Saturday, July 31, 2010

Tired At Looking At My Mug


Oh, how I loved this soap except for the 1/4 inch of ash on the top. Grrrrr. I've never experienced ash before, so I really didn't know what I was looking at until I got all those comments. And it was a bit flakey.

I decided not to sell it to my wholesale customer and keep it for myself to sell to my customers at a discount.

So here they are uncut.



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The scent is Ruby Red Rock Star and it smells great and the swirls are way cool. The ash on the top incorporates into the soap after 3 seconds of being rubbed under water. The bar just doesn't look perfect.

So instead of it being $6 we are selling them for $5.00. This is definitely a limited edition.

Catch 'em while you can on Etsy at my shop.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Lookie What I Got In The Mail!

For some reason, my Photo Booth App is doing mirror images. Oh well. LongLeaf Soaps that I posted last week arrived in MY HOUSE!!! French Country Sunrise and Cool Vanilla Mint...

It smells, DIVINE....

More when I wash with it...
I am a happy bird.


Thank you, Linnea!

My skin will kiss you later.

Goldilocks Didn't Shower With It...

Oatmeal porn. Never thought I'd say that!


a family owned business in Hinsdale, NY




Michelle owns this company and lives in Florida like I do! :)
She must be very hot. Yesterday it was 95 degrees :P


Saturday, July 24, 2010

Monday, July 19, 2010

Rethinking What To Offer

I know I could be bringing more interesting things to the table right now, but with my children being home for the summer and I mean HOME and not in camp, and my life being crazy on top of that, throw a little business on top of that, add a little migraine hell, then just add regular 'ole life, and you've got yourself a boring blog. I haven't had nearly the kind of time or energy to give it.

I've gotten a few lovely guest bloggers to post (thank you!) and I have a couple others scheduled for the near future, but, I have no master plan for this blog for the moment and I know I must be boring you all to tears, have no good resources, eye candy or much else to give you. Thing is, I can't change much about it for about another month, so until the kiddies go back to school and we get into some sort of schedule, and life goes into normal, The Soap Bar may just be providing you with soap porn.

Short of a miracle, the heat will continue to melt me and kill me slowly.
O.o

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Soap Of The Day


This is the perfect summer soap to look at today.

Please click on the image to get the gorgeous details. This is Dennis Anderson's soap. He is one of the top sellers on Etsy and is wildly talented.

:)

Hi Dennis!

Monday, July 12, 2010

African Black Soap - An Email Asking For Help

I received this email and I am hoping some of you might have pointers for this fellow soap maker. I don't know much about African Black soap, so I don't know if re-batching is the same... Please leave a comment if you have any pointers at all.

So far my soap making experience has been limited to making pure olive oil soap. But recently I've discovered a great product. It's called African Black Soap. It has really cleared up my skin. Anyhow supposedly you can melt it and add things to it (mill it) Could someone give me a few pointers? Thanks so much.

Thank you all for being so generous with your help, as always!!
xo Jo

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Samples of Fragrances


Look what I received in the mail yesterday..... how fun! Elements Bath and Body is now offering their fragrances for only $1 each and they are quite big compared to other suppliers who just send tiny vial sniffers. I stuck my checkbook behind the bottles to give you an idea of their size.

Out of ten that I ordered, I'd buy 5 or 6, so I think I'd say this is a winner move on their part, because it makes no sense for me to spend so much money to try a 2 oz fragrance oil for $4-$6 to get here for me to hate it and then I'm stuck with 2 oz of it.

$1. No big skin off my back and I get to try a ton!

Yummers.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Discovering Glycerin Soap (Guest Blogger)

Debbie Chialtas of Soapylove is a master at designing and creating beautiful glycerin soaps. I had the honor of reviewing her book and using her soaps and she is one talented woman! Thank you, Debbie for taking time out of your busy schedule to create a guest post for us all this summer. :)
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Discovering Glycerin Soap
Debbie Chialtas of Soapylove

Since I discovered glycerin soap more than 5 years ago, I have been endlessly fascinated by how versatile the craft is. When I began I couldn't find very many styles, though. Now things are really picking up and there are more soap crafters exploring their creativity with "melt and pour." If you haven't found your glycerin inspiration yet, here are some of my free tutorials I recommend depending on your style. I hope you like them!

You: Classic, casual, jeans and tee shirt kind of gal. You like things modern and clean.

Your project: "Parsons Soap Blocks Video"


You: Romantic, old fashioned. You love roses and tea cups, fragrances and cameos.

Your project: "Romantic Soaps Tutorial"

You: Eclectic, funky. Strange is best. You don't want to do anything remotely "normal," not even with soap.

Your project: "Soap Slime"

You: Lover of all things cute. Hello Kitty, smiley faces on everything, and fun prints.

Your project: "I Heart Soap" and "Ombre Heart Soaps".

You: Mega sweet tooth. Anything dessert inspired is right up your alley. Ice cream, cupcakes, donuts... and pile on those rainbow sprinkles!

Your project: "Two Scoops Please!" and "Pretty Parfait Soaps".

For even more tutorials with tons of great pictures and a huge range of styles, check out Let's Get Soapy, my glycerin soap crafting eZine.

No matter what your style is, there's a project for you!

Monday, July 5, 2010

Brown Sugar Soap Porn


A little brown sugar with your day? If I didn't know better and these were on a plate, I'd eat 'em.





Brown Sugar Buttercream handmade soap by luxury falls
made with brown sugar swirled in the soap and topped with it
(can I drool now?)



Brown Sugar and Spice Vegan Organic Soap by Little Batch
made with brown sugar



Cocoa Brown Sugar by The Jane Co.
made with brown sugar



This has been a Soap Porn Production

Saturday, July 3, 2010

How To Make Your Own Laundry Soap (Guest Blogger)

Amy Warden, owner of Great Cakes Soapworks has graciously offered to not only write a guest post for The Soap Bar but to share her laundry soap recipe with all of us. Thank you so much Amy. She makes yummy soap, so check out her website. This weekend she is giving away samples of her laundry soap!


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One of the easiest ways to save money for your family is to make your own laundry soap. You can do the math a couple different ways, but in my area, regular liquid detergents range in price from 7.3 cents per load up to 22.6 cents per load. Hypoallergenic liquids cost anywhere from 10 cents per load, all the way up to 27 cents per load! Even the least expensive warehouse brand costs 8 cents per load. I can make my own laundry soap for just 4.3 cents per load!

If you’re worried that it won’t work as well as your regular detergent, don’t be. I’ve been using the recipe I’m about to share with you on our family’s laundry and I haven’t noticed any difference in the cleaning power.

If you’re worried that it’s going to take a lot of time to make, don’t be. It’s quicker than whipping up a batch of cookies – even if you use the refrigerated dough.

If you’re worried that it won’t smell like detergent, you’re absolutely right! There’s no overpowering laundry smell, which is great for people with sensitivities to fragrance.

Ready to get started?

First, you’ll need to obtain the following items:

  1. 1 bar lye soap (needs to be 0% superfat, made with pure lard or coconut oil) – if you don’t make your own, I can humbly suggest that you try mine. It’s made with Orange Essence.
  2. 20 Mule Team Borax – you can find this at Walmart or in the laundry aisle of your local grocery store
  3. Arm & Hammer Washing Soda – NOT the same as baking soda! Not available at Walmart, but I found some in the laundry aisle at my grocery store.
  4. OxiClean (powdered) – or the generic version is available at Dollar Tree (this ingredient is optional)

Second, collect the following items from your kitchen:

Food processor, cheese grater, 1 cup measure, and ¼ cup measure.

Third, grate up the lye soap with the cheese grater:

Or, you can try using the grater attachment on your food processor – since you have it out anyway. I ended up with this last piece of soap floating on top of the attachment, which had to be grated manually.

Finally, insert the chopping blade in your food processor, add 1 cup each of borax and washing soda, and ¼ cup oxygen cleaner (along with the lye soap):

Give it a whirl until it’s chopped and mixed nice and fine:

Store in an airtight container. Use 1 tablespoon for light loads, or 2 tablespoons for large or heavy loads. I have a front loader washing machine, and it works just fine! You can also use ¼ c. of vinegar in the rinse cycle to remove the last bits of soap and reduce static, but your clothes won’t smell like vinegar! Add some essential oil to the vinegar if you prefer (20-30 drops per gallon). What I noticed was that our clothes were softer after the first time I used homemade laundry soap.

Which is why I’m offering free samples of this laundry soap, pre-made, to anyone who places an order at GreatCakesSoapworks.com over the 4th of July weekend only. Mention “laundry soap sample” in the Special Requests area of the shopping cart to receive yours! While supplies last. (Pre-made laundry soap is not available for purchase, but the Orange Essence Lye Soap is.)

Thank you, Jo, for the opportunity to share my recipe! I hope it has inspired your readers to try it out! If anyone has experience making their own laundry soap, I’d love to hear it! I know there are other recipes out there…

Amy Warden

Great Cakes Soapworks

Handmade Soap Blog