Ventures Video Taping Myself

In order to fully promote my handcrafted soap business, Sonoran Scents from the Heart,  I felt the need to make videos of how I make the lovely soaps I have for sale. My movie camera is an iPhone 4 GS. It has a great camera for taking pictures and videos. I've never had any qualms about taking movies of others or of my kitties. Taking videos of myself, however, is proving to be much more challenging!



I needed a tripod to get my iPhone high enough to video tape the counter space where I planned to make my soap. I found a really nice one on Amazon.com. The trouble with it was that it was pretty short! I fixed that problem mounting it on top of my huge coffee thermos. I positioned it so that it was perfect! The iPhone rested against my cabinet to keep it from moving. I got everything ready ... oils and lye perfect temperature ... parchment paper covering stains on cutting board ... everything within arm's reach ... cleared my throat ... took a drink of water ... cleared my throat again. I started sweating. Who would have thought taking a video of yourself would make you feel like you do when you go in for a job interview?


I tried to touch my camera 'button' on the back of the iPhone to start the video. Nothing happened! It couldn't sense my finger because I had gloves on! grr. I had to remove my gloves. Started the video. Tried to put glove back on ... that was a challenge with sweaty hands! Finally! I went through the entire soap-making procedure while making "Frosted Raspberry Soap". I thought it was done perfectly. I checked my iPhone. It had run out of memory!! I spoke so softly that it didn't record my voice anyway. 


Next time, I attempted to video tape myself making Lavender Vanilla Soap. I tried to make sure to have enough memory, speak loudly, and not have gloves on when I turned it on. When I uploaded the movie to my computer, I noticed the iPhone had somehow gotten away from the cabinet and was moving gradually upward, taking pics of my ceiling. AAAAHHHHH! Good thing I'm naturally stubborn!


I video taped the making of Prickly Pear Soap. This one turned out fairly well except that when I turned away from the counter and banged the soap in the mold on the floor to remove air bubbles, a glop of raw, uncured soap popped up and landed right on my lower lip! OUCH! I was still video taping so held in the screams until I'd shut the camera off. 

I think I need to hire someone to video tape for me! Any takers? :)

It's The Thought That Counts... Right?

The holidays are coming and we all want to give a memorable gift for every special person we love. Trouble is, there are LOTS of special people we love and buying something for every single person can add up in a hurry! Maybe making little gifts would be a great idea? ... or not?

I ran across this essay, written by Heather Armitage, and found it so delightfully funny, that I wanted to share it with all of you! Enjoy! :)

It's The Thought That Counts

by Healther Armitage on December 22, 2005 NHPR News

Heather Armitage lives, writes, and makes Christmas gifts in Kennebunk, Maine. Just look for the smoke.

"I love the idea of making my holiday gifts as a testimonial of my love for family and friends. I flip through the do-it-yourself craft sections in magazines and stare at the gorgeous photographs. The tempting projects appear so charming, so elegant. And so harmless.

It all started with candles. I thought candles for Christmas would make a simple but considerate gift. Pack some aluminum foil at the bottom of painted terra cotta pots. Pour in colored wax, mixed with dashes of nutmeg and cinnamon. And, voila! Holiday scents waft through the house. 

I didn't realize nutmeg and cinnamon were mildly flammable. Nor did I realize that some wicks shouldn't be used for candles made of wax. Nor did I realize that one shouldn't decorate a vessel of flame with oil paints. I didn't even think about the meaning of the word "accelerant". 

The holiday cards I received that year hinted at the wreckage wrought by my good intentions. One letter described a close call after an Aunt lit some candles too close to the Christmas tree. Those flames can jump, she marveled! 

My parents were thankful someone was home when the wick burned straight down their candle. The foil didn't hold, and a pool of fiery nutmeg wax spread across the table.

The next year, I tried my hand at handmade peppermint soap and lemon-oatmeal facial scrub. The oatmeal turned moldy during shipping. And then, my sister called to tell me that the tingling sensation from the peppermint soap quickly turned to burning. I spent Christmas day calling people to tell them NOT to use it on their faces. Luckily, my sister's red splotches disappeared after a few days.

My biscotti broke my father's tooth. My bath salts caused rashes and awkward infections. My simmering potpourri caused popping projectiles of boiling herbs. And an asthma attack. I went overboard with the peppermint oil for a peppermint foot soak. and Christmas morning was filled with watering eyes and cleared sinuses.

I persevere.

My poor friends and relations suffer. 

I imagine relatives treat my packages like a letter bomb. Carefully, oh so carefully, place package in garbage without disturbing the contents.

My dad suggested I start a product line called "Crafts of Muerte", crafts of death. I could send out catalogues to assassins for those times a hit needs to appear accidental. The heart-broken or homicidal could exact revenge during the holidays.

Everyone knows I mean well, that these gifts are meant to spread joy, not rashes and house fires. And thumbing through the craft books at the bookstore, I think, "How could anything go wrong with THIS project?" Until I find out.

How I want the thought to count.

I want these gifts to be useful and treasured. 

At my parent's house, I saw my first attempts at bath oils and salts on display over the bathroom sink. The coloring in the oil had long separated and the wax I (over) used to seal the glass bottles was hardened and yellowed blobs. So much time had passed the contents in the glass bottles looked like medical specimens at a creepy carnival.

Or maybe they always looked that way. Yet they were still displayed, lovingly placed on a shelf.

Unopened."

Happy note: You can avoid the holiday hassle by visiting my Etsy Shoppe! :)

Autumn Will Soon Be Here ...

After a sizzling summer, Autumn is God's refreshment! I love the crispness of a cool, Fall day! ~ The swirling, colored leaves on the pavement, the crispy song in the branches before the leaves are finally let go, the orchards teeming with fruits of a hearty harvest, plentiful apples, pumpkins, and garden produce ~

The very essence of Fall is exhilarating! ~ Starting a new fire in the wood-stove, homey scents of pumpkin pie, baked apples and cinnamon,  bubbling oatmeal & Honey, and homemade breads baking in the oven ~ Mmmm....

Many of us soap-makers love to capture the essence of each season in the scents we choose for our handcrafted soaps. It's such a delight to release our artistic talents while designing soaps with colors, designs, wholesome ingredients, and fragrances to reflect our creativity.

Some soaps I've made which are more alluring during the Fall months are my "Natural Oatmeal and Honey" and "Milk and Honey" handcrafted soaps. The Natural Oatmeal and Honey soap was made the cold process way without coloring or fragrance oil, leaving a wholesome essence with plenty of soothing lather. All the ingredients are natural and include olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, beeswax, lard, honey, cinnamon, oatmeal, and sodium hydroxide (lye). The bottom layer is enriched with finely ground oatmeal for a natural and soothing but gentle exfoliation. All of the soap includes honey which has been proven to provide a gentle antibacterial and moisturizing property to the soap. The 'frosting' portion of the soap is only the honey-soap over the top of a cinnamon sprinkle. It is unbelievably refreshing to bathe with!

The Milk and Honey soap is a pure milk & honey cold-processed soap with a naturally occurring caramel color as a result of the milk and honey added during the soap-making process. These bars have a rich, silky feel and smell like a homemade sweet cake. The tops are lightly sprinkled with lavender buds. They are made with coconut oil, vegetable shortening, canola oil, lard, milk, honey, sodium hydroxide, lavender fragrance oil, and lavender buds. Keeping the recipe simple and including milk and honey lessons the chances of skin irritation while bathing your skin with rich nutrients. The honey contains natural antimicrobial properties which have been proven to help fight infection and moisturize the skin.

Rejoice in Fall and enjoy all the things that enhance it for you! 

Antipruritic Soap?

Something that is antipruritic is something that inhibits itching. Normally, when I think of an antipruritic, I think of antihistamines like Benedryl; corticosteroids such as hydrocortisone; local anesthetics such as Lanacaine; or a counter irritant such as camphor.

Tonight, I was totally and happily amazed to find out that a soap that I had made worked just as well! My husband and I were enjoying a warm evening on our patio until little black bugs started biting my arms. I went inside and suddenly started itching terribly! It was awfully intense and I started looking for something that would relieve the itch other than scratching myself raw.

When I lived in the Midwest, I would use Calamine lotion for itchy bites but I couldn't find any in the house. On a whim, I went into the bathroom and grabbed up a half-bar of my Botanical Soap with Aloe Vera. I vigorously rubbed up a lather on both of my arms and rinsed it off. Immediately, the itching went away! I was sooooo excited!

Botanical Soap with Aloe Vera

I waited for the itching to return, but it never did! I'm not sure why it was so effective against the itching but I'm extremely relieved it was! The ingredients in this batch include coconut oil, olive oil, canola oil, cocoa butter, lard, vegetable shortening, aloe vera oil, aloe vera juice, rosemary, fragrance oil, mica coloring, and sodium hydroxide (lye).

Perhaps it was due to all of the aloe vera that I included ... or just the natural composition of the soap itself ... which created the antipruritic properties? I'd have to be a chemist to figure it all out. It's just something very wonderful to know ... and to have on hand!

Debate of the Decade: Bar Soap vs Body Wash

When I went back to work and started making lots of money, I didn't have enough time at home to continue making every thing from scratch. I started using Body Wash and a pouffie nylon thing. In fact, quite a lot of things changed because I was just too tired or didn't have time. After graduating with my AAS Paramedic and staying at home to volunteer in my community, I had much more time to again make things from scratch. 

Me, at an accident scene. (I certainly needed a shower after this!)

I started making homemade soaps. YUMMY! Out went the nylon pouffy thing and in came my hand-crocheted soft cloths and lovely soaps made from natural oils and botanical ingredients. 

 

All natural Oatmeal & Honey soap

So... lets have the great debate! In one corner, we have the fashionable bottle of body wash. In the other, the rustic, handcrafted bar of soap. Opening the plastic bottle cap, I can smell delightful scents wafting upward from the plastic bottle of body wash. Hmm... "plastic bottle"... wonder how many of these things end up in land fills? How long does it take to recycle, and at what cost? A major concern, lately, is that plastic bottles may also leach chemicals into the product they carry, causing us to be exposed unnecessarily to toxic carcinogens. Looking at the ingredients of my previously favorite way to get clean, I notice that water is the main ingredient. This causes weight and volume meaning more energy and cost involved in transporting body wash to the consumer. The more transportation, the more pollution to our environment.

The average person goes through more than 200 bottles of liquid soap in their lifetime. 

Now, in the other corner, we have the traditional bar of soap, but not just ANY bar of soap. This is a handcrafted, natural, artisan bar of soap made with ingredients such as coconut oil, olive oil, cocoa butter, shea butter, palm oil, lard, sodium hydroxide (lye), essential oils, and earth mica (coloring). It smells deliciously fresh! My favorite is scented with Lilac. This bar of soap weighs 4.5 oz as opposed to the 24 oz bottle of body wash. The packaging for the soap is a simple, handmade, paper cigar band with the soap-maker's logo. If allowed to dry properly between uses, the bar of soap lasts as long or longer than the 24 oz bottle of body wash. The handcrafted bar of soap does not impact the landfills at all. It's lighter so it's much cheaper to transport. It's ecologically sound and healthy for our bodies and the world we live in. It makes your skin feel delightfully refreshed and clean without that dry itchy feeling that so often occurs after using a body wash containing unnatural, synthetic, petroleum-based ingredients.

As for the ingredients on the bottle of body wash, here is a list on the back of the last body wash product I used: Water, sodium hydroxypropl starch phosphate, sodium laureth sulfate, cocomidopropyl betaine, lauric acid, petroleum, sodium cocoyl glycinate, glycerin, sodium lauroyl isethionate, fragrance, hydrogenated soybean oil, cocos nucifera (coconut fruit extract), nonfat dry milk, gycine soja (soybean) oil or helianthus annuss (sunflower) seed oil, sodium chloride, steric acid, guar hydroxypropyltrimonium chloride, DMDM hydantoin, tallow acid or palmitic acid, sodium isethionate, BHT, tetrasodium EDTA, iodopropynyl butylcarbamate, etidronic acid, methylsothiazolinome, Red 33, Titanium Dioxide, Yellow 5.

Phew!! I had to put on my bi-focals to be able to read all the tiny print! Let's do some further research. When I google some of the above ingredients to see what they're all about, I found some pretty disturbing information. To be honest, some of the ingredients can be identified as healthy ingredients such as a couple of the oils but it's the super long words that give me pause, and there are a lot of them!

Just of few of the strange-sounding ingredients in the body wash I used to use ...

DMDM hydantoin - a preservative that releases formaldehyde which may cause joint pain, cancer, skin reactions, allergies, depression, headaches, chest pains, ear infections, chronic fatigue syndrome, dizziness, and insomnia

Sodium laureth sulfate - Used in car washes, garage floor cleaners, engine degreasers and 90% of personal-care products that foam. Eye damage, depression, labored breathing, diarrhea, skin irritation, and death.

Tetrasodium EDTA - a preservative that’s made from the known carcinogen, formaldehyde and sodium cyanide.  It is also a penetration enhancer, meaning it breaks down the skin's protective barrier, going right into your bloodstream.

Need I go further? I would a whole lot rather be sudsing up with something that will nourish my skin, protect it, and attract moisture naturally with a fragrant, handcrafted artisan bar of soap than to apply a pretty-smelling carcinogenic cocktail to my skin!

Chamomile Neroli Handcrafted Soap with Avocado Oil

All Natural Botanical/Vegan Soap with ground Yucca, scented with Rosehip and Jasmine

Muddy Soap ... Oxymoron?

Someone once asked me if I had any "Dead Sea Mud & Sea Salt" soap for sale. I didn't but had been thinking about looking into making some because of the known benefits of Dead Sea Mud. So... I purchased 100% Dead Sea Mud and began formulating a soap recipe for it. 

If you don't give it much thought and you're looking at different scents and types of soaps, it might seem very odd to buy a soap with mud in it. :) After all, isn't that why we take showers and baths ... to rid ourselves of dirt? The oils of handcrafted soap are chosen specifically for their moisturizing and healing properties, but, why put mud in soap?

Dead Sea Mud is unique in that it contains more than 12 different substances and minerals than any other earthy mixture used for health purposes. These minerals are very good at enriching and nourishing the skin. They are derived from the Dead Sea in Israel, which is the earth's lowest hyper-saline lake. The lake is so salty that you cannot sink!

People have recognized the medicinal value of Dead Sea Mud & Salt for thousands of years. Containing the same minerals that the skin is composed of, these minerals are readily absorbed to rejuvenate the skin, help relieve skin problems, aid in internal bodily processes, and soothe arthritic pain. 

Combined with the pure oils in handcrafted soap, Dead Sea Mud and Sea Salt make the perfect combination to help heal skin ailments and to ensure that the skin stays supple and healthy.

Handcrafted soaps heavy with salts can be a little crumbly so I decided to incorporate the Sea Salt in a white soap swirl throughout the naturally colored tan soap which contains the Dead Sea Mud. Sea Salt is also richly sprinkled on top. The bars are lightly scented with a blend of "White Tea & Ginger" and "Flowering Herb", which has a luscious, fresh scent! This is a nice, smooth bar of soap ... lathering richly while providing great skin therapy!

These are now for sale on my Etsy Shoppe.

Guest Soap Bars

I thought I would share how my Guest Soap Bars look when I get ready to package them. This is an order I was working on today ...

She selected Chamomile Neroli, Victorian Rose, Oatmeal & Honey, Patchouli, Eucalyptus Spearmint, and Rosehip Jasmine. Each have a little cigar band with my logo, "Sonoran Scents from the Heart", and identification on them. 

Next, I put them into individual cellophane bags, tied with pretty, colored, curly ribbon. Each little Guest Soap Bar is 2.5 x 1.75 x 0.5 inches and weighs 1.25 oz. All are made with very fine oils and butters such as olive oil, coconut oil, sweet almond oil, aloe vera, cocoa butter, shea butter, & palm oil the cold process way.

These soaps are perfect for trying out handcrafted bars of soap without buying the whole bar! It also helps immensely to see if you like how the soap-maker scents their soaps.

Some other great uses for Guest-Sized Soaps are for Spa Parties, Baby Showers, Wedding Favors, Stocking Stuffers, and Birthday Parties! They make a caring, personalized gift that can actually be used and enjoyed by the receiver.

Right now, I'm offering a free sample of Guest Soap Bars, your choice, in my Etsy Shoppe, when you pay shipping!