Local Yocal Ingredients - Special Soaps Using Special Ingredients

Using local ingredients adds a holistic approach when making handmade soap.  Not only does it feel great to use your own soap in the shower when you're supporting your local businesses or using ingredients from your own garden.  When someone purchases your soap with local ingredients, it adds an element that many who seek the pure, the handmade, love to see special ingredients added to a soap.  Why?  Perhaps it stops a piece of their vacation in time, like if you added sand to your soap and sold it where people typically come to escape the ice storms up north.  Then when they take it back home and use it, it brings them back to the town they loved so much and brings them a sense of relaxation.  I know when I visit an area that is new for me, I love to see local artisan's work, especially when they incorporate their immediate environment's elements.

We had a challenge called LocalYocals and it challenged all the soap makers to incorporate a local ingredients into their soap.  I thought it would keep people thinking about ingredients and how simple one local ingredient could transform a regular soap into a gem.

We had some great entries with unique ingredients!  Here are some to give you an idea of what YOU can do to spark it  up.


Curtis Hayden used multiple ingredients from his area in Charleston, South Carolina:

Basic Beach by Curtis Hayden

"This soap features a cold pressed juice from my local juice shop Huriyali which gets the majority of its produce from local farms. The juice is their "Aloe-Ha" juice consisting of raw unpasteurized coconut water, raw local honey, and much more! I don't see how I could get more local than that! But then I figured out a way to get even more local, I used sand from one of the local beaches I go to all the time on the bottom of the soap!! Scented with 3 different scents and made with a lot of love! The juice shop is actually featuring this soap in their store and the pictures I am featuring of the soap were taken at their store!"

Bhakti Iyata lives in Phoenix, Arizona and used her local ingredients:

Desert Flower Soap by Bhakti Iyata 

"Desert Flower Soap, made with Prickly Pear Cactus Extract (Prickly Pear Products, LLC Mesa, Arizona) and scented with Cactus Flower FO. Hand molded flowering cactus and little hummingbirds on top."

Leanne Timm-Chevallier lives in Southwest France and used THREE local ingredients!

Soap by Leanne Timm-Chevallier

 "Love this challenge ! For the Local Ingredient challenge, I used local organic french green lentils from a farmer down the road here in SW France.... I also used local Duck Fat.  Makes a nice scrubby soap. Colour is Chlorophyll powder."

There were so many good entries......great soaps, but I can only choose a few to feature.  Thank you everyone, for trying out new ingredients!  It always feels like you all take these challenges to heart and that makes me happy.  :D

We will be taking a break from Challenges until well after the holidays, but I'll be back with some beautiful pictures as I spot them.  So keep it real and send me pictures anytime!  Maybe YOU will be featured in my Soap Porn!  Send pics of YOUR soaps to me at joannaschmidt@live.com.  Leave your name, email, where you live and if you'd like to share, ingredients you used.   Have a great Thanksgiving holiday and stay clean!

xox Joanna

Location Is Everything - A Soap Challenge About Your Locale

You people never cease to amaze me with the beauty you create.  Some of the entries were downright amazing but I can only name one winner and one runner up.  Over the years, I have found more joy than you know, seeing your soap creations and what you take from the soap or photo challenges I have offered you.  It brings me such happiness when you stop for a few moments in the madness of your lives and really think of the challenge.  I know down deep, you know you can take on each challenge, because you will try new things and learn new things (scary things) through self discovery, whether or not your final piece comes out the way you want it or not.  Many of my major flops were my biggest learning experiences, which is unfortunate sometimes, but true nonetheless.

Many of you just lurk, but one day, perhaps you will share with us.  If you do play along but don't post your pictures, then I can only hope that this blog has inspired a piece of you to think outside the box and expand your artistic expression.

This challenge was to evaluate your physical surroundings, whether it was your street, neighborhood, city, rural landscape, anything and recreate it in a design through soap and explain it.

Mad Oils has sponsored this challenge.  Mad Oils is giving a $50 surprise gift set to the winner and a $25 surprise gift set to the runner up.  FUN!!

This is the hardest challenge I've had to choose a winner.  There are so many really thoughtful, planned out, gorgeous soaps that you all made.  There wasn't one bad one!  I am so proud of every one of you who tried this challenge.  I feel like you really did DIG DEEP.

UGH...This is seriously hard.

The Winner for this challenge is Kimberly MC with her NYC skyline at night!

"This is my first time doing a challenge and I'm happy it's this one. I grew up in New York City. Once in a while, if you're lucky and on the right side of the East River, you'll catch a beautiful cloudy, red sunset that reflects into the water. Those are the days that you find yourself seeing more than dirt stained concrete and man made towers. You realize that even in the concrete jungle, nature somehow finds a way to share her beauty. Scented with leather and colored with activated charcoal and blends of micas, this soap is my way of saying I Love New York."  - Kimberly

Kimberly:  As you know, I am also a NY girl, and this "scene" you created I've seen a million times.  It's very well executed, the colors are perfect and it is structured without being too unnatural and flows without being messy.  Great job.


The Runner Up for this challenge is Cin Dee Rella with her piece of South Dakota!

"GRASSLANDS OF SOUTH DAKOTA U.S.A. My entry is based on my overall description of S.D. I was born and raised in a big city in CT. so when my husband proposed moving to Lemmon S.D. I looked at the map and gasped they won't even have chocolate up there , I can't live like that. We moved, and I fell in love with the emptiness. At first nothing from my previous life was as scary as being out in the middle of NOWHERE with nothing, no house, tree, bird, dog, NOTHING for a 100 mile radius.  GRASSLAND dominates the state hence my entry which nearly ended up in the trash as my batch was too brittle to play with. It is colored with spinach powder & parsley, the dirt portion is coffee grounds."   - Cin Dee Rela

Cin Dee Rela:  This was a very unique interpretation of your locale.  Kudos to you for thinking outside of the box on this one.  It is not only very good, but a rare piece that shall remain on this blog for years to come.  :)



Kimberly will receive a $50 surprise gift and Cin Dee Rella will receive a $25 surprise gift from Mad Oils.  Please send me an email jo(at)madoils(dot)com to give me all of your information so we can send it your way!

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard for this challenge and every challenge we have done together.  I am proud of you! 

Here are a few other entries that didn't make the top two, but made it hard for me...

Carla Hughes of Smyrna Beach, FL

Curtis Hayden of Charleston, SC

Gorill Olsen who dreams of coming to the USA one day

Carma La of Minnesota

If you haven't been chosen, keep your chin up.  Don't let this get you down.  One of these challenges will be the one where you will shine.  Lots of love xoxo Joanna

Until the next Challenge!  If you have not joined our challenge gallery group on facebook and would like to, please join us:  SOAP CHALLENGE GALLERY


Love, JO

Celine, The Silky Soapmaker

Celine Blacow and husband, Malcolm

I have written about Celine and her wonderful soaps before and, honestly, it is a treat to use her soaps.You can see my review here if you'd like.  It is always a big treat when I get to use her soap. I don't know what I love more, the actual soap, design or the fact that her small batches are clearly time intensive and she puts her heart into every batch.  Perhaps all of those put her in a category by herself.  The ingredients she chooses are all the ingredients my skin loves, so as long as she makes soap, I shall get my hands on it.  If you haven't watched her videos, you absolutely should.  You can see all the time and thought she puts into every loaf of soap she creates.  You should find a few minutes to watch at least one video from the Soaperstar video arsenal:  You Tube Soaperstar.

Today, I am reviewing Orange Pippin Nectar, beer soap with amazing other ingredients. First let's talk about the scent.  Totally not what I expected.  I thought it would be orangey, but I don't smell it as a strong participant.  Pippin is a type of apple called a Cox's Orange Pippin.  Apple?  A tad.  Beer?  Not a wee bit.  So what is this crazy good smell?  On the wrapper, the description of the scent is this:  Fragranced with a smooth blend of pure Irish ale, crisp red apples and zesty orange in a base of warm golden ginger with a dash of cinnamon.  But, to me, it is almost floral with hints of fruit....definitely nectar of a flower, but it isn't in the ingredients.  The essence is gentle, pure and understated and yet I sit here sniffing it trying to figure out where it is taking me. On a journey to my childhood.  I can close my eyes and be lifted away for a few seconds.  Thank you, Celine, for that.

Celine's packaging is very beautiful.  The soap is wrapped in soft natural fibrous paper, then banded with colored ribbon and then a card holds it all together.  Not a simple task to get that baby unwrapped, I'll tell ya!  

I have had this bar for months and months, so when I stripped it down to nothing a few tiny fibers from the wrap stuck to the soap top - it's not dust and the fibers come right off in the water.

Top

 

Body swirl

I have tried a bunch of soaps with silk added to the mix, but Celine's soap is so smooth and slippery, it makes me wonder if there is some mystical magic she adds at trace.  ;)  Could be a combination of the clay, silk and cocoa butter.  Yum, all of which makes for a smooth skin experience and makes it fun and easy to swirl the soap in my hands to create bubbly lather.

Silky smooth soap with tight creamy bubbles

The soap produced wonderful lather.  Not the super big fat bubbles I half-expected, but between the additives of clay, the white clay and Australian Red Reef clay for the red color, they are sure to shrink bubbles, but, to me, create a creamier and skin-loving lather that my skin prefers.  You will notice that the bubbles are a pale pink.  Obviously it comes from the red clay, but it is of no consequence.  The bubbles washed right off in the water and the bonus of red clay is far superior over the big bubbles.  Australian Red Reef clay has a high iron content and essential minerals that are great for your skin.

Not only does Celine rock in her design techniques, but she makes a high quality soap, yet each one is different.  This beer soap is different than her others, but I'm not sure how it differs.  I do know, that it is smooth, hard, nourishing and smells divine.  What more can you ask for in soap??

Check her company website out: I Am Handmade - and the current soaps that are available.  Sadly, the Orange Pippen Nectar is not available, but every one of Celine's soaps is a treasure.

iamhandmade in Ireland.  Way to go, baby!

 

 

 

Bubbles bubbles bubbles!

 

 

 

 

I Am Handmade - Upcoming Review on Soaper Star

Celine Blacow is the creative artist at I Am Handmade.  She lives in Dublin, Ireland and creates absolutely gorgeous artisan soap and other body goodies.  I will be posting a review of a few of her soaps over the weekend, but let's just pause for a few minutes and take a look at some drool-worthy photos of her soap while we wait.....shall we??

I won't share which soaps I'll be reviewing, but stay tuned! :)

Go check out Soaper Star, Celine, at iamhandmade!

***

Holy Batman!

Okay... I started the Facebook Group and in one day, we already have 132 members and there is a lot of chatting, sharing, support and information.  I know this a a great step for this community.  If you have other suggestions.... There are so many good Forums out there, but if you think you would use it, need it, I will create it.  Say the word and if I can do it (not rocket science, I assume), I will.  I do know rocket scientists, but I am not one myself.

I will stick a little soap porn in here today because I know now that that is so inspiring to you (FB told me so), so I create a little offering for you this morning....  Peace!

Centaur Amber Vanilla by Amathia Soapworks  (ok, it's made with 25% shea butter.  What?!  I needs, loves, must haves....

My Planet Earth Soaps: "Winter I Freaking Hate You!" Luxury Shea Butter Soap scented with Litsea Cubeba, Lemon and Bergamot Essential Oils.  Love my new friend, Mike.  A brilliant man with a perfect voice and quite possibly a soaping god.  Haven't tried them yet, but I got BIG plans, right Mike? (I almost called him Mikey like the Life commercials.  Bet he hates that!)

 

"Pink Champagne - a blend of wild strawberry & fizzy champagne with aloe vera and silk... smells just lovely (not too sickly strawberry)"

Oh, Celine has done it again... This soap looks exactly like an ice cream bar I used to eat during the summers in Brooklyn.  It was a chocolate, vanilla a strawberry bar.  I used to run faster than my legs could move to reach the singing ice cream truck before it left.... after my mother would throw change from our 3rd story apartment and me frantically picking up the change that scattered everywhere... Thank you Celine, for the memory.  I remember the excitement I felt in my chest.  :)

Just three for today.  I have spent so much time on our new FB page that I ran out of time today.  More soon, I promise!

xo Joanna

 

Holidays, Soap Travels + Soap Porn

With the holidays approaching, soap production has slowed A LOT.  Now I am just making more to replenish our depleting stock once the holidays are over.

I think this year I am actually taking a mental vacation from work.  We will actually close up shop for the duration of our children's holiday.  We are well prepared for the holiday shoppers and all packages will ship by the 19th and then we are closed until January.  Feels good to say it out loud and make it "official".  Oh....people can order, but nothing will be processed until January.

Now, I know I promised to take on more with this blog and bring it.  I MEANT it and it is my every intention to do so.  I just get so surprised every year how slammed business and life gets in the months of November and December, so I hope you are all patient with my bringings-ons...

I do have some great news.  I got a small package from Cocobong, who has started "SOAP TRAVELS", a project that will include many countries and their soap makers which is a super fun idea.  Here is how it works:

Julia sent me a parcel with three bars of soap in it.  I received it yesterday and I am super-happy-thrilled-amazed by this whole project.  It is such a great connection between us all.  Included in the package was a bar of her own soap, and two soaps from other soap makers, which I will reveal in my next post (I have no camera and I am typing in the pitch dark).  My job is to choose the soap I want to keep and replace it with one of my own.  I then send the package to the next Soap Travels participants and then, they get to choose what soap they want!  How fun is this going to be??  Cocobong has explained Soap Travels best.

So excited to bring the photos and descriptions to you over the weekend.

Come back to check it out.

I leave you with a photograph of Julia's soap.  This photo makes me want to be a wee little girl and dive into the peaks of that brown soap.  Just imagine being so small and feeling the smoothness of that bar.  Right now.