Coastal Carolina Soap Blog

Most people don’t think it’s enough that I make my own spectacular soaps. Some people know that I put together my own flower arrangements, love to cook, and have created my own Christmas wreaths. That, however, is where the domestic deity-esque traits come to an end.

Until today.

For those of you who may’ve just woken up from a coma or have been in space for the past year, now’s as good a time as any to tell you we’re in a recession. And not like a recession’s bad enough – I can pretty creatively stretch a dollar if I have to – but a recession on top of Christmas is a nightmare! It’s one thing to make that dollar stretch to cover food, rent and bills, but adding presents on top of that is a challenge. Well, as sometimes happens, I had the money in hand, I went to the grocery store and I forgot laundry detergent with at least three loads in queue. Yea. I trotted upstairs to start at least the first load, thinking that I had enough detergent to get something accomplished before I had to run buy more later. I’m pouring the detergent into the lid… And a bit pours out… Then it slows to a trickle… And I’ve got not even an ounce of detergent in there. Hrmmmmm, what to do?

Then I remembered…

A few months ago, I started researching homemade laundry soap with the intent of making my own. The main thing is, the soap for laundry soap needs to be a bit more on the harsher side, and I just haven’t had the time to make a batch like that. I did have one leftover bar, though, that pretty much crumbled the moment I tried to cut it, so I ran it through the food processor and turned it into powder. It’s just been sitting and meditating on the meaning of life for a while now. This morning, I turned it into laundry soap by combining 2 parts soap to 1 part borax to 1 part washing soda. It seems to be working pretty well, though the real test will be my husband’s nasty work clothes.

It only takes 2 tablespoons (one ounce) of the laundry powder to get the clothes clean. It doesn’t lather or bubble like detergents do, but that’s the trade-off when using a natural product. Besides, it’s not the bubbles that get clothes clean; it’s the soap itself. The borax softens water and the washing soda is a laundry booster.

Yes, I’m quite well aware I told you how I made my laundry soap. After all, you can Google to find the directions. I just figure, ya know, we’re all in this recession together. Even if you happen to be reading this post from the office in your Paris flat, the recession’s still impacting you, too. Some soapmakers are just soooooooo snooty about their formulas and techniques, believing that they’re so much better than everyone else, that they won’t even think of sharing even the simplest recipe. However, these ingredients are easy for everyone to find, and I’m certainly happy to share even this small way of making life a little easier and cheaper for everyone dealing with financial hardships, or maybe just those who are looking for a healthier, greener way to wash clothes.

It may seem sort of silly, that this show, this one event – 6 hours one day a year – would be my big one of the year, but it is. I don’t run the show circuit like some crafters do (more power to them!), so I select the shows in which I participate very carefully. The EPA one has been my favorite and best event for the 6 years I’ve been doing it. It’s always a pleasure to me to see returning customers and new ones. Many of these customers will only buy from me this one time a year, but that’s OK.

So many of these fine people have done a lot over the years to boost my business – faithful patronage, patience on special orders and sharing their love of my products to others – that I wanted to give a little something back. Soooooo… I’m offering a special coupon for EPA employees. For a limited time, enjoy 25% off your purchase. Use coupon code EPA25 at checkout, and when choosing a shipping option, choose “store pickup” if you’d like me to deliver it to the office. Follow-up sales from this event always get free delivery.

Thanks everyone, for yet another great year with you, and I look forward to seeing y’all next year! 🙂

Last month, I got this wild idea to make coffee cup soaps and coffee cake soaps. I would package them together and call it a “Coffee Break.” It was something of an adventure, because the idea included actually moulding the CP soap in coffee cups. When moulding CP soaps, it really helps to use something flexible or something out of which the soap will come easily. Usually I use slab or box moulds – lined – and I can pull the soap out by the liner. I didn’t want those odd lines in my soaps, so I didn’t line the cups. Instead, I greased them heavily with Vaseline (soapmakers’ trick) and then poured the soap in.

The soap is a delight. I used coffee in the water phase and a yummy Coffee Bean FO for the scent. It’s a great wake-up, and the soap itself is very moisturizing and skin-nourishing. I finally got the soaps out of the cups this week. They’re a bit soft, but I’m confident they’ll harden up nicely.

Well, you can’t very well have coffee without coffee cake, right? I made the coffee cake soap a few weeks ago and scented it with Cinnamon Coffee Cake fragrance. It really does smell good enough to eat. Here’s what that soap looks like…

It’ll be a week-and-a-half before I even think about packaging these, as I want to give the soaps the maximum amount of time to cure before I get them ready to sell. The price will be dependent on the final weight of the soaps, but figure that each coffee cup yields two bars, and each set will come with two bars of the coffee cake soap, so that’s like getting 4 bars of soap in each set. These will make great gifts for the coffee lovers on your list!

In this post, I’d talked about how God rebatches us. I was talking earlier today to a faithful Christian man (my former stylist at Sheer Bliss), and was telling him about that entry on rebatching. Michael said, “And you keep your hand on the soap the whole time, just like the Master does us.” Excellent point and a connection I hadn’t made before. I thought more about it on the way home, and I thought also of the one time I don’t have my hand on the soap, and that’s when it’s in the oven cooking. However, I don’t leave it alone. It’s not like I pop it into the oven and go to bed or trot out to run errands. Nope, I stay close to the oven where I can use my nose to make sure it’s not overcooking and check on it every so often. I stir it and make sure it’s fully gelling, too. So, even though my hand’s not on it, I’m still right there with it, just as God’s still with us, even through the entire rebatching process.

There’s just something about this time of year that makes me want to be creative – way beyond the usual soaps and body products. It’s at this time of year that I want to sew stuff (even though I don’t sew), or knit scraves (don’t knit), or create these great Christmas centerpieces that’d make Martha Stewart weep with envy. I indulged my creative side yesterday, taking a little break from the frenetic soapmaking and lotion making of the past month. I made salt dough ornaments with cinnamon in them. They were surprisingly easy to make, and I made them in shapes that are going to be fun to decorate – snowman, teddy bear, tree, mitten, heart, and, of course, Gingerbread Boy and Girl. While they cooked, our entire townhouse had this amazing cinnamon, “Home for the Holidays” scent to it.

In the interest of getting something accomplished – and I do still have a business to run – I made some Smelly Jellies (new goodie I’m adding to my product line) while my ornaments were cooking. For these, I chose such delicious holiday scents as Orange Pomander, Cinnamon & Clove and Frasier Fir. Can you just imagine it? Picture if you’d walked into my house, with the scents of cinnamon, clove, orange and fir greeting you as you opened the door. You’d have expected to see a tree in the corner and spiced cider simmering on the stove. I’m glad I did these, because the cinnamon was such a comforting scent that it helped me relax for a bit and experience a bit of calm in the midst of the “Silly Season” chaos.

I’ll post pictures of the ornaments when they’re painted. Some of these we’ll give away, and perhaps I’ll sell a few. Who knows? They’re going to be fabulous on a tree, because when the heat from the lights hits them, it’ll release the cinnamon smell. I might have to hang one in my car. What better way to stay calm during traffic?

I don’t mind saying, this burns me. I saw an ad last night for Dove Beauty Bar claiming that soap leaves soap scum behind, but their “beauty bar” rinses clean. That’s not soap scum that real soap leaves behind. One of the by-products of the soapmaking process is glycerin, which is a humectant. Humectants, like glycerin (honey is also one), draw moisture from the air to your skin, moisturizing it with water, nature’s most perfect moisturizer. You want soap to leave glycerin on your skin. This is a good thing. Dove Beauty Bars aren’t soap. Yes, they may look like soap, but chemically, they’re not saponified oils; they’re detergent bars. If they were real soap, there’d be no need for them to add “1/4 moisture cream” or to push their lotions.

When you use real soap like the ones I sell, two important things happen to your skin. One, the soap molecules bind with dirt and germs on your skin. Soap doesn’t actually stick to skin, so in binding with the dirt, it lifts the dirt to be washed away when you rinse the soap off. Two, the soap leaves behind a thin, invisible layer of glycerin. The glycerin draws moisture from the air and brings it to your skin, so you get clean and moisturized in one step.

Now, there is a caveat to this. If you live in a very dry environment, the glycerin will draw moisture out of your skin, leaving it dry. You’d need to follow with a moisturizing lotion. One trick I use to get the maximum benefit from the glycerin as we head to dry winter months here in North Carolina is… Well, I make my morning routine work for me. After my shower, I take my vitamins and floss and brush my teeth. While I’m doing that, I leave the bathroom door closed, trapping the steam from my shower in the bathroom with me. While I’m tending to my teeth, the glycerin from my soap is drawing that moisture in the bathroom to my skin, making it silky and soft. I seldom have to use lotion and if I do choose to use it, it’s for the scent.

You’re reading my blog, then you decide to see for yourself what the excitement’s all about, so you find a convenient link and head on over to my website. You poke around, check out my wares, but then you leave. What’s up with that? What would it take to entice you to try for yourself the superior soaps, bath and body products offered by Sara’s Soaps ‘n Such?

Maybe if I told you something about the products? The colorful handcrafted soaps that grace “The Soap Table” are made of high quality glycerin soap base and a luscious assortment of scents. Sure, a lot of people buy these soaps to admire in a bathroom or to give as gifts for other people to admire in someone else’s bathroom, but there are also “functional” soaps to complement the “fancy” ones. (All my soaps are very safe for use, by the way.) The handmade soaps that share space on “The Soap Table” are made of the finest ingredients in small batches – usually 3-4 pounds – to ensure the highest quality product. I formulate each soap batch to create a luxurious, bubbly soap that’s nourishing for your skin and a treat for your nose. My personal favorites are Ooh La La-vender and The Soap of Milk & Honey (and Oatmeal).

Now, what about those scruptious body treats standing at attention on The Such Table? Goat’s milk lotion deep conditions skin while delectable scents provide a light perfume. My Revitalizing Body Polish is a spa treat for the shower, exfoliating and moisturizing in one easy step. Then there are my all natural products… Tea Tree Balm to soothe away rashes and bug bite itches. Bath Teas to relax and rejuvenate both body and mind. Lip Balms that nourish and moisturize lips in yummy natural flavors. And my best seller, Go Away Bugs!, my 100% natural mosquito repellant that’s DEET free, making it safe for all ages and sensitivities.

Still not convinced you really need to buy my luxurious, handcrafted, high quality bath and body products for yourself or to share with someone else? How about I sweeten the deal? Just for you blog readers out there, take 15% off your purchase of $20.00 or more (before shipping) between now and 30 November 2008. Just enter coupon code NEWCUST15 at checkout. Hurry! This offer won’t be around forever and, really, won’t it be nice to have a few Christmas gifts out of the way? (Christmas products coming 1 November, so check back for them.)

Often in the midst of enjoying the relatively new-found – OK, so it’s now been 6 months already! – pleasure of making soap completely from scratch, it’s easy to forget the simple pleasure of a well-poured tray of handcasted soaps. This week I’ve been trying to get my Christmas shaped soaps restocked. One such soap is my Gingerbread guest soap, which I color with a pretty brown spice. There’s a simple pleasure in seeing the soap from the bottom of the mould and noting that it’s so well mixed that the colorant didn’t settle to the bottom, giving me pretty, uniform speckles.

Today was one of those chilly, blustery Fall days that make you pull out the winter coat and dream of hot drinks in the evening. I poured my soaps, did some dishes and paid some bills. In fact, it was such a quiet day that I had time to enjoy a good book and take a power nap before running my afternoon errands. When I woke up from my nap, I looked out the back door and saw this plethora of bright colors. It’s like all the leaves had changed when I wasn’t looking, transforming our back wooded area into a kaleidoscope of brilliant yellows, reds, oranges and greens. Seeing all those lovely Fall leaves was a nice, simple pleasure.

Finally my daughter and I came home, and the starter for Amish Friendship Bread that my friend Cookie gave me was ready to become bread. Amish Friendship Bread takes 10 days and about half an hour of prep time to make, then another hour to bake. It’s active. You get to mush it up in a bag every day, and seven days into the process, you add sugar, flour and milk to it. Then you mush it some more. The fun part to watch is, after adding the sugar, it reacts with the yeast and releases carbon dioxide, which causes bubbles and makes the bag puff up. Sunday morning, we discovered that the expanding bag will also push stuff off the counter if it’s in its way.

Anyway, my daughter and I donned aprons and got to work on our bread. We also sectioned out some starter to share with our friends, and I’m trying to decide if I want to keep the fourth bag of starter (you’re supposed to, according to the directions), or give it away, too. I think it can be frozen, which will be a good idea, as I can save it for closer to the holidays. The mixture makes 2 full-size loaves, and our first one is in the oven as I type this and smelling awesome! Besides the very long prep time for this bread in our “gotta have it now” society, the instructions say that you can’t use metal in the mixing at all. This means using a plastic bowl (melamine in our case, but I use them for mixing all the time, anyway) and mixing it with a spoon by hand. I don’t even mix my soap by hand! Sometimes the simplest ways bring the most pleasure.

I took yesterday off from soapmaking to enjoy the NC State Fair with my family. We had a blast!!! My daughter is at that age now where she’s really into the rides, which made it hard for my husband and me to enjoy the buildings and displays. We didn’t even make it into some of our “must do” buildings (we always enjoy the really creative garden displays). Hubby and I alternated riding the rides with her, and we let her ride one ride by herself, which thrilled her to no end! As my daughter and I rode this one ride called the Traffic Jam (yep, it was a kiddie ride), I thought to myself, Wow, for three tickets, this is a pretty good ride. I’ve discovered that she likes speed; the faster the ride goes, the happier she is. I also thought it was pretty cool that she was putting her arms up in the air and stuff like that. When I was her age, I was still clinging to the bar.

In addition to the tons of samples, it felt like we ate all day long. We ate breakfast there at the Apex Lion’s Club concession stand (we always pick this place because we know the food’s gonna be good). Mmmmmmm… For me, a sausage biscuit where the biscuit was a scratch-made buttermilk biscuit and a bowl of these absolutely divine grits. (For those of you who may be unfamiliar with grits… It’s a hot cereal made with coarse-ground corn. I like mine with butter, sugar and just a titch of salt and pepper.) All I wanted for lunch was a hot dog, and then before we left, we got funnel cake and Hubby just had to try this year’s deep-fried goodie, deep fried pecan pie. I tasted it, and really, it wasn’t that bad, but I think I’ll stick with my funnel cake, thank you very much.

Standing tall right beside Dorton Arena on the fairgrounds is the Ruth Graham Memorial Waterfall. Mrs. Graham is the late wife of Jim Graham, who was the NC Commissioner of Agriculture for many, many years. She died of Alzheimer’s Disease, and the money collected in the fountain goes towards Alzheimer’s research. We always sit by this fountain to enjoy our funnel cake and to catch our breath before battling the crowds heading out of (and some coming into) the Fair. After the last bite of funnel cake is gone and I’ve brushed as much of the powdered sugar off as I can get, I toss my change into the fountain, wishing, as always, for a cure for this disease. Up until 2005, I wished for a cure – one to come quickly – so my Grandma would be made well. After her death in Spring 2005, I wished for a cure so others wouldn’t have to know the pain of watching a loved one slowly die little by little from this dreadful disease.

After a few weeks of experimenting with new techniques, creating new scents and even re-experiencing the simple pleasure of a measuring cup filled with beautifully colored melted soap base this afternoon, I decided I needed to rebatch some soaps that, for all intents and purposes, looked and felt like they’d glycerin sweated inside their wrapping. I shredded the bars and drizzled a little milk over them, same as I always do. I let it meditate for a few hours, covered, before placing the bowl in a warm oven for 2 hours. While that was going on, we put our daughter to bed, and I was nestled in on the sofa watching some shows I’d taped this past week.

Then I heard it. The subtle click of the oven as it controlled its own temperature. I looked at the clock on my laptop and realized, Oh, crap! I’d forgotten about my soap!!! On the plus side, I’d only gone over by about ten minutes. On the negative side, though, I was rebatching a much smaller amount than my usual three-pound batches. I opened the oven door and carefully pulled back the aluminum foil to discover my soap had volcanoed (though, thankfully, stayed in the bowl, so no oven mess) and it was the lovely brown of rich, luscious, high-grade honey. This soap started out cream-colored. It maintained its fragrance and doesn’t smell burnt, so I’m hoping it’s OK. I added a bit more tea tree oil to make up for any that may have gotten burned off in the oven and glumped it into my mould. It’s going to be OK, but I’ve never had a rebatch do this to me before!

*Sigh* One of my soap buds and I keep our chat window open all day, and I knew she’d had some bad soaping luck today, too. I told her there really should be a sign when it’s not a good day for soaping – one that comes before we start the process.