Hi! Sara here! I'm the CEO and Master Artisan here at Coastal Carolina Soap Co. I started out as a hobbyist and started Sara's Soaps 'n Such, which I owned for 14 years. Coastal Carolina Soap Co. was borne out of my love for the North Carolina coast and its natural beauty, and we're bringing that beauty to you in our soaps and body products.
The creative well seems to be a little dry today. So, what’s new? Well, my birthday is this weekend, and this weekend is my last weekend of freedom until sometime in May. Soccer season starts next Saturday with draft day, and I’ll be coaching my younger daughter for her first season. I think this will be fun. And chaotic. Very very chaotic.
I really want to go shopping. It’s warm and pretty(ish) here, and it’s putting me in the frame of mind to go bathing suit shopping and shopping for my Spring/Summer wardrobe update. However, I do NOT want to take my children shopping with me. I wonder if I can escape tomorrow, maybe treat myself to some fun self-spoiling? At the same time, I need to take my older daughter shopping for her bathing suit. Soccer season will eat up our Saturdays.
There’s something else I’ll be buying, something I’m very excited about using for my business. You know that blog post I wrote about the Traveling Soaps? I really, really wanted to make that a vlog post, and I even tricked out the camcorder so it’d fit on a tabletop tripod. I recorded it, and in all modestly, I have to say it was good. I trotted back to the office to edit and upload the video, and… Oh no. Why isn’t my faithful camcorder communicating with my computer? Hmmm… The 4yo has been playing with my ziplink cable; maybe it’s the cable. Just to see, I tested this out with the digital camera, and suddenly the pics on my camera started uploading perfectly. So, sigh… It wasn’t the cable, an easy, inexpensive fix. No, it was the camcorder.
I spent hours yesterday combing cnet.com for reviews and Best Buy to compare. I love the idea of the waterproof action cams, but they don’t have a zoom feature, and I’m not going to be around water with it all that much. I’m still comparing and contrasting, indulging my not-very-inner technogeek. (My technogeek is completely out of the closet!) I’m excited about this new camcorder, not just for home movies and vacation videos, but also for my business. I’m hoping to be able to get interviews with two area small business owners to share with y’all.
Hopefully with bad weather behind us (for now), germs behind us and day trips behind us, Mary and I will get back on track with our posts. Look for new product pictures and business updates. The next month will be full of exciting news.
How was your Valentine’s Day? Ours was pretty nice. We’re not so much into the hearts and roses thing here. For us, it’s a day to celebrate loving each other in our lives, and we’ll use it as an excuse to make a special dinner, but that’s about it. The girls and I made this pretty scrumptious cake for their dad, he made beef stroganoff for us (my favorite), and we popped the cork on a bottle of wine. I received some sweet cards, including a handmade card from my girls, and the perfect card from my husband.
The girls and I get to extend the celebration this week while we visit dear friends and my Grandmother. For us, Valentine’s Day isn’t a one-time holiday to share love or to celebrate loving the special people in our lives. Valentine’s Day is just another day for us. We believe in celebrating our relationships with those we love every day. We say “I love you” and “You’re pretty great” on a regular basis.
What are your thoughts about Valentine’s Day? Is it something special, or just another “Hallmark holiday”?
It’s been a month since the girls and I have used shampoo to wash our hair, and this has been a great step in our less-processed lifestyle. You can read all about how our journey began here. Going “No Poo” has been a very positive experience for us. Here are some of my thoughts and observations:
It took me a couple of weeks to get through the “transition period” as my hair got used to maintaining its own natural level of sebum. The first week I used conditioner to wash styling product out of my hair (that’s called “co poo,” using conditioner to wash), and my hair felt super greasy. I won’t be doing that again!
I read about using aloe vera gel as a styling product and aloe vera juice for detangling spray/leave-in conditioner/light styling gel. I whipped up some aloe vera juice thickened with xanthan gum to use to help hold my curls naturally. It worked! My curls held through some gusty winter winds and a lot of activity.
If you’ll remember, my younger daughter started this journey with pretty dry baby hair. Her hair is growing out nicely from her last trim, and it’s so soft and manageable! With it being so dry, it was very tangly, and brushing her hair was a misery for us both because of that.
My older daughter has long, thick hair which tangles easily. She complained that the baking soda/apple cider vinegar combo wasn’t getting her tangles out, so it was very difficult to brush. I grabbed my bottle of thickened aloe vera juice, sprayed her hair and set her loose with her brush. She came back ten minutes later exclaiming, “Oh Momma! This stuff is a miracle! Look at my hair!” Her hair was smooth and shiny with no tangles; she said the spray had gotten all the tangles out. I also made up a batch of beer conditioner for her hair to help give it a little extra moisture.
After a couple of weeks of going no poo, I was distressed to notice flakes in my hair. LOTS of flakes! Ew yuck! And my scalp was beginning to itch, too. Oh dear. We simply cannot have that! In addition to that, my older daughter had flakes along her part. Back to the Facebook No Poo group and a whole bunch of handy links to determine how to take care of flakes when you’re no poo’ing. Ah-ha! Our old trusty aloe vera comes through again. A mixture of aloe vera gel and honey (2 parts aloe vera gel to 1 part honey) really hydrates the scalp. So I whipped up some really quickly and ahhh!!! My scalp felt heavenly again.
Over against all this, I have to admit that I just can’t let go of my styling mousse and hairspray, and I’d just bought a brand-spankin’ new can of hairspray before going no poo. I was prepared to use some of my artisan made liquid soap to wash the product out of my hair. After all, while soap isn’t ideal for daily use without a vinegar rinse weekly, it should be OK once in a while, right? So, imagine my excitement to discover that the aloe vera and honey combo breaks down all that styling gunk while it hydrates. Score!!! I get to use my products and have clean hair without having to use soap. Triple win!!!
I’d learned in the FB group I’m in that you can use any acid (within reason) for the rinse, not just vinegar. Coffee and tea are both acids. I didn’t know that. I really wanted to try a coffee rinse with some leftover coffee… Wait. “Leftover coffee”? What’s that? Most of my friends, colleagues and family have no concept of “leftover coffee”; they drink every last drop. Anyway, I discovered about 4 ounces of leftover coffee, so it went up to the shower with me on Tuesday. Best. Rinse. Ever! I did smell a little bit like coffee, but no one here minded.
I’ve learned what “plopping” is. When my mom and I go on our next trip together, she’s going to be looking at me sooo strangely!
This is my hair after a month of no poo. That is NOT a silver streak in the back; it’s where the sun came in. Just had to clarify that.
That’s my hair after a month of no poo. These are my experiences of it:
My hair has grown faster than usual.
I commented to my husband that my hair was curlier and softer than it’d been, and I mentioned the aloe/honey mixture. He said, “No wonder your hair’s been looking happier lately.” I have happy hair! Woohoo!
My hair is curlier than it usually is this time of year. It’s generally fairly straight during the dry winter months.
After my last trim, my hair was lank and straight, much like my Grandma’s had been, which was not the look I wanted, especially not at this age. Now it has new bounce and body.
Of course, I use artisan soap every time I bathe, and this time of year, I expect my skin to be a little drier because of it. (Real soap contains glycerin, which draws moisture to itself. When it’s humid, it draws it from the air; when it’s dry, it takes it from my skin.) The sulfates which are in commercial shampoos dry hair out. I’ve noticed that, as I’ve gone without those sulfates in my hair care regimen, my skin isn’t nearly as dry as it usually is. That makes me wonder if the shampoo was drying my skin as I rinsed?
My hair has so much bounce and body that it’s been looking cute and styled even when I don’t do anything with it. Another win!
It’s times like this, I think I’m a hippy in the making, but I absolutely refuse to give up my razors! Does going No Poo sound like something you’d dare to try?
We’re sh-sh-sh-shivering our way through the week here in Coastal North Carolina with our area looking like a beautiful Winter Wonderland as ice coats trees and lawns with icicles dangling from our mailbox, flag stand and grill.
With all this cold weather and ice, I’m trying to warm up with some warm thoughts. I’m thinking about Summer beach trips or snuggling with my sweetie beside a roaring fire. I’m pondering hot soaks and even hotter massages. Maybe there’s a reason that the most romantic day of the year falls in the dead of winter.
We have all sorts of goodies to warm up your Valentine’s Day, whether you’re of a mind to warm that special someone’s heart or warm that special someone’s body. Check out all the totally scrumptious offerings!
Chocolate AND Roses AND a long, hot soak. What a great way to say, “I appreciate all you do!”This soap will put you in the mood for l’amour with its lovely romantic floral scent.Warm her heart with these lovely Victorian Heart Soaps. Aren’t they charming? (And much fewer calories than chocolate!)A full body massage is the best way to heat up cold nights. There’s nothing like the feel of oil warmed in your lover’s hands before your lover rubs it on your skin!Just for her, roses that will last longer and smell better than the overpriced long-stem variety so popular at Valentine’s Day. Treat her to a soap, lotion and lip balm that will make her body feel special.
If the weather is yucky and you can’t get what you need by the big day (Friday!), don’t hurt yourself trying to buy something. I promise, if that special person is truly that special, he or she will understand, and you can stretch the celebration out for the whole weekend.*
What special way will you treat your Valentine this year?
* Due to inclement weather here, orders won’t go out before Thursday, so I’m afraid I can’t guarantee Valentine’s delivery. Gift certificates, however, can be there within hours.
Memorial plaque, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Zionskirchplatz , Berlin-Mitte, Germany Koordinate: 52°32′4″N 13°24′14″E / °S °W / ; latd>90 (dms format) in latd latm lats longm longs (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’m currently readingThe Cost of Discipleship by DIetrich Bonhoeffer, and as soon as I’m done reading this book, I’ll be studying it with a good friend of mine. As I read the book, I kept thinking, I really need to learn biblical Greek. That’ll be fun. I’ve been told I have a very strange idea of “fun.” This will be learning Greek for the sake of learning it; other than increasing my knowledge, this won’t benefit me significantly.
Yeah, I really love learning new things, be they academic, theological, soapy or technological. Part of the learning is also a way for me to keep my brain active. I firmly believe in the old axiom, “Use it or lose it.” By learning new things, especially at my age, I’m forcing my brain to work in different ways. Today has been a day of learning, and it has been so exciting to me! The fact you’re reading this blog HERE at my website shows you one of the things I learned today. After over a year of wanting to move my business blog from Blogger to WordPress, all while harboring a secret desire to be like “the big kids” and have my blog directly on my website, it finally happened today, pretty much all in one swell move. One colleague suggested one thing, everything clicked into place, and then it was purely a matter of putting it together. I called it a Geekgasm! It was awesome!!!
I’m also learning my way around Google+. I participated in a phone conference about leveraging G+ for my business, and that was so incredibly informative! I learned things about G+ that convince me it’s far better for my needs than Facebook, and the things I can do with Hangouts…! Oh. My. Gosh! Those are going to be a whole ‘nother blog post. I’m so excited about the possibilities for my business, and being able to share these with you!
What great and wondrous things have you learned lately?
I love to travel. I love home, too – my bed, my cats, my own kitchen. But with being home so much, I really welcome the opportunity to get away, to see new sites, new parts of the state, or even to have that moment of seeing a familiar site in a new way. Whether it’s a day trip, a weekender or a major vacation, I like exploring.
Our last family trip was a weekender in December to Beaufort, NC. It’s an absolutely lovely little coastal town, and the people in that area are just so friendly, too. In fact, I was driving through the town leading to Beaufort when one of the police officers pulled me over and issued a personal invitation for me to return to Beaufort next week, actually. Well, he issued me a speeding ticket, but he was really nice about it. Since getting that ticket, I learned that one of the pilots on the ill-fated space shuttle Challenger was from Beaufort, and as many times as I’ve been in that town, I’ve never paid attention to the memorial to him. I’m going to go check that out next week after I’m done at the courthouse. I have a friend with a shop in Beaufort, so I’ll stop in and see her, too.
Of course, with all this traveling, I absolutely MUST have good soap with which to bathe, so I always take a small bar of my own soap just in case my only other option is the dreaded “deodorant bar.” Thanks to my mother-in-law, I decided it’s time to make these small travel-sized soaps available to my customers, too. My soaps want to travel! They want to see the sights! They want to travel the world! Will you give them this opportunity?
Lovely little 1-ounce bars of travelin’ soapy goodness
These lovely little gems will be ready to own by the very end of February, and they will be ready for you to tuck into your travel bag and take with you as you hit the road this Spring and Summer. As you travel, I invite you to take pics of your soap and you and email them to me (please, no naked pics) to be featured in an upcoming blog post. Let’s see where these soaps find themselves.
I have officially gone a week-and-a-half without using shampoo.
My hair looks and feels amazing!
Weekend before last, my older daughter and I were browsing Pinterest for inspiration on stretch loop creations. Somehow, we stumbled across a blog talking about the “No Poo Method” of hair washing. I thought, Hmmm. That looks interesting and worth trying. In our house, what the mommy does, the girls have to do, so we got serious about learning more about this method.
Shampoos, for the most part, contains sulfates (usually sodium laurel sulfate or ammonia laurel sulfate). These sulfates are actually pretty strong detergents which strip hair of oils and styling products, as well as produce lather. When we use these products, yes, our hair gets clean, but then our hair has to work overtime producing its natural oils. It tends to go overboard, producing an abundance of oils, which makes us dive for that shampoo again. Conditioner helps some, but not permanently.
With no-poo, we’re washing with a tablespoon of baking soda, followed by rinsing with a dilution of apple cider vinegar (2 tablespoons diluted in a cup of water). We do that twice a week and water only in between times. I used conditioner last week to wash mousse out of my hair, and I swore I’d never do that again! My hair felt so waxy, and I’m not sure if it felt yucky because of its transition or because of the conditioner. Overall, though, my natural waves and curls are soft, springy and tangle-free. I’d like to say that this method is saving me lots of time in the shower and a good bit of water, but it’s been bitterly cold this week, so my showers are lasting just as long as they had been.
I still like my styling products and I like using my mousse and hairspray. I can’t go from Wednesday to Saturday (my second wash day of the week) with gunk on my hair, though. So what’s a girl to do? I think I’m going to content myself with going lo-poo in those situations. Surely I can use my own soap on my hair for one or two washings a week when I’m using the apple cider vinegar to condition it. I was vacillating about this when I got this awesome message from a friend/customer last night:
I asked [my husband], who has a LOT of scalp issues, we’re talking raised, itchy lesions on his scalp what he’s been using for shampoo, hoping to get him on board. Turns out he hasn’t had a lesion or an itchy scalp for a while now. Wanna guess what he’s been using? Your soap.
So, it looks like my own handmade soap will do the trick for keeping my hair clean naturally between washings. This is also good to know for our upcoming summer excursions to the beach.
Do you have natural solutions for taking care of your hair, body or home? Let’s hear about them!
It was one of those wonderful, liberating weekends. I’d been tired for a week from too little sleep and way too much of balancing children, work and school. I’m the financial accountability partner for my best friend, and a new job with new income meant it was time to re-examine the spending and saving plan. Plus, we were going to enjoy a selection of absolutely delightful, totally unadult movies and a freedom from all parental responsibilities. Being on a budget means resisting the urge to dine out (plus, it was COLD!), so we decided to cook. Is there anything more fun than cooking with your best friend or a child?
Yummy, delicious one-bowl pineapple cake
Dinner was simply homemade Buffalo wings with celery and chips, followed by this stupid-easy, absolutely delicious pineapple cake. The wings recipe is the marriage of two recipes I found at Allrecipes.com, though the sauce had an affair with my own creativity. You can find the pineapple cake recipehere. We didn’t have pecans, so we skipped them and didn’t miss them.
To make the wings… (Sorry, they got gone too quickly for pictures)
Before you get going with the chicken itself, make a batch of Italian dressing by following the directions on a packet of Zesty Italian dressing mix, substituting lime juice for the vinegar. Let sit for at least two hours.
Start with a 2.5 pound bag of plain frozen party wings, thawed.
In one bag, combine 1/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper.*
In another bag, combine 3/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs (can also use plain bread crumbs) with 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper.*
Pour 1/2 cup buttermilk into a bowl. (If you don’t have buttermilk, pour 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into a measuring cup and add milk to make 1/2 cup. Stir lightly and let sit for 5 minutes.)
Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place party wings in the bag with the flour mixture, doing one at a time. Shake to cover. Dredge wing in buttermilk, then place in bag with breadcrumb mixture. You can shake up to three wings at a time. Place wings on cookie sheet.
Once cookie sheet is filled, place in oven. Cook for 18 minutes. Flip, then cook for 18 more minutes.
While the wings are cooking, make your Buffalo sauce. In a small saucepan, melt 3 T plus 1 teaspoon butter. To this add 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of your Zesty Lime Italian dressing and 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper sauce (i.e., Texas Pete, Tabasco or something similar). Gently stir together until hot. Place wings in a large bowl. Pour sauce over wings and toss to coat.
* Depending on how many wings you have, you may need to mix up more flour and/or breadcrumb mixture. We made 25 wings and had to make up more of both, and we had just enough sauce.
These are a staple for our football watching events here, and you can bet we’ll be making up a bunch for the Superbowl! The lime juice adds a delightful flavor to the wings while somewhat mitigating the heat of the sauce. Absolute perfection! Serve them with crisp, cold celery and follow it with a slice of that scrumptious cake.
This is a great, fun project you can do in not a lot of time, and it’s kid-friendly, too! Woohoo! Win! My daughters and I had a lot of fun making these today. And since it’s soap, clean-up of all those inevitable messes is a breeze. Let’s go!
First, create your design on water-soluble paper. I did 2 dozen hearts in two different colors of pink. I have an inkjet printer which worked just fine. Cut them out carefully, leaving a little tag on the side for holding and pinning. You’ll cut this off at the end.
Cut-out paper hearts.
Next, melt a half cup for clear melt & pour soap base. I absolutely love this clear soap base from Brambleberry, but you can also find it at big-box craft and hobby stores. Using a microwave-safe container, heat soap in 30-second increments until the soap is melted. Once the soap base is melted, add 1/2 mL. of fragrance oil. For these, I used Fresh Cut Roses from Nature’s Garden Candles, but Brambleberry also has a fabulous Passionfruit Rose fragrance.
Clear melt & pour base
Adding fragrance to the melted base
Using tweezers, hold a heart by its tab and dip it in the melted soap base, being sure to cover the entire heart. Let the excess soap drip off of it and set it aside to dry. We used straight pins on a piece of cardboard. Repeat until all the hearts are dunked. You may find it necessary to remelt the soap. Microwave again in 20-30 second intervals, stirring in between intervals, until the soap is fluid and easy to work with again.
My 4-year-old dipping a heart in the soap.
Sometimes one escapes. It happens.
Soap petals setting up. Note how we left a little space between the petals and the cardboard.
After your soap petal hearts have set up, take them down and carefully cut the tabs off. Set them in a bowl or dish by your sink.
All done and trimmed. Aren’t they precious?
To use: Take one soap petal and use it to wash your hands. Each soap petal is good for one hand washing. These are also great when you’re out and about and don’t want to use that stuff in soap dispensers.
Do you want the sheet of hearts in a .pdf? Leave a comment below, and I’ll be happy to upload it.
Check out these Victorian heart soaps. I highly suggest them to you because they are good quality soap with an elegant design. I have black, white and red for sale. They are very pretty and have a dusting of mica, perfect for Valentine’s Day.
The red one is a limited edition and so is the white one, too! The design I will only do for Valentine’s Day. The black one is a new variation on an old design. The other soaps will be available year round.
