Soap making videos

These are great

   

 

NEW SPRING SOAPS! (plus some old favorites)

 most of these can be found on my etsy shop here

all scented with pure essential oils

From left to right, top to bottom:

Sunshine Thyme - is lemon, lemongrass, sweet orange & red thyme

YlangYlang Bergamot - ylang ylang, bergamot & grapefruit

Salish Mint - peppermint, rosemary, spearmint & clove

Gingergrass Green - ginger grass, vetiver, lime & grapefruit

Citrus Rose - geranium rose, sweet orange & clove

&

Orange Blossom Shea - sweet orange and petit grain, with Fair Trade unrefined shea butter

Spring soaps are on their way...

CITRUS ROSE

has geranium rose, sweet orange & clove bud essential oils

 and French red clay making it a light peachy pink color.

It's florally, warm, creamy & fresh!

+ NEW VARIETIES …. 'SUNSHINE THYME' & 'GINGERGRASS GREEN'

The Herbal Workshop Shea Butter Bar Soaps

coming soon…  Shea Butter Bar Soaps!

 I'm busy working on some shea butter soap recipes that are going to be really moisturizing. I'm really excited for them because I've tried some test samples so far and they are so creamy and bubbly and moisturizing. Shea butter is so beautiful.

I get my shea butter from a cooperative company based in Olympia, WA, called Agbanga Karite. They work with small, local producers in Togo. It is Fair Trade, pure and unrefined, and handcrafted, promoting indigenous African natural resources that are culturally, spiritually, economically and ecologically sustainable.

Shea butter is rich in essential fatty acids and vitamins A, D, E, and K, along with other vitamins and minerals.

 a little preview…

FRAGRANCE FREE SHEA

ORANGE BLOSSOM SHEA

with petitgrain and sweet orange essential oils

LAVENDER MINT SHEA

WebRep

currentVote

noRating

noWeight

Etsy Shop Grand Opening...

was today!!! I opened an etsy shop :) Feel free to order from whichever site you prefer, either one is great. I will continue making posts to this, my home blog. Thank you so much for your business. Happy new year!

The Herbal Workshop's Etsy Shop is Here!

WebRep

currentVote

noRating

noWeight

Greenbank Farm Holiday Market

I will be selling all sorts of soapy items at the Greenbank Farm Holiday Market this year! The market is in their big red barn, with hot beverages available and all locally produced items. It is open for the four weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas, 10am-5pm. That's:

- November 29 & 30, and December 1 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
- December 7 & 8 (Saturday & Sunday)
- December 14 & 15 (Saturday & Sunday)

- December 21 & 22 (Saturday & Sunday)

The Herbal Workshop soaps now have an engraved stamping on them! And you can see how I uniformly cut the soaps with this amazing soap cutter I got from a woodworker on etsy in Missouri.

New labels!

I like them. I hope you do too!

Hi all,

Thanks so much for supporting me this farmer's market season! It is about to wrap up in a few weeks, with the Tilth market running through the end of October. You can still get veggies, soap, beautiful handcrafted wood cutting boards, handspun yarns, hand-dyed scarves, really sweet felted bowls, other knitted and woven goods, jams, garlic, flowers, organic scones and coffee, artwork, and a bonfire on the last Sunday of October. Good stuff! Plus it is a place where you can stroll around the grounds and just have a really nice time. Oh, but that doesn't mean you can't still order online! Or in Langley, WA if you are ever near there ~ at the Star Store Basics on 2nd Street. I am also scheduling to do some holiday markets this winter. I will post those when I know more.

Here is a fresh new look for what I was calling 'Fresh Spearmint' and is now 'Orange Spearmint' ! A new layering technique, so fun!

Triple-layered 'Orange Spearmint' soap that is curing
The orange is from just a little bit of turmeric, the green from Hawaiian spirulina.

I also just might be working on an updated label design. It seems like with every season, I design a new one! The aim is to get closer to the look and feel that I want customers to experience with the soap, and also just something I feel really good about. I still do really like the current label. Stay tuned! Oh yes, and a soap stamp is on it's way, so the soaps will now have a cool engraving on them.

Vandana Shiva on GMO's - Indirectly but Directly Related to Soap!

This post isn't directly soap related, but it is in a way related to The Herbal Workshop's soaps because it has to do with the reason why I make these soaps the way they are, using the ingredients that I do.

This is more of a personal expression post- one that is near and dear to my heart, and that is the issue of organic agriculture principles, and on the flipside-- genetic modification and patenting of nature. The reason why The Herbal Workshop's soaps cost a dollar or few more than other soaps is because I buy nearly 100% of the oils that go into a bar of soap as the certified organic version. The two that I do not source organically are sweet almond and castor, and this is because the cost of these two oils if organic would drive up the cost of each bar drastically, making them much less affordable, and because they each make up only a small percentage of the recipe. For instance, a gallon of organic castor oil is $47.00 where as the non-organic version is $18.00. The organic coconut oil that I buy is about $18.00/gallon and the non-organic version is $13.00. You can see the difference between costs for these materials.  Because only a small amount of sweet almond and castor oils are used in my recipe, I am preferring to make the bars more affordable, making a greater impact with the other majority ingredients. I still use these oils because they greatly add to the quality of the bar.

Genetic modification or engineering of plants/animals/humans/whatever!, while a different topic altogether, is one aspect of why I care about organic ingredients so much. I think this is one of the biggest issues of our time. It is shown to be detrimental to the environment (i.e. uses monoculture sites, creates sharp decreases in beneficial insects and soil microorganisms where GE crops are planted, to name a very few), to bodily systems as endocrine-disrupters, to the devastation of local culture, increases in suicide rates among farmers in India where experiments and implementation have been going on for decades, and despite all of that, has not even proven to be successful, with no higher crop yields as advertised. I want to post this lecture by Vandana Shiva from this January, 2013, at the University of Hawaii, for anyone interested. It is a wonderful, highly informative, inspiring talk, and is an informant on why I use the ingredients that I do. When/if Monsanto starts genetically engineering almonds and castor beans (if they aren't already?), I will stop using these oils if they enter the supply chain. And I don't know if they are working with olives, coconuts or palm fruits yet, but thankfully don't have to worry because of my organic sourcing, which with these materials also helps to ensure these ingredients aren't coming from sources that are destroying rainforests. (I realize that one can never be too sure, and so I promise to keep myself educated on this topic.) As Vandana Shiva says, "Eggplant is an Indian crop, so they [Monsanto] do Genetic Engineering of eggplant [...] Why did Monsanto choose eggplant to Genetically Engineer? Because it is native to India and we have 4,500 varieties. Why do they want to plant, by bully, on 6 million acres, Genetically Modified corn in Mexico? Because corn is the sacred crop of Mexico and the Andes. So it's basically, while the justification is 'we are doing science,' the reality is, they are unleashing a war against our sacred cultures."

 

It's Spring

Spring sprung, and continues to spring. I suppose I'm a bit late on making a post about spring. Nettles are already beginning to make their seeds. The alders all have their leaves, and hundreds, thousands, of other life-bearing events have taken place since we began our tilt towards the sun, and the earth here began to make her exhalation outward. I took this photo of a wild foxglove over two months ago, now. And of the oregon grape below it, a month and a half ago, when it was budding.

Farmer's market season has also begun, which means I have lots of new kinds of soap ready for use. More description is available in The Soap Shop tab above.

Citrus Rose

Basil Wintergreen

 Clary Sage Licorice

Lavender, Patchouli & Orange

Orange Spice Scrub

 Rosemary Eucalyptus

 Unscented

New soap flavor!

Ylang Ylang Bergamot

Check it out in 'The Soap Shop' tab above

Even newer look

You know when I said everything is constantly evolving around here? Well, overnight, I came up with what I think will be the final edition of soap labels for 2013. Here is what you really will be seeing in the mail, and hopefully on store shelves soon.

A New Year, A New Look

Happy 2013 everyone! I hope the new year is bringing you new openings, fresh beginnings, deeper insights and happy continuations.

I have been busy working on a new vertical label, and coming up with new essential oil blends for some new soaps. Everything is constantly evolving around here! Check out the few new ones in the 'Soap Shop' tab above, including 'Mountain Morning' which is one of my favorites, and has received some "Smells awesome!" and "Amazing smell," critiques so far, and is also super creamy and gentle, and will leave your skin clean and soft.

   new soaps available in the soap shop!

*located in the 'Soap Shop' tab above

Recipes & Formulas

A little peek into my soapmaking notebook, where I scribble down recipes and keep notes, working on getting the numbers balanced so the result is a gentle, long-lasting, cleansing bar of soap. Different oils have different properties, such as different kinds of fatty acids, which act differently and have different effects in the soap bar and on the skin. Lots of differences to learn about!

Fair Trade Shea Butter

I'm really excited to have just found this fair trade shea butter supplier out of a local company in Olympia, WA (though of course, the butter is from Africa). I am formulating a Lavender Shea soap(!) to include shea butter, so I started researching the ethics of shea butter, and came across their website. You may have already seen their products in your grocery store or co-op-- 'Everyday Shea' shampoo is one that's in my shower right now!

If you'd like to know more about shea butter, please check out their website, where I am hoping to make an order soon to include in my soap recipes.

Beautiful photos of shea butter block and shea butter-in-the-making courtesy
 http://www.agbangakarite.com

Chamomile and Calendula

These are freshly dried and jarred. I've been drinking this chamomile as tea, and the medicinal effects have been very noticeable. My stomach feels very good, I notice that my nerves feel more relaxed, and I've also been dabbing the post-brewed material on my face in the muslin cloth bag and my skin feels very nice. I think the whole, unprocessed form really makes a difference. Make sure to cover your teas to keep the volatile oils from escaping. I'm experimenting with brew time, as it's possible that a longer brew could degrade the medicinal properties. Usually it's ~15 minutes for a strong, medicinal broth, but it's possible that chamomile might only need 3.

Visions of fir needle infusions

On a walk through the forest the other day, I found some freely given pine tree boughs... which smelled most glorious. I dried them in the dehydrator, which has also been busy with calendula, chamomile and cornflowers.

Clinton Thursday Market

This Thursday I had soaps aplenty, and fresh bunches of spearmint and lemon balm for $2. 

Lemon balm, also known as Melissa, is a mild and safe calming nervine, with anti-inflammatory and astringent properties from the high tannin and essential oil content, used to: 

- soothe nervous tension,

- help relieve anxiety, 

- lift the spirits,

- promote good sleep, 

- relieve digestive disorders, such as nausea, cramps, and flatulence, especially when overanxiety causes digestive problems,

- help fight flu and colds, and the Herpes I and II viruses due to it's antiviral compounds,

- naturally repel insects, also helping to ease pain or itching from bites or stings,

&

- help relieve headaches and migraine. 

An infusion (freshly boiled water poured over the material and steeped, covered, for at least 10 minutes) can be made using a handful of fresh leaves (optimal), or a tablespoon or so of freshly dried leaves, crushed and steeped, covered, in 2-3 cups of freshly boiled water. You can drink this as a tea, or even pour it into a bath.

I had 3 new kinds of soap at this market:

- Calendula Armoise -

(Armoise = mugwort. A lovely plant in the Artemisia family)

- Comfrey + Tea Tree + Aloe -

&

- Peppermint -

Peppermint soap with a French red clay swirl