Soap of the Day: Savon de Marseille

I was fortunate enough to find this soap in Peddler's Village in PA. At first, I thought it was a counterfeit Savon de Marseille (is there such thing?). I realize now, that the reason why the markings are slightly different is because it is the hard-milled bar, which is mechanically pressed into a harder soap. I'm guessing they took out some of the glycerin. Either way, a fabulous bar.
This soap has a wonderful little history. Crafted for over 1,000 years in the south of France, french law decreed that soaps that are produced by "certain ancient methods" can be stamped with the famous Savon de Marseille markings.
The soap takes two weeks to make and is made with a combination of olive and vegtable oils, ash from sea plants and sea water from the Mediterranean. The mixture is heated for 10 days and then poured into open pits where it slowly hardens. The soap is then cut into cubes, stamped and set out to dry in the sun.

Marseille Soap is traditionally green or white, but newer variations include soaps made with palm oil, which is red or white, and a lavender soap, which is a purple color with lavender buds. All of the soaps have to made with at least 50% olive oil to be considered savon de Marseille. Marseille Soap is recommended by dermatologists throughout the world for dry skin and other ailments.

Check out their site for more information: www.marseillesoap.com

Etsy Store Open!

Hi All,

Finally got everything together and put up my etsy store. I'm so excited! I'm selling a combination of cold-process, hot-process and mp soaps. I will not limit myself to a single one (heh, heh)

Feel free to take a look at: www.bayridgesoaps.etsy.com.

Soap of the Day: Sea Spa Soap from Faerie Made Soaps

Picture from Faerie Made Soaps' Etsy site

Today I decided to chose a soap according to mood. This beautifully gray soap seems to match the beautiful cool, gray weather here in New York City. It's really one of my favorite types of weather, providing that it does not rain!
Created by Faerie Made Soaps, this bar has real Dead Sea mud as well as uplifting essential oils such as peppermint and tea tree. This soap seems like the type to brighten anyone's day!
You can find the soap here, on etsy.

Soap of the Day: Juicy Pear from daVinia Soaps

Photo from daVinia's etsy page

The robin's egg color definitely captured my attention. There is just something about Spring and that color that just makes me plain happy!

You can check out daVinia's other soaps here or on their etsy page.

Honest Scrap Award

My fellow soaper friend, Georgette from Gioia Made Soap nominated me for the Honest Scrap Award. She asked me to tell 7 true things about myself and I must nominate also 7 people.

1. My cat, Gato, is my favorite companion.

2. I can't stand being still or idle.

3. Soaping makes me happy.

4. I am a Graphic Designer

5. My favorite color is Pink, but the color that looks best on me, is brown.

6. I love to read books, my favorite genre currently is of the vampire variety.

7. Would love to lose about 20lbs so I can be down to 120.

The nominated Blog friends are:

1. Platypus Dreams

2. Gioia Soap

3. Soap Queen

4. Manor Hall Soaps

5. Oats and Honey

6. Birch Bark Soaps

7. DeShawn Marie Soaps

Soap of the Day: Coconut Mochi from Savor Soaps

Photograph by Savor Soap

I happen to purchase this soap a couple of months ago and absolutely LOVED it. The scent is of fresh (real) coconuts and it produced creamy, white, fluffy bubbles.

Check out Savor for their other lovely creations. I recommend the Cream Fraiche as well--

An interesting cupcake

Most of you don't know this, but I am a HUGE foodie and my favorite part of every meal is dessert. The other day, I went to my local gourmet store, just to browse, when I found the most interesting cupcake called "The Elvis". It's a banana cupcake, with peanut buttercream and bacon bits tossed in a brown sugar syrup! I'm a pretty adventurous eater, so I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into this. I took a small slice and it was DELICIOUS. My favorite part? The brown sugar coated bacon bits on top. Heaven!
If you are ever in Brooklyn, hit up Robicelli's for some fun gourmet treats.

http://www.robicellis.com/
http://robicellis.com/blog/

Hampton Dreams Soap?

I'm thinking an ocean breeze, salty air, and warm sands. Tired of the cold and rain, this soap is a definitely Freudian slip, revealing my excitement for the warm weather to finally arrive!

I'm playing around with the names, but I am very happy with the way this batch came out. It's scented with a lovely ocean/seawater scent. And I don't know about you, but I think I've pretty much nailed the design on the head!

Here it is after the cut:

Spa At Home

Lush is introducing this really neat skin care sampler pack for only $20.  

It includes:

2 Muslin Flannels 

2 Ultrabland Cleansers

1 pot of Face Mask

2 Toner Tablets

2 Face Moisturizers

This set is just enough for two people, or two applications for yourself.  With times growing tough, I think this is a fabulous price for a facial and a great way to treat yourself.  So call a gal-pal, light some candles, crack open a (cheap)bottle of wine and indulge!

Let's Keep NY Moving

Last year, the MTA raised the prices of the Metro and this year they are doing it again, by a lot! Effective on March 25th, the monthly passes, which are now $81 for 28 days are going up to $103!!!  That's over a 25% increase!  With rents in NY being so high, and salaries no longer going up--- the MTA is becoming a little more than criminal, but with good reason.  The state is not giving sufficient funds for NYS transit needs.  The increase doesn't stop there, bridges and tunnel tolls are going up, also this plan calls for major cuts in service, so essentially we will be paying more for less.

This affects New Yorkers as well as anyone who commutes into the city.

Taking a several quotes from ESTA "Transit isn't a luxury.  It's a necessity."

"There is a way to stop this, by investing in Transportation, NY State can keep fares affordable, improve service and create jobs.  Every dollar invested adds four dollars to our local economy.  Go to www.keepnewyorkmoving.org and they'll help you send a message to Governor Paterson and your state legislators demanding more reliable funding for New York's growing transit needs."

ACT NOW.  Contact your state legislators.

On the Rack: Name To Be Determined...

Whacha think?  Made with Palm, Coconut and Soybean oils.  Smells like a fresh bouquet of flowers (mainly roses).  It's a soft, fresh, hip scent --not that old lady rose scent...LOL.

I put the heart insert at the end, while the soap was still soft.  Let's see how it cures!

Sean's Soaps

My boyfriend is very proud of this soap that he and I made.  He chose to scent it with Turkish Mocha and Arabian Spice.  I also added about 5% of yellow beeswax.  The result is a spicy, sweet masculine scent with some light coffee undertones to it.  There are no colorants in it, the soap browns naturally due to the fragrance oils.  Here it is on the curing rack, note the pretty maize color on the inside.  I expect it to turn to the same caramel color at the end of the cure.

Discolored Soap

I don't know if you guys remember, but sometime last year, I made a lavender/jasmine soap that smelled divine. It still smells beautiful, the only thing is that that the oils greatly discolored my white parts and developed a soda ash in a mustard-ey yellow color.  After a few washes, it goes away and reveals the perfect white that it originally started out as.

Scrubby Almond Soap!

This soap is a wonderful treat!  Very fragrant, much like the almond cookies that are found in Italian bakeries.  Using the hot-process method,  I added REAL, finely-ground almonds to create a natural scrub.  No synthetic or harsh exfoliants in my soap!  You can purchase it here, at my etsy store.

Very Berry Soap

Been busy at work creating new soaps and working with new formulations.  Straying away from my soybean oils (makes softer soaps), I've now incorporated palm oil to my expanding collection of oils.  Pictured is Very Berry, which has fragrance notes of raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.   This was made using the cold-process method and it creates fluffy and fragrant fruity bubbles.  Each bar is 4.5 oz and available at my etsy store.

Cupcake Soaps

On occasion, I'll go on etsy.com to search for inspiration.  I've seen a lot of cupcake soaps in the past, but these have simply taken my breath away.  

The fine "frosting" detailing is exquisite and realistic, I only hope to become this good of a soaper.

Check out VerbenaCustomBlends for more "sweet treats".

My Etsy Store

Aw, man.  I feel a little guilty about not keeping up with my blog been trying to fully establish myself in the soap making world.

There have been a couple of things I've been working on and I finally took the plunge and opened up my Etsy store which you can see here.  Unfortunately, I have only one type of soap up for sale right now, until the rest of my inventory cures.  

I've also worked on a Merlot soap using my lovely 5lb wood mold, which turned out smelling like berries (I will post pictures soon, I promise).  

This weekend, I'll most likely make another 5lb loaf of soap (I'm thinking almonds).

Well, that's it for now... hope this finds everyone well.

Ta-ta!

Soapaholics Anonymous GIVEAWAY

I was truly impressed when I read that Soapaholics Anonymous is giving away one 16oz bottle of calendula and comfrey infused olive oil.  I didn't know she made her own infused oils and completely forgot that that was even an option in soap making (duh).  The idea made me giddy with delight.  I thought it was also brilliant that she left the entry open to non-soap makers as well, winner taking home soaps made with the infused olive oil.  How great is that?!   Check out her site here and post your entry and also check out her etsy site for her exquisite bath and body products.  

Busted Soap

It was very pretty while it was sitting in the mold but the cut didn't come out so great.  It's scented nicely, but I don't want to sell such a soap to anyone--even if a lot of time was put into it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I know it's been about a month since I've posted last, decided to take a little break.  Now that it's the New Year, I'm going to immerse myself into creating soapy projects.

Anyway, Happy New Years!