Knitters Hand Balm from Amber's Ambry

Amber's Ambry Knitting Balm from her Etsy store

I was really excited to receive my purchase from Amber's Ambry and teared open the box as soon as I came in contact with it. I live five flights up and by the 3rd flight, and I was already opening up her Knitter's Hand Balm and applying it to my hands.
Firstly, I LOVE the scent. "Baking Day" is wonderfully comforting and smells similar to a sweet cake batter, mixed with cocoa butter. It's sweet, but not sickenly sweet like commercial bath and body products tend to be. As a pastry-addict, I found this scent to be close to the real thing. The balm slides smoothly on your your hands and don't leave them oily or tacky. It comes in a little cute tin, which is great for storing small precious objects. The product travels well as it fits in my small handbag. Even in the summer heat, the product manages to keep it's initial balm-ey consistency.

Not a fan of cake products? No problem, Amber's Ambry has a variety of scents including Blueberry, Orange Ginger Mint, and even Unscented! She makes soap too. I had the opportunity to purchase some as well...my soap shelf is FILLED with soaps to be reviewed. Be sure to keep an eye out for a review at a later date.

You can grab your own little tin and other wares at her etsy store:
www.ambersambry.etsy.com

Dirt, Dirt, Dirt

Well, after holding off for a couple months, I decided to finally make my Dirt Soap. Inspired by a friend, who loves Demeter's Dirt Cologne, I decided "Hey why not. There seems to be a market for it anyway". I was a little dubious about purchasing the fragrance oil (for soaping), but the scent absolutely wowed me. It's dirt, alright, but a green, "just rained" smell. Clean, fresh, wonderfully earthy and appealing.

You can check it out here in my etsy shop.

Etsy Front Page!

Wooo hooo... my Purely Peppermint soap is showcased on Etsy's front page today.

Click on the link here


If you check this email at a later date, you can always check out the screen shot (attached).

To celebrate this wonderful event, I am having a sale for today only -- 10% off when you enter code WOOHOO on the etsy page. If you want more than one bar, just convo me the order.


Hope everyone is well.


Best,

Janice

www.bayridgesoaps.etsy.com
www.soapkitten.blogspot.com

Creamy Coconut

New Soap on Etsy!


Creamy coconut is the newest addition to my summer line of soaps. It's creamy bubbles are scented with a light, summery coconut scent. A perfect soap to kick-start the summer (and beach season).

Check out my summery creation here.

Purely Peppermint

New Summer Soaps at my Etsy Store.



Purely Peppermint is made with real Peppermint Essential oil and is great for a refreshing boost in the morning, or a great cool-down soap for a hot summer evening.
Peppermint Oil is known for it's energizing and refreshing properties. It is also used in homeopathic medicine to treat a variety of ailments such as migraines, nausea, indigestion. Additionally, peppermint oil can be used in helping clear up acne (anti-viral and antiseptic properties), dermatitis and muscle pain (Rosemary works well for muscle pain as well). It's a known anti-inflammatory, astringent and antiseptic. I also loving using the oil in the shower when I have a stuffy nose. A few drops in the shower and the hot vapor diffuses the oil into the air, clearing up nasal passages (FYI Eucalyptus and/or Rosemary oil works well too).

Check out my soap here.

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.