Pink Salt Bars

Ladybug Soapworks has a blog and she just posted these beautiful soap salt bars in jasmine. Aren't they cool? I can't wait until they are posted on her Etsy shop!

Elevator Etiquette - A Must Read If You Live Or Have Ever Lived In NYC

One of the blogs I read having nothing to do with soap is I'm Quietly Judging You.

Yesterday, she posted a detailed list of elevator etiquette - a list I wish all people in NY followed, because it really is a gross experience most of the time. I know it so well. She hit every single one of my pet peeves about NYC elevators. If you haven't lived there then you might not understand her frustrations with people. I am right next to her on this one.

Enjoy your reading.... ;)

Product Radar :: Bath Cupcakes

Such pretty eye candy.

These bath bomb/fizzy cupcakes are from Feeling Smitten that I just discovered (love it). The Etsy shop is located here and has many different styles of moisture rich bath bombs for one to choose from.

Do they look good enough to eat??

Smelly Chick

There is an online soap making resource I'd like to share. I found this blog from Marr Williams who shared with me in a comment about my flop soap. Go check it out!

Serpentine Solid Shampoo

Sophisticated. Sexy. Simple.

Kim, owner and creator of Serpentine Hair sent me a shampoo bar a couple of months ago and it took me until now to get to trying it. What was I waiting for? What a cool concept, to use a solid shampoo! But, I had my doubts. I kind of imagined a lame lather experience which would leave me with horribly dry and brittle hair, but this was not the case. I was mistaken thank goodness for my hair's sake. My hair felt soft and clean and not dry and crack-y. A very different experience, indeed.

It's good from the outside too. It eliminates waste (the bottle) and it just feels like I'm doing something healthier for myself. It is sulfate-free and vegan, too! So there.

Serpentine says: Our products don't have some magical hair-repair ingredient; they merely clean your head while allowing your hair and scalp to heal themselves from the ill effects of cheap commercial chemicals.


Kahlua (the one I used)

Smelled soft and sweet, but not candy-sweet. I scrubbed the wet bar with a nylon pouf until it got super sudsy and started rubbing the lathery pouf into my hair, rubbing my scalp and continuing until my hair was "washed".

So, what makes these shampoo bars different from handmade soap? Serpentine says: Regular handmade soaps tend to incorporate various plant butters into their formulas to nourish your skin. They don't rinse away as cleanly when they're used on hair. Our products are specifically formulated for haircare, so you can expect a gentle product that avoids the pitfall of excessive residue.

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These are a few of her other shampoo bars: Forbidden Fruit, Medusa and Original Sin. I think I will have to try the Original Sin next. It just looks too good and the description of the scent sounds enticing.

I think I need to continue trying the bar for an extended period of time to see if there is a big change with my hair or not. My hair is in a funny place with overly processed, colored hair (many times over, remember the fire engine red a few months ago?), and getting long and a tad unruly. This Kahlua shampoo bar will have to bear with me as I become a wiz at using it, but we've already made nice.

Don't you like the photo? I absolutely love it! Now, is that Kim behind the bar?

Our Soap Photo Winner

Winner of the Unusual Soap Photo Contest is.........

Heidi of Soapaholics Anonymous!!!! Yay! Unfortunately, she does NOT have an Etsy shop for you to purchase her yummies. I urge you, Heidi, to set one up so I can give you free advertising and send you some customers! Not that your leisurely schedule will allow (3 young kids and a baby due in May), but something to consider. :)

Coffee Soap by Heidi of Soapaholics Anonymous

And some of the other wonderful photos that The Soap Bar recieved.....

Dinosaur Mud Soap by Carrie of Under The Willow

Bennington Maple Sugar Soap by Carrie of Under The Willow

Youthful Energy Soap by Angie of Suds N' Such


Peanut Butter Soap by Angie of Suds N' Such

Bubble Ball in Pamplemousse by Heather of Twin Birch Soap

Thank you to everyone who submitted photos for the contest. They were a lot fun. I will have a give-away next week, so stay tuned and there will be more contests in the future. As always, feel free to ship soaps to me for review or photos for me to look at. I have been loving your participation. It makes it a lot of fun for me.

Thanks, again!

Don't Forget ! Soap Photo Contest

....Ends tonight!

Please send a photograph of your most unusual soap... It could be unusual visually or ingredient-wise. Send all submissions to me at jo(a)productbody(dot)com. Get them to me before 7am to be considered. Each person can enter as many photos as they want. The winner will be announced tomorrow.

Rules are in this post.

Good Luck!

Lady Bug Soap Works - Chocolate Coconut Soap

This is a nice bar of soap. When I unwrapped the soap, I was catapulted back to Easter time as a kid... the soap smelled just like a chocolate Easter bunny, Hershey kiss/bar. Yes, not many bath and body products actually smell like the real thing, always slightly off, but Lady Bug? Right on! I don't know if the coconut fragrance came through so much, but whatever combination of fragrance oils she used, it created the perfect chocolate scent!

So in the shower I go. I wet the soap bar and rubbed between my hands which created instant lather and so much of it too- love that!! The entire time I spent in the shower, I couldn't stop sniffing the bar, which, of course, soaped up my lips. Hint: soap, in general, doesn't taste so good, even if it smells so good.

I thoroughly enjoyed Lady Bug's perfect choco-creation. Go get yourself a bar at her Etsy shop, but you might want to stash a Hershey's kiss near the shower, because you'll want to bite the soap, and I warn you, you won't be satisfied with just that.

;) Stay clean!

Upcoming Review: Lady Bug Soap Works

Dark Chocolate Coconut Handmade Soap by
Ladybug Soapworks on Etsy

Stay tuned for my review later tonight or tomorrow!

I'm Getting Good At Botched Batches!

I made more crappy soap. This time I followed a recipe through MMS and their lye calculator as some of you suggested. Everything was fine until I added the fragrance oil. Instant separation. What?!?? What was happening? I had read about separation and why it occurs when the recipe is unbalanced or cools too quickly. But neither occurred. The soap mix was creamy and at a lovely trace and then, BAM! I added un-Brambleberry, untested fragrances. It was a combo of marshmallow and Honey (type). They must have been the culprit because everything was fine until then. The whole thing separated as if the fragrance oils (FOs) marched in their and broke up the kissing that was going on in the pot.

I was too mad to let it go, so I started to cook it on the stove top. I had it on low and stirred every three or four minutes, but no one was kissing again, it just got worse! They were a hateful bunch. 50% of the information I got on the internet said to throw it out, and the others said to cook the batch, pour it and see what happens. So I cooked the beasts and poured what looked like really nasty vomit into my wooden mold. The smell of the sweet fragrances gave me a whopping headache and filled my house with what smelled like a honey latte from Starbucks.

I have a new appreciation for Anne-Marie and Brambleberry, because now I understand the comments in the fragrance oil's description...such as,"accelerates trace" or "discolors cp soap to a brown"...If I had read more on soapmaking, I wouldn't have trashed all that raw material! I want to know ahead of time that the FO isn't going to turn my creamy yummy soap into a vomitous vat of waste.

I have made 4 batches. 2 flopped. That is 50% success in making soap. (I never said great soap, either, just soap). A footnote on batch #3, Elizabeth of Gracefruit gave me a tip and I turned my bad boy batch into real soap, even though lather is minimal.

A lesson is learned here (my husband's words were trying to penetrate my sad head last night). I should try to see this whole thing as a learning step. Now I know that I should pull a bit out of the original batch to scent it and hope there is no separation, or use the fragrances that have been tested by our vendors to begin with.

I have no photos for you, but hope to find my son's camera before the weekend.

It might be time to get a soap book with tried and true recipes and my own camera.

(sniff)