But Is It FRESH???

Hello Again….still in Palm Springs….spent yesterday in the Anza-Borrego State Park..hiking up a desert wash to a palm oasis ….it was warm and sunny…..but today…it’s a movie and shopping….

Shopping  means a lot of looking around and occasionally, we actually buy something! Found a new Body Care shop…and the signage was  “FRESH!”  and “ORGANIC.”   Everything looked good, and for once, reading labels, I was impressed. 

“Is everything really organic?” I asked.  Well, the answer was, not really. It seems they were unable to consistently source 100% organic ingredients, so sometimes things aren’t organic, but mostly.  We have the same problem, only, we don’t market things as organic unless they are 100% organic, always, not sometimes. 

But these were the most natural products I’ve ever seen and I bought acouple of  things.  They packed up my products and then popped a couple of tiny ice packs in the bag and I was then  told the products had to be refrigerated. 

I thought of returning the products..but had already paid for them…so, home they came and there they sit in the fridge.  Sometimes, I don’t use them because I forget to get them out of the fridge.  And  when I do my evening ritual, I don’t like putting freezing cold creams on my skin….Also, after a week or so, the toner has a decided green layer on top that wasn’t there before.

So, how fresh do we want to go?  The toner has a Best By date of a year from now, but would I want to take a nice fresh cucumber, mix it with a few other ingredients, and keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks, a few months or a year?

O.K.  Fresh has gone far enough.  Please, don’t be so fresh!!!

Bye for now, Linda

P.S. These products cost me a small fortune!

SEEKING SOAP IN SO.CAL.

Still here in sunny Southern California….enjoying hiking the desert….movies, and  visiting local farmers markets, street fairs, and dozens of cute little boutiques.

We love our soap business…and love to see what others are doing, too.  It’s fun, exciting, and  really inspiring to see what’s happening in the wide world of soap.

Somehow, things were different this year….I don’t think it’s the ‘downturn’ everyone is talking about…but, well, something different.

We met lots of soapmakers…saw lots of handmade soap, but somehow…I know some people won’t like this…..they all looked the same!

It seems handmade soap is now ubiquitous…and has become increasingly commercial…..out of 20 or so soap lines we looked at, only 2  looked fun, exciting and creative.  The rest were all melt and pour…..read; soap blocks purchased from the large chemical corporations.

Now, I know there is a place for this……but, hopefully, not at the expense of real, hand-stirred, hand-mixed and poured soap, made with real vegetable, tropical or exotic oils instead of a detergent base.

At one market, I asked a nice young lady what the soap was made of and she replied, “soap base.”  I asked what the ingredients were…and she replied, “glycerine,” not even aware of what was in her melt-and-pour base.

This seems to be where things are going….but, thankfully, we did meet one wonderful soapmaker at a fair who was genuinely interesting and creative. He was new at things…and really excited to meet us…..soapmakers for over 30 years!

He had put everything but the kitchen sink into his bars; a base of palm, coconut and olive….shea butter, aloe, coco butter, and lots more, I forget.  He gave us one free for giving him some great free advice on a problem he just couldn’t solve….that we had worked out years ago!

The bar was really soft; you could press in your thumb and leave a print.But in the bath, it was lovely and mild and had pure essential oils for fragrance. Alas, it was too soft, and really didn’t last at all.  Yet all of the superfatting had made this one of the most moisturizing bars I’ve ever used!

The more commercial-looking bars were all smooth and uniform…and were in display boxes and not wrapped…our gift was obviously individually hand-cut..and handwrapped with a kind of funky little label….the more sophisticated ones usually smelled of synthetic fragrances….some of them quite lovely, but I preferred the fresh essential oils of the one we’d been given.

It made me think a lot about what consitutes a top-quality, handmade artisan soap…and here’s what I came up with.

Needs to be oils (not tallow) known to make a bland, mild soap, not overly perfumed, hand-cut and hand-wrapped…..and a little superfatting, not too much, or it won’t last.  But enough to make it really moisturizing….after some thought, I came up with what I call The Big Three.  This will serve in future as a guide for all of our soapmaking:

First……has to be MILD.

Second….has to be MOISTURIZING.

Third:  has to LAST A LONG TIME.

Anything else?? Oh yes…no animal products or ingredients…let me know what you think.

Bye for now,

Linda