Oh it is the busy time of the season isn't it. I barley have time to breathe. Between making soap, festivals, work, and my little mans activities I barley know what I am doing. I am not near as organized as other soapers. I have a bad habit of not planning my soaps. I tend to make what ever comes to mind at the time not thinking about what holidays and scents are coming up. I am trying to turn a new leaf but it is taking me time to get out of my bad habits.

Below are some of my new soaps.


Monkey Farts smells like fresh bananas and juicy grapefruit, middle notes of kiwi, juicy bubblegum, and strawberries; and a hint of vanilla.

Butt Naked smells of granny smith apples and honeydew melon, middle notes of strawberries and pears, with hints of spice.

Jack O'Lantern Pie is a wonderful pumpkin cheesecake kind of smell.

Over The hill and Through the Woods smells of a combination of apples, oak, balsam, fir, and pine, with a background of cinnamon and clove. ( This is the last pictures)






I also have been busy trying to recycle different components. We have a ton of used keyboards (we also refurbish computers) and so Christopher (Up until he caught a cold lets hope its not the flu) has been busily pulling off the keys and removing the screws. We have some ideas on how to reuse the keys and the screws always can com in handy. I am going to let this be mainly his project and so what ever recycled art he makes and sells will go toward his piggy bank. He thinks this could be a good way to save some extra dough for his 7th birthday at Disney Land.







I am not sure how many keys he got off before I realized he was running a fever but he filled that box up. SO he is thinking magnets and jewelry, but he is open to suggestions. If anybody has any ideas how we could reuse the keys let us know.

I love coloring with Cocoa

Heather and Hyacinth

I have decided my favorite colorant is simply Cocoa. It always gives me such a nice chocolate brown to my soaps. It doesn't matter if I have added titanium dioxide or used a fragrance that discolors. I can always count on my Cocoa. It also seems that whatever other color I use it is always complemented with the brown the Cocoa creates. Plus Chocolate is great for your skin. Above is an example of coloring with Cocoa. This is one of my new soaps that I created for The Vintage Cowgirl.

Below are some more of my new soaps.


APPLE JACK PEEL


LAVENDER ESSENTIALS

Today I am going to make 6 lbs of Non-scented and Non-Colored soap. I know I know not very exciting but I have several customers who have such sensitive skin that any Fragrance oils and Essential oils or colorants really effect their skin. I actually love this soap though. I use Lots of Shea and Cocoa butter which leaves the soap with a slight nutty scent. Its very creamy and bubbly that you really don't miss all the other.

BEE'S WAX IS COMPLETE AND BEAUTIFUL

I finished the filtering the Bee's wax and it turned out really bright yellow. Just beautiful. Those little guys are miracle workers. They build such sophisticated homes, take care of all the flowering plants, and providing us such wonderful products such as honey and Bee's wax. Bee's wax is used in numerous products such as:

accordions, archery wax, Balms, baking, basketry, batik, blacksmithing, bronze preservation, candles, candy making, chocolates, soap making and cosmetics to name a few.

I have one bee keeper (Brad's Bees at http://bradsbees.com/) who I buy my wax from and then several small keepers that I trade my products for their wax. Every keeper I deal with does not use any antibiotics or steroids with any of their Bee's. This is important because whatever the bee's come into contact with is going to transmit to their honey and their wax. I love dealing with the local keepers because I know how healthy their bees are and how they render their wax.

I call my bee's wax organic for these reasons. No chemicals, no pesticides, no steroids or antibiotics, just pure organic Bee's wax.

The one thing I found very interesting is depending on what plants the bee's are pollinating also transmit to their honey and wax. Honey will taste differently depending on what pollen was used and the wax will be a different shade. I recently obtained some Bee's wax from brad's bees that was maroon. It is gorgeous. I think I will use it in lip balms with clear tubes.

Here is a picture of my different shades of bee's wax that I recieved from Brads bee's. The one on top is the maroon one that I am really thinking on how to use it (Really leaning towards lip balms).






I have recently rendered my own wax (stuff I receive straight from the hive from my friend bee keepers). It was a messy process but The wax turned out wonderful. A really bright yellow.

Here you can see the un-rendered raw wax. It still had quite a bit of honey in it. You can also see the wonderful wax candles that my friend gave me. I don't think I will ever use them they are just to wonderful to look at.


Here you can see the honey seeping out.







Here is all the wax melted in my large now wax dedicated pot.










Here is the final filtered wax. Its really lovely.
Some of the wax I will shred and offer for sale on www.ABodyNaturalSoap.com

With the wax shred you weigh it just like you would for the wax beads for you formulas.

Cut into the Blue Lagoon

I feel a little better about my soap now. But not that much though, because the waves are missing (I guess its the calm blue lagoon). I really expected the center to be a bit more consistent like it was with my Strawberry cream soap. Oh well can't win them all. The soap is still pretty wet. I added the amount of water I would for a regular batch and then at trace I added in the oat milk. I should have subtracted the water. It will take this soap a bit longer to cure. I think this is the perfect candidate for my Fan experiment. I will weigh each bar and half I will leave to dry normally and the other half I will put in front of a large fan. I will weigh them each day and see what difference there might be.