The Art of Soap Making

Here is a short summery taken from our promotional hand-outs. We just updated some of the information, and thought it would be a good idea to share it with you all!

Well, soap making wasn’t always an art. In fact, for most of history it was a household chore. One that took all day. Typically our ancestors used olive oil, but where there were no olives, such as in colonial America, animal fats sufficed. In the Philippines and Caribbean Islands they used mostly coconut oil. For early soap making, there were no recipes or measurements to follow, they just kind of guessed. Early soaps were also not quite solid, not quite liquid– but had properties of both. It had a consistency similar to a slush that you scooped with your hands or a ladle. It was greasy, unpleasant, and people preferred to wash without it. Early soaps also had no fragrances or colors. That didn’t come till the 19th century, the Victorian era.

During this time woman wore less make up, and put a strong emphasis on scented oils and natural beauty. The industrial revolution brought new technologies: assembly lines and steam power. This streamlined the manufacturing of goods, including bars of soap. They were scented with herbs like lavender and rose, and used “new” ingredients such as palm and coconut oils, and glycerin. For the first time, recipes were constructed, documented, and are now available for people like us. These soaps were considered a luxury item– affordable to only the wealthy. One company still known today, Unilever, had their start during that time.

But as the need for good hygiene increased, so did the availability of specialty soap. It was realized by Dr. Lister (Listerine anyone?) that washing your hands with running water decreased the instances of disease, a revolutionary discovery that changed the medical universe forever. Previously– they believed the exact opposite, that washing your body exposed you to harmful diseases. While soap is not antibacterial, it does do a great job at washing away excess oils containing harmful bacteria– while simultaneously leaving good bacteria behind.  It is no wonder why soap has become a staple to nearly every home around the world.

Two new places to purchase our goods!

We have been diligently building our online presence these past few weeks, and I am excited to inform you all about these new additions, and others.

First off, thank you to all of you who joined OpenSky in support of opening our shop. Thanks to all of you, or store opened last Friday. We are excited to be a part of OpenSky. I have found a great community there, and enjoy shopping myself.

You can visit our store, or just browse around at other neat shops.

We have also opened a Facebook Shop, which is powered through our website. This is such a neat feature, but it may be confusing- we have our facebook fanpage, and then a separate page for our shop.
Unfortunately that was the only way it will work, and we will eventually be abandoning our fan page and move over to using only the Shop page.

We are still working on getting our webstore open on www.scumsoaps.com, but that will be next!

Our New Scents

Over the past few months, we have been working hard choosing the best possible scents to represent our line of products. We went from over 100 fragrances and narrowed it down to just 5. We couldn't have done it alone, though. With the help of our fans- new customers, old customers, and long time friends, we narrowed our line down to the best-loved 5 and even gave a few of them new names: Forest Floor, Dusk, Lavendula, Wild Berry, and Honey Almond.

We are proud to announce our scents:

FOREST FLOOR:

The inspiration for this scent came from deep within the Appalachian Mountains. Nothing is more beautiful than moistened earth, green trees, and miles upon miles of untouched land. Bring yourself back to the goodness of the outdoors with our Forest Floor products.

DUSK:

Dusk- the moment when daylight turns to night, and the world seems to change in ways we can only feel. The mystery of darkness is the primary inspiration for this classy fragrance. Indulge your body and home in deep masculine notes such as patchouli, amber, and musk. You will never be the same.

LAVENDULA:

Lavender is such a classic in the industry of bath and body, and something we could not complete our product line without. The use of lavender in soaps dates back farther than we can know for certain and is still in popular demand today. We use a unique hybrid blend of two Lavendula species, which provides the best blend of bitter and sweet.

WILD BERRY:

What better joy than coming across a beautifully untouched raspberry bush growing unrestrained. The love and appreciation for fresh ripened fruit brought about this wonderfully sweet fragrance. Hints of vanilla add to the already indulgent notes of berries to complete this fragrance.

HONEY ALMOND:

Instantly brighten your senses and your home with our Honey Almond line of products. There is something wonderfully refreshing about the scent of roasting almonds, warm honey, and heavy cream. Loved by men and women alike- the overcoming power of this fragrance is undeniably comforting. 

We Need Your Support on OpenSky

Happy August!
We are in the process of opening our web store on Open Sky, an online market place that integrates the ideas of social media. For example, when you 'Like' a product, it will show it to your friends on Open Sky- and vice vesa.

It is free to join, which you can do by going here. By joining through that link, you are bringing us one step closer to the opening of our store. We need a total of 20 joins- but we don't plan to stop there! The more fans we get to join, the bigger our community will grow.

Here are some examples of the products we are now offering on Open Sky, which will soon be available through our website and Etsy!

Lavender

I am going to have to admit, I always hated lavender. I made products with it because my customers love it, and it consistently sells throughout the year. But I couldn't stand it until recently.
As you may know, I have been taking a lot of time lately to clean up my line of products. One of the first things that needed to be done was selecting which scents I was going to keep. With the help of my customers, friends, family, and coworkers, we narrowed it down to 5 scents. One of those scents, which was ranked highly by most, was of course lavender. I had no intentions of including lavender in the beginning, but in the end I am in the business if making people happy.
At the same time, we were formulating a new soap recipe that we were excited to try. We included two new ingredients one that has not traditionally (or ever) been used in soap before. So I decided to test the soap in a scent I know I could sell or at least give away, if it worked. I used lavender.
That night, I was so excited to use the new soap that I didn't even wait for it to cure. And, it was spectacular! I loved the pure, raw smell of lavender in the shower, and the new formula couldn't have been more perfect. It was almost an 'ah-ha!' Moment- this is why people love it!
This was about a week ago, and I now have this lavender soap in both of my showers, and at every sink.

New soap sizes

Good morning! This is much earlier on a Saturday than I planned to be awake, but being the morning person that I am, here I sit smiling with my cup of coffee (Thank you HSCG for the mug!).

Now on to business... While I know people loved the idea of our smaller soaps for gifts, bathroom displays and for personal use- we are going to be abandoning that idea for now.
We are switching to newer, more efficient soap molds, which requires us to change the size of our soaps. The new soaps are easier to hold, and are larger than our previous 'large' bars.
We would like to include the guest size again in the future, but right now we're taking this one step at a time. Being a full time graduate student, mother of two puppies, and a wife has left me less time than I would like to play around with my products, so I do what I can!

Hello Again

So, as it seems, I have been too pathetically busy to keep up with blogging. It also doesn't help that this was placed st the bottom of my to-do list.
Fortunately now though, I have plenty to update you all on! You can expect a whole lit of updates in the near future.
And for convenience's sake, I am currently writing this on my phone, using the blogger app :)

Oh, and I've included a picture of my two new family members, both under a year old. That is probably why I have had no time!