least twice a week, I’ll commit to updating once a month on my personal goals. Will it make a difference do you think?
We Have a Winner!
For those who haven’t seen the Facebook post, we have a winner of the soap naming competition. The new lavender, lemon & lime bar will henceforth be known as (drum roll and long pause…………….)
Botanica
as put forward on the blog by Dylan. I really like this name as it alludes to the ‘from nature’ aspects of both the fragrances and colours, and it’s also a really good fit with other bars in the essential oils range – Serenity, Clarity etc…
Thank you Dylan – let me know how I can get your soap to you and it’ll be on its way very soon.
A massive thank you to everyone who gave it a go – every comment is always hugely appreciated :-D.
If you missed out but would like another opportunity to win something gorgeous then follow me on Instagram where there’ll another chance to win soon(ish) As I write I have 4,761 followers, and when I hit the big 5K *crosses fingers* I’ll be doing another international giveaway.