Abbey's Handcrafted Soap Bubbles

Come and join us at the Newburgh Women's Club Craft Show on 2/26/11 from 9 AM to 4 PM. Our booth will be in the cafeteria at Castle High School. Look for the red and cream backdrop and you'll find Abbey's Handcrafted Soaps Booth. We have lots of cremes and lotions to prepare your skin for spring and summer. You've been hiding under the winter layers of clothing long enough and need rich oils to soothe your dry skin and get it ready for the unveiling of Spring. We have lots of wonderful floral, woodsy, and spicy scents to tantilize your scents. We'll look forward to seeing you then.

Time for Craft Shows for Fall and the Holidays

It's that time of year again for craft fairs.  The jewel colors of Autumn shop up in the soap colors.  Tum eric for golden yellow, madder root for a beautiful burgundy and shades of brown for gingerbread and golden pumpkin.  The scents are reminiscent of the holiday kitchen with scents like spiced cranberry, perfect pumpkin, and farmhouse cider.  Who can resist these fragrances.  You will be able to imagine that bar of soap sitting at the kitchen sink or spicing up the guest bathroom when your family and friends come to visit.  You will be the source of envy for your great taste and imagination.  Plan ahead to attend your local shows.  Abbey's Handcrafted Soaps will have a booth on October 30, 2010 at the Boonville High School Craft Show, The Pound Puppies Craft Show on November 20, 2010 at the Posey County Fairgrounds, and the Castle Band Craft Show on December 5th, 2010.  There will be lots to pick from for Christmas gifting, spoiling yourself, hostess gifts, teacher's gifts and more.  Happy Fall, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas.  //Kay Rose

Handcrafted Soapmaking at Home

While you may think making handmade soap would be fun, let me share with you some of the things the fun includes.  The soapmaker carefully plans the soap she/he is going to make, choosing the recipe colors, fragrance, oils, and additives.  She/he prepares the molds he/she  plan to use and lines them if necessary.  He/She places them on a handy flat surface where they can stay for 24 hours.   He gathers all of the ingredients and makes sure he has the amount needed of each ingredient. She suddenly realizes she is running low on avocado oil or borage oil.  That means stopping the process to run the Soapmaker program on the computer to make sure she has something with the same SAP value as the oil she ran short of.  Things are looking up as he has a great substitute oil and plenty of it.  She has mixed the sodium hydroxide and water and it is heating up in the room with the fan running and sitting in an ice bath to cool.  He has measured the solid oils and has them melting slowly on the stove.  It's time to measure out the liquid oils and set them aside.  He next measures out the fragrance, essential oils, goat milk, herbs, or whatever else he plan to add at trace.  Color choice is added into the measuring cup and set aside.  The solid oils are now melted and cooling on the counter.  She adds the liquid oils to help cool the mixture.  Time to write down the recipe and all additions in "The Soap Book" carefully adding the amounts and the vendors from which you purchased the products.  Don't forget to add the Batch number and date. 

Ok, the oil and water mixtures have cooled enough to add together.  Oops forgot to plug in the stick mixer.  Run the stick mixer for just a minute or two.  Don't forget you bought a new mixer that works MUCH faster than the old one.   Once it is mixed slightly, add some of the mixture into the bowl with the additives and some to the measuring cup with the color.  Mix each using the stick mixer.  Make sure to do the one without color first then rinse it off and do the one with color.  Not too much or it will get too thick. 

Back to the main mixture and stick blend just enough to bring it to trace, overdo it and you will have thick pudding with lumps when you pour it.  Now add the bowl with the additives and mix with stick blender just a few times.  Add the color mixture.  Oops, not enough color.  Add more color to the bowl and a little more of the almost traced soap.  Got to hurry or pudding is in the making.  The color is better now.  Over to the mold!  He is eager, but WAIT... he forgot to add the fragrance.  Back to the counter and the stick blender.  Add the fragrance/essential oil and lightly blend with whisk as the stick blender will be too much.  Not enough blending and it will separate.  Ok, it looks mixed.  Over to the molds again and pour it in.  Level it out and then add the dividers if needed.  Cover with Saran Wrap and cover with towels or whatever you use to insulate it. 

The soapmaker is dying to know how the soap is doing, so you get up at 2 AM and sneak a peek under the towels.  Gel is happening.  Yeah!  The color is morphing however to a color you hadn't planned on.  Back to bed to sleep a few more hours.  DH gets up at 5 AM so he sneaks his peek at the soap.  It looks ok to him, but what does he know. 

The soapmaker gets up at 7 AM and takes another look only to find the gel has finished and the color is lighter than ever.  She makes notes in the book to add more color next time.  The scent is perfect and she notes this in her book too.  The dividers are pulled from the mold at 9 AM and the soap is left uncovered.  At 4 PM the soap is removed from the mold and taken to the drying rack.  Overall the batch smells 9/10 and the color is 5/10, but overall the bars turned out pretty well and should do well at the Farmer's Market. 

Every few days the soapmaker goes to the soap drying rack to check on the baby bars to see if they are doing ok.  They are fine, but due to the humidity they are slower at drying than normal.  The soapmaker adds a bowl of moisture absorber to the room to help take the moisture away from the soap. 

A month has past and the time has come.  The soapmaker takes the bar of the beautiful soap she so lovingly made to the shower.  The shea butter has made it so creamy and full of moisture, the castor oil gave it wonderful fluffy suds.  The scent makes it a "Calgon Take Me Away" moment.  Soapmaking is worth the time and effort. 

Revive Yourself Fall Will Soon Be Here

The Fall season fast approaches.  School is starting in the next few weeks all over the USA.  Mothers are breathing a sign of relief as their days return to a normal pace.  This of course, is not true for the mothers and dads who are teachers.  You deserve a break.  Take time out to enjoy a relaxing  bath using some of Abbey's Handcrafted Soaps Dead Sea Salt fragranced with Peppermint, Cotton Blossom, or Oatmeal Honey Almond.  If you need a wake up in the morning,try the Dead Sea soap that contains Dead Sea Mud and Caffeine.  We have a great spicy soap for Autumn and will be making new ones soon. 

Join the contest by submitting a suggestion to name a Fall Bar of Soap.  The winner will receive a free bar of soap of their choice.  We will make the soap to fit the winning name. 

It is time to get started making the fall scented soaps and this weekend will be the beginning.  We will be getting ready for the Fall and Winter Craft shows.  The soap has to cure/dry for 4 weeks at least before it will go up for sale to you.  Looking forward to hearing from you.  Submit your suggestions to my twitter account or Facebook for Kay S. Rose.  Good luck!

Summer has come and the heat is on. Using a wonderfully scented rich in lather soap can make you feel so much better after a hot sweaty day. Try new midnight pomegranate or cucumber and green tea swirls. Enjoy the shower or bath rather than just going through the motions.

Handmade Soapmakers Who Need Labels Draw Near

Any of you soap makers or makers of lotions and other spa products need to check out my favorite site for labels.  It's  http://www.onlinelabels.com.    I use their Maestro label program for many of my labels for lotions and spa products.  I love the heavier ones that can be used around water and the ink won't run.  I also like the choices of so many sizes to pick from.  They have occasional specials that I take advantage of to help my business stay afloat.  Check them out and you too will love them!

Kay Rose, Owner and Soap maker

Abbey's Handcrafted Soaps

Spring is coming and it's time to make new Spring scents. I have sitting on the rack to dry some new Cocoa Wake Up Bars with Dead Sea Mud and Caffeine. Tonight I am making more Midnight Pomegranate Soap as it is almost all sold out. It has been popular in the soaps and I made goat milk lotion to match. I have Peach Zinfendel and Lemon Verbena that just cry out for Spring. I have ordered some Mango and some Magnolia fragrance oils that I can't wait to try soon. The Cotton Blossom Soap is dry and turned out beautifully. It's the prettiest shade of light blue and the fragrance is so delicate.

I have Lavender Extraordinaire ready to sell that is filled with Lavender buds and lightly scented with Lavender essential oil. I used the recipe with lots of richness and moisturizing properties. I have some oatmeal, honey almond ready to go for exfolliation. The tea tree oil in Mossy Oak is a beautiful green bar that is great for the men in our lives.

I just sold my last bars of Amore, but have more drying on the shelves ready in a few weeks. It was a best seller this past season.

I tried the new scents that are named for the beloved vampire series of books and movies. I loved the books and can't get enough of the fragrances named after Twilight/Edward and others. I have some lotions made so far with these and they are "to die for". Just kidding.

I have lots on the shelf to share just give me a call or check out my website at http://www.artisansonline.com/abbeyshandcraftedsoaps

Recent craft show booth. All over until February when we will be showing at the Newburgh Women's Club Show.

Merry Christmas to All

Twas the morning of Christmas and the soap on the rack

was feeling alone and checking for cracks.

Soap maker was done selling for Christmas this year

and the ones on the rack had a feeling of fear.

Were they not quite as pretty as the ones that had sold?

Or had they had been there too long and were looking too old?

Lavender was weeping as it's always best selling,

and friend Romance was gone as it took top billing.

The Lime was a hit with the ladies for their men

but the Peach sat and Pined for the Spring once again.

The soap for the kitchen was ready to work

and the soap for the bathroom smelled like dessert.

Santa and his elves had delivered all their gifts

and soaps in the basket were no longer a myth.

The green tea and the rosebud were left on the bottom

and shook heads to feel they would soon be forgotten.

But Spring was to follow and they'd soon demanded

as these fragrances again came to be disbanded.

Customers would flock to their light scented blooms

and their fragrance would again be filling the rooms.

Merry Christmasto all and to all a good night,

Kay Rose, The Soap Maker

Abbey's Handcrafted Soaps

Creating charming gifts for friends

Do you ever have a last minute invitation to someone's home or just need a quick thinking of you or thank you gift?  It's a great idea to keep a "gift drawer" with a few items on hand for times like these. Candles, soaps, lotions, small books, fancy note cards are great to keep on hand ready at a moments notice.  Keep small fancy bags and a matching roll of ribbon nearby too.  All you need to do is wrap a ribbon around the soap, lotion or candle and put it in the back along with another item and you have a great thoughtful gift that any woman would love.  If you have a lot of men you give gifts to, add masculine scented soap, lotion and candles and ribbon that are in darker green or brown tones. Many scents can be unisex so you don't have to stock as much in the "gift drawer".  My drawer has saved me many times and the recipients always seem to enjoy receiving them.  If you are a wine drinker and have a lot of friends who enjoy wine tasting, add a fancy wine bag or two to the drawer.  You can find darling bags with attached note book.  The first person notes the date they drank the wine,  the name and year of the wine and the winery name,  and make comments about it as they hand off another wine to their friends.  If you are spending a weekend or week with someone you may want to make a basket adding some or all of the above items, possibly adding some fruit, nuts, or cookies to the basket.  It takes little time to create a wonderful gift at the last minute.