Expanding This Blog To Social Media

I decided it was time to create a FB group so that we can share ideas, photos, create dialog and do things that you may not be able to do here.  Come join me at The Soap Bar Blog Facebook Group.  I created a Flickr photo group where many of you have posted photos of your work and I just love peering at the photos because they inspire me.  You can join or peek at The Soap Bar Flickr Group.  I JUST as we speak, created TheSoapBarBlog on twitter!  Who knows why, really, except that perhaps we can all follow each other and get some inside scoopage on soaping experiences.

My intention here is to create a community.  The Soap Bar Community Outreach Program.  Let us unite...

I love you guys!

New Soaps: My Porn

I've been very hard at work...creating very specialized soaps with awesome ingredients.  I am proud of all of these.  Not all of them are available yet, just thought I'd give you a peek into what I've been doing lately.

Happy gazing.....

DETOX

additives:  shea butter, adzuki bean, activated bamboo powder, bamboo extract, green tea extract and white kaolin clay.  Scent includes a blend of essential oils: Anise, lavender, grapefruit, tea tree, petitgrain, eucalyptus, and clove.  Bamboo charcoal is naturally detoxifying. 

Milken Oats

additives:  shea and cocoa butter, black walnut hulls, wild yam, stinging nettles and white clay with ground oats.

Palm Beach Illustrated 60th

Palm Beach Illustrated Magazine approached us and asked us to create a soap for their 60th Anniversary...so we made a tropical treat that illustrates Palm Beach County, using locally collected ocean water and an abundance of tropical additives.  {My beach scene with shells}

additives: Atlantic Ocean water taken from Palm Beach, coconut milk, 

banana and mango fruit extract and topped with pink Himalayan Salt

Orangewood

additives:  shea butter, bentonite clay, orange, sandalwood and tea tree essential oils.

The Sea Bar

Contains natural elements from around the world. This soap is made with pure locally collected Atlantic Ocean water, Pacific Ocean sea salt, Dead Sea Mud from Israel, Irish Moss powder and Atlantic kelp. Dead Sea mud, Kelp and Irish Moss are packed with vitamins and minerals.  Between them, they deliver Vitamins A, B, C, and D, iodine, magnesium, calcium and sodium, which help encourage collagen production, restore moisture levels, firm, revitalize and detoxify.   The scent is a handmade blend of Balsam of Peru, Virginia cedarwood, sandalwood, orange and cocoa absolute in the center.

Ayu Does It Again

What is it with Ayu, owner and soapmaker of Tokyo Factory?

She makes the most beautiful soaps!  Look at her latest creation:

Four Seasons Soap

You can see Ayu's inspiration video here if you want to.  Such pretty pictures....

I have some news:  I will be reviewing Ayu's soap in the next couple of weeks.  I am going to review Kimono.  Very excited....

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I'm Soap Stamp Crazy

I have been wanting a stamp for my soaps since I started selling my own.  Back when I had my retail shop, I had one made for me.  It was metal.  In reality, the letters were too small and made it difficult to read in the soap.  So I've waited until now to get one, and I'm just not that pleased with my options.  I was going to buy from Anhoki's etsy shop, but she and her husband, John, decided not to make them anymore.  (waaaaahh)



I wrote a post way back when on personalized soap stamps, which you could read about if you wish.  I shared a number of artist's stamped soaps there which are definitely worth looking at.

Well, now, I am stumped.  I could order from Owosso or Soap Equipment, but I believe they are quite spendy .  I found Bebe's Collection, but they are in Taiwan and I wanted to have it SOON.  I really love their style, though, if I do a totally custom stamp, it won't matter what their style is because it will just be a quality issue.  Their stock stamps are really cute, though and very reasonable!  See?

Bebe's Collection

As I was searching yesterday, I found this:  Ballyhoo Bath has a DIY soap stamp tutorial, which I may try, but I don't have the steadiest hands.  Great tutorial.  Great pictures.  I think anyone who wants to try their hand at making their own should go to her blog to check out her step by step stamp-making technique.  Here are some pictures:

 

finished product of a DIY stamp.  Beautiful!! 

then the process..

As mentioned in her post, she also suggests going to Tortuga Soaps as well as Instructables for other tutorials so that you can make up your mind which way you want to go.  Every soaper/artist has their own idea of how they want to customize and what medium they want to work with.  I have admired Ballyhoo's soaps from afar since I found them on the internet a year or two ago (?...memory is going O.O)

Now, if I could find some time, I may try this, but in the meantime, I'd like to find a custom soap stamp maker that is in the US, so shipping wouldn't be outrageous.  Or take a million years to arrive.

I also found Soap Impressions.  They do alpha stamp sets and custom ones, so I shall peek into that, too.  The more I think about it, the more I HAVE to have one!

Here are some soaps I think are stunning with custom stamps and alpha stamps:

 Jenora Soaps

Inner Earth

Naiad Soap Arts

So there you have it.  My thoughts on the many ways to make a stamp and many places to get them.  What do you think?  Have you gotten one you love that I haven't mentioned?  

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A Grey Morning

salty bricks by Sraigutes namukas (snagged from The Soap Bar flickr pool)

Three Blind Mice by Loveleesoaps

Black Cardamom Soap by SaffronBarr

Australian Black Clay Salt Bar by Naiad Soap Arts

 

Activated Charcoal Soap by Pink Parchment Soaps

Innocence Pebble Soaps (ingredients:  Innocence soap: coco fat, beef fat, pork fat, perfume, rose petals, activated carbon. Handmade)  artedona ... but woah--- $70! for 4

Kalleo Ebony Overflow by Kalleo Soaps


 Hoped you liked my grey day.....

Soap Porn Wednesday!

Found at The Handmade Soap Blog:  "honey trap". non-spotty, non-freaky "honey trap". hallelujah.

 Found on Between Friends blog:  "Lace"

Found on Lynnz Artisan Soap Blog:: Cuppycake.  mmm.

Wine and Roses Goat Milk Soap by twentyseven27soap

Java Mint by Sheri's Soap Opera  So pretty!  Lawdee!



So there you have it.  A little beauty to start your day!

xoJo

Little Package From Gloi

I received my little bundle of Gloi and I got Picaroon Pumpkin Butter (OMGILU*), Perfume Oils: Elevenses, Honeysuckle Lemon Curd and Haus Amber.

I just love Picaroon and the pumpkin butter.  So thick and nourishing.  (I also love Future Primitive's Body Whip.  I have it in Malt N Milk and it is milky sweet and I am devastated she doesn't carry it anymore.  Must. Get. Fragrance.- erg.)

Haus of Amber perfume oil is on my skin.  At first, I wasn't sure where it was going and now it has been on for about forty-five minutes and I like the way it's changing.  I smell a little bit of Moon Dog in there.

Honeysuckle Lemon Curd is heavenly and as soon as I opened it, it smelled like my company's, Lemon Scone (a blend of, like, 6 essential and fragrance oils), but it quickly made a sharp right turn and all of a sudden I could smell soft flowers.  Love the way this perfume changes, even in the bottle.

Elevenses:  Not my favorite of the three, but I haven't given it the time it deserves,  I need to wear it when I don't have Haus of Amber on my inner wrists and Picaroon Pumpkin Butter on my hands.  Actually, the combination of those two scents are making my head filled with temporary bliss at this moment.

So I will come back after the weekend to report back on my other experience with Elevenses.

Britton and Matt- Thank you.  I love your products.
xo Jo

I. Need. These. Now.

Honeysuckle Lemon Curd

Peach Mama Handmade Soap

Depravity

 

Moon Dog

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Other Haus of Gloi mentions here:

Haus Of Gloi, July 2009

My Dog, May 16, 2010

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footnotes:

*OMGILU:  Oh my god, I love you.

Impulse Heat Sealer Blues

My heat sealer died yesterday and I am looking to buy a gently used one from a fellow soapmaker/B+B company.  I know I could throw down money on a new one, but honestly, I don't want to.  My money is allocated to other supplies and I am forced to be frugal at this time. 

I don't want to buy one from Ebay because I don't necessarily trust everyone. I trust soapmakers more.  :)

So..... if you have one you'd like to sell, please let me know.  I need an 8 inch one so I can seal my soap cello bags.  They look like this:

I don't care what name brand it is, so this picture is just an example.

Thanks for hearing me out.  I try to make this blog for YOU, but I thought to myself, "why not utilize a large group of people who do what I do?"

xo
Jo