Beer Soaps are Online!

I talked about these soaps months ago, telling you how spectacular they are for skin with their great scents, fluffy lather and skin-nourishing properties.  Now that they're off of consignment and back in my hands, I get the thrill of showing them off.  They are beer soaps.

All that's left of the beer in these scrumptious, hefty bars is the extract of the hops, the flower used to give beer its distinctive flavor and one which has long been reputed to have excellent hair and skin conditioning properties.  Each bar weighs between 5 and 6 ounces and will last my husband and me at least 10 days in the shower with daily use.

Need help deciding on a fragrance?  Feel free to email me at sara@sarassoapsnsuch.com and I can help you find that perfect scent for you or someone else.

Coming Soon! Edible Massage Oil

...But I need your help first.

Massage oils in scents is easy - unscented, lavender, rose, patchouli, vanilla and maybe some custom blends.

Massage oils in flavors is a bit more challenging, and this is where I need your help.  Please take just a moment to vote in the poll to the right here ------> Yeah, that's it... And let me hear your opinion on what flavors you'd want to use in a flavored massage oil.  This product would have the same luxurious benefits as regular massage oil, but with the added treat of being flavored with an ingestible flavor oil, making whatever may follow your massage more enjoyable.  'Cause, really, something may smell great, but it may not necessarily taste so great.

The poll closes in a week, on 31 January, so go ahead and cast your vote while it's still fresh on your mind.  You may vote for more than one flavor.

Thanks so much!  I appreciate your help. :-)

Sale! Sale! Sale!

Ahhhhhh, who doesn't like hearing those words? After talking to my soapbud, Shawna, last night, hearing about her plans for her business this year and realizing that I have no real plans for mine (as of yet, though I acknowledge that can and will change), I started thinking about what products I wanted to highlight and which ones I wanted to get rid of. With a hopeful, possible move in the next six months or so, I definitely want to scale down the lagging portion of my inventory and get rid of some scents.

So, the first thing I decided to do was to mark down some of my handcasted soaps. Right now for a limited time, two-tone swirled soaps are 25% off. I'm also discounting my Just Plain Soaps (the glycerin ones), 25% off. Quantities on these are limited, so I recommend using the "Contact Us" link and either calling or emailing me to verify the quantity of your chosen soap that's in stock. However, they'll be like Christmas snow (remember this from "Frosty the Snowman"?) - these scents won't be gone for good. They'll be back in handmade soaps, brilliantly scented, most with lovely colors or swirls and still just as functional, only of a much higher quality.

I've also discounted a few of my holiday soaps, including Apple Jack soap, Christmas Spice soap and Hanukkah soap (also appropriate for other Jewish holidays, as well as just a general appreciation for Jewish culture). Also on sale, my goat's milk lotion in Christmas scents. If you've ever tried the Nutcracker scent and loved it, - or maybe have wanted to try it - now's the time to pick some up. My supplier has discontinued that scent (to my utter and cOmPlEtE disappointment), so when I run out of it, I won't be able to get any more. Well, I'm sure they'll let me buy the 50-gallon drum of the scent on a special order, but where in the world would I store it??? I guess I could put it where the kitchen table is and place a piece of plywood on top and let it double as our kitchen table. I'm not so sure my husband would groove with that, though.

Shop happy, and look for new products to come in the next few months. Looks like I'll be filling that new curing rack sooner than even I had anticipated.

Light up your world

There are some luxuries in life that are not to be missed. At the same time, there are some lovely luxuries that are rather necessary. Soap, for example... We have to have soap to get clean. It bonds with the dirt and germs on skin and washes down the drain.



Well, some products are just pure luxuries, like the joy of enjoying a relaxing bath. Just think of it. It's cold outside with winds and snow over much of the country. Christmas is next week, and you might be frazzled with holiday parties, shopping and meal planning. So, you just need a few minutes, a 30-minute vacation, a little time to yourself away from to-do lists, demands and commitments. Tub teas are a fantastic way to enjoy the aromatherapeutic, greatly beneficial tub bath. Ooh La La-vender is my personal favorite, though they're all divine.



Then there's the rest of the pleasure. It's so simple, really. Wouldn't it be so wondrous to have an array of votive candles around the bathroom, providing golden, ambient, delightfully fragrant light?

Check out LKay Creations for all your candle needs. Linda is the owner, and she's got an amazing array of scents available and makes only pure soy candles and tarts. Soy burns cleaner and has a fantastic scent throw. She does provide free scent samples to help you decide which luscious scent would be best for you. I chose a Spiced Cranberry candle, Water Blossom Ivy tarts and Summer Night tarts to give as Christmas gifts, and I have been very pleased with the service and the quality of the products. Even better, candles are those little luxuries that can become quite necessary when the power goes out.

So, enjoy a bit of luxury, a bit of relaxation, a bit of "me time" to help you unwind and recapture the true spirit of Christmas.

Oh, how embarrassing!

I have Google Analytics on my website, which helps me track how many hits my website gets each day. I didn't hit my site yesterday, nor did I have any maintenance to do on it. When I checked my Analytics this morning, I was shocked to see that my site had no hits yesterday! This never happens! I was checking on something for a local phone customer/friend on my website this afternoon, only to discover that an element had crashed, bringing the whole site down with it! Ack! Usually, website maintenance takes a few hours - 3 hours and 55 minutes to figure out what the problem is and how to fix it (with a combination of the Zen Cart FAQs section, the ZC forums and my ZC manual) - then 5 minutes to fix it and check it. I was tired this afternoon and really didn't want to deal with it while my daughter was napping; I wanted to take advantage of the quiet and the grey, cold, rainy day. However, as soon as I woke up, I tackled the issue and was pleasantly surprised that the whole fix only took about ten or fifteen minutes. I'm happy to say that the website is completely fixed and back to being operational.

In another embarrassing moment, I was getting an order ready for a customer and discovered I'm out of Black Cat (Perfect Pumpkin scent) soaps. So, I'm calling these "out of stock," but if your heart is set on this soap, it doesn't take long to make it.



To my loyal customers and site visitors, I'm sorry for the inconvenience. All is not lost, and there's still two days left to get orders in for Christmas delivery.

More on Getting Rebatched

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.

Nurturing the Creative Urge

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?

A Very Fair Day

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.

New Goodies for the Holidays

Wow! It's hard to believe that Halloween is just a week away! It seems like just last week it was warm and toasty enough here in central North Carolina to get by wearing shorts and t-shirts. Oh, wait. It was last week when it was that warm. Now Autumn is well and truly upon us with beautifully changing leaves, cool days and brisk breezes that cause the leaves to crackle against each other.

When Halloween's past, then I get to roll out all the delightful and fun Christmas soaps I've been working on and likely will continue working on until the very last minute. These here are one such delight. I created a custom fragrance that I call Christmas By The Sea, a scent reminescent of our annual trips to the coast for the Crystal Coast Christmas Flotilla. I borrowed the name from this shop that used to be on the island where we always vacation.

Christmas By The Sea (the shop) was a charming Christmas store with everything you could want for Christmas - villages, trees, wreathes, ornaments, garlands and gifts. Twelve years ago, my then-boyfriend took me down there (thinking he'd surprise me and not realizing I knew this shop well) to find an angel for the Christmas tree I had in my apartment. When we arrived, we discovered that the Flotilla was going on that evening, so we stuck around for it before driving back home.

Since then, the shop (unfortunately) has closed, but the Flotilla continues. That first Flotilla became the start of an Advent tradition for us. The then-boyfriend is now my husband of almost 9 1/2 years, and the joy of watching the Flotilla continues and is something we share as a family. Oh, and in case you're wondering, the angel I bought then still graces our tree, year after year.

That's a lot to go into an unassuming bar of soap, isn't it? Happiness, memories, the tang of fresh cut greenery as it meets the scent of home and sea. It's all here in Christmas By The Sea. Look for it in a few weeks, but it will be ready in plenty of time for the holidays, and even in time for pre-Christmas giving.

"This stuff WORKS!"

It's always good to know my soaps effectively clean and moisturize, but then again, I or anyone in my family could tell you that. We're the reason I can never claim "Not tested on animals," because my husband, daughter, friends and parents become my guinea pigs for each batch. What feels good, though, I'll admit, is finding out my soaps will not just take care of the routine, run-of-the-mill, every day dirt, but that they'll also do the job against serious dirt, too.

This is a small part of Jim, one of my best friends.

Jim's really into motorcycles - he has two Buell's - and, like most dedicated bikers, he does his own maintenance work. The silver stuff all over his finger is Anti-Seize. It's an aluminum-impregnated grease that not only lubricates moving parts, but it also keeps them from rusting together. It's thick, it's nasty and it's extremely difficult to wash off.

Jim's also a coffee junky. So when I made my coffee mocha soap, I gave him a bar to test out, thinking he'd use it in the shower. Coffee mocha also has a pretty noticeable vanilla note, which also appealed to him. Here's that soap:



The day after I gave him the soap, Jim IM'ed me, "This stuff WORKS!" I was a bit nonchalant about it: "Well, yes, I know it works. It's soap. It's supposed to." That's when he went on to explain to me about anti-seize and how effective the soap is even against that.

So, give the soap a try. I don't think there's anything magical about the Coffee Mocha scent, or about the little bit of baking cocoa I added for color. I think the magic comes in the soap itself and the fact that's it really, truly soap. Let's face it. Detergent's great for clothes and dishes, but not for skin. Using the mess you get at the grocery store would be like having head-to-toe dishpan hands.

Doing the seemingly impossible

Most people wouldn't think this is any big deal at all. Then again, most people haven't seen me backing out of my parents' (very straight) driveway and still managing to drop a wheel onto the grass. Generally, I drive very well. I don't take my time getting from Point A to Point B, but overall, I'm a good driver. I'm well experienced at U-turns and getting lost on occasion has given me some great opportunities to practice 3- and 5-point turns. I've gotten better at parallel parking, too. Backing into a parking place, though, especially between two cars, is rather nerve-wracking. I've pretty much always been able to do this in my car, but doing it in my husband's truck when I can't see over the tailgate very well, plus have this trailer hitch sticking a foot off the back is rather more of a challenge.

I've had to get better at it, though, since I use his truck for First Sunday. First Sunday in Pittsboro, NC is a fabulous event, even when the weather's less than beautimous - the people are wonderful and the other vendors are as nice as they can be. However, parking to unload to set up is always something of a challenge. The roads leading into the Historic District are all two-lane, and the road where we set up has angled parking places, angled, of course, in the direction of traffic. That means, to back the truck into a parking place near where my space is, I have to drive - hopefully - into a vacant parking place across the street from where I want to park. Now, keep in mind, the parking places are angled, so the angles are completely different - one zigs, the other zags. While I'm doing this, I've got traffic stopped in both directions, watching and waiting for me to get my big ol' truck (OK, so it's really not that big, unless you're used to driving a compact sporty car) out of the street. Of course, there are never 2 or 3 empty parking places so I can be as messy a parker as I want to be. No, I'm stuck squeezing my truck in between two cars, hoping and praying I don't hit the cars on either side, and also hoping my trailer hitch doesn't hit the tree behind me.

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.