New Stuff: Liquid Soaps!

Introducing my new liquid soaps available in Lemongrass, Rosemary Mint and Lavender Lime Fennel! I made this liquid soap from scratch with all natural ingredients and organic oils of Sunflower, Virgin Coconut and Castor Oil. I added organic aloe for it's soothing properties and all natural plant essential oils for fragrance.

All in all it is just a really nice gentle soap and I really hope that you like it!

Each 8 fluid oz bottle comes with an easy to use pump and is just $9.50 per bottle! 64 oz Refills coming soon! For sale in my Etsy Shop!

New Yoga Mat Spray just $6.50 per 4 fluid oz bottle! Made with the same organic oils and blend of antibacterial essential oils including cinnamon, rosemary and lavender! It cleans your yoga or workout mat and smells great too! A scrubby companion soap is coming soon!

English Apothecary™ giveaway

The English Apothecary™ line was conceived in January of 2010 during a rainy morning walk, where here in Southern California we are in the middle of rainy season and all of the flowers are in full bloom. I caught the scent of something sweet, floral and citrus and had to run home to try and recreate it. I wanted English Apothecary™ to be an all natural line but strayed on my initial products, which were very popular but did not adhere to the 100% natural criterion I had drawn for the brand so I wanted to start over. I got stuck, then I got busy, then I got married, and so the line has been dormant for over a whole year!

I really wanted to do English Apothecary™ right with the product line clear and packaging all in order. It has been slow going, as it sometimes is when you are the R&D, Production, and Packaging departments but I am finally ready to launch the first products!

I would love to hear what YOU think about the new scents! I am giving away sample packs of 1 oz. bar soaps, full 5.25 oz bar soaps, full 14 oz. jars of sugar scrub and full 8 oz. size liquid soaps! There will be 12 prizes in all with two lucky recipients getting bar soap, scrub and liquid soap!

There is a catch - I want your feedback! Let me know what you think about the products and be honest! I will try to post a survey once everyone gets their samples and has a chance to try them, but feel free to leave a comment in this post.
Note - some of the packaging is not finalized in case your label falls off (wink).

To enter just leave a comment below. I will announce the lucky 12 this Saturday August 6th at 5 pm PST. Shipping to the USA is free but if you are outside of the country I will ask that you cover 50% of the shipping so please note this when entering.

The bar soaps will be available in
Lavender Chamomile
Lemon Honey
Orange & Blossoms
Peppermint Tea Tree
Bergamot, Lime & Basil

Scrubs in:
Lavender Chamomile
Lemon Honey
Orange & Blossoms

Liquid Soap in:
Lemon Honey
Orange & Blossoms

Liquid soap is a success - sort of

So after two failed attempts I have successfully made liquid soap! Horray! Customers have been asking for it and I can finally add it to the line! Bottles are on their way - no going back now! I used a recipe from The Liquid Soap Making ebook that I bought by Anne-Marie Faiola of Brambleberry for just $7.95!

 Me making the soap. I had to use a plug for the crock pot and to get better leverage I was standing on a stool. It looks a little silly - my room mate came out into the kitchen and snapped this shot after saying something like "you never know what you are going to see when you walk out into the kitchen".

To make liquid soap you use potassium hydroxide which allows to soap to stay in a semi liquid state, rather than sodium hydroxide which makes hard bar soap. It is a hot process method so you have to cook the soap until it is completely saponified, but the bonus is you don't have to cure it for 4-6 weeks - it is ready to use after it is fully cooked! The cooking process makes a paste that is then diluted with distilled water then thickened. I made a Castor/Olive oil soap and with the soft oils it took quite a lot of time - 9 hours to cook the paste plus 1 hour to trace the soap!

 Cooked Soap Paste

Here are the dilution tests. As you can see, the last test is clear (you can see by counter top through the bottom)

The next step it to test fragrance. Not all Fragrance oils and essential oils mix well into liquid soap so testing before scenting a whole batch is absolutely key! I tested 24 in all! These are tests of 2 oz of thickened soap with 1.5 ml of fragrance or EO.

The big winners - these stayed clear and did not break down or separate the soap. The Almond stayed clear but made the soap a darker shade:
• Cybilla Almond FO from Bramble Berry
• Sweetgrass FO from Bramble Berry
• Peppermint Essential Oil

Runners up - These are almost clear - so close - more translucent
• Bamboo Sugarcane type FO by Crafters Choice
• Gardenia FO by Bramble Berry
• Pineapple Cilantro FO by Bramble Berry

Other tests either Milky, broke down the soap so it was very liquid or separated:
Kumquat - separated soap
Brown Sugar & Fig - separated soap

Separated soap

Pumpkin Pie FO - turned soap dark/milky
Red Tea Lychee FO - soap is clear with some separation but soap broke down to very liquid
Tahitian Vanilla FO - turned soap dark/milky/broke soap down to very liquid
Mediterranean Fig type FO - milky
Passionfruit Pineapple FO - milky
Sun Ripened Raspberry FO - milky
Santa's Spruce FO - milky
Wassail FO - turned soap dark/milky
Peach FO - milky/some separation
Clean type FO - milky
Fresh Bamboo FO - milky
Wasabi FO - milky
Cranberry Fig FO - milky

French Lavender EO - milky
Lemongrass EO - milky
Tea Tree EO - milky
Rosemary EO - milky

It is possible that some of these will perform better with less fragrance - again this is 1.5 ml of fragrance in 2 oz of soap. Really devote a whole batch to testing. This batch made over a gallon of soap and all of it will be used to test fragrances.

If anyone tests other fragrances and would like to share - let me know so I can grow the list!

Off to do more testing! Happy Soaping!