Discount Soaps!

It's that time of year for cleaning out and making room for new soap! Here are some great soaps at discount prices.

Lemon Verbena 2nds Same delicious fragrance as our regular Lemon Verbena soap, with a great creamy and silky lather. When I first made this soap it was a little too cleansing (aka drying) so I let it sit for several months on our curing shelf, allowing the ph to come down with age. Now it's a wonderful, hard, long lasting soap, still strong in fragrance, perhaps a smidge more cleansing than our usual, but still gentle on the skin.

Many Man 2nds Same wonderful fragrance as our regular, best selling, Manly Man soap slices. This was a botched batch of soap that I rescued by remelting the soap and adding yummy avocado oil and cocoa butter. The soap has great scent strength and lathers into a silky, creamy lather. Very rustic in appearance.

Creamy Coconut 2nds Same coconut fragrance as our regular, great selling, Creamy Coconut soap, although a little lighter in scent strength than our regular. Like the soap above, this was a botched batch that I rescued through remelting the soap and adding yummy avocado oil and cocoa butter. This soap has a fluffy, creamy lather.

Pomegranate & Citrus Experiment #1 This is a sweet/tart citrus combo, an experimental blend that actually turned out really nice. However, I also tried to experiment with the looks of the soap by imbedding pomegranete red colored soap curls. Long story short, it came out UGLY, as in, sick to my stomach, win the prize for ugliest soap ever ugly. I ended up remelting the soap and remolding it into my round molds. Though still not beautiful, it's a major improvement over what it originally looked like (trust me;). Delicious scent with creamy, silky lather. Pomegranate & Citrus Experiment #2 Same sweet/tart fragrance blend as above, but this time I colored a portion of the soap with what I thought would be a beautiful pomegranate red color. I was hoping it would combine nicely with brown tan color of the rest of the soap. Instead I got a tan soap with a bubble gum pink accent. It still smells great, with the same silky, creamy, lotion like lather of the rest of my soaps.

Lavender Orange Experiment With more lavender than orange, this soap smells stronger when wet than dry. In fact, I was going to originally write that this soap has very little scent that was until I washed my hands with and the smelled the fragrance come alive. This is another one of my experiments in color. Hard bars with silky creamy lather. Note: Each bar is slightly different in look as some have more yellow/pink imbeds than others.


Apple Jack Spice Unstamped (formally known as Apple Jack Peel): I made way too many of these soaps for the Holiday season, so many that I still had a good sized batch sitting on my curing shelf waiting to be stamped. So rather than stamp them I placed them here in clearance section and priced them to sell! With a spicy apple fragrance, this is one of my personal favorites that I like year round, but then I like spice scents like clove and cinnamon not matter the season. These can also be wrapped in paper (helps retain the scent) and stored in dark, dry, room temperature place for next fall season. The bars will shrink a little, but will be rock hard, long lasting, and extra, extra, gentle on the skin.
Cinnabear I made too many of these and need to move them. Like the Apple Jack Spice, these soaps can be stored, wrapped in paper, in a dark, dry, room temperature place for next fall. These will stay nicely fragranced and be extra hard, long lasting and mild with extended cure time.

Holiday Favorites are in!

Two of our best selling holiday soaps in our Classic Rounds are now available!




Apple Jack Spice: Cinnamon, cloves and apples blended together perfectly for a delicious fall fragrance.


Cranberry Orange:A zesty cranberry sweetened with orange. A wonderful classic holiday blend.

New Soap Slice Fragrances!

In time for fall, three new sweet and spicy Soap Slice fragrances!

Bobbing For Apples: Crisp, sweet apples with a splash of juicy orange and spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. Reminds me of pressed apple cider fresh from the orchard.

Wild Oats & Beer: Creamy oats with notes of sweet vanilla and rich milk, blended magnificently with smooth dark beer, nutty almond, and warm butterscotch. An absolutely delectable fragrance!

Spiced Pumpkin Ale: Full bodied, brown ale flavored with pureed pumpkin, brown sugar, smooth rum, and spiced with grated nutmeg, warm cinnamon, and crushed ginger. An absolutely edible fragrance!

A couple new Special Edition Soaps!

We just added two new "Special Edition" Soaps . As a special treat, we've kept the price low on these soaps. These are available only online.
Coconut Almond: This a lite, creamy coconut, with soft green notes, combined with a yummy bakery almond.


Rosemary Eucalyptus: A blending of two favorite essential oils for an invigorating, wake-me-up aroma. Very similar to our best selling Classic Round Eucalyptus & Rosemary soap.

Falls is coming and so are some new fragrances!

I just ordered the first of our new fall candle melt fragrances! After testing numerous cinnamon fragrances, I finally found an absolutely, delicious, cinnamon spice blend, along with a couple yummy bakery scents, a divine apple scent (smells like fresh pressed apples, really!) and even a Hot Buttered Rum that smells just like the real thing!

In our soaps, we will also be bringing back some of our best selling fall/holiday favorites like Apple Jack Peel, Cranberry Orange, and Christmas Valley along with some wonderful new fragrances! I can't wait!

Over a week ago, the last of our daughter's does (she owns most of the goats on our farm) gave birth. Yay! This doe had us guessing for many months as to whether or not she was actually pregnant. Mixed physical signs as well as the fact that she's a very large bodied doe bred to a tiny miniature buck didn't help. But at last we found she was indeed pregnant (the two little hooves protruding from her backside was a good indication, just kidding, we actually were pretty convinced she was pregnant a little before that). She had an easy delivery (thank you Lord) giving birth to three healthy, bouncing (literally) baby bucklings (boys).

A minor complication developed the next morning after her delivery. During our morning barn chores we noticed the bellies on the little newborns were empty. Not good. They had nursed soon after their middle of the night delivery (we make sure of that), but it appeared they had not nursed since. Again, not good since newborns really need the immune building colostrum their moms produce and they need it within the first 12 hours of birth.

We observed the doe, making sure she showed all the signs of having properly bonded to her kids. Sometimes when does don't bond properly to their offspring they won't allow them to nurse. In fact, they usually won't have anything to do with them. This wasn't the case with this doe. She was "talking" to her newborns, nuzzling them, and becoming concerned if she became separated from them, all signs she was bonded. Next step was to examine her udder. Yep, there was a problem. Though not visible to our eyes, my daughter could definitely feel the congestion in her udder and this congestion was making it difficult for her kids to get milk and difficult for her to allow them to nurse. It hurt for her to nurse her babies.

To solve the problem my daughter began by gently massaging the doe's udder followed by hand milking her. This was done a couple times a day the first few days to help clear her congested udder and the doe tolerated the hand milking better then she tolerated nursing her kids. We left the babies with their mom so she'd remain bonded to them, and using a bottle, we supplemented the kids with the milk we got from milking their mom. Gradually the doe's udder healed and within a weeks time she was allowing her babies to nurse. Yay again! As cute as they are, we really didn't want to end up with bottle babies this late in the season.


During the week we were helping with their feedings I got these cute pic of the three boys.

All three are different colored, and two have blue eyes like their sire.

Mom is 1/2 Lamancha and 1/2 Nubian while Dad is a Nigerian Dwarf and you can really see the three breeds represented by the different ears. The middle one has the short eared Lamancha gene. The other two express a mix of the long Nubian ears and the prick, upright ears of the Nigerian breed.

Even though we are no longer handling these kids for daily feedings they remain friendly, especially the little brown or tan buckling ( I never remember the correct color names for goats), on the far left. He really enjoys his daily pettings.

Soap Scraps!

Soap Scraps added online!

On many batches of soaps I make I end up with a certain amount of soap scraps. These odds and ends of soap end up piling up in a big box.


When the box becomes full, I chop the soap up into smaller pieces.


Then I package the scraps, by weight, into paper bags. Each bag contain 1lb soap scraps.


I like to use up the soap scraps by putting them into our Leafa nylon soap mitts.



The Leafa has pockets that I can put a few of my scraps into.



With just a small amount of soap scraps I can wet down my Leafa and easily get a great lather.
When I'm done I rinse and hang my Leafa, still containing the soap scraps, in the shower to dry. And that's it. It ready for use next time I shower. I add new soap scraps as needed.

New Bath Shower Gel!

Introducing our New Bath and Shower Gel! Filled with organic goodies like Aloe Vera, Jojoba oil, and Rosemary essential oil, along with conditioning oils like Sweet Almond and Apricot Kernel. This concentrated gel makes tons of fluffy, creamy lather that clean quickly and gently. We are making it available in five of our best selling scents: Cedar & Saffron, Fresh Grapefruit, Japaneses Plum Blossom, Lavender Amber and Sugared Lemon, also available in unscented.

Ingredients: Organic Herbal Infusion, Organic Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice (Aloe Vera), Ammonium Laurel Sulfate, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, Cocomidopropyl Betaine (from coconut), Cocomide D.E.A (from coconut), Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond Oil), Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot Kernel Oil), Organic Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba), Retinyl Palmitate (Vitamin A), Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E), Organic Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary), Organic Anthemis Nobilis (Chamomile), and fragrance

A couple new Soap Slice Soaps!

Soon to be added (if not already added by the time you read this) to our online store are two new fragrances in our "Soap Slice" style soaps.


First is our new Petal Pusher: a sweet floral blend of May Lilies and French Lilacs with a hint of Sweet Peas and summer fruits. A soft, sweet, and innocent, floral fragrance.


And Skinny Dipping: A mix of red, tart cranberries, grated orange peel, pink grapefruit lemonade, and a hint of lemongrass essential oil makes this one tangy, fruity, zippy fantastic fragrance.

Caribbean Coconut Soap Rebatched

The other day, after pouring our "Caribbean Coconut" soap into the molds, I realized I had left out one of the oils in my recipe and it was too late to do anything about it. I'm currently out of Caribbean Coconut soap so I really didn't need the headache or expense of screwing up this batch and then having to wait for more fragrance oil to arrive before I could make a new batch. But rather than cry (which I really wanted to), get mad (which I usually do), or complain (which I sometimes do), I decided to put on my big girl panties and salvage my mistake by "rebatching" the soap and I decided to do a little experimental scent blending while I was at it. FYI, rebatching soap is done by carefully and slowly melting previously made soap. You can use a variety of heat sources but for this batch I chose the microwave.

So here is the soap I need to salvage.

Here is the soap cut in smaller pieces sitting in the microwave ready to be rebatched, aka melted.

After about 30 minutes of low heat and intermittent stirring the soap is still not quite ready.

While the soap finished melting I took some time to select the colors I would use to color my soap. I love this part. I decided on some beautiful blue micas and oxides. I also ended up adding a beautiful green mica that's not pictured here.

Here's my soap finally melted and me adding the missing Avocado oil. I also decided to add a small amount of additional almond fragrance oil that I mixed in with the Avocado oil. I figured a coconut scented soap with an additional almond note sounded good.

The avocado oil and almond fragrance oil have been mixed in and now here I am adding the colors. Did I mention I love this part?

Now that the colors have been added the soap is poured/plopped into a mold and left to cool and harden. Rebatched soap has the texture of soft mashed potatoes thus the rough and rustic looking texture.

And here is the soap after it's cooled, removed from the mold, and cut. By the way, the scent turned out yummy. It reminds me of an Almond Joy candy bar. After it's well cured I'll add it to our online store as a "special edition" soap.

Update and New Bath and Body Gel coming soon!

I was all excited this past month of June to introduce a new goat milk product. Unfortunately, (big sigh) it's not yet ready. So what was this mystery product I was so excited about? Goat Milk Bath & Shower Gel that we are still (ever so slowly) working on. But wait! There is still some good news. Though not made with goat milk we are getting ready to introduce our new Bath & Shower Gel which is a wonderful alternative for those that love our scents but don't use bar soap. This gentle and moisturizing cleansing gel makes oodles of silky soft, creamy lather. And trust me when I say that a little bit goes a long way. Seriously, I used 1/2 teaspoon ( yes I measured) on one of those nylon poufs and I had more lather than I new what to do with! Now, I'm still doing some final fragrance testing, and putting the finishing touches on the packaging, but we hope to have this wonderful product available within the next two weeks. We'll keep you updated!

In time for Summer new fun and fruity candle melts!

Fruit scents have been a favorite with our customers so it's fun to introduce some new ones for the summer season.

Introducing............

• Juicy Watermelon: Cold, crisp, sweet and juicy Watermelon at its best!

• Cucumber Melon: Sweet Honeydew Melon with crisp, fresh Cucumber.

• Sun Sweetened Raspberries: Sun Sweetened Raspberries with a sprinkle of pure cane sugar and soft vanilla.

• Carousel: With sweet notes of cotton candy, French vanilla, creamy caramel, milk chocolate, dark amber, soft musk and a mix of light florals and juicy strawberry, this fragrance is sure to be a hit with the young and those of us that are young at heart. (Okay, maybe not really a fruit scent, but it is fun!)

• Kickin' Kiwi: Sweet like a strawberry and refreshing like a summer melon is this delicious fruit known as the Kiwi.
  

• Jamaican Me Happy: Tropical fruits of pineapple, papaya, and banana, mixed with grated coconut, zesty mandarin and a hint of rum makes this a tropical vacation in a candle melt. Don't forget the sunscreen!

• Creamy Lime: Tangy, zesty lime sweetened with soft notes of creamy coconut .

• Island Retreat: Juicy notes of ripe mango, sliced pineapple, and fresh citrus, complemented with soft notes of pink plumeria and lush, tropical greens nestled in a base of creamy coconut and white musk makes for one complex and delicious Tropical Retreat!

Phew! The past two months have been very busy. We've had 11 does kid (give birth) with only two left to go! And as a result, my daughter and I have been spending many hours in the barn these days, milking, feeding bottle babies, monitoring pregnant does, and the list goes on.

I've also been spending time working on new products and scents. In our Candle Melts, we have several new scents coming mid June, scents like Kickin Kiwi. Black Cherry, Juicy Watermelon, Jamaican Me Happy, Sun Sweetened Raspberry, and Carousel! I can't wait to officially introduce these along with our new goat milk_______ (not telling yet because it's a surprise) that we will be introducing soon!

Here's some of our kids waiting for their bottle. From left to right we have Lady, Milo (the only guy in the group,) Fae, River, and Molly.

Getting Ready for Kidding!

Here's a few things we have ready before our does start delivering.

Kidding pens ready!
These pens are set up inside the regular pens. This gives the doe her own space when it's time to give birth yet keeps her close to her herd.


And almost ready!

Fresh Straw for bedding

Relaxing, Calming, Lavender Essential Oil!
We put a few drops in and around the kidding pens.

Clean towels!

Ingredients for Vitamin/Gatorade drink
(Given to mamma doe after she kids)

Plenty of hot chocolate and coffee for those late night kiddings!

Makeshift bed in barn.

Wet, gloomy weather!
The rule of thumb is if you have does due to deliver you have to have cold, rainy weather. It makes those late night trips out to the barn so invigorating!