Latest Happenings

It's been crazy busy around the soap shop lately.  Last weekend Pampered Puffin traveled to the Hill Country to beautiful Wimberley, TX for their monthly market show.  Business was steady all morning and we had so much fun meeting folks (shoppers and other vendors)  I love this venue.  Little paved paths winding through oak trees past quaint little handcrafted booths.  I would very much like to go back to Wimberley.

Of course, leading up to Wimberley were several weeks of steady preparation.  I stayed busy refining new products and packaging and labeling tried and true ones.  My Fizzy Bath Bombs debuted last weekend in 4 scents --Citron, Rose, Peppermint, and Lavender.  

I also sold lip balms in Cool Mint, Citron, and Lavender.  I've been giving these away as gifts and using them myself, but this was the first time I sold lip balm at market. I make my lip balms with almond oil and castor oil with a touch of beeswax for firmness.  Of course, being all-natural, I only scent them with essential oils.  I've never been a fan of fragrance oils when it comes to lip balms.  And these should never turn grainy either, another lip balm "turn-off"

And finally, I introduced my solid lotion exfoliating bars I call Scrubby Bath Bars.  They are similar to Lush'es Buffy Bars and are made with cocoa butter, shea butter, and the natural exfoliants of ground rice, strawberry seeds, and lemon peel.  They come in CocoaMint (smells like chocolate and mint) as well as Citron, my citrus blend. You rub the bar wherever you want intense moisturizing, rinse off the scrubby debris, and pat dry.  Incredibly smooth and sleek skin.  These were a hit, but I had to transfer them to a cooler once the weather hit the mid 90's.  Yes, butters will melt if they get too hot.

This weekend, Pampered Puffin is heading back down to the Hill Country to Boerne, TX for their monthly market.  The weather might just be glorious.  Come visit us out if you're in the area. And  check out our new banners.  We got so many compliments at Wimberely for these, I can't believe we waited so long to have them made.

One Day: 2 Major Fails

 Yesterday: I got up expecting magic and pulled back the dishtowel loosely veiling the peppermint bath bombs I had so carefully formed the evening before. I was not a little disappointed by what I saw:  Five very sad, grossly expanded and deformed gloops of citric acid and baking soda gone awry.  A sixth one still recognizable as a sphere, but also engorged and far from the ideal I had been shooting for.

and this was the "good" one

Bath Bomb fail #2.  I had considered this second attempt a sure thing.  I had followed a different recipe meticulously, not adding a single extra drop of water than what had been called for.  They had popped out of their molds easily enough and were left to harden in all their glory under the protection of that dishtowel when I had turned in for the night.  It should have worked, but it didn't.  And now I was heading back to the proverbial drawing board.

see the tiny speckles.  What a shame!

Fast forward 6 hours.  I am walking past my newly unmolded Geranium Rose soap.  I am particularly excited about the way this soap has turned out. Love it! So, I pick up the 1 small sample I had cut 2 days earlier.  (I had only sliced off the one piece from the loaf hoping to preserve all the lovely essential oils until I was ready to sell.) As I am walking by, I pick up the sample to take a whiff.   I do this often because I am really in love with the way my soaps smell and I like to enjoy them every chance I get.  My eye snags on  a glimmer, a pindrop of oil.  I rub the oil between my fingers, touch it to my tongue.  It's the "zap" test and I had never been "zapped" before in all of the batches I have ever made.  I zapped.  I felt zapped too.  Frustrated and depleted.  Not my beautiful Geranium Rose!  And so my soap was lye heavy.  I am fairly certain it was because the coconut milk was too cold and had not allowed the lye to completely dissolve.  There's a good reason why I had frozen most of the milk, but I won't go into that now.  Lye heavy soap is not usable.  I would have to ditch the whole batch or attempt to rebatch it. I was not crazy about either option, but this was the way my day was going. I process.

Yay!  Peppermint Fizzy Bath Bomb

This morning:  I wake up to a perfectly spherical, firmly hardened peppermint bath bomb.  I had hesitated to  pull off its covers. Now I am elated and.....relieved. Very relieved.  I had opted for the simplest recipe I could find that DID NOT include water on its list of ingredients.  They had not held their shape at first and I had  needed to add a bit more oil to get the two sides to stick together. I am thankful!

Now it was time to address that failed batch of lye heavy soap.  I decided to attempt rebatch.  It meant grating up all the soap with a cheese grater and melting it down in the oven with a bit of water and then adding a brand new batch of soap to the melted soap.  It was a lot of work, more work than making the initial batch.  But I couldn't stand the thought of throwing all those good butters and oils and essential oils away.  The process went smoothly.  I complicated things somewhat because I didn't want to mix the 3 colors together to get an unappealing muted gray.  So I had 3 separate pots and had to distribute the new soap batch evenly as well.  I am not sure if I "cooked" it long enough after mixing in the new soap.  I was afraid it would harden on me if I didn't pour fairly quickly.  I will know shortly.

Lessons Learned:  Yes, I learned a new technique:  how to rebatch soap (we'll see how successfully) I learned more about how soapers "hot-process"  soap, and I learned to be extra careful to make sure all that lye is dissolved when I'm soaping with milk.  I learned never to add any water at all to your bath bombs though apparently some do it with success because there are quite a few recipes out there with water in them.  But, by far, the most valuable lesson I took home from my day of soaping catastrophes and epic fails was the importance of keeping a healthy perspective on the process.  Being able to accept losses and setbacks and to keep going forward is not an easy thing to do.  I have to intentionally keep my head high and recognize than every misbatch is a chance for me to make my product better. I guess we could all do well to apply this principle to every aspect of our lives.  The day was a great reminder.

Part III: Natural Deodorant Recipes

Here are my 2 top recipes for natural deodorant. Many of the ingredients can be purchase locally at health food stores or drugstores, but a few items such as the beeswax pellets, may be more difficult to find. There are some simpler recipes with only coconut oil, corn starch,  and baking soda, so if availability of ingredients is a big issue with you, modify accordingly.  I set out to find a combination that would apply smoothly, would endure higher temps., and would work well as a deodorant.  Both of these recipes contain beeswax which allows them to survive warmer weather.

My favorite recipe (Test Group D)

1 1/2 Tb beeswax
1/2 Tb cocoa butter
1 Tb coconut oil
5 drops castor oil
50 drops essential oils (choose from tea tree, lavender, rosemary, sandalwood, etc)

Directions:  Melt beeswax, cocoa butter, and coconut oil in a double boiler or in your microwave at 10 second intervals until completely melted.  Add castor oil and essential oils.  Let cool slightly; pour into empty deodorant tubes or other clean containers.


2nd Favorite (Test Group C)
(I found this one at http://withgoodthings.com/make-your-own-deodorant/

1 1/2 Tb beeswax beads
4 Tb coconut oil
1 Tb shea butter
4 tsp corn starch (I used arrowroot powder)
4 tsp baking soda
20 drops essential oils

Directions:  Melt beeswax, coconut oil, and shea until melted in a double boiler until smooth.  Add drops of essential oils.  Cool slightly before pouring into empty deodorant tube or other container.

Individualize your Deodorant

1. If you find your deodorant too hard, use less beeswax in the recipe next time.  For now, remelt and add a little more coconut or castor oil. (you could also add a few drops of olive oil to soften it up a bit)  If you find it too soft, remelt and add a bit more beeswax.

2. If you are allergic to shea butter ((I have heard of more than 1 person with this allergen) simply substitute cocoa butter or mango butter.

3. You may use cornstarch and arrowroot powder interchangeably.

4. You can add a few drops of vitamin E to help with preservation.  (I plan to add this to my favorite recipe above for my next batch.)

5. Experiment with different essential oils to suit your preferences. Tea Tree and Lavender are very common in store-bought natural deodorants.  I am thinking I may try a combination of tea tree, peppermint, eucalyptus, and rosemary next time, very similar to my soap called The Juan de Fuca.  Do keep in mind that some essential oils are more antibacterial than others and may affect the duration and effectiveness of your natural deodorant.

Part II: Natural Deodorants

After poring over lots and lots of DIY recipes for natural homemade deodorant, I finally settled upon 6 formulas that included most of the ingredients I had read about as options.  Most had baking soda and arrowroot powder, but not all.  One had castor oil; one had aloe vera gel; Several had beeswax.  I was particularly curious to see if beeswax made a positive, "can't live without" contribution, or if it would simply make the deodorant too hard to apply.  I also wanted to determine if baking soda was absolutely essential to absorb odors or not. I, too, wondered if coconut oil found in so many recipes was the main contributing factor to stains in clothing. I made 6 samples that were suitable to fill a regular deodorant tube.  Since I didn't have that many empty tubes on hand, I decided to use lip balm tubes instead.  They wouldn't provide the surface area needing for regular use, but could do a good job of testing application and melting point.




The lineup of ingredients for each Test Group was as follows:

To determine which, if any of the recipes could compete with store-bought natural deodorants, I conducted 5 separate tests.
1. Texture Test.  (How gritty or smooth it felt to the touch.)  smooth (1)-gritty (5)
2.  Ease of Application. I rated how smoothly it could be applied using a deodorant tube (1 being
                                      easiest and  5 being most difficult)
3.  The Stain Test.  I applied each sample to a piece of cotton fabric to check for oily residue.
4.  Heat Friendliness Test.I placed them all in a 125 degree oven to see how long they could hold out on a hot summer day.
5.  Duration Test-- How long it would last until I needed to reapply.  Deodorants do not prevent sweating, but they help kill bacteria and keep you from stinking it up.

Results:

Texture
With regards to texture, , A and B did not make the cut.  The gritty baking soda was quite evident in both of these samples.   The winner in this category hands-down was sample D, but that is not surprising since it contains no baking soda at all.  Test Groups C, E, and F, all shared a similar texture.  It was mostly smooth with an ever-so-slight touch of grittiness.  The texture did not bother me at all; I would be fine with any of these 4 deodorants when it comes to texture.

Ease of Application
 With 1 being slick and easy to apply and 5 being either too soft, runny, or hard to apply, Test Groups C and D tied for first place.  I ended up rating them both a "2" because neither is as perfect as those propylene glycol deodorants found in the stores, but they both applied really well.  As might be expected, A and B fell short in this department again.  Test Group A left a considerable powdery residue on application.  And B, never solidified so it sort of disqualified itself from the start.  I do want to point out, that some folks intentionally make liquid deodorants either to use in spray form or because they believe in the liquid components such as aloe vera or witch hazel. I knew from the start this one wasn't going to harden, but thought it would make a nice comparison.  That leaves Test Group E.  Let's just say, with its generous portion of beeswax, it is difficult to apply easily.

Stain Test.
Test Groups E and F ranked best in this category leaving barely noticeable stains.  Test Groups, B,C, and D, fared the worst.  All of these samples left oily patches on the fabric.  I'm still uncertain of the correlation with coconut oil.  While all 3 of the formulas that left really noticeable stains contain coconut oil, 2 of the groups that did not leave significant stains, also had coconut oil. Perhaps more than one factor is involved here. After washing the cotton fabric, no stains were detected, but more tests may need to be done to determine staining on costlier fabrics like silk.

Warm Day Friendliness Test
I wasn't sure how to do this one.  I really wanted it to be a 100 degree day so I could carry my samples around with me in a steaming hot car in my purse.  After all, that is why I was doing this test in the first place. I settled upon  turning the oven on the warm  setting and checking the samples and temperature every few minutes to keep track of how they were holding up.  I didn't bother with B since it started out in liquid form.  Test Group A soon followed suit and softened up after only about 3-4 minutes.  Test Group C softened up next, but it took it over 5 minutes at 125 degrees and it was by no means melted, just softening up.  D and F did really well, both of them maintaining their firm state up to 15 minutes after being exposed to 125 degrees.  They did finally begin to soften at the 30 minute mark.  And no surprises here, Test Group E with the largest amount of beeswax, was still going strong even after 30 minutes.  

Duration Test
By the time I was ready to test out how long these samples would last until needing to be reapplied, I had already narrowed down the field to 3 finalists.  One of them did not contain baking soda, and the other 2 were fairly similar except for the type of butter they contained.  I chose to test C and D for an entire day.  I really wanted to see what this stuff could do, so I started out by taking a 3 mile run.  I sweated some, but there was absolutely no body odor.  I checked throughout the day and 9 hours later, I was still doing fine but was beginning to detect a bit more perspiration.  Both test groups  (with and without the baking soda) seemed to work equally well.  I intend to give this a longer trial before drawing any hard conclusions, but preliminary results seem to show that baking soda is not absolutely necessary to make an effective deodorant.

 CONCLUSION

My overall favorite natural deodorant was Test Group D.

All the butters and oils measured and ready

It had by far the smoothest texture, best glide for application, great reliability in hot weather, and it worked for over 9 hours including physical activity before reapplication was necessary. And while, it didn't win the "stain" test, that is not a "make it or break it" factor for me. Runner-Up goes to Test Group C. My husband actually preferred this one when it came to texture and glide. It fared almost as well as D, but did not hold up quite as well in the heat and had a slightly more gritty texture. Still, it performed superbly and worked all day. Tomorrow, I will post the formulas for my favorite natural deodorant as well as the runner-up. I have a few more general observations about using natural deodorants and how you can individualize the formulas to cater to your specific needs. 

Something Stinks: Are Natural Deodorants Really Natural?

Last year I made the decision to switch to natural deodorants.  I had read about the possible link of antiperspirants to breast cancer and brain disorders like Alzheimer's. . It's the aluminum content that poses the threat.  Every normal store-bought variety I could put my hands on contained this toxin...except for the "natural" deodorants.  These more expensive natural products do not eliminate sweating; but they are touted to guard against b.o. And most importantly, they do not contain the aluminum culprit.

Because I make my own soap, and have made my own lotions and body butters and lip balms, I decided  to try making my own deodorant as well.  I already had most of the ingredients in my bath and body arsenal.  So why not?  I found several recipes online.  I explored the ins and outs of why people choose to make their own deodorant and why some seemed to be superior than others.   Then, because I liked the way my store-bought natural deodorant had worked for me, I took out my tube and studied the label, the ingredient list. The first ingredient listed was propylene glycol, an organic alcohol.  I found a second tube, a different brand, but also natural.  The first ingredient again was propylene glycol.

 It was time to do a little background check of this most abundant ingredient that I was daily applying under my arms.  What I learned was not a little disturbing. I found out that this petrochemical is used to allow other chemicals to penetrate deeply beneath the skin and to the bloodstream.  It also helps in hot weather to keep substances from melting and in cold weather, to prevent freezing.  It made sense why manufacturers would choose to use it in deodorants for those attributes. Did I mention that it is one of the key components of anti-freeze?

Here's a graph of how propylene glycol is used

But I also discovered that exposure to propylene glycol might just be linked to dermatitis, kidney and liver damage.  Yikes!  Exchanging one carcinogen for another was not exactly what I had in mind when I made the switch to natural deodorant. I know!  It supposedly takes a lot of exposure to do harm, but I use deodorant every day, and if you add that up over a lifetime..well, maybe that is enough exposure to cause cancer. Maybe that is more than enough.  And while the verdict is still out on this one, and nothing has been proven, I have to ask myself if I am willing to risk exposing my skin (the largest organ of my body) to a possible cancer-causing agent.  

I resolved to give it a go and experiment with my own version of "natural."  This week I plan to try out 6 variations of natural deodorant.  Would you like to make a guess what the first ingredient will NOT be? I'm going to use different essential oils in each batch to find out what scents I really like, but this should not affect the general consistency or properties of the deodorant. Then, I'll rate each batch according to the following criteria:
1.  slide/ease of application-- (hard to apply (1)--smooth and easy to apply (5)
2.  "hot day"  friendliness (at what temp. will it start to melt?)
3.  effectiveness (how long it lasts before warranting another application)
4.  texture ---gritty(1) --smooth(5)
5.  effect on clothes--stains(1)-does not stain(5)

A couple of factors for consideration
Many of these homemade deodorants are reported to melt when the weather warms up.  What an inconvenience during summer months or if you're like me and live in Texas.  To keep this from happening, some recipes incorporate beeswax or cocoa butter which have much higher melting points.

Many recipes include baking soda, but if too much is present, your skin may become sensitive.  Others say that baking soda causes the deodorant to have a gritty texture--not 
a desirable quality, for sure.

Once I get all my data, I'll report back my results and post the best recipes according to my tests.  This is going to be fun.

Spring Soaps 2012

Honey Oatmeal

I've been busy trying to wrap my brain around 

creating half a dozen new soaps while trying to perfect 

some others.  The honey oatmeal (shown above) has 

been a booger bear to perfect.  The problem lies with 

the ingredients of honey and almond milk, both of which 
like to heat up considerably during the saponification 
process.  My first batch overheated and leaked oil 
from all directions.  I was able to salvage it and most 
of the oils were reabsorbed, but the finished soap was 
not the prettiest soap. I ended up discounting it at 
Christmas.  My second go turned out much better.  
I put it in the fridge to do  its thing, but it was still slightly 
oily for my taste.  So logically, I took this a step further 
with the 3rd batch; it went straight into the freezer.  But 
when I cut it the next day, it had only partially gelled leaving 
the famed characteristic egg shape in the center of the loaf.

Though nothing was wrong with the soap.it is not

desirable in the soapmaking world.  Apparently, it had

already started to gel before I got it into the freezer.  My 

4th batch turned out spendidly as I decided to watch it 

closely until it gelled,and then place it in the fridge to 

avoid over-heating.  I sure hope I have this soap 

mastered, once and for all.  And I do have all of the 3rd 

batch available for a discounted price if anyone is 

interested.  

Painted Meadows (for now)

 I haven't decided for sure, but I'm leaning toward calling this new soap Painted Meadows.  My inspiration for this one came from several paintings by one of my favorite artists, Emily Carr from Victoria, B.C.  I wanted it to look and smell like a pristine forest. The scent is cedarwood and fir, with a hint of sweet orange.  I wasn't sure if I would like the "tree" smell, but I do.  It's not overpowering at all, but fresh and reminiscent of a lovely walk through the woods. I used natural colorants of walnut hull powder for the brown and nettle leaf powder and spirulina for the greens.

Citrus Gardener's Scrub

The Citrus Gardener's Scrub is take II of my first Gardener's Scrub scented with Patchouli and Ylang Ylang and Lavender.  The original has apricot seed meal, cranberry seeds and red raspberry seeds.  I added lemon and orange peel finely grated, of course, to this scrubby soap.  I added that line of charcoal in the middle.  The end product --a  dense hard bar of exfoliating goodness

The Juan de Fuca (Peppermint Refreshment Soap)

I tweaked this soap to add more minty cool effect.  

The secret ingredient is a touch of menthol crystals.

I took out the peppermint leaves and added woad 

powder for a minty blue/green natural color.  
This is a great soap 

for an invigorating and refreshing shower.

This soap is called Geranium Rose.  I liken it to a walk  through a fragrant garden.  This soap also has a lovely charcoal tinted layer and rose clay in the pink layer of soap. I hesitated to make a floral soap, because usually they are obnoxiously too strong for my tastes, but this one came out really nice.  I often use it on my face because  I think a face deserves special treatment.    

Sassafras Birch 

Sassafras Birch was a delightful soap to create.  It smells a lot like rootbeer.  I love the smell of rootbeer.  I added sassafras bark powder to give this soap its natural color.  It provides slight exfoliation and makes the soap a lovely purply/brown hue.  

Lavender Goat Milk

Last, but not least, is Lavender Goat Milk soap.  This was the second goatmilk soap I made.  It has lavender and cedarwood and orange essential oils giving it a fresh clean smell.  I have been very happy with my goat milk soap recipe.  The lather is abundant and fluffy.  I started making goat milk soap due to so many requests I received for this popular soap.

It Began on a Whim: How I became a Soap Artisan

It was a crisp chilly morning in early April 2010.  Our family of 5, living at the time in Victoria, B.C. stepped aboard a mid-size ferry. (Anyone familiar with Texas ferries would esteem it as gargantuan, however)
Our destination was Salt Spring Island, one of the Gulf Islands nestled among other such islands in the Strait of Georgia between Vancouver Island and the Mainland B.C..

B.C. ferry; Sweet ride!

I had searched the internet a day or two before determined to find a do-able one-day excursion for the weekend.  Salt Spring seemed a perfect destination.  Their famed Ganges Market would be open, and the weather forecast boded fair skies.
An added plus were a few stellar hiking possibilities, one trail touting gnome doors hidden along the path.

Cheese, Glorious Cheese!

The market did not disappoint. As the morning drew on, the darling white tents and rustic farmers' stands bustled with the people, most of whom had traveled by boat to sample and taste the best the island had to offer.  The market's mantra -- Make It, Bake It, Grow It -- attracts a growing population of people who desire to support local communities like Salt Spring by buying that which has been grown or made locally.

Handcrafted Pottery

We had a wonderful time sampling cheeses made from local goat milk.  These were definitely the fanciest cheeses I have ever had.  So flavorful and rich, we could not leave this island without buying a couple of them. Neither can I  speak highly enough of the tasty artisan bread, perfectly crusty on the outside, delicately tender within.  There were tables filled with decadent candies, pastries, and the like; there were jams and jellies, beautiful pottery, jewelry, knitted items. There were tables upon tables of fresh vegetables and fruits.  So much goodness on all sides.  

SaltSpring Soapworks:  I bought my first soap right here!

And then there was this one booth.  I only stopped  as an afterthought right before we left the market square.  Something must have caught my eye. It was a booth of handmade soap.  I know now that it was cold-processed soap.  I knew absolutely nothing about soap that day. Intrigued by the display of tin buckets with soap peeking out,  I stopped to smell, and I was hooked into the sale at that very moment.  I really liked the look of the loofah soaps; I had to have one of those.

Cool Loofah Soap

Handmade Soap in Tin buckets

 I took a few minutes to decide and noticing a restless family, grabbed 3 in haste. (I chose one with mango, one with strawberry and one with rose) We left the market to eat takeout pizza and explore the beach of Salt Spring Island before heading home that day.

Yep, that's our picnic spot.

I could say the rest is history. But my lackluster first encounter with handmade soap was really just the precursor to an adventure into the realm of chemistry and art.  I guess for me, it has also turned into an escalator down into the realm of accounting and marketing. (Yikes!).

My kiddos on a tin horse right near the Market

During the weeks after our trip to Salt Spring Island I fell in love with the soap. I began researching and reading everything I could get my hands on about cold-processed soap. I bought soap from every local soapmaker I encountered.  I spent hours on forums and gathered recipes and troubleshooting advice, lists of all sorts of topics, far too many to list here.  And so I researched for close to a year before I ever attempted my first batch.  And boy was that first batch a scary endeavor!  But how fun to unwrap and cut that first slice of good soap.  I think the slicing is my favorite part of the process, second only to trying a new soap out in the shower.  There's no luxury or feeling of satisfaction quite like it. How blessed I am to be able to make something with my hands that pampers the body and promotes healthy skin, simultaneously providing aromatherapy benefits. I love being a soap artisan. And I am so thankful that what started out as a whim to  explore an island and its market has led to so many fruitful opportunities.