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

Sweet Soap Porn Saturday

I have been taking photographs for my business' new website (not live yet), and also working on post production, editing each photograph carefully until the crop, light and color was just right for the photographs of Mad Oils' colorants.  As a mica supplier, it is incredibly important to make sure the colors I put up on the screen are identical to the colors we carry.  All month I've been photographing micas, fragrance oils, poppy seeds,  (yes, Facebook viewers, most of you figured out that the "Who Am I?" photo I posted was indeed a gaggle of Spanish Blue Poppies.) 

One of my real passions, however, is photographing soaps.  It's my favorite subject matter and I realized that in 2007, when I started this blog reviewing soaps from around the world.  I do miss reviewing soaps, but at some point after a couple of years, there were a bunch of soap review blogs that popped up out of nowhere, so my soap reviews didn't seem necessary anymore.  Other bloggers were doing a great job reviewing soaps, and because I was getting increasingly busy, I turned the blog into my personal diary and for displaying soap.  I basically handed it over and begin something else:  SOAP PORN.  The only reason I ever started the blog was to expose talented unknown soap makers to the world through photos and positive reviews.  Giving the handcrafted soap world a place to reveal themselves was my goal and I think I was involved in something wonderful.

This weekend, I found fantastic soap blogs with better than dynamite photos of super-stunning soaps. Three women soap makers and bloggers. I share with you, the three artists that I think have incredible talent and need to be further exposed.


SOAPJAM, Philippines

 

soapjam

I love everything about Soap Jam's soap, from the colors she puts together, to the designs she creates all the way to the stamp that's perfectly placed.  The photography is also spot on!  Thank you, Sylvia, for being an inspiration and for sharing your beauties!  I am so happy I stumbled on you this weekend!

   

 INFUSIONS, Maya
 

Infusions... I am breathless.  I wish her About page has more information so I could share that with you and also know myself, more about her background.

___________________________________

SAVONS FANTASIES, Jazz

 savonsfantaisies

Jazz, who writes the Savons Fantasies blog, has a wide range of techniques she uses. I do love the different styles she attempts (and does well!) and it's wonderful to see one soaper try all of them.  Some soap makers can find their groove with one style and then find it hard to expand their horizons by trying new techniques because of their comfort zone.  It seems as if Jazz tries everything and does it with style!

______________________________

This is one of the reasons I run Soap Challenges on Facebook (and here).  Expanding the way we think, look at things and reveal the artist within us all.


To wrap it up, I am sharing a photo from Soap Jam's blog of Sylvia and Maya together!  Sylvia on the left and Maya on the right:

I lift my coffee to you both and to Jazz!  Thank you, soapy ladies.

xoxo Joanna

(Joanna began The Soap Bar blog & now owns Mad Oils, a wholesale supplier of colorful micas, fragrances and more soap supplies)

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!

 

 

 

 

The Soap Conference Part Deux

I feel pretty lucky to have been at the conference this year.  I met some wonderful people and left with lifetime friends and family, if you can even believe it.  Well I have decided to be part of the staff next year at the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild's conference in Tucson, Arizona.  I encourage you all to save up now and sign up for the conference.  It's not only a great learning experience, but a chance in a lifetime to meet people you may really connect with.  For now or for life.  It was an experience to say the least.  

Here are some photos that I cherish:

Tricia Samundsen and Me - last day of conference

Amanda Griffin, Charlene Simon and Me - Party Night

Charlene Simon and Tanya Rasley - Winning Duo

Soap Conference '13 - HSCG- Part 1

I attended the Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetic Guild's (HSCG) soap conference a couple of weeks ago and I am still feeling the love from the whole experience.  I am utterly shocked, dazed and content by my experience.  Many months ago, Leigh O'Donnell of HSCG, asked if I'd be interested in speaking at the 2013 conference.  ME?!?  I was scared, excited and honored all at the same time.  I've been wanting to go to their soap conferences for many years, but could not attend for different reasons.  Well, this time, I wasn't going to miss it!

So....she asked me what I like to make and I told her "Milk Soaps. I make it differently than how I was taught."  So I told her about my technique and she said it was perfect.  I said,"it's just an easy way to do it.  Like a cheat."  And she shuts me right up and says, "That is innovative!  Not cheating!!  If you teach someone how to do something an easier way, they will want to know it!" 

oh, ok.....So months went by...weeks...days.... until I finally packed up and got on the plane.

I arrived at the hotel, checked-in and found my room.  Ahhh, it was perfect, I fell onto the bed, stretched out and closed my eyes.  Finally.  I head downstairs and who do I find but the lovely Tricia Samundsen!  Then one by one, I meet the crew, coordinators, board members....A ton of people.  Instantly I felt at home.  This was where I belonged when I wasn't with my family.  I felt in in my bones.

Raleigh was my slice of heaven for the weekend.  All mine.  Bwua ha ha!

Dinners, drinks, seminars, breakfast meet-ups, parties and lots of laughs. Just a little background on me, if you don't already know, I am pretty much a homebody and don't go out that much, mostly because of the lack of people that reside here in South Florida, but I've never been a particularly social being.  The conference weekend yanked me out of my shell.  I met some sweet, loving, and interesting people all in one place.  I made friends so quickly.  A treat to say the least.

I spoke at the conference...two seminars in one day, each for about an hour and there were approximately 100 people in each seminar.  Honestly, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it, but the guest speaker was Ann Evanston, who gave a beautiful and inspiring motivational speech the morning of my seminars, that it completely took me to a different notch and I felt okay being ME in front of a crowd.  I channeled the authentic self that I am and relaxed enough to just be and share what I do instead of worrying so much about what others thought of me.  Big step for me, folks, big step.  

 

***

I know that many of you wanted to find out the method I spoke about, (which really isn't anything new) and I have just been too busy to post it.  Here is the basic jist of it.  Please do not make this unless you have a number of successful cold process batches under your belt.  And know that I can't be held responsible for what YOU make...this is just an explanation of how I  do it.  :)

Overview: We all know that soap is created by combining oils with lye.  But when you add milk to your soap, you’re also adding sugars and proteins to the equation and thus creating a new chemical composition: Milk Soap.  Although that can sound daunting, there is no reason to be nervous about trying milk soap for the first time, or taking another shot at it if you’ve sworn it off because of past disasters.  I’ve devised a way to make milk soaps that come out the same way every time.  For me.

Background: Because milks contain sugar, they will heat up your soap batter and can speed up trace which can leave little time to incorporate the ingredients and finish your soap.  The traditional way to prevent this from happening is to freeze your milk ahead of time and then add lye to the milk cubes very slowly while mixing into a slushy solution.  Many people successfully make milk soaps this way, but it has some issues for me and I hate issues.  My technique alleviates the following problems while producing a few bonus benefits.

Problems with the traditional way:

 “When I add the lye to the milk, it makes a horrible ammonia stench!”   

“My lye solution turned orange-y brown”.

 “Freezing milk requires hours of additional planning and wrecks my work schedule.  It also clutters up my freezer.”

 “I don’t like adding milks during the most caustic stage of saponification.” 

- - --  -Some people feel this can damage milks and degrade their benefits.

My solution resolves all of those problems.  You’ll avoid nasty smells and color changes, free up your schedule, and protect delicate ingredients.  All you need to do now is pick the milk for the soap you’ll be making.   

Milk Properties

For the conference's demonstration, I used two milks separately in two different batches:

Buttermilk   It is often used in making baby soap because of its gentle properties and is great for sensitive skin.  It contains alpha-hydroxy acid, which is used in facial preparations.  It isn’t clear if those acids survive saponification (but my technique should up the odds), but buttermilk creates a wonderful smoothness.

Coconut milk is preferred by vegans, and is technically plant milk.  Coconut milk’s main fatty acid, lauric acid, is known for its great skin nourishing benefits and to have both anti-carcinogenic and anti-viral properties.  It adds moisturizing and gentle cleansing qualities in addition to the fluffy lather it brings to your soap.  

SCENT CHANGES:          Milks impart little to no scent in your final soap.   

COLOR CHANGES:          Buttermilk creates a beige soap and coconut milk creates an off-white soap.

Simple Milk Soap Recipe

This is a basic cold process soap recipe which I prepared to demonstrate my technique of making milk soap without the hassle of frozen milk cubes, horrific ammonia stink and discolored lye mixture. 

Concentrated Lye Solution - Caution!  This amount of water is half the liquid typically used with this amount of lye.

-----

Lye Solution

Distilled Water                    210 grams

Lye                                      184 grams

*

Oils

Olive                                    516 grams

Palm Oil                               388 grams

Coconut Oil 76 °                  388 grams

*

Milk - liquid form, room temp.

Coconut / Buttermilk           210 grams

Directions:

• Combine lye and distilled water, mix until incorporated.  Let cool to just above room temperature.
• Melt and combine all oils.  Let cool to just above room temperature.
• With your stick blender immersed into the oils and burped, slowly introduce your concentrated lye solution.  Continuously stir; blend in short bursts.  Because the lye solution is concentrated, the soap batter may not thicken consistently.  Don’t worry!  That’s normal.  Just keep stirring with occasional bursts of power until smoothly blended and you reach a light trace.
• Pour your room temperature (not frozen) milk in at a slow, steady speed while, continuing to stir and apply short bursts of power from your blender until fully incorporated.  Pour into your mold.   You’re done! 

Some other milks you can use (*indicates vegan milks):

Goat

Sheep

Cow (buttermilk, cream, half-n-half, sour cream, yogurt…etc)

Donkey

Yak

Camel

Human

Almond*

Coconut*

Soy*

Rice*                                                                    (*indicates vegan milks)

I think the seminars were fun and I was blessed with the most fabulous assistant, Tricia Samundsen (my Vanna White).  I received a lot of positive feedback from a bunch of attendees.  I hope I helped some people.  So here is to Leigh O'Donnell and innovation!

***

At the moment our company, Absolute Soap, isn't carrying straight milk soaps, but we have our Unscented Alabaster Handmade Soap (sea salt soap) that people love.  We are also a vegan soap company and will only be making coconut milk soaps in the future.  Later until Part 2!

Part 2: coming soon.....