Naturally Made Soaps

BACK AGAIN AND LOTS OF CHANGES AFOOT!

2012-01-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

Hi all, Happy New Year and all that

I know its late but lots has been happening. I am back from 4 weeks in Portugal again and at long last, the moment I have been waiting for, Naturally Made Soaps and Puro Soaps are going to merge.......

We have been working hard to get to this point and finally we are here, lots to do to achieve it but it will happen. Naturally Made Soaps will become Puro. All European orders will be taken care of via Shelley In Portugal while I will keep going with the UK sales and website sales here in England. It should work, with a little tweaking of the range here or there.

Puro Soaps was launched in November 2011 in Lagares da Beira, Portugal - to great acclaim. Puro aims to use as many local, fresh Portuguese ingredients as possible including the olive oil, beeswax and creamy goats milk (a lot of which are already picked, cured and soon to be milked by ourselves), the range is designed to reflect the beauty of the country and the fantastic ingredients to be found - I am really sure that you will all approve.

Myself and Paul Barnes (Shelleys husband) picking olives for our harvest 2012

Those of you following this blog for a while will know my passion for Portugal and how I have always tried to bring the country and its bounty and beauty into my soapmaking, well now it is a reality! Our entire range will be made in both countries by myself and Shelley, ready for shipping anywhere and there will be no difference in quality or service - in fact it will be better.

What will this mean to you as a customer? Hopefully you will not really notice many changes. There will be a few soaps in the old range leaving us but they will be replaced by some simply wonderful new soaps including our very special 'PURO' range which are pure olive oil soaps, very special, luxurious and indulgent.

We will be closing the Naturally Made Soaps website temporarily so we can make the big change over and we will let you know as soon as the new site is up and running. Please do follow our progress by logging into this blog or follow us on facebook at the Puro Soaps Page. If you would like a sneak preview of the new soap range go to the temporary Puro website Puro Soaps to have a look.

Please note, there will still be a UK only ordering facility on our website for a couple of our soaps that we don't think will market well in Europe but are firm favorites and best sellers in England such as

And of course the ever popular, unbelievably good and effective DIRTY DOG SOAP!!

There may well be others too. If you are a UK customer and have a favorite you just cant do without, please let us know, we will do our best to reassure you with a sample of our new Puro substitute, which in fact, is EVEN BETTER!!

thanks for your loyalty and understanding during this period of change. We promise you a website that is even more exciting, inspiring and, most importantly, full of wonderful soap.

Let us know what you think, please leave comments below. We really want to know what you would hate to loose and what you would love to see in terms of new soap ideas......

HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS AND A VERY, VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2011-12-20T14:06:00.000-08:00

And WHAT A HOPELESS BLOGGER I have been recently - I am so sorry but I have never been as busy before in my whole life! I came back from my last trip to Portugal where we successfully launched 'PURO' and my feet just did not touch the ground.

I feel like I have been stuck in a permanent whirlwind, not in a bad way, dont get me wrong, it is great to be busy but really, it has been intense.

firstly coming up with new soaps for my Christmas ranges, then making, making, making. I actually made about 3 times more soap than I have ever done before for Christmas, thinking this might be enough. Not a bit of it, I sold out of all the Christmas soaps end of last week, Follow the Star being the most popular, then Snowberry and Christmas Spice. The Gingerbread cupcakes went immediately (and I made hundreds!), Wild Berry soon followed and the Mince pies have just gone mad!! People started asking for them back in October so I knew I just had to make them again. I love them. Put them in a big basket on the stall, about 100, and just watch people, looking, then looking again, then they come up and read the info. A huge smile usually follows, they never fail to make people smile.

My Christmas Fairs and activities have been mixed, always great fun but not always worthwhile in terms of sales, but that is not always everything is it? The Craft Hub event at Topsham "Twinkling Firs" was wonderful, the first complete sell out of mince pies!

Totnes Late Night Shopping Christmas Festival has not been great so far, but Aimee (my wonderful daughter) and her fiance Dave have been doing the last one tonight for me (so we can pack for our mega trip to Portugal tomorrow) and so far, it looks good. They have very little to sell, but, hey, what there is left is still great soap!!

So, we are mostly sold out at the moment but I can promise I will come back from Portugal on 22nd January fired up and ready to go, also I should have some great new soaps to show you as well as the old favorites, so don't go anywhere!

LASTLY - I would like to wish you all a fabulous Christmas, may it bring you everything you want, and, in these hard times, it is probably more important than ever to remember those dear to you, spend as much time with friends and family as possible and laugh as much as you can.

Lots of love and Christmas wishes
Ishbel
aka Soapchick
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

PORTUGAL, PURO SOAPS, LABELS , LABELS, LABELS!!

2011-11-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

WOW how fast do things come round? Im back in Portugal again, this time to launch 'PURO' our fantastic new soap business, and open our first ever exhibition.

And you are all welcome!

Exposacao de

Sabonetes Artesanais

PURO - SHELLEY BARNES & ISHBEL RAMSAY

Biblioteca Ludoteca de Lagares da Beira

(Oliviera do Hospital)

PORTUGAL

02 a 30 Novembro 2011

Private View 7.30pm Friday 4 Novembro

We have been packing and labeling like mad and finally managed to beat our way through the rain to get the first of the soaps and info there and start to set up.

All packed up and ready to go

Newly wrapped Puro bars

Display starting to take shape

So there we are, the beginnings of a very exiting new business, started by two good friends living a fair few miles appart but both with a passion for soap making and pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Keep watching as we have lots and lots of fantastic new things happening in the next 3 weeks and all will be documented here!

Lastly.................... How lovely to be a dog? end of a very, very busy day, chill out time courtesy of Weasel - what a cutie!

I'M OFF TO PORTUGAL AGAIN

2011-10-30T18:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes yes.... I really can't believe it myself, it seems that it was only yesterday I was there making and creating the most amazing soaps with Mrs Barnes aka Shelley

Well, I am back again tomorrow for another fun filled, busy, busy 3 weeks where we launch PURO Soaps and really go for it!

We have already made a lot of soap ready for our first selling experiences but, most importantly, we will be hosting an exhibition of artisan soap making at the

	Biblioteca/Library- Lagares da Beira Largo Dr. Agostinho Antunes Lagares da Beira, Portugal Our Local lovely library - So masses of work to get this sorted before our launch night when the website goes live and PURO really lives! The soaps we have created are the best that both of us have ever made, our special PURO range of Olive Oil soaps are really something and our lovely 'fun' soaps will make Christmas bubble with a lovely scented, spicy selection of slightly mad, crazy and amazing soaps. Keep following this blog for the next three weeks of fantastic adventure and excitement. I can't wait!

Biblioteca/Library- Lagares da Beira

Largo Dr. Agostinho Antunes

Lagares da Beira, Portugal

Our Local lovely library - So masses of work to get this sorted before our launch night when the website goes live and PURO really lives!

The soaps we have created are the best that both of us have ever made, our special PURO range of Olive Oil soaps are really something and our lovely 'fun' soaps will make Christmas bubble with a lovely scented, spicy selection of slightly mad, crazy and amazing soaps.

Keep following this blog for the next three weeks of fantastic adventure and excitement. I can't wait!

CHRISTMAS IS COMING!

2011-10-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

Yes and my new soaps are all up on the website now, click on the link to the right of this blog to go and have a look. All of the soaps from last year have been altered and some look quite different, I also have two new cupcakes on offer and one new soap that I am very, very proud of.......

'FOLLOW THE STAR' - My first art landscape soap and my interpretation of the story of the three wise men and their journey to take their gifts to the new baby Jesus. Scented with frankincense and myrrh and studded with gold chunks it both looks and smells great, a real unisex soap and very luxurious too.

SNOWBERRY - slightly altered from last year, a little stronger scent and ice blue balls as well as white ones, drenched in fine crystal glitter it is very, very pretty.

CHRISTMAS SPICE CAKE - A real favorite and my best selling Christmas soap, again, totally re-vamped with beautiful hand cut and decorated tops using holly leaves and berries, it smells really great, just like an old fashioned Christmas.

CHRISTMAS TREE CUPCAKES - Really lovely and very different from last year, more spice added to the scent, darker blue/green swirls that go on forever, I have also added pretty metallic multicolored balls to mimic real Christmas Tree decorations, all topped off with a gold star.

NEW GINGERBREAD MEN CUPCAKES - I had to make this one, I got a cute new tiny gingerbread man cutter and this cupcake just happened! Scented with a wonderful ginger cake fragrance with added decorations it will be a real winner with the kids.

NEW WILDBERRY CUPCAKES - Another beautiful new cupcake that I think is set to become a classic. It is scented with wonderful zingy cranberry, wild berry and a touch of citrus with amazingly realistic, hand made soap berries scattered all over the top.

LASTLY.....

THE NOW FAMOUS NATURALLY MADE SOAPS MINCE PIE SOAPS - They are back, not ready for dispatch until the beginning of November but kept at the same price as last year they made the best, funniest, wonderfully inventive and totally original stocking fillers.

Tell all your friends, most of these soaps are limited editions and will not stay around for long.

RIP STEVE JOBS

2011-10-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

I know I am very late but I wanted to share this wonderful video link with you. I learned to use computers on a Mackintosh, and have loved Macs and everything Apple ever since. As a Mac user of 26 years I am in awe of the man who created these wonderful, easy to use, beautifully designed machines that have changed all our lives.

This video at Stamford University, USA is incredible, so inspiring. Steve Jobs was an innovator who changed the world just listen as he talks about how nearly dying taught him to live.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
- Steve Jobs

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle." -Steve Jobs

R.I.P. Steve Jobs-1955-2011

"You've got to find what you love"

One of the comments from You Tube

Ten years ago, we had Johnny Cash, David Hope, and Steve Jobs.
Now we have no Cash, no Hope, and no Jobs.

(not totally true I believe, but funny all the same)

NEW CHRISTMAS SOAPS - PREVIEW

2011-10-12T15:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, busy, busy, busy little Soapchick has been making like crazy. I have some lovely new ideas for Christmas soaps, some already made and some in the making. I want to share them with you today, some are on the curing racks already and will be ready for order really soon.

Re-vamped Christmas Spice Cake for 2011
Christmas Spice Cake is an annual favourite, each year I redesign it and try to make it better and better. This year I have gone for the holly and berry look on top, swirls of lovely creamy soap laden with cinamon, nutmeg, cranberry and clove scents. It is a real winner and I think that this years version is the best ever!

Christmas Berry cupcakes
Now these really are lovely, the base is scented with a mixture of wild berry and tangy cranberry, very Christmassy, the tops are decorated with mixed berries, and lovely indigo glitter. Another one that I don't have a name for yet, so if you can help I would love to know what you think?

Gingerbread Cupcakes
I recently fell in love with a new, tiny gingerbread man cutter and I had to get it. So..... naturally this means a new cupcake is born! this one has a fantastic ginger cake fragrance, so spicy and lovely. Some of the cupcakes have a candy cane on the opposite side, some a gold star, everything made out of soap of course! I need a name for this little beauty, can you help?

"Follow The Star" Limited edition
I am so excited by this soap, the idea came while I was sleeping - I know it sounds crazy but I dreamed this soap!

I wanted to make a real scene in soap, my interpretation of the Christmas message. The fragrance started me off, frankincense and Myrrh, a beautiful, warm, rich scent, and what else did the wise men bring? Gold of course, I wanted a star and glitter too. This is the result, a desert night (it will get darker, the sky I mean, as the fragrance ages to a much darker colour), the sand dunes peeling off into the distance, a wild, glittery, magical sky and a huge, pure white star to follow. The soap looks equally good straight out of the mold or cut up into bars (as above) I think, I really wanted the scene to show up well and tell the story of Christmas in soap, I think it does and I hope you do too, please let me know.

Before the final cut, straight out of the mold as an extra large bar and before the gold 'chunks' were coloured up.

Christmas Tree Cupcakes
and finally, another re-vamp of a favorite from last year. I have make these cupcakes again as I have already had lots of orders in, but, as always, I have made them slightly different this year. I hope you wont be disappointed. The scent is the same lovely mixture of Christmas spices as the cake at the top of this blog, cinnamon, clove, cranberry and nutmeg.

Remember you will always see and hear about my new soaps first on this blog and by following my facebook page, Please do let me know what you think, I love comments!!!

I BROUGHT MYSELF PRESENTS!

2011-09-30T11:42:00.000-07:00

Not actually today, I brought them a while ago when the new Spurious Crafts Folksy site went live.

The maker, Peter Jeffs, is my last boss, a bit strange I know, but he left our local council around the same time as I left my Arts Officer job. He was one of the Directors and one of the 'Good Guys'. Interestingly, while Peter was always very supportive of the work I did as a passionate Arts Officer and Play person, I knew he really "got it" (and most don't in my experience), I had no idea he was also a very competent and interesting artist in his own right. Funny the things you find out outside the workplace.

As most of you know, I am now a full time soap maker and very happy to be so, however, it is still scary as my two-day-a-week job was my bill payer and I am now struggling a bit to find the housekeeping each month. Hey ho, thats the way it goes and I know things will improve.

Anyway, Peter has been making his quirky ceramic tribal (kind of) masks for a while and decided to put them on a dedicated site, I got the heads up email and went to look right away. I fell in love! I think they are lovely.


I love this Shaman, I know I should not say it but he is tiny and sweet, and I am in love!

I'm not totally sure of the backing boards he uses, sometimes I think they are not quite right, the Shaman is great but the next one, which I love, does not work on the board.

I think she (and it is a she) is beautiful, she has a really serene look

Apparently the hair is made from plants from the garden (I thought it was from a broom!). I think I will take her off the backing board and see what she looks like then. She is quite a bit larger than the Shaman, but has a lovely texture to her skin. I am also not sure about the crystal on her forehead, its plastic and not right, also the pearl? I would love to know what you all think. Should I remove them or would that be wrong, or somehow in defiance of the artist and his creation?

Basically, I love them, do go and have a look at the Spurious Crafts Folksy site, it is great. Also Spurious Crafts has a new facebook page so please check it out and 'like' if you do!

I think these pieces of art are very individual, you either like them or they leave you a bit non plussed. I think they are great and am very happy with my present to myself!

Do let me know what you think, do you like them?

Last Day in Portugal (for a little while)

2011-09-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been frenetic, frantic, fantastic and fun!! I have learnt how great it is to work with another soap maker and we really have had so many laughs along the way. It has been such hard work designing and making our wonderful new range together, but I do believe we have done it. Long may it continue. Our new range Puro has been growing and growing, we now are the proud owners of 3 beautiful, totally natural, exclusive Olive oil soaps, 4 fab new Christmas soaps and 8 really great fun soaps, all made using wonderful natural ingredients from our local region in the mountains of Portugal. Along with actually making these lovely soaps we have created a new brand, new logo and labels as well as packaging, exhibition information. fabulous new display trugs (hand crafted and painted), website, new facebook page and some of the best marketing photographs I have ever seen. All (well almost all, a lot of thinking and talking has gone on first) in two weeks!!!............................

We think we have created some real stars

And the most wonderful displays

Just wait until you see them all cured and ready

Yes...................... we have had a disaster along the way, please meet MR F'UGLY

But then we have also had some very lovely successes.............. Please meet MISS PRETTY SPARKLE

All in all, the two weeks have been totally brilliant, I hope my Naturally Made Soaps customers have appreciated the skills of my lovely daughter Aimee, who has been doing my packing and posting while I have been away. I will be back at the NMS helm on Friday with a few new ideas of my own, new Christmas soaps to be launched, October courses and generally lots of great things going on, watch this space - as they say.

Please do also keep watching our new Puro Facebook page as this is where you will see what we are planning and hopefully all come and share a new, exciting soap making venture. If you are interested in stocking Puro soaps or want to find out more about our wholesale offers please keep following this blog, our new website will be launched soon and details will be shared on this site.

And lastly...... Because I have been working so hard with Shelley, I have not spent much time in the last two weeks at our lovely Quinta. So this morning I went out and photographed it in the early sun, it is such a wonderful, peaceful place, just a stones throw from the village of Lagares da Beira and Paul and Shelleys place. I hope you dont mind my final photo of this fantastic soap making journey coming from here.....

Quinta do Cobral - our lovely home

Dont worry, there will be lots more from both England and Portugal, keep watching this blog for the latest news. Please do leave a comment, it would mean so much to Shelley and I to hear what you think of our new soaps and ideas..... thanks in advance

Last post from Portugal for a while! - sorry Im late - My Week!

2011-09-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

What a week, both Shelley and I are knackered, walking and thinking, inventing, making, designing, inspiring all soap, soap, soap in our sleep!! its crazy, the two of us working together has been a revelation - its fab, we just cant stop bouncing ideas and thought off each other! We gave ourselves a day off on Sunday and spent it thinking about soap!

We have made such lovely things since our disaster (see previous post and F'ugly) -4 huge Christmas batches and 8 new fun soaps as well as our market leader and best Olive oil soap ever - Puro.

Our new, beautiful Christmas soap with berries, nuts and figs

White Chocolate and Strawberry Gateaux

So, part of this trip was to discover new sources for our soap making, we want to create soaps that are made using the most local ingredients possible and one of our essential ingredients is fresh goats milk, it makes the best ever soap - see previous blog about why I use fantastic fresh goats milk

Shelley had found some great local contacts but it seems, they could not supply us on a regular basis, then the barman and general village oracle Artur told Shelley about another goat farm not too far from our village, gave us directions and we went. Found a really lovely Portuguese goat farm, all goats, they looked lovely, really well looked after with free access to a nice pasture, day and night (very rare) and very pretty.

Really nice night time forage and protection

the very cool and matsterfull Billy

Soo lovely

We found the farm, turned up amid lovely little kittens, dogs not chained up but lovely and friendly, cant tell you how unusual this is in Portugal, We were met by a nice lady who took us to the house, where the previously ordered 10 litres of lovely creamy milk were waiting for us in the fridge. It was such a fab visit, Shelley and I were so pleased to be buying from such a wonderful place where they really loved and looked after their goats, it was so obvious.

Everyday goats bells for when they forage far from home

Such a fantastic selection, the really big goats bells right down to the little babies

The really special ceremonial bells used during village parades - these are huge!

The milk was fantastic, really clean and fresh and so very creamy, lets hope Puro can maintain this supply.

We have also been working on our new display, driven a little by Naturally Made Soaps we decided to go for fabulous, handmade wooden trug style display boxes, coloured in a fantastic aray of tints that would show off our soaps to their best, as well as a smaller, more subtle set to display our exclusive Puro soaps.

Bare naked pile of our fab Puro trugs

Beginnings of colour, just wait until you see them all done!

Painting hard, - Mrs Barnes

Me busy making soap

Oh, woops, just forgot to show you my office window, please dont feel too sorry for us both!

Our new range PURO is not yet available, we have been working on our exhibition display only, however, if you are interested, and they are fabulous, keep watching our new facebook site, we are soon to launch our website too, you will not be disappointed. We will soon be launching our wholesale prices.

Portugal, soap and lots more!

2011-09-14T13:50:00.000-07:00

Hi, I did promise I would blog about the soap we are making, rather than other things. Well, we had a bit of a disaster - so I was reluctant, but then got to thinking, well hell, these are the things that help soap makers gain experience and ideas as well as growing in confidence about their ability to control what is a very difficult science!!.....................................

Now, those of you who make soap will know exactly what I am talking about, those who dont, just enjoy! As you know, from the last post, we picked up our olive oil (150L) from our local co-operative, we took his old oil, suitable for soap making, not the years best virgin (which is not that great for soap making, its lovely to use in the kitchen but tends to be very green in colour, and really is not worth spending the additional £'s on)

So, we used our first recipe and decided to make our first joint bar of Puro soap, a really lovely castile recipe that uses lots of lovely essential oils, no fragrance oils, Coconut oil as well as cocoa butter, castor oil and beeswax. Well it should have been a doddle, apart from the fact that Shelley and I really had not made soap on this scale together before, not a problem, we are both pretty experienced, then, as I use Brambleberrys iphone soap calc. (which is only in oz) and Shell uses the proper and more modern grams and kilos - Nightmare!!
Just trying to sync the recipes/lye/liquid amounts/fragrances was a mind bender. We did it though and mixed up our first batch, added the essential oils and mixed......................... THEN PANIC, it started to move so fast, we had to rush to mix, no chance of using the blender, pushing it into the mold and trying to whip up the tops into something that looked vaguely nice. It got so hot, the centre of the soap seemed to turn black, but as it started to cool, it looked a bit better.

Lots of soul searching, what had we done wrong? the oil did smell a bit weird but could that be the problem? the beeswax was very, very local and a bit smelly to start with, Shelley did a great job filtering it and it looked fine, if a bit dark, could that be the problem? Could we have got the recipe totally wrong, bearing in mind we were both used to using different units of measurement? Well, that night, heads were whizzing with ideas and a very broken night of sleep was had by both. Next day did look better, at least worth cutting.

Next day - we jointly decided it could have only been the beeswax or olive oil after sychronising our recipes once again. the soap looked a lot better, its seemed to have evened out in colour, if a bit darker than normal. So this time, we mixed 3 of the different olive oils we got, they were different colours and some smelt a bit like engine oil! to see if that helped, we also decided to do without the beeswax completely, deciding that was the problem.....................ARGHHHHHHH YOU DONT EVEN WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! it was about 10 times worse that the last batch. We managed to get it in the mold just, then it got soooo hot, almost went totally dark brown, like jelly, started oooozing horrid little oily patches, generally the most F'ugly soap ever on this planet, and the worst that either of us had ever done before!!!! Take a look and see what it was like the day after..........

Greasy, slimy little F'ugly

Ready for disposal, asap. Now I really dont want you to think we have not had a lot of laughs too, it has been brilliant, I am sooooooo loving making soap, planning, thinking, chatting, designing, weighing, buying and generally doing all soap stuff with someone else, and I would not want to do it with anyone else, Shelley is brill, a really experienced maker who brings whole new dimension to my soap making. She is much better at accuracy and recording that I am, and I need that, so we are good together, its so good to make soap with someone who loves music, having a laugh, chatting, and, best of all, the odd beer/wine o'clock at the end of a busy, hot working day!

Making trugs yesterday was a perfect example, we both just got on a roll, it was so hot, we were using power tools, sanders and making lots of dust and mess, then this happened.............

Shell just started laughing, and we both fell about when I realised what she had done - spot the deliberate mistake, based on the one in the front?!!!

Well, today was brilliant, we made a perfect batch of Puro, after using better, normal olive oil (meaning it was definitely the old stuff from the press that was giving us the trouble - yet to decide what to do about this), two further batches of fun soap and our first Christmas soap, all perfect. It has given us the kick we needed, we are good at making soap, we can do it and its still great fun. See what you think?

Perfect trugs waiting for their handles

Just one last thing, after I got back yesterday and the horrors of the F'ugly - soon to be destroyed soap, I got a bottle of cold beer from the fridge and sat on our rock watching the mountains and the sun going down/moon coming up, noticed our cactus was flowering, thought about sky colours and new soap inspiration, everything gets better so fast!!! That is the joy and beauty of Portugal........

The beautiful new moon coming up over the Serras

Soap layer inspiration?

Sorry, a very long blog, I hope I have kept you interested until the end? Life here is good, its hot, beautiful, natural and very, very hard work but worth every minute. Thanks for reading, do leave a comment if you feel like it?

My Week!!

2011-09-11T10:05:00.000-07:00

Why pine nuts cost so much and other things...............................

And what a week it has been, firstly jetting off from Bristol Airport in the pouring rain and landing in Lisbon 2 hours later 28 degrees and full sun! Travel is so strange, I can never get over the changes, every thing happens so fast there is no time to adjust at all.
So all our soap making ingredients have arrived at Shelleys house and we are all go for making lots of soap. Firstly, we decided to have a go at making the trugs that we will paint up and use for our display during the exhibition in November and our first proper selling fair at the Meruge Medieval Pork Festival! I tell you, it is all kicking off. So for those of you who don't know, I have teamed up with my very best mate in Portugal Shelley Barnes, and we are launching a brand new company 'Puro' which is designed for the Portuguese market using local ingredients (and I mean local). First pick up your olive oil, from our local co-operative press in Lagares da Beirra where we both live.

Beer and Power tools, should not really go together, but it was the end of the day!!

So we made two sample trugs, one for the hotels, a bit smaller, and one for our stalls, now we know what we are doing!! we will make them in no time at all.

Then coming home last night, after seeing Shells lovely pine cones with pine nuts falling freely from the trees, I decided to make my own pesto for supper!! Armed with my trusty rucksack I went up the drive to our one really big pine tree, which happens to be a pine nut bearing one and found lots of ripe cones.

our big pine nut tree

So then you have to get the nuts out of the pine cones, not an easy job, you get covered in pine sap and the cones are really tough. After this, the nuts are covered in a really strange black dust, a bit like soot, so I decided to rinse them off before trying to crack the shells.

Shells, garlic, cones and bioligical (organic) olive oil from our local press

washed pine nuts ready for cracking to get the kernals out

Very hard work, see the empty shells V the tiny amount of kernals

But I got enough for my pasta sauce last night and it was very good indeed, fresh pine nuts taste different, more sweet and oily, really lovely, I have never tried this before but definitely will again.

Then today, what a day, I was invited to our wonderful neighbors and very best Portuguese friends, Grandaugters Baptisma - Very, very important and quite a celebration. lots and lots of family and friends, it started at 9am with food at their house, dressing the little girl Eva Margerida in her outfit and generally drinking (I stuck to coke - lots were already on the red and white wine!), we then all paraded up to the church for the ceremony. it took ages but was really lovely.

she really is a little sweetie

More to follow. I finally got home after an amazing lunch, at 5.30pm after eating so much I think I could burst. I got right into the shower, then decided to start on this blog. I have run out of energy now, I will post more later in the week. I hope you are all having a good time, keep reading and following my Portuguese soap making adventures. More actual soap stuff this week.

Dont forget to leave a comment.......................

Im off to sunny Portugal!!

2011-09-06T06:08:00.000-07:00

Well I hope it is sunny after the rubbish August we have had here. Im off to spend two weeks with my mate and fellow soap maker Shelley Barnes I can't wait. We have such a new and exciting project on the boil at the moment, we are designing and making a new range of soaps together especially for the Portuguese market which will include lots of lovely local ingredients such as beeswax (see Shelley s latest blog post by clicking on the link above), Olive oil etc. We are also making a lot of our fun soaps and an exciting new range of Christmas soaps for the markets over there as well as our first exhibition coming up in November. So as you can imagine, designing new logos, new labels, new packaging, new soaps, etc. etc. we have been megga busy and for the next two weeks we will be madly making soap as well as trying to source local goats milk, more ingredients and sipping the odd glass of wine too!

I'm going to be there for 2 weeks but don't worry if you want to make an order, my lovely daughter Aimee is at the helm and will be packing, labeling and posting to keep up. A little reminder for everyone - the Summer Sale is now over, thanks to all of you who took advantage of the massive 50% discount I now have room on my curing shelves for lots of lovely new goodies coming up very soon. I have been making some lovely new wild berry cupcakes and I have some great new ideas for a fig and caramel sugar soap as well as a secret soap for Christmas!

Xmas Berry Cupcake - I wish you could smell this!

GREAT NEWS!! I have managed to negotiate a really good rate for my new course venue, even better than I previously thought. I am passing this on to all course participants (those who have already paid will receive a £20 discount in the post) - Course cost now only £75 for a whole day of tuition, equipment, 1k soap, refreshments, lunch, hand outs and recipes!! Go to www.naturallymadesoaps.co.uk to book by filling in my new online form.

I just wanted to tell you about the booking form, it was so easy to create using Google Docs, I have never used this facility before and I don't know why really, its great. It produces really good forms as well as the back up and monitoring forms needed to check orders/bookings etc. If you have never had a go I recommend it. It took me a little while to get my head around it, but once sorted it really is an easy way to make your online documents look very professional.

One last thing...... While I am away I would really like to gather some thought from you all to help me get some new soaps sorted when I return. What do you think about Naturally Made Soaps producing an all new "All-in-one Shampoo and Body bar"?
Have you ever used one before?
If so, did you like it?
Did it work?

I have created a readers poll on this blog, if you have time I would really appreciate your input, I shall collate all the answers when I get back and let you know the results. You could always leave a comment below as well. I will still be accessing my blog, facebook page, emails and website every day so don't worry, I shall be keeping up with you all!!

NEW for Autumn 2011, Beginners soap making courses

2011-08-25T15:52:00.000-07:00

Yes! finally I have got the first two course dates sewn up and organised.

Saturday October 8th and Wednesday October 12th

10am to 4pm

I will provide all equipment required and the ingredients for the course, the safety equipment, full course notes and recipes. You will get to make your soap in a mold that you can take away with you, enough soap for 10 - 12 bars! The course cost also includes all refreshments and a tasty, homemade, light vegetarian lunch,

You will also be able to buy "Carry On" kits of ingredients to take home with you at the course venue.

I have found an absolutely fabulous venue, peaceful, beautiful, light and airy with full disabled access and plenty of parking.

So what are you waiting for? come and learn how to make quality, beautiful, natural soaps using the traditional cold process method.

A bit of the spiel from the website to whet your appetite.....

"My goal is to teach the skills you need to successfully make beautiful handmade soap using natural ingredients such as olive oil, shea and cocoa butter and lovely essential oils.

We will provide you with everything you will need, all the ingredients, equipment and safety gear. You will learn in small groups of no more than 8 people in a clean, relaxing place with plenty of time to ask all the questions you want. Your instruction comes from an experienced certified soap maker so you can feel totally happy that you will be receiving the best tuition possible as well as having great fun learning a new skill and making new friends.

Soap making does not require a huge amount of complicated equipment or ingredients and is a really absorbing hobby, imagine how great it would be to be able to easily make all your Christmas and birthday gifts, soaps for your whole family, for special occasions or just for yourself. Especially as they will be totally natural, not containing any of the harsh, unfriendly chemicals of commercial soaps."

I can't tell you how excited I am about this, I have been wanting to set up courses for so long and finally I have had the time to do it. If you know anyone who would like to come along do let them know as well. I have an online booking form:

COURSE BOOKING FORM

So lets go to it! Another chapter in the journey that is Naturally Made Soaps.

Kate Moss and soaps

2011-08-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, I hope you are all well and happy. I am now in my 4th week since quitting my day job and its great!! I am loving making soap and working on the business every day, I find my thoughts flow better not having to put it all down and pick it up again after rushing off to do another totally different job. I realise I am a bit isolated in my work though which is why I am so excited about my new project.

You may know, my partner Rik and I have a lovely house in Portugal which we have been very slowly doing up, in fact so slowly its now 9 years this month since we bought it! But, hey, the best things come to those who wait, so I am told. Well I have a very good friend who is also a superb soap maker, in fact she was one of my inspirations for starting myself, and we have decided to go for it and launch a new range of soaps specifically for the Portuguese market. So anyway, exciting times ahead, lots of work and, best of all, more trips over to Portugal! I am off on 8th of September for 2 weeks and again in November, don't worry if you want to order from the website, My wonderful family are coming to the rescue again, packing and posting orders off for me.

IN THE NEWS
I really sat up and took notice at this latest news announcement........

Kate Moss Wants Own Soap Range
Well I thought, shall I contact her NOW to suggest that I make them for her? No, apparently Kate Moss is set to release her own range of soaps after experimenting on making some home-made bars. The supermodel has been sorting out fresh ingredients from her garden in the Cotswolds, central UK, grinding them together and then trying them out in the shower and is now keen to create her own line of products.

From The Sun newspaper

A source told The Sun newspaper: "Kate loves her new hobby, she's gone soap mad. She's been trying to master the art after one of her mates sent her a batch of home made bars, which she loved.

"She's adamant all the ingredients should be fresh and natural. She's sent quite a few to her girlfriends to try out. Depending on the feedback, she's thinking of releasing a range."

As well as being a soap fan, Kate has previously revealed she would never leave the house without a perfume and has her own line of fragrances as well as a range of clothes and handbags.

Well.................... could this be an opportunity for us soap makers? making soaps for celebrities to endorse?

Which comes first - Honey or Heather?
I was out on Woodbury Common yesterday walking the dogs and the smell up there is simply intoxicating. It was a warm sunny afternoon and it must have been the warm air that brought out the wonderful honey aroma of the heather which is blooming everywhere. There must be at least 4 different varieties just in the one place I walked.

Perdy in the flowers

It got me thinking, has heather evolved to smell like honey to attract bees? Why does honey not made from bees visiting heather smell like heather? Anyway, whatever the answers it is absolutely lovely, I wish that we could create a fragrance for soap that smelt exactly like it.

Woodbury heathers in full bloom

Lastly, I just wanted to let you know about a fab new website that I have discovered. It's called Pinterest and is a really fun way of collecting images from your computer sources to create an inspiration board or a virtual pinboard.

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.
Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. I am currently busy putting together some inspiration for our new Portuguese range as well as a new kitchen for our house in Portugal, I have only just started so I have not got a huge amount on my pin boards but it has been really good fun. To get started you need to request an invite and they will contact you with joining details. I think its well worth it - well if you have time to spare!! It is very easy to use as well.

I have added a "follow me" button on the right of this page so you can see the kind of images I have been collecting myself.

Well, thats it, I have been busy cutting my new Xmas soap testers and I am very, very happy with the results, I shall post photos soon.

Don't forget, my first soap making course starts on 8th October, email me at soapchick@naturallymadesoaps.co.uk if you are interested in getting information. More to follow very soon.

Take care and please leave a comment X

My Week (a bit late!)

2011-08-16T07:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I know I said I was going to be better but things just keep cropping up like they always do. It looks like we have decided to try selling our house again so we are madly trying to clean, sort out rooms and de-clutter. As part of that Rik is having to move his office out of the conservatory, hes moving up to my office (a small 4th bedroom) and I am moving mine out to my workshop! its been quite mad as you can imagine and we have only just started.

Beautiful Freya - RIP - Aug 2011

Very sadly this week my Mums beautiful German Shepherd Freya had to be put to sleep. Her hips had got to the point where she just could not walk anymore. She was a wonderful dog, bouncy, always up for a walk and swimming and was brilliant with kids. Mum rescued her years ago so she was a lucky dog, getting a really loving, active home. We will all miss her especially my poor Mum.

Happier things now - and as you all know, Lola is guaranteed to make me feel happy. I discovered this photo while downloading a load of holiday photos onto my computer. I forgot I had taken this, its on the ferry to Spain, back in June when Rik and I were privileged to be able to take Lola to Portugal on our own for a week. Her parents were at Glastonbury and I jumped at the chance of taking her. she was fantastic, 20 months old and slept through every night, ate everything put in front of her, generally smiled and laughed a lot and was the best of fun. Grandchildren are so great.

AND LASTLY..... I have been working very hard on launching my new soap making classes. its been great fun but lots of work. My first class is scheduled for October 8th, just in time to make your own lovely soapy Christmas presents. It will take place at Faringdon, a beautiful venue in East Devon, from 10am and will cover the basics of Cold Process soap making. If you come along you will learn to make and take home 2lbs of soap with you, the soap will be fragranced and coloured to your liking and in your own molds that you can re-use again and again at home. Packs of ingredients to carry on making will be available as well as comprehensive handouts to remind you what you have learnt. If you are interested in getting priority booking forms please email me at soapchick@naturallymadesoaps.co.uk the course has not yet been publicised so get in quickly, I would love to see you there. There will be a maximum of 8 people on each course.

All the best, sorry no soap photos this time, my camera has bust and I need a new one. I have just turned out a lovely new Sandalwood and Rum Cream soap, its looking lovely. I will take some photos soon. One for the men this Christmas.

My week

2011-08-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, back from lovely, sunny Portugal now and fully immersed in soap making, markets, kids, house and everything - you know how it is? No sooner that you are back from a wonderful break life moves in and takes over at breakneck speed.

Can you believe we are already into August? Well I can't. I had so many plans and lists of things to do to get ready for the busy Autumn season of soap making and organising courses, needless to say I have done less than half of them. One thing I have promised myself I will do is to update my blog more regularly and a way of doing that is to report once a week, at least, on the things I have enjoyed/learned about/seen etc. that have made a lasting impression on me. I am going to try and do it every Sunday, so here goes.....

Oh, before I start (you see - Im already distracted), I just have to share this wonderful photo with you from our 130th Birthday celebration in Portugal. All the family turned up and a lot of Riks family too, it was simply magical, the best birthday anyone could wish for and, for me, this sums it all up. My dad was 80 this year, this was the first time that all his grandchildren and his great grandaughter have ever been all together so its a very special moment for us all.

My Dad and his wonderful Grandkids

WELL, this week was my first full week as a full time soap maker and it was great. I just loved not having to worry about fitting in work days, I could just make, design, make more and create all week. New soaps on the curing rack this week are

fabulously over the top soap cupcakes
Bridge Inn Beer Bar
My new Gardening/kitchen soap - Lime and Mocha
Some new sample soaps using local honey and beeswax from a North Devon beekeeper - more information to follow but its looking really good.

We flew to Lundy Island!

Now its not very often you get to say that. There was a planned 'Fly In' on the Island, the 10th anniversary event and I jumped at the chance of going as we planned to make a weekend of it and camp on Saturday night. They were expecting over 100 light aircraft to fly in but then the British weather took hold. The forecast was dire but we went for it, landed on a very bumpy, rabbit hole covered grass runway that was very short and taxied to the parking area, only a few planes were there and they all left bar one as we heard the event had been cancelled. We decided to risk it, pitched the tent and stayed the night. I don't know quite how weather forecasters in the UK do it, but they seem to get it wrong all the time. The weather was fab today, after a very windy, rainy night we took off at 11.30am, flew back with a detour to the south coast to fly over Slapton Sands and Bee Sands as my mum was camping there with our dogs - all really wonderful. I wonder that anyone bothers to plan excursions, camping trips or visits if they look at forecasts here, sometimes you just have to do it! It very often turns out a lot better than you think.

Our Europa on Lundy taken from the tent door

I have also been really busy working on a brand new business venture with my very good friend and fellow soap maker Shelley Barnes. Its so exciting, I am going back to Portugal for another two weeks in September to prepare, can't say too much right now but as soon as we get it all up and running, you will be the first to know.

So that's it, in a nutshell, nothing earth shattering, just a lovely, busy, happy week. I hope I can say that every week. Do let me know what you think? I so love getting comments.

130TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!

2011-06-17T16:12:00.000-07:00

Yes!!!! this is it, we have been waiting for this trip for an age......

It was my 50th Birthday in April and it was my Dads 80th in May so we decided, and have been planning for ages, to have a huge, joint party at our Quinta in Portugal - wow, that sounds so grand...........

You have to remember we bought the farm 9 years ago and it was a total ruin, now it should accommodate a few people and we have 6 acres of terraces for camping!


This is how it looked when we bought it

Yes, a huge amount of work (we have done it all ourselves) later and we now have a beautiful house that is not finished but habitable, off the grid, we make all our own electricity, hot water and we have a bore hole for our water too, it is our ultimate dream - one day we will live here - and hopefully it will be soon....

In the mean time........... We are planning a huge party, most of our joint families will be there, friends from the UK, Singapore, USA and Portugal will be joining us, most camping on our land, sharing everything, but it will be fun!!

So, we will be back on the 14th July, no orders will be processed between now and then - sorry, but my usual holiday helper, my son Ryan, will be there with us all! please carry on with the comments and orders, I can still access emails there ( I have a Portuguese dongle! ) but nothing will be packed or sent out until the 14th.

I wish you all well, we are gone but (please) not forgotten..... I will be back before you know it and I have a really fab, new soap to launch, not telling what yet though. Oh I forgot, I will be taking my fiddle and hopefully playing this for my Dad........

Lonesome River Blues

XXXXXXXXXX

My New Soap Display

2011-06-12T10:42:00.000-07:00

Lots of people have made lovely comments about my new soap display stand shown in the last blog posting so I thought I would show you how It was done.

Firstly - get yourself a good, friendly carpenter!

Mine is called John Salter and as well as being a friend and fellow pilot he also does some work for my partner Rik who is a builder. I sat down with John and we designed the stand together just with an idea, pencil and paper and not much else. He then went away and built it for me. We decided to make the stand out of pine not MDF which would have made the thing far to heavy.

Creating the look

I knew I wanted the shelves to fit quite a few soap ranges and I really wanted it to have the look of a market stall. Many people who visit my stalls at the various farmers markets in the area often comment on how nice my wooden trugs look. I made these myself out of pine, painted them in a variety of different colours, distressed the look with a sander and finished them with a couple of coats of varnish. They have withstood the test of time very well and do look good. I use laminated cards for each soap with the illustration, explanation and ingredients on my trugs, however I knew there would not be space for this on the shelves so I planned a painted blackboard strip that could be market up with blackboard pens and, again, would help to give the impression of a market stall.

The trugs and my lovely Rik at Taunton Flower show last year

Christmas in Exmouth

Then John turned up with the unit and I could not have been happier. I think it looks really great just in pine!

Finishing the look

I mixed cream emulsion paint with acrylic colours to get the finished colour I wanted. Each shelf was painted twice, firstly with a light colour, then, once dry, overpainted with a much darker version. Between the two layers I rubbed the corners and edges with a candle to wax up the areas that I wanted to look distressed and worn.

After the paint was completely dry, I got out my little hand held sander and worked on the edges and corners until the paint layer on top came off and exposed the lighter colour underneath and, in some places, the wood.

Close up of the final distressed look

The whole thing was then finished with a couple of coats of mat varnish to seal it.

The finishing touches were made by using photoshop and a variety of good quality images of my soaps, I managed to create a montage of my top products with my name underneath. I got this printed out on a large photo printer courtesy of Claire Sloane and Edd King at Exmouth Studio (thank you soooo much guys!). The photograph was then stuck onto the top of the stand and the base board cut out with a jigsaw to make a soap silhouette across the top.

The whole thing was then stocked up, chalk names added and a product information sheet printed.

All in all, I am very happy with it. It is only a prototype and there is room for improvement, it is also quite large, fine for a big retailer like Dart Farm but not ideal for a smaller shop. I would like to work with John to tweak the design, maybe look at making something half the width or with only two shelves. A lot of work and not cheap to produce but I think it makes the difference.

If you want to have control over how a retailer displays your soaps you need to provide them with something that shows off your products to their best advantage and in a way that you want. I think eye (and nose) level is best it will catch the customers both visually and with lovely wafting soap smells - sure to stop them in their tracks! The alternative is to have your soaps shoved in a basket in a dark corner - well at least it could be. A final tip, always go and have a look again a few days after the soaps get in there (if you can, of course) check that simple things are right, like the correct soaps in the correct places etc.

Id love to hear what you think, how do you solve the problem of displaying your creations?

I can now let you into my little/big secret.....

2011-06-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

NATURALLY MADE SOAPS ARE NOW AVAILABLE AT

DARTS FARM, TOPSHAM NEAR EXETER!

If you couldn't tell, I am rather excited. I took my soaps to show Michael Dart 4 weeks ago and he agreed to stock them but until they were actually in place I didn't want to say anything - just in case it jinxed it.

Darts Farm (for those of you who don't know the place) is a large farm shop which has branched out over the last 40 years to become one of the biggest and best farm and local food retailers in the South West. The Dart Brothers are passionate about local food and products, still working the land and producing seasonal vegetables and produce for the shop and their 'pick-your-own'.

As I only live 5 minutes away Naturally Made Soaps is the obvious choice as a local soap stockist. As you know my products are natural, contain no palm oil, no parabens and no Sulfates. Wherever possible I use local products in my soaps, for example all my soaps are made using Norsworthy Dairy Goats Milk

Darts Farm have won numerous awards such as the prestigious Best Local Food Retailer in the BBC Radio Four's Food and Farming Awards for 2010. They are definitely known as a favorite haunt for all foodies, however the Darts are very keen to expand their local craft products as well and that is where I came in.


The new Naturally Made Soaps stand

I hope this is just the start of a fruitful and fun partnership and I am very happy to be working with an amazing shop that has great ethical credentials and is actively looking to promote all local businesses.

If you are local, do go and have a look at my display, any comments or suggestions will always be gratefully received.

Icing 150 soap cupcakes

2011-05-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

Ive been moaning a bit today on twitter about how I have had to ice 150 cupcakes today for a really nice order - a shop in London. Well I really should not be whingeing at all, I love my job and this is a nice opportunity to show you some before and after photos.

Firstly, 150 soap cupcakes is a lot and cannot be iced in one go, it takes a lot of preparation and organisation. I think its the organisation side I always find a bit daunting to start with, once I get my head around exactly what is needed in advance its not so bad.

Anyway, this order was split into 3 separate batches of different styles which means different soap flowers and bits to put on the top. My new Lavender Summertime cupcakes have a mauve base scented with lavender essential oils, then the top is piped through a flower nozzle and decorated with one large, double flower made of white and darker mauve soap and either two smaller flowers or ivy leaves - these have to be made and hardened off first.

Then the order needed 50 of my normal Rose garden cupcakes. These are slightly more complicated as they require 4 different sized and different coloured rose for each one as well as a heart and rose leaf, again, all needing to be made in advance. I use old, CP soap for making my flowers, grating them to re-batch and re-colour, nothing ever goes to waste.
The last of the 50 cupcakes is my new Rose Garden Red and White range which need 3 larger roses and the usual heart and leaf. So as you can see, just getting ready and preparing for an icing pour takes ages in itself.

The first job after making all the topping bits is to pour the cupcake bases, they are then left overnight to harden enough to take them out of the silicone base molds. Sorry these pictures are a little dark.

Then they are all iced, I can usually ice about 30 cupcakes each time so I have to make quite a few batches of icing. The icing has a really annoying habit of setting in the piping bag, which is pretty difficult to handle. I have learned not to mess about when this happens, just go with it, take out the nozzle, clean it out and start a new batch!

Then, once the icing is done and the flowers and other bits have been added the whole lot is dusted with a very fine layer of cosmetic glitter, this really gives them a lift and sparkle that is difficult to beat!


One finished tray of Lavender Summertime Cupcakes ready for curing

I really do enjoy making these little soaps, so next time you hear me moaning, take no notice OK? The best thing of all is thinking about new ones and coming up with new ideas. I'm working on a new cupcake for a wedding later on this year, its going to match the brides theme of ivory Avalanche roses and diamonds - Ive got lots and lots of ideas I can tell you! To see the whole range of cupcakes available just go and visit the website, I would really love to know what you think of the new ones.

NEW PRODUCTS FINALLY UP ON LINE!!

2011-05-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, yes it is finally done - Phew.... what a job, trying to do the photography (around the showers), the labels (had to buy a new printer and source new see through labels), sorting each image for the website (using Photoshop - ARRGGGHH), writing the blurb (trying not to repeat myself and make them sound as nice as they are) etc. etc. etc. All the items are selling really well at markets and fairs so I know they are good and liked very much.

So finally -

'LOVE ME UP'

Naturally Made Soaps bath and shower products are born

'LOVE ME UP' LINK

Please do go and have a look - I really want to know what you think. I still have to put my new lip balms up and there are some items missing but I really am nearly there.

Thanks for looking - all comments gratefully received

(By the way, I just went to put my two remaining chickens to bed tonight and they are cuddled up together, head to tail in one nest box - they look so sweet)

New Cutter Arrives!

2011-05-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

It's not quite what I expected, but I was ready to go as soon as it arrived. I roped Ryan in to help as I was sure I would make a mistake somewhere down the line.

The first loaf I tried was Chamomile Spring. This is the only soap I make that uses Melt and Pour soap base, I would really like to find a CP alternative but unfortunately the whole design of this soap relies on being able to look through the clear top down onto Chamomile flowers embedded in the CP soap below. It is one of my top 3 selling soaps and I am loathe to do away with it although I really don't like the M&P use. This was a bit of a nightmare as my molds are 24" long and this cutter only does 10 bars, so I had to cut up the whole loaf first. (see the other bit of soap in the background)

It all worked fine until I got half way through, then the M&P was just too hard for it to handle. I quickly took the whole thing out, half cut - and cut through the M&P top by hand, after lining it up again the cutter went through the CP soap underneath like a dream.

Lovely, really neat slices. The wires did leave a slightly rough surface but I think that once the soap has cured a bit more and I trim the edges, a quick polish of each bar should sort it out.
Then I tried my Azeite Puro - rapidly becoming my best selling soap ever. As a Castile soap it is quite soft so I knew I would not have much trouble, and it was effortless!

Line it all up and..............

Hey Presto! Perfect bars. This is such a soft soap its quite hard to cut accurately by hand but with the cutter the bars are absolutely even in thickness.

Don't they look good? Just got to cut each one in half again (by hand :-( this time) and they are ready for curing. I would say this will cut down my cutting time by 3/4. Well worth the price. Thanks very much Celine from Soaperstar for setting me up with this fab buy and Sam from Outer Hebrides Soap Shack for selling it to me and shipping it all the way from Uist.

And if you are interested this is the maker. I don't think its the best cutter ever and It's probably not much good for someone who cuts up high volumes of soap but for my immediate needs its ideal.

GOATS MILK SOAP - Why I think it is the best thing for making soap

2011-04-21T04:47:00.000-07:00

I decided to write this post as a way of explaining to you why I always use goats milk in all my soaps (apart from the Bridge Inn Beer Bar - I use beer of course!).

Also I want to take this opportunity to let you all know about Norsworthy Dairy Goats here in Devon as it is their lovely goats that provide the milk I use at Naturally Made Soaps. The link above is to a rather out of date blog but it does have the contact details. I am told by Dave that he is soon to have a new website.

So, why goats milk.........

Goats milk contains lactic acid for skin rejuvenation. Old skin cells are easily lost after exposure to lactic acid leaving the smooth new skin cells behind. Your skin will feel unbelievably clean and refreshed. I hear from people all the time saying how amazed they are that my soap makes their skin feel smooth and has eliminated the need for so much lotion and cream.

Regular use of goats milk soap makes a huge difference to how your skin feels. In wintertime hands get terribly dried out by washing and drying them, this is because with commercial soaps the acids and oils are stripped away leaving behind uncomfortably dry skin. Your poor skin endures a lot of punishment when exposed to hot water and factory made soap and gels. This constant abuse leaves skin feeling dry, taut, irritated even cracked.

Coming in to be milked

Goats milk is a natural emollient that helps soothe and moisturise the skin. It contains vitamins A, B6, B12 and E. Goats milk has 3 times more beta-casein than cow's milk. Caseins are easily absorbed into the skin and allow for quick hydration. Other contents such as triglycerides, capric, caprylic and caproic acid help to balance the skins natural pH and promotes natural exfoliation of dry skin. In fact goats milk soap is almost the exact same pH level as human skin.

Now I'm not allowed to make medical claims for my soap or tell you that it definitely will help people suffering from skin allergies, winter itches, eczema, psoriasis, chicken skin, bumps and pimples as well as dry skin. However many, many people using my soap who have these conditions and others too tell me regularly that it helps them and most definitely does not further exacerbate them.

Only yesterday at Exmouth Farmers Market a lovely lady in a wheelchair came to the stall, I recognised her immediately, she is terribly overweight and suffers with diabetes, as a result of this she has horrible boils on her skin especially where the skin folds and touches. She came to me a month ago and asked if my soap would be OK for her - Wow, big decision, I did not really know what to say, all I could think was that no one has ever complained that my soap has made a skin condition worse and I knew that there were no ingredients in it that could cause allergies or harm. So she bought a bar of my lavender soap and came back yesterday to buy another one! she said it had only just run out and she showers with it every day. She also said that her boils were much better, really drying out and not itching any more, it was the only thing she had ever used that made things better for her. I felt so pleased for her as she had obviously been really suffering.

Why do I use Dave and Marlyn Johnsons milk? Simply because it is the best around. They are very experienced, well known West Country goats cheese makers with outlets for their award winning goats milk cheese all over the country. Their farm Gunstone Farm, is situated in the heart of Devon with views across the slopes of Exmoor. Dave and Marlyn have a herd that is 180 strong, their girls produce beautiful, creamy milk which is unpasturised and left full fat, perfect for my soap.

The girls being milked

They make 3 hardish varieties Norsworthy, Gunstone and Posbury which have been joined by two soft cheeses Tillerton and Chelworth Ash, there is also a blue - Nanny Bloo.

I only ever use Norsworthy milk for my soaps because it is high quality, raw, unpasturised and comes from very happy, contented goats. I will never use powdered milk or carton goats milk from Tesco - that is a promise!

Norsworthy goats are also incredibly cute

So, there you have it. If you have never tried goats milk soap, well you think that soap is soap right? You would be wrong. Goats milk soap leaves your skin feeling clean and refreshed, the difference can easily be felt but don't just take it from me, give it a try yourself.

IMPORTANT warning to all soapmakers out there - please read

2011-04-08T00:54:00.000-07:00

Hi there everyone in the soap world. I received this warning today and decided that it was important enough to put straight on the blog. I have had a couple of similar requests too, seemingly very flattering, they want your product shipped out to Hong Kong, Poland, China etc. and ask what payment options you accept. They want you to take credit cards so that they can make a payment in full, you send the goods and they then cancel the payment so you are left with nothing! Delete them or just let them know that you accept direct BACS or bank transfers only.

If you have any examples of this kind of thing do let Elizabeth know, the more information the better. Thank you.

Dear Member,

It has come to my attention that several members of the European Directory of Soap and Cosmetics Makers have been contacted by someone from South Korea claiming to want to buy soaps and other items. I believe this might be a scam and would like to warn all members to be wary if contacted. I'm in the process of gathering more information, and would appreciate input from all members. If you have been contacted about sending products to South Korea, or anywhere else, and feel unsure about the transaction, please let me know.

Kind regards,

Elizabeth Carnahan

www.soapmakers.eu

An official communication from The European Directory of Soap & Cosmetics Makers

The European Directory of Soap & Cosmetics Makers

146 Glasgow Road • Longcroft • Stirlingshire • FK4 1QL • United Kingdom

Email: sales@soapmakers.eu • Web: www.soapmakers.eu

Celebrate Spring - 5 things to do with £10

2011-03-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the wonderful Learn Vest Daily which is an American blog I like very much I have decided to put together my version of their latest post.

Imagine you are putting away all your heavy, dark winter coats and getting out lighter weight spring jackets and jumpers, you check the pockets and, hey presto, you find a crumpled up £10 note. So you now have £10 to spend, why not try a couple of these ideas. Well after such a brutal and cold winter that seems to have really dragged on and on I have decided after a week of balmy sunshine, it is now officially SPRING. Get a head start and try some of these slightly frivolous ideas - have fun!

1. Catch a breeze

Get yourself some pretty, sheer curtains to freshen up your room, great deal from this supplier, a real bogoff!

Amazon, buy one get one free

2. Paint a spring canvas

Pick up a medium size blank white canvas (ready made), you can get these for around £2.99 in most factory shops, pound shops etc. Buy yourself 3 little tester pots of emulsion paint from any DIY store in bright, zingy spring colours and get to work.

Using a ruler, draw some faint stripes on the canvas using a pencil
Dont worry too much about how far apart each stripe is, just make
sure that it is straight and that each stripe is an equal distance from the last one. Using a paint brush, carefully paint each stripe in. Remember, sometimes the bolder and wider the stripes are the better the finished result. Take the stripes over the edge and paint the sides of the canvas too. Allow to dry (you may need to do 2 coats), and hang.

3. Spice up your kitchen

How long have you had that thyme in your cabinet?

If the answer is, "Since forever," it might be time to restock, since spices can lose their potency after a few years. Luckily enough, you can replace most of your favorites in one ten pound swoop.

4. Try something new

How about learning something new? There are a huge number of websites out there with fantastic ideas and inspiration, go on give it a go.

My favorite blog spot is Tipnut they are totally wonderful. You can sign up to their daily updates and they always come up with some fantastic things, cooking ideas, gardening tips, thrifty way of making your money last and some fantastic craft projects all gathered from far and wide. Wow I would love that job, spending my days researching creative blogs to feature. The one I want to share with you is from How Stuff Works. Its a really simple but lovely baby blanket that is a real doddle to knit, even if you have never knitted anything in your life before.

How lovely is this? You can make this really easy blanket in no time

Did you know, knitting has had a real resurgence and is now seen as a very cool thing to be able to do. How times change. When I was young and silly back in the 70s, it was decidedly uncool to knit. The only acceptable excuse for knitting during that decade was that you were "old" (meaning over forty). If you were a girl who knitted, you were automatically deemed a social misfit. You had no friends who were not absolute nurds, and it was set in stone that no one worth knowing would ever go out with you. You were condemned to woebegone spinsterhood complete with several cats. No one who was anyone dared to flaunt her knitting prowess back then. I exaggerate only slightly. But now...... a totally different story. The new knitting craze seemed to coincide with the dawn of the millennium and suddenly young and trendy women were taking up their needles, starting knitting cafes and 'Bitch & Stitch' groups. Whether its trendy or not, I don't care, it is very therapeutic and really fun, go on give it a go.

AND FINALLY

5. Chillax!

I bet you thought this was going to be about soap? Well, this is a soap free blog post for a change. Go on, relax, put up your feet and use your newly discovered wealth to buy yourself the nicest bottle of wine that you can find.................

Or in our case a couple of pints of the best beer in the world, from the best pub in the world -

The Bridge Inn, Topsham, Devon

The beer from The Bridge Inn, Topsham is used to make the famous and now classic Naturally Made Soaps soap bar Bridge Inn Beer Bar

Thanks to everyone there for the help and support Naturally Made Soaps has received over the years - Oh and a few pints too!

There you see, I couldn't help but make one little soap reference in this post, you knew I would didn't you?

How about sharing with us what you would do if you found that elusive £10 that you didn't know you had?