New stuff, continued

Well, so much for waiting until tomorrow to post pictures! I apologize for the messy looking soap molds, but what's inside them looks great, I think!

Some new stuff

Took yesterday (Friday) off from soap making, but back at it today. Today I made an all natural activated charcoal soap, swirling it with my favorite soap recipe which is a rather pale  creamy white. No titanium dioxide used, so we'll see how it turned out. Also left it unscented.  Apparently, that wasn't enough for me! I have had this mold my father-in-law made for me that I had yet to use. It is solid wood, but kind of an unusual shape, so I wasn't sure what to do with it. I have been jealously looking at the great stuff everyone has been making using molds like these http://www.brambleberry.com/Baltic-Birch-36-Bar-Wooden-Mold-P4708.aspx from Brambleberry, so I decided to use the mold from my father-in-law to make a pretty design on top, which will be the front side of my soap...if that makes sense :) I made one of my old standby recipes - just 2 pounds - mixed the lye and fat mixture together with no scent, and poured that mixture into cups with some pretty fall colors. The colors I used were black (activated charcoal), rust (I hand blended colors to create this), red bourdeaux, and gold sparkle mica. To the main soap mixture, I added pumpkin spice fragrance which smelled out of this world! Poured in the scented mixture into the mold and made some pretty designs on the top with the aforementioned colors.  I am sooo excited to see the result, but don't want to let myself get too excited yet! Pictures will be posted tomorrow :)

Happy Saturday!
Jen

Back to soapmaking!

So my summer course is finally over and I now have time again to make some soap.  Mom has been very busy making tons of batches, but unfortunately, she only has a camera on her phone so I don't have many pictures of her soaps to share. We are gearing up for fall.  We've got one confirmed craft show in October that last year had attendance of 30,000! We're just about confirmed for another craft show that will be in a very busy local mall in September. Finally, I was contacted by someone asking if I'd like to participate in their craft show in December so I may be doing that as well.  In addition, Etsy sales are coming along nicely.  However, I'm feeling extremely uncertain as to how much product we need. I've read to either expect to make 7 to 10 times your entrance fee, or 1% of the attendance of the show. If anyone has feedback on their own experiences, I would love to hear!


 Last week I made a great Chai Tea recipe, similar to the Chai Latte I am currently selling.  The new recipe, however, is my own creation and is completely vegan. Sprinkled a little bit on cinnamon on top.

I love the way the way soap mixture fell way down through the scented tan colored mixture.
This past Friday, I gave a shot at making some milk soaps.  I haven't been making any milk soaps since my class, but was ready to dive in!  I made one loaf of soap made with local yogurt and local honey, and another with coconut milk scented with almond. Results of the yogurt/honey soap are below:

The cut soaps are below

The soaps have an interesting, kind of nutty smell to them. I washed my hands with a small piece after cutting, just to try it out and pH test the soap.  Even though it is a fresh soap and needs a lot of time to cure, it felt creamy and nice. The soap turned out a bit more rustic and not as smooth as what I am used to, but overall still seems like it will be a nice one.  My husband loves the way it smells, and I like that it is made with local ingredients.

I'm still on the fence about the almond coconut milk soap.  The smell is improving as time goes by (it was almost too almond at first), but this soap was really a huge challenge to make.  It came to trace incredibly fast, and I was about 5 seconds away from having soap in a bowl. Because of the fast trace, I had a lot of difficulty getting it into the mold. The result of the cut bars is some air pockets on the sides that I am not wild about.  I think the soap is ugly, but I've used it on my hands and it is fabulous.  Maybe folks can overlook its ugliness? :-)

Made some Nag Champa today, with another recipe I created with soap calc. Wish me luck!  Have a great week everyone!

A fun Saturday

So yesterday was a really nice day.  We got a call from my dad to ask if we wanted to come over and see my step-sister's new baby.  Of course we wanted to! He is only 2 months old, and honestly, I have zero experience with babies so I was quite excited to meet him. Steve and  I got to hold him, feed him and play with him.  I'm in love! He was such a good boy and it was a great visit.

After we left, we headed down the street from dad's house to a little farm stand on the corner of the road. That area of the state has particularly great produce so we bought corn, tomatoes, cucumbers and box of blueberries for just $8.  Then we headed over to Trinity Dairy in Enfield, where we picked up some farm fresh 1/2 and 1/2, honey and some plain yogurt (the yogurt is reserved for soapmaking!). It felt great to be back in my hometown on such a nice summer day.

The next pitstop came at Creative Fibers in Windsor, CT.  Creative Fibers is a great local yarn store, and I don't think I've ever left there without leaving a good chunk of my paycheck! I bought 2 skeins of gorgeous Malabrigo yarn and 3 skeins of mint green Dreambaby yarn (thanks to the earlier visit, I've been inspired to make a baby blanket). Below is the Malabrigo:

I'm definitely thinking this color would make a beautiful popcorn stitch scarf.  Below is the Dreambaby:

 

The Dreambaby is that soft, cushion-y kind of yarn that is perfect for a new baby.  The color works for either a boy or girl.  Again, I'm thinking maybe popcorn stitch, though it might take me a long time to complete a small blanket in that stitch.  Or, if I'm more in a rush, I think a basketweave stitch would be beautiful as well.

Guess that's it for now.  Off to do homework and to try and tear myself off of Etsy!

Etsy Treasuries

Nutmeg Naturals' soaps have been listed in the following great treasuries on Etsy!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTE1NzAzMzN8NDE2NTEyODQ4/mary-had-a-little-lamb?index=2


http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTAyNDgxMTJ8NDQyMjIzMzQ1/little-things-that-make-a-housea-home?index=0


http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTAyNDgxMTJ8NDIyMjg0NjMz/berry-berry-nice-indeed?index=1


http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTI2MDA5NTJ8NDEwMzQ4MzU4/good-clean-fun?index=0


http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NjkzMzY1OXw0NDMwOTExMDc/lovely-lime-ade?index=0


http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTQyNTAzMzF8NDIwMDA3MDA1/lemon-n-lime?index=1


http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTI4NjA1Njl8NDI0ODM1OTQw/old-aqua?index=0

Please stop by Etsy and see the beautiful items that have been curated!

Etsy & Artfire

I've got a pretty good selection of soaps now online in my Etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/people/NutmegNaturalsCT . Please stop by and see what Nutmeg Naturals has to offer. We are proud to be made in the USA and a natural alternative to commercial soaps!

I also check started up an Artfire store yesterday, but there seems to be a bigger learning curve with that one....and not nearly the same amount of traffic one would find on Etsy.   I have been getting about 20 hits in 5 minutes on Etsy, while the soap I listed on Artfire last night is still sitting there with just one view :(

Happy 4th of July!

Wow! This weekend has been a whirlwind.  So much has happened over the last 4 days:

1. Our website, www.nutmegnaturals.com went live
2. I set up a PayPal account
3. I set up an Etsy account
4. I listed items on Etsy
5. After I listed our Cranberry Bog soap, it was picked up in someone's treasury in about 5 minutes.  So excited! This literally made my day.
6. Made a really cool looking soap (see below)

I was going to do a spoon swirl, but got lazy and just took turns layering and pouring the 3 colors I made. I'm really happy with how they came out.  It reminds me of an underwater scene.  See that little curve under each bar of soap?  Well, my soap mold liner must have curled up a bit in that spot...but you know what?  I really like the way it looks.  Kind of an ergonomic soap with a place to hold it in your hand!

Mom was busy making soap too.  She made another batch of her mouth-watering coconut lemongrass.  I really must refrain from wanting to take a big bit out of this soap.  Isn't it gorgeous?

Mom also made another batch of spring garden, but adjusted the color to a beautiful, soft purple.  She mixed her own fragrances for this soap, mixing lilac and sweet cut grass together.

Tomorrow will be a very busy day.  Back to work after the nice, long weekend, and back to school.  I'm taking a summer class towards my Accounting degree.  It should be interesting packing 5 months of school work into 4 weeks.  Wish me luck!