New Soaps

I made my first batch of cold process soaps on Friday. For those who aren't so familiar with soap jargon, cold process soaps are the old-fashioned lye soaps. The idea of working with the lye was intimidating at first, but I just used all the safety precautions and had no problems whatsoever. This first batch is completely all natural - colored a pretty pumpkin orange with paprika and scented with a ginger bergamot essential oil blend. I'll probably scent some batches in the future with fragrance oils just to get rid of them to make room for more essential oils. (My storage space is getting a bit crowded.) Today I ordered a couple of ultramarine pigments, beautiful, rich, natural colorants. Tomorrow I'll likely buy some spices to use for other natural colorants.

The soaps came out of the mould today - rather ungracefully. That's the last time I use a plastic mould for CP! I was able to hand-mould them into something approximating rectangles and can trim them when they're cured in a few weeks. I'm excited about this new adventure in soapmaking and look forward to expanding this product line as part of my business. Start looking for these on my site around late May and early June.

Sensuality

One of the joys of my business is how I keep coming up with new and great (well, I think they're great, anyway) products that will bring only good things to my customers. I believe that every person - man, woman, young and old - deserves high quality bath and body products. No one should have to settle for inferior products that are produced overseas in sweatshops and that are bad for your skin. Sensuality is also important and often terribly overlooked. When people hear the word "sensuality," they think it's dirty somehow, referring to carnal pleasures only. While carnal pleasures can indeed be very sensual, I'd like to encourage you to open your mind to envision what else falls under this umbrella of "sensual pleasures."



Sensual pleasures are all those things we enjoy perceiving through our senses. What do you delight in seeing? Your spouse? A sunset? Your child at play? The mountains in fall as they're burnished with brightly colored leaves? What do you like to hear? The sound of rain on the roof. The ocean lapping gently at the shore. A well-played piece of classical music. What tastes good to you? The way a bite of cheesecake melts on your tongue. The spices in a perfect piece of fried chicken. A juicy, red, ripe strawberry, just picked off the plant and still warm from the sun. None of these are bad things, and enjoying them isn't bad, either.



While my products do engage you visually, their highest appeal comes in their scent and texture. Or maybe they take you to a new level of sensuality, more of a psychic sensuality - that satisfaction and contentment that comes only in knowing you're doing something special for yourself. What smells good to you? What feels good? Can you imagine using a naturally scented product that captures you, wrapping you in aromatherapy benefits? Envision how soft and silky your skin would feel after using a shea butter and sugar scrub. Sink into a warm bath, fragranced with a deluxe herb blend and nourished with goat's milk. These, too, are good experiences.



I offer experiences like this. When was the last time you actually enjoyed the soap you bathe with? When did you last like the way it treated your skin and made you feel? How long has it been since lotion was more of a luxury than a need to treat dry, damaged skin? Do you even remember the last time you allowed yourself the time to take a tub bath? I invite you to enjoy bath and shower time again. Treat yourself to mini spa treatments as you use my Revitalizing Body Polish, a luxurious shea butter and sugar scrub. Enjoy a 30-... Oh, go ahead, put the kids to bed, tell your spouse to give you some privacy and make it an hour-long vacation as you soak in an aromatherapy bath with a bath tea bag, allowing all your stresses and troubles to drown themselves in warm water, only to be swept down the drain with the bath water when you're done. Bathe with soap that wakes up your senses, giving you a little boost for the day ahead. You really do deserve it.

Flipping for the Flops and Running for the Son

Motorcycles, Jesus, soaps and flip flops. It'd seem that in no way, form or fashion, these would never go together. Yet, they have and they'll continue to do so for the next few days.

These flip flops are my newest soap creations, and they're selling faster and better than even I had imagined (and I'm very positive about my products). In fact, I sold 24 of these soaps in 21 days!!! One of my soaper friends, as I was sharing my excitement over these soaps' popularity, said, "You could say people are flipping over your flops." That they are. Two of them are scented with custom scent blends (the purple and blue flowered ones) and the third (pink flower) is scented with a delightful Victoria's Secret (type) scent - Sexy Little Things.

OK, so I've tied in flip flops and soap, but how about motorcycles and Jesus, and what in the world do they have to do with the first two? My dad's in a Christian motorcyle group (Christian Motorcyclists' Association - http://www.cmausa.org/), and this coming Saturday, 3 May, is their annual Run for the Son, an event to help raise money that will enable Christian bikers all over the world to share the love of God with people.

My dad has bought a few of these soaps to give to his home health patients and colleagues, and I decided, since he's been supporting my business in this way, both in buying soaps and spreading my business name to people outside my immediate selling area, that I'd support this ministry that is so near and dear to his heart. I've decided to give a generous portion from the sales of these soaps to sponsor him in Run for the Son. So far, my friends, family and customers have helped raise nearly $100.00, just in the past 3 weeks since these soaps debuted. The sale of just two more soaps will get us over the $100.00 mark. Think we can do it? I do!

Each soap costs $6.00 (plus tax for fellow North Carolinians) and weighs a hefty 5 3/4 ounces. To give you a basis of comparison, a standard store-bought "bath bar" (which isn't actually soap at all) weighs about 3 1/2 ounces. My soaps are handcrafted in small batches, using only the finest glycerin bases available. So, if you feel compelled to actually use them, then know you'll be bathing with a delightfully moisturizing bar of "real soap," as one of my customers calls them.

My website - http://www.sarassoapsnsuch.com/ - is one payment module bug away from being completely ready to go. However, feel free to browse it, and if you'd like to order the flip flops or any other products you see, you can pay through Paypal at orders@sarassoapsnsuch.com.