It is amazing at what you can find inside your cabinets. Starting with herbal supplements, crushed and ground up we were able to find some wonderful colors from cranberry supplements, papaya digestive aids and spices such as tumeric.
Coffee, honey, sugar and a variety of milks including coconut, almond, goat and buttermilk work wonderful in soaps adding bubbles, texture and skin nurturing.
Annaleise began making her soaps at the age of 7. She basically likes to play with the color and scents and create different shapes with molds and cookie cutters. We have used Pringle cans, ice cube trays, cookie cutters and vegetable peelers to make curls and confetti. I quickly became obsessed with learning all there is to know about making soaps and creams. Long after Annaleise got bored and went off to play I sat and watched video after video, read book after book and began to test every type of food we had available to determine what works well in soap and how it performs on our skin.
What does it mean to be balanced? We will go into that in another blog but there are certain values of oils and the combination will determine the amount of cleansing, bubbles, creaminess and hardness among other qualities. It can take years to find the perfect combination of trial and error. That is why most soap makers refuse to give out their blend and amounts. It is Hard Work and involves years of study to come up with a perfect recipe. I feel my combination so far has been superior to most any soap I have tried. That is not to say that I am THE BEST it is just that I have not used anything better. If I ant to make sure I can cut off my cuticles I use a local farmer's market soap just once and my cuticles are hardened and easy to trim - sorry I just had to say that because it is true. I also actually buy that particular soap so I can make laundry detergent! I just won't use it on my body. Take a look at my lather. I love a bubbly creamy lather!