Soapmaking 101 Workshop

Everything is now ready for my first workshop and I'm really excited.  Six participants have signed up for Saturday's workshop at my home.  We'll be learning all about equipment and ingredients and much more!  We will make a batch of soap together and everyone will get to take home some bars from that batch along with their choice of my own soaps.  The workshop will run from 9 AM until 2 PM and lunch is included.  These women are all friends so I hope they will be honest in their evaluations as I prepare to take a series of soap workshops to the public.  What fun!

Where Can You Find Willow Creek Soaps?

Willow Creek Soaps (PA) is proud to work with these six distributors of my handmade soap.

Tröegs Brewery:
     DreamWeaver Soap (year-round)
     JavaHead Soap (year-round)
     Troegenator Soap (year-round)
     Perpetual IPA Soap (year-round)
     Mad Elf Soap (winter)
     Nugget Nectar Soap (spring)
     Sunshine Pils Soap (summer)
     Flying Mouflan Shaving Soap (Father's Day)
     Mad Elf Shaving Soap (Christmas)
http://www.troegs.com/

Al's of Hampden & Pizza Boy Brewing:
     Citra Soap
     Bock Soap
http://www.alsofhampden.com/

The Arts Barn:
     Animal Shapes (horses, bunnies, goats, dogs, hummingbirds, roosters)
     Beer Soap
http://theartsbarn.com/

Cassel Vineyards of Hershey:
     Concord Soap
     Niagara Soap
http://casselvineyards.com/

St. Thomas Roasters:
     Coffee Kitchen Soap
     Chai Tea Soap
     Green Tea Soap
     Mint Tea Soap
http://saintthomasroasters.keshikusa.com/

Mid-Atlantic Rabbit and Cavy Shows:
     Rabbit Shapes (various scents)
     Cavy Shapes (various scents)
http://www.marcshows.com/

Sacred Heart Christmas Bazaar, Hanover, PA

Willow Creek Soaps (PA) will again have a booth at the Sacred Heart Church Christmas Craft Show &  Bazaar in Hanover, PA.  All of my regular soap products and lotion bars will be available.  In addition, I have  88 "guest size" or "travel size" mini bars available.  These are terrific stocking stuffers.  They are only $2 and I expect them to be a popular option for shoppers at this event.  Come visit!

2012 CHRISTMAS

CRAFT SHOW & BAZAAR

Sacred Heart's Home & School Association will be hosting their annual Christmas Craft Show & Bazaar on Saturday, November 17, in the Parish Hall located at 55 Basilica Drive, Hanover, PA. 

Make plans now to attend!

Lotion Bar

A new product!  I found a great recipe for lotion bars and decided to add this new product to my line.  I now have bar soaps, shampoo bars, shaving soap, soap in loofahs, laundry soap, stain sticks, dog shampoo and lotion bars.

A lotion bar is hand lotion in a solid form.  One small bar will last as long as a bottle of liquid lotion.  The ingredients are as follows:

shea butter, beeswax, avocado oil, almond oil, vanilla fragrance

Some of these bars are traditional 2 oz. bars but I also poured 2 oz. sticks in twist-up tubes.

Testimony

My friend, Marg, sent me this email about her experience with my Nana's Stain Stick.  Looks like I will need to make more of these!

I just finished taking out the last load of wash from the dryer and everything that I used your stain stick on CAME OUT PERFECTLY!  I told you my mom used to call be "slopkessel", a German work meaning sloppy and she was right.  I hardly ever ate anything that I did drop on my clothing.  Anyway, I had the WORST stain on my tops this time.  I fried bacon and was too lazy to put on my apron and therefore my top had all kind of bacon grease splashed all over it - the STAIN STICK to the rescue!

 

I also had eaten Double Dutch Chocolate that night before going to bed and as careful as I thought I was, I dropped a big blob on my top as I missed my mouth although I still can't understand how that could happen as my mouth surely is plenty big enough. Well, anyway I did....STAIN STICK to the rescue again.  I applied this excellent new product, soon to be on the market, to all the stains and mist my tops had a stain or two.  They ALL came out.  You don't know how many stain lifters I have tried in my lifetime and this is absolutely the BEST I have ever used.

So, could you please let me know how many sticks come in a box?  Is it 12, 24 or 36?  I'm seriously thinking of purchasing a box as every time I find something that I like and that REALLY works, they seem to stop making it.  I don't want that to happen to this Stain Stick from Willow Creek.  I will be your best advertiser so if anyone is doubtful - just send them to me by phone, e-mail or letter and I will most certainly "put them straight".  So, tell your mom and Tom "This is a GOOD thing!  I LOVE it - keep 'em coming.

 

Thanks again for allowing me to test these sticks.  Ya know, I kind of even liked the soap and as you say, if it wasn't that you have to shake the life out of it - I would also buy this.  I prefer the liquid over the powder.

 

See 'ya Monday I hope.

 

I am so proud to say I know whose idea this was and who actually makes it herself!

 

Marg

 

Wine Soap

Yesterday I made a batch of white wine soap and today I made a batch of red wine soap.  I was having difficulty staying on task today and missed adding the essential oils that give it a fragrance.  So, my red wine soap is unscented.  Sigh.

Meanwhile, I opened a new bottle of Cassel's Concord Wine and used a new method for taking out the alcohol.  I've been letting the beer and wine just sit in the fridge for about 2 weeks to go "flat".  Today, I simmered the wine at 140 degrees for 45 minutes to take out the alcohol.  I'll make it into wine in the morning.  We'll see how it goes.  This time, I'll be sure to add the fragrance!

Nana's Laundry Soap and Stain Sticks

I really like the powdered laundry detergent I've made and it's now packaged and ready to go.  The 3 lb. bag will be enough for 26 regular-sized loads of laundry and I'm selling it for $4.00 per bag.  In addition, the stain stick is now in a twist-up tube and is $2.00.  I was not happy with the liquid detergent and might try one more version before I give up on that project.

Dog Bath Bar

I finally made the pet shampoo bar that I've talked about for quite a while.  I am excited about this soap.  Actually, it's a dual purpose soap for anyone who loves the outdoors but hates the bugs.  This soap would be great for folks who go camping, hiking or fishing or for working in the garden.  It's great for pets since I also added oatmeal for sensitive skin.  Neem works as a natural insect repellent and so does the essential oil combination of citronella, black pepper, lavender, and catnip.

25.6 oz. Oilve Oil
21.6 oz. Coconut Oil
18.4 oz. Palm Oil
7.2 oz. Castor Oil
7.2 oz. Neem Butter

30.4 oz. Distilled Water
11.3 oz. Sodium Hydroxide

Fragrance Oils: Bug Be Gone Blend (Citronella, Black Pepper, Lavender, Catnip) with additional Citronella.
Ground Oatmeal
Vitamin E Oil

Laundry Detergent & Stain Sticks

I haven't posted anything in this blog for a long time but that certainly doesn't mean I haven't been making soap!  My laundry stain sticks are out being tested and the results are quite positive.  I've gone ahead and ordered a supply of empty twist-up tubes and my next batch will go straight into those tubes for sales.

In addition, the laundry detergent is being tested in both the powder and liquid form.  I have personally used each and am not very thrilled with the liquid.  I read about a different procedure that I'd like to try before I completely give up on this project.

The powdered laundry detergent is quite nice and we really like it.  I am ordering brown paper bags with a window in the front (like the kind with coffee beans in them) and will soon have Nana's Laundry Soap ready to go.  This will be sold by weight and costs much less than the commercial detergents on the market.  We'll see how it sells at the fall craft shows.

Laundry Stain Stick

At the recent Sweet Adeline convention, I was a vendor and received a lot of interest in my soaps .  I enjoyed chatting with people about their preferences and had two different women ask about a laundry soap or a stain stick.  I found recipes and decided to give this a try.

The recipe is an old-fashioned one using just water, lye and lard.  It's the ratios that make you know it's for laundry and not for the skin!  Most of my bath & body soaps are superfatted by 5% with my baby soap set at 8%.  This ensures that all of the lye transforms to glycerin during the saponification process.  This stain stick recipe is set at 0%.

I will be anxious to see how it really works on laundry.  It will be ready in about 3 weeks.  I'll keep you posted!

Region #19's Boutique Results

I certainly learned a lot from this event!  It was only the second time that I set up a booth for direct sales and I was quite nervous about the display and the stock I brought along.  However, Thursday night was a huge success and actually represented 50% of my sales for the whole weekend.  I am grateful for both my husband, Tom, and my mother, Midge, for their help in making this whole thing work.

Here is what was popular:

20% of sales: Tenor, Lead, Bari, and Bass soaps
10% of sales: Lavender Butter Bars
10% of sales: Lavender Loofah
10% of sales: Coffee Kitchen Soap
10% of sales: Tea Soaps (Green Tea, Chai Tea, Mint Tea combined)
8% of sales: Goat Milk Soaps (scented and unscented)
7% of sales: Castile Soap (including the baby soap.  If I had more, this might have been higher on the list)
25% of sales:  Everything else combined (Beer Soap, Wine Soap, Shampoo & Shaving Bars, Men's fragrances)

I do have a lot of the voice part soaps left over and am trying to decide what to do with them.  They will last for over a year so I guess I need to decide if I'm going to take them to FLASH or not.  Decisions.

Finally Catching Up!

Working as a team, Tom and I have 200 bars of soap made, labeled, shrink wrapped, and packaged ready for the convention.  Another 100 bars will be ready to wrap soon.  The 250 voice part soaps are also finished but are sitting out to cure and harden before we wrap them next week.  

I have my temporary license to sell in Maryland for the weekend and I've been improving the display set up with a few new purchases.  The new hang tags and stickers have arrived so I just need to make table top signage.  

It's a good thing I'm home for a few more days at the beginning of this week!  With each "batch" of soap yielding 26-30 bars each, getting to this point has been quite labor-intensive.  Yet, it's been fun exploring and being creative.  Being a vendor at the Boutique for the Sweet Adeline Convention will be my second chance as a vendor.  Lots to learn.

Milk & Honey Soap

Today I split a batch of goat milk soap so that 1/2 is just milk and honey (unscented) while the other 1/2 is my traditional honey oatmeal soap with cinnamon leaf essential oil for the fragrance.  Both were set in the mold with bubble wrap around them so that a "honeycomb" will be on the outside of the bars.

Then I made my second (final) batch of Baritone soap.  Both traced nicely and set up just right.  I love it when all goes smoothly.

Productive Weekend

I took full advantage of the weekend and time at the house to really produce a lot of soap.  Saturday I made some beer soap and another batch of Lead (floral) soap.  Sunday I made a men's soap with Leather fragrance oil, the third and final batch of Lead soap (used up all of the flowers), and then a Lavender Loofah set.  I'm running out of space for storage so i did buy another rack of drawers from Michael's.  I have soap everywhere right now.  Great fun.  The house smells wonderful!

Four More Batches of Soap Today!

Whew!  Another productive day.

1.  Bass Soap (for the Sweet Adeline convention)
2.  Trogenator Soap (to keep my inventory ready for Troegs)
3.  Epiphany Soap (Frankincense & Myrrh)
4.  Castile Soap (another batch of the Baby Soap but scented with Lavender)

In between, I baked two pans of brownies for the Red Rose Chorus' Guest Night tonight.  It's been a full day.

Awesome Day for Willow Creek Soaps

This has been a great day for soap-making!  Now that the new shrink wrap equipment has arrived, Tom made new label templates for me and he's my go-to guy for all stuff printed.  The new labels with the shrink wrap will make my soaps even better for craft fairs.  So I boxed up the many soaps that have been cut and are waiting to harden and then made four more kinds of soap.

1.  Lead Soap (I already made Baritone and Tenor for the Sweet Adeline convention)
2.  Yuengling Soap (This is for the Arts Barn)
3.  Troegs HopBack Shampoo Bars (a new product for Troegs to try)
4.  Baby Soap (Something new for my regular customers!)

The Baby Soap is 92% Olive Oil and 8% Castor Oil (for lather) and is superfatted by 8%.  I have a gentle baby fresh fragrance blend to make this Castile soap something that people are going to like!

A Great Compliment

I received an email from a guy in the Baltimore area who stumbled upon this blog but also purchased one of my soaps during a visit to the Troegs Brewery.  He noticed that I make Nugget Nectar Soap and really wanted some but didn't want to drive all the way to Hershey for it.  My friends at Troegs were very happy to ship him some even though it's not listed in their online store.  How cool is that?!

Anyway, he liked the information I've been posting about oils and what they do along with my recipes.  They aren't a secret.  If you want more information about my soaps, please ask.

For the man in your life . . .

I am having fun creating a line of limited edition soaps for men.  I purchased a sampler set of fragrance oils for men and am making small (2 pound) batches of each fragrance.

I have made the Ancient Sedona Soap last week.
Today, I made the Drakkar Soap.  Ooooh, it's nice!
I have several more to make along with some limited edition fragrances for women.

These will be at the Convention in Ocean City, too.

Lavender & Chamomile Soap

I made another batch of this popular soap today.  It includes Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Castor Oil, and Safflower Oil.  I also add actual lavender flower buds and chamomile flowers at the end along with a wonderful lavender essential oil.  Look for this at the Region #19 Convention!  I made 26 bars of this today.

The Five Troegs Soaps

Things are really on a roll with Troegs.  My soap continues to be quite popular in their store.  My recipes are now becoming consistent and I have a system for storing the soap bars until they call for more inventory for the store in Hershey.  This is what I make for them:

Trogenator Soap - no additives
DreamWeaver Soap - includes wheat bran
JavaHead Soap - includes ground coffee from St. Thomas Roasters (same coffee used by Troegs to make the beer)
Mad Elf Soap (Seasonal only) - includes spent grain
Nugget Nectar Soap (Seasonal only) - includes spent grain and actual hops

I have HopBack Beer nearly ready to try a beer shampoo bar for them to sell next month.
This is definitely fun!

Pizza Boy Beer Soap

I've made beer soap for Al's of Hampden using his Citra IPA beer and also his Bock beer.  Both are ready to deliver by the end of the week.  I just made more Citra beer soap this morning and the house smells great.

Mint Tea Soap

Using Peppermint Tea, I made another batch of the tea soap using the same recipe that I've been using.  It is a luxury bar that includes5 oils and 2 butters!  Olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil, castor oil, and safflower oil and the main ingredients with both shea butter and cocoa butter added to the oils.  A new essential oil blend was used this time.  It's called Fresh Mint and includes Lemon, Rosemary, Peppermint, Eucalyptus and Spearmint.  In addition, I added Peppermint Leaves along with a few of the brewed tea leaves.  After pouring into the mold, I sprinkled some of the tea leaves on the top for decoration.  The 3 pound batch made enough for 13 bars along with 3 of the goat shapes.

Unscented Soap

I've had a request again for some unscented soap so I used my basic Goat Milk formula and poured some into the mold before adding any essential oil.  Only 8 bars, but I don't get too many requests for unscented soap any longer.

The rest of that same batch is scented with Lavender Essential Oil.

Restocking

I've been restocking my inventory to keep up with the demand at Troegs.  I've made JavaHead, Trogenator, and DreamWeaver Soaps along with more of the Nugget Nectar.  The refrigerator is full of little pans of beer since I need it to be quite flat when I make it into soap!

Other new adventures will be posted soon!

Troegs DreamWeaver Soap

I learned that the DreamWeaver Soap was quite popular at Troegs and they sold out of it rather quickly.  I made more today.  This will be added to the steady supply of Trogenator Soap and JavaHead Soap that I make for them.  These are available at the brewery in Hershey.  What fun!

Honey Oatmeal Goat Milk Soap & Vanilla Soap

Busy weekend!  I made batches of JavaHead Soap and Trogenator Soap earlier in the week to accompany the Nugget Nectar Soap that Troegs needs for the big release of that popular beer on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I needed to restock and made another large batch of the Honey Oatmeal soap in "goat milk" bars and various fun animal shapes.  I also got my new supply of essential and fragrance oils so i was able to make a batch of Vanilla Soap.

I have 12 kinds of soaps ready for sale in addition to the beer soaps for Troegs.  I'm nearly ready to launch a wider internet presence.

Ancient Sedona Soap

The Ancient Sedona fragrance oil is a wonderful blend from the Brambleberry company.  According to their product description, it is "an Oriental Floral Amber. This sensual, deep scent was named for the famous city in Arizona, invoking days of old and a deeper, richer experience.It opens with green notes of Mandarin Leaf and Orange Blossom. Heart is heady night Floral, Bulgarian Rose and Vetiver. Dry down has sensual notes of Sandalwood, Bourbon Vanilla, Amber, Labdanum and Tonka Bean."  


Whatever you want to call it, this is a man's soap.


9 oz. Olive Oil
9 oz. Coconut Oil
9 oz. Palm Oil
2.6 oz. Castor Oil
1.6 oz. Safflower Oil
.6 oz Shea Butter
.3 oz. Cocoa Butter


12 oz. Water
4.5 oz. Sodium Hydroxide


1 oz. Ancient Sedona Fragrance Oil
.5 oz. Vitamin E Oil

Chai Tea Soap

I love drinking Chai Tea.  I've been looking to explore more "tea" soaps and decided to add Chai Tea Soap to the already-popular Peppermint Tea Soap and Green Tea Soap in my inventory.

18.2 oz. Chai Tea
6.8 oz. Sodium Hydroxide
15.4 oz. Olive Oil (32%)
15.4 oz. Palm Oil (32%)
13.4 oz. Coconut Oil (28%)
2.4 oz. Castor Oil  (5%)
1.4 oz. Shea Butter  (3%)
Vitamin E Oil
Chai Tea Fragrance Oil
Tea Leaves

Chardonnay Soap

Using Charles Shaw Chardonnay (Two Buck Chuck), I made one more batch of the same recipe I've used before.  This includes 45% olive oil, 25% palm oil, 25% coconut oil, and 5% grapeseed oil.  I purchased crushed grape seeds to use in the soap bu they are brown and I don't want to have this soap change color.  People really like the Chardonnay Soap and expect it to be very light, like the wine.

Goat Milk Soap

Yesterday I made another batch of my traditional goat milk soap.  I made a full 5# recipe in my large pot and focused on making rabbits (for the PaSRBA Convention) and hearts (for The Arts Barn) along with a few other fun shapes.  That recipe is very nice and makes a luxurious soap.  I used the rest of my lavender essential oil and am hoping that my new shipment of supplies arrives soon.

Beer Soap - Yuengling

The Arts Barn is calling for some beer soap using their local beer:  Yuengling.  That's easy.

24.3 oz. Beer
9.2 oz. Sodium Hydroxide

21.1 oz. Olive Oil
21.1 oz. Palm Oil
17.9 oz. Coconut Oil
2.6 oz. Castor Oil
1.3 oz. Cocoa Butter

Spent Grain
Essential Oils (cedarwood, cypress, rosewood, juniper)

Tahitian Vanilla Soap

Ordering fragrances from Brambleberry Products has been fun.  With each order, they give me a sample of something that I might like.  One order included a sample of their Tahitian Vanilla fragrance oil.  I decided to use that today to make a small batch of vanilla soap.  Bars of this soap will be ready in about 3 weeks.


 9 oz.  Olive Oil
 9 oz.  Coconut Oil
 9 oz.  Palm Oil
2.6 oz. Castor Oil
1.6 oz. Safflower Oil
  .9 oz. Cocoa Butter

12 oz.  Water
4.5 oz.  Sodium Hydroxide

  1 oz.  Fragrance Oil (Tahitian Vanilla)
   .5 oz. Vitamin E Oil

The Arts Barn

The Arts Barn put out a call for artists to send work for a special Valentine's Day event.  I asked if Deb wanted any of my soaps and she does.  I whipped up a batch of goat milk soap using the Cranberry Fig fragrance oil blended with the Lavender essential oil and made hearts, rabbits, and two roosters.

Green Tea Castile Soap

It was time to make more of this very popular soap.  I have 3 Valentine hearts and 6 Bunnies in this formula along with 13 of the rectangular bars.  I used the 4 lb recipe so that I'd have extra for the shape molds.


28.8 oz Olive Oil
9.6 oz. Palm Oil
9.6 oz. Coconut Oil


18.2 oz. Green Tea
6.8 oz. Sodium Hydroxide


2 Tbsp Essential Oils (Tea Tree and Lavender)
1/4 C. tea leaves and chamomile flowers

Tröegs DreamWeaver Soap

My favorite Troegs beer is DreamWeaver Wheat Ale so I decided to use that in a small batch.  I made a 3 pound batch pouring most of it into the long wood mold and the rest in a 2" pvc pipe for samples.  Adding real wheat flakes as an additive makes it quite interesting!

18. 2 oz. Tröegs DreamWeaver Wheat Ale Beer
6.8 oz. Sodium Hydroxide

15.4 oz. Olive Oil
15.4 oz. Palm Oil
13.4 oz. Coconut Oil
2.4 oz. Castor Oil
1.4 oz. Cocoa Butter

1.5 Tbsp Essential Oils (lemon, lime, ginger, red grapefruit, basil, lavender, cedarwood)
1/4 C. Ground Wheat (bran)

Double Hop Beer Soap

I needed to experiment with using hops in soap.  My first attempt used dried hops as an additive (Hops and Honey Soap).  This time, I took dried hops and infused them into olive oil.   The "double" hops comes from also adding hops at the end as an additive.  Tom home brewed with hop flowers and he gave them to me after he was finished with them in the brewing process.

The result is a lovely soap with hops in the oil and also hops as an additive.  I used some old Corona Light Beer just to use it up.  Spicy Citrus was the blend of essential oils.

Great soap.

Oatmeal Stout Beer Soap

The Hummelstown Beer Nutz are meeting soon and the theme is Oatmeal Stouts.  I'm sending some matching soap to the meeting!  Arbor Brewing company's Espresso Love is a breakfast stout that blends their oatmeal stout with fresh brewed coffee.

1 1/2 pound recipe:



8.4 oz. Olive Oil - 35%
7.2 oz. Coconut Oil - 30%
7.2 oz. Palm Oil - 30%
1.0 oz. Castor Oil - 4%
 .2 oz.  Cocoa Butter - 1%

9.1 oz. Arbor Brewing Company "Espresso Love" Beer
3.4 oz. Sodium Hydroxide

1 Tbsp. Essential Oil Blend (Cedarwood, Cypress, Rosewood, Juniper)
Ground Oats
Ground Coffee Beans
Vitamin E Oil

Everything Soap

You've heard of the Everything Bagel and now I have the Everything Soap.  I've saved the scraps and ends and little shavings from all of my creations knowing that there is a way to recycle them back into a full-sized bar of soap.  I've learned that French Milled soap is simply soap that has been shaved down and milled again.  Rebatching is a copy of that process.  In a sense, the Melt & Pour soapmakers are also doing this because the melt and pour soaps are ready-made soaps that have been shaved down for their reuse.

Tom and I read more recommendations for the best way to rebatch and tried a new version this time.  We put everything in the crock pot and turned it on low.  We stirred everything down a few times and poured it into the wooden mold.  Awesome!!!  This looks and smells nice.  Of course, it includes every scent I've ever used and every additive I've ever used but the result is rather appealing.

Reading further, we learned a few other tricks and here are our new findings:

1.  Use soap leftovers that are less than two weeks old or keep them sealed in ziploc baggies.
2.  Put all soap scraps through the meat grinder.  This creates little "noodles" of soap.
3.  Soak noodles in milk overnight for added moisture.
4.  Place in crock pot on low and don't stir.  Leave for about 3 hours.
5.  Stir once and pour.

The result was a glossy bar of soap that appears to be very dense and appealing!  I was just going to use these for home use but I think people might buy them!

JavaHead & Trogenator

My recipes for both JavaHead Soap and Trogenator Soap are now rather standard and in the last two weeks I've made some of each to refill the suppy at the brewery store.  Two batches (26 bars) of JavaHead are off to Troegs today.  Only one batch (13 bars) of Trogenator are ready because I had to wait for them to brew the beer!

Now, we have a case of each beer in the house so I can keep the supply of soap flowing.

Farm Show 2012

I entered my Comfrey Loofah Soap in the Hobby section of the PA Farm Show and won 2nd place!

I've made several other batches of soap but haven't had time to post my recipes.  I'll catch up later . . .