Stuff We Made Up, Part 1

Sometimes we use terms for our soap that we made up ourselves, just because we can - and also because no appropriate term seems to be available. One of these is Leftover Surprise, named for one of our favorite weekend brunch dishes, which involves a fritatta made with anything delicious left over from the week (you haven't lived until you've had a shrimp, baby potato and roasted garlic fritatta).

Anyway, when we trim and smooth our bars of soap, we save the trimmings and make Leftover Surprise. Basically, we look at what we have, try and match up pleasing combinations, mill up the trimmings in the style of a french milled soap, and melt them down into new bars. We sell 'em on the cheap, because the cost to us is less (it basically helps up recoup the labor costs of trimming the soap) and unlike our regular soaps, which we can duplicate if we get requests, each batch of Leftover Surprise is unique. The combinations can be really lovely and unexpected, too- we made a few this week that are especially good: Fruit & Honey, which was a blend of all of our Honey & Beeswax soaps plus Peach, Tangerine Creamsicle, Blood Orange, White Fig and some Fancypants for good measure. There was also one we just called Man Soap, which is made with all of our men's shaving soaps, Black Pepper bath bar, Bay Rum bath bar, coffee, chocolate, and all of the beer soaps. We're hoping to finish up trimming enough soap this week to make a garden-themed one, with Sweet Pea, Gardenia, Hyacinth, Lilac, Lavender, Honeysuckle, Chamomile, Ladies' Shaving Soap (which is honeysuckle, grapefruit and Honey), our bug-repelling soap (made with citronella, grapefruit, lemongrass and peppermint) and Garden Grits (which is a lightly exfoliating bar with

 peppermint, spearmint, rosemary, basil, and lemongrass). Even some of the weirder combinations turn out amazing, like Blueberry and Amaretto. Also, the texture of each bar varies, depending on what's used- the ones with glycerin are silkier, and often they have various exfoliants, like the coffee in the Man Soap and the slightest bit of ground oats in the Fruit & Honey. 

So keep an eye out for these, because once they're gone, they're gone!

Lip Balm: it's always the quiet ones.

It's a funny thing, but we almost never talk about our lip balm, even though it's very popular... even at festivals and things, when people usually ask tons of questions and want to talk all about the different kinds of soap. They walk up to the lip balm, try the tester, stare at the different kinds for a minute, then buy half a dozen and walk away. It's crazy. But when I asked my customers who I know personally, they told me why. It's a combination of flavor, texture, and effectiveness, and really, once you try it, it doesn't need a whole lot of discussion or explanation. It occurs to me, though, that the habit of not talking about it at sales events doesn't help those of you shopping online, since you haven't had the benefit of trying it in person to see how yummy it is. To quote one of our very first customers, "You know how most lip balm smells really good but sort of just tastes waxy blah? Not this stuff. It actually tastes like it smells. It's glorious. I have some sort of tangerine citrus punch and I love it."

And it works! I find that I don't need to explain to people what makes it so good when they've just tried it for themselves. Sure, I use great vegan ingredients, shea butter and coconut oil and Vitamin E and a few others, with raw honey and a beeswax base, but the results speak for themselves. People come up to us months later and tell me how much they love it, how they threw away all their other lip balm and just drool over my Etsy shop, waiting for new flavors. They use it on cuticles, elbows, heels. I even had a pregnant mama tell me how she used it on her stomach to help with stretch marks!

It is a constant source of amazement to me that using the crafting equivalent of the golden rule is such a surprise to people. Instead of doing unto others as I'd like others to do unto me, I just make products with ingredients and methods that make them appealing to myself. Tastes good, smells good, feels good- check. Food-grade, lip-safe, non-animal ingredients- check. Cute reusable container- check. It seems simple to me, but I think I will never get over being thrilled that everyone else loves what I make as much as I do.

Bees? Really?

Bees on honeycomb

People are often very interested in the beekeeping aspect of soap making. Obviously, not all soap makers are beekeepers, even the ones who make beeswax and honey soap, but they're two hobbies that go together very well. Once people find out that I use my own honey and beeswax, they have a few questions. Also, as a beekeeper, I often do talks about honeybees at elementary schools, so it's a very nice change of pace to explain things in grown-up terms :)

I'm often asked how bees make honey and wax. They don't just magically appear, after all. So: honey is made when bees collect nectar from flowers and store it in the beehive in a small hexagonal cell of the honeycomb. They fan it with their wings to dehydrate it, and when it's at the proper moisture level, they "cap" it by covering the cell with a thin layer of wax. To a beekeeper, a capped cell is proof that honey is ready to harvest. Honey is one of the few food substances in existence that will never spoil, due in large part to the level of dehydration attained by the bees. The only honey that ever goes bad is honey with too much water in it, which is harvested too early (or it might also happen if extra water got into the honey after harvesting; honey with water intentionally added, for instance, can be fermented into mead). Beeswax is secreted by bees from glands in their legs- in people proportions, imagine a big flake of wax on your thigh. They use the wax to build honeycomb, which, as mentioned, is a storage place for honey, and also for pollen, and for baby bees.

Honey still in the comb

To harvest all this requires some management of the hives. Beehives are built of a stack of boxes, called "hive bodies" or, depending on the size, "deeps" or "supers"; the lowest box is typically filled with eggs, baby bees and the adults who care for them, plus the queen, who is always busy laying more eggs. The next box is filled with honey; if this box is the same size as the lowest one, that's usually enough honey to see a colony of bees through the winter, and must be left for the bees to eat. Any boxes above that, though, are fair game for the beekeeper to harvest. You slide something called a "bee escape" between the lowest boxes and the ones with honey you want to harvest. This has a little maze in the center, so that bees can exit the honey boxes but not get back in. After a couple of days, there are no bees left in the upper boxes, and you can take them indoors to harvest.

A full frame of capped honey

Harvesting involves opening the boxes and removing the frames of honey and beeswax. You pull each one out and use a very sharp knife to carefully slice off the "cappings," or the layer of wax that seals the honey in. You then put the frame into an extractor, which is a hand-cranked cylindrical device that uses centrifugal force to whip the honey out of the comb. You repeat this until all the frames are empty, and then put them outdoors again, so that the bees can reclaim any residual honey.

An extractor full of frames

The cappings are your beeswax, which you then melt down for use in soap and lip balm.

The honey gets strained and then stored in jars until used. One of the reasons the bees cap the cells of honey is that honey is a humectant, meaning that it attracts and absorbs moisture- which is part of the reason it's such a good ingredient to use on skin. Honey soap can be very helpful for dry skin. Honey's also antibacterial- I use it instead of Neosporin on cuts and scrapes, and they heal faster and leave less of a scar. You can read more about the healing properties of honey here.

You can make soap without honey and beeswax, and in fact, I often do. But the honey and beeswax soaps are always my favorite, because while everyone's skin is different, my skin always feels and looks better when I use honey and beeswax as my everyday shower soap. And I love going out to my bee yard and seeing the girls flying around; it's great to know that you're making something good and you know where your ingredients come from. In the summer when the sun warms up the hives, you can smell the honey and beeswax, and it just smells so good that I'm never satisfied until I take a shower with that soap :)

Cold Process? Milled? Glycerin? Soap is soap, right?

In case you were wondering about the different soap-related words we use in describing our products, here is a quick rundown of the ones we're asked about most frequently (and if you want to know about something not covered here, feel free to ask!):

1. Cold-process: this is the term for the method of soapmaking we typically use. It's called cold process because, while we do heat up our oils enough to melt them, there's no real cooking involved, just a chemical reaction between a lye solution and oils.

2. Castile: this is a type of soap made using only (or mostly, depending on what you're going for) olive oil for the oil portion of the soap mixture. Using only olive oil makes the soap mild and gentle. It also makes for a good, hard (read: long-lasting) bar of soap which is white or sometimes faintly green, depending on how the olive oil's pressed (extra-virgin comes out a little greener). It takes a lot of stirring to get this soap to mix properly.

3. Milled, or French Milled: this is a method wherein we take already-made soap (we use our Castile, usually), and mill or grate it up. We then re-melt it slowly, adding other ingredients, before we spoon it into molds. There are two benefits to this process. First, it makes for a harder and longer-lasting bar of soap. Secondly, you can do some interesting things with ingredients. I always add extra moisturizing oils during the process, but also, in making cold-process soap, the lye destroys a lot of the more delicate ingredients... so for instance, you have to use a lot of essential oil for it to be noticeable in the finished soap, and if you use, say, lavender flowers or chamomile, the lye will turn them brown and ugly. Now, if you make a plain castile soap and mill it up, you can add flowers or herbs without turning them ugly colors or reducing their effectiveness, and essential oils or more delicate oils like wheat germ or Vitamin E will have a much bigger impact. These soaps don't swirl or layer well, though, as they aren't as liquid when they go into the molds- more the texture of mashed potatoes, while regular soap is more like a thin custard, and glycerin soap is completely liquid.

4. Glycerin: this is a kind of soap that's made the same way as cold-process soap initially, but when the lye and oils are mixed together, instead of pouring it straight into a mold, the mixture is heated for several hours ("hot process"). This causes the soap to become "neutral"- the part that's accomplished by several weeks of curing in cold-process soap making. When it reaches that point, vegetable glycerin, alcohol and sugar are added to the soap, and after some additional cooking time, it becomes transparent. Then I put in any additives and pour it into molds. Glycerin soap is silky-smooth to the touch and is very moisturizing and mild. This is the method we use for Fancypants soap, several holiday soaps, and some craft beer soaps, for example. (The photo to the left is our frankincense-and-myrrh holiday soap, which swirls a creamy white soap with a shimmery gold glycerin soap.) You can  swirl or layer glycerin and cold-process soap for different effects. Shimmery colors do very well in glycerin soap because, unlike opaque soap, transparent soap makes it possible for light to refract off the particles and produce a shimmer. This is also what you'd use if you wanted to suspend something in the soap and have it be visible. The up side is all the neat effects; the down side is that it takes a long time to make and somehow always makes a huge mess :)

Yay for 250 Likes! Let's have a contest!

You like me! You really, really like me! (I couldn't help it, sorry.) To celebrate reaching 250 likes on Facebook, we're giving away some stuff. Like and share any of our posts (and tell us that you did via comment or message; it's hard to keep track otherwise) to be entered to win a soap, lip balm and bath salts of your choice (or extra soap if you're not a fan of bath salts) plus an assortment of samples. Follow us on Twitter @SoapzillaSoap for an extra chance to win. You can enter once a day, and the winner will be chosen at random next Sunday, April 21st.

And to thank ALL of you who've liked us so far, use the coupon code "Awesomesauce" on your next Etsy order for 25% off! (The only item this is NOT good for is our shaving kits, due to the cost to us of the vintage mugs.)

Raar!

Why an old-school shave is the hot new thing

It used to be that I knew absolutely nothing about shaving soap. I didn't understand the procedure. It seemed weird and unlikely that any form of shaving could require the use of a mug. And a brush made out of badger hair? I was pretty sure that somebody like Amy Sedaris made that up. Then my husband heard that a hot shave was easier on the skin. My poor guy has always had skin that looked red and rough after shaving, which was not only uncomfortable but didn't look very attractive, either. I didn't want him to have to show up at work with a scraped-up face.

So I checked it out; it didn't seem too difficult to make. I figured, I make soap; if he wants to try a particular kind of soap, why not make some for him? Worst-case scenario, it doesn't help and we're back where we started. So I got him a shaving brush and a vintage mug (why not?) and made a batch of my first and favorite shaving soap, bay rum. I had fun with it; I made plain Castile soap, then milled it up and remelted it, adding lots of moisturizing oils and a special mix of spices, essential oils and aged rum. And OMG, did it smell good! I kinda didn't care whether it helped his skin or not, he was going to have to keep using it. I wanted to pounce on him every time he walked past. However, it did wonders for his skin. His face isn't razorburned anymore, he enjoys his morning shave, and he likes the old-school feel of shaving with a mug and brush.

So I made more (unscented! black pepper! woodsmoke! yum!), and did some research. The vintage mugs were perfect- my soap fit into them exactly, plus I loved the variability: Old Spice shaving mugs are all made of milk glass (goes with everything) and they feature ships, but they're all a little different- different ships, different text, different degrees of fading. Now I hunt them up whenever I'm antiquing.

The brushes, now, that was a thing. It tuns out that there are two main kinds of brush: boar and badger. Boar is a lot cheaper, but also coarser. Many people consider them inferior, but if you have very coarse facial hair, they're actually preferable, because the badger hair won't lift coarser facial hair enough for a good shave. The badger hair brushes are pricier, but if you don't have particularly coarse facial hair, they're worth it. They hold water better and create a better lather, while not being too rough on your skin. So now I offer a free shaving brush (badger, unless they request boar) for people who purchase a shaving kit from my Etsy shop, and some local shops that carry Soapzilla products (Square Foot in downtown Decatur, in particular) sell soap-and-brush combos. 

What I didn't expect is how popular the soap would be. Who even shaves this way anymore? But I have a coworker who used to use shaving soap and was hesitant to use mine, but now swears by it. I frequently have to send shaving soap via priority mail for guys in the military who need to get it before they ship out overseas. It's far and away the most popular thing in my Etsy shop and has been featured many times in the "For Him" category on their mobile app. And it sells out constantly in the local shops.

So for those of you who are wondering how to use it, there are lots of resources online, but basically:
1. Put the shaving soap into the bottom of the shaving mug.
2. Wet a small towel or washcloth with some really hot water and put it on your face for a minute or two (an important but often-overlooked step).
3. Get your shaving brush wet in the really hot water and use it to work the soap into a lather.
4. Brush your face with the lather.
5. Shave! You can use a regular razor, too- no need to get old-school there, unless you really want to.
6. Wipe your face down with that hot-water towel from step two.

Try that for a week and you'll be shocked by the difference. As for the fragrance of the soap, it's mild but lingering- if you prefer something unscented try our "mildly-scented" varieties, which smell great while you're using it but don't leave a fragrance on you- mainly for guys who wear cologne and don't want anything to interfere with that scent. And if none of our fragrances seem appealing but you want some shaving soap anyway, message us- we can always do something custom for you!

The awesomeness of sugar scrubs

My mom, bless her heart, is baffled by sugar scrubs (don't tell her I said so). She received some for Christmas, and while she thought it looked and smelled nice, she just didn't know exactly what it was for or how to use it. As it turns out, this situation is shared by a lot of people. As someone who has discovered the awesomeness of a good sugar scrub, let me fill you in.

Ok, so, first of all, what's in a sugar scrub? Basically, it's a blend of sugars and oils. Some scrubs might include some other ingredients too, but those are the main two. Soapzilla sugar scrubs are made of a variety of sugars, depending on the type of scrub, and a blend of moisturizing oils. We also use just a little bit of sea salt, which acts as a natural preservative (more about that later) and essential oils for their relaxing properties and great fragrances.

Now, what are they for and how do you use them? Sugar scrubs provide an effective but gentle exfoliation (by way of the sugar crystals) while moisturizing your skin (with the oils). If you have dry or flaky skin, or almost any skin condition, it's very helpful. You take a small amount of the scrub in your hands and massage it (or scrub, whatever feels better) over the affected areas until the sugar dissolves. I used to go get pedicures ALL the time, not so much for the polished nails, but because my feet felt rough and looked dry, particularly my heels. I save myself a lot of money by using sugar scrubs at home. I like to take a hot bath, and after I've soaked a bit, sugar scrub my feet. It takes off all the dead, cracked-looking skin and leaves my feet feeling smooth and soft. It does leave you a little oily, but a quick wash with some soap (something that goes with the scent of your scrub) takes care of that. For the ladies out there- if you shave your legs and then sugar scrub your feet, you can massage some of the oil onto your legs, and it feels SO great. The effect lasts a good long while, too.

As for extra ingredients, you want to watch out for some of them. Some scrubs use chemical preservatives, because, although a sugar scrub on its own will not go bad, if you get any water inside the jar, then it will spoil. We don't like chemical preservatives, which is why we use sea salt. We only use a little, and you should still avoid getting water into the jar of scrub, but we're not fans of chemical additives. On the flip side, ingredients like essential oils can add a lot to your experience. You can read our post on craft beer soap to learn more about the benefits of essential oils, but they vary widely and can be very beneficial as well as relaxing, not to mention smelling delicious. If used as part of a bath, essential oils in a scrub will scent the whole bath and give you an all-over experience.

I never have considered myself a girly girl, and I used to scoff at the kind of person who used fancy soap and sugar scrubs. But I am completely converted- they just feel too good NOT to use. Plus, I make them in all kinds of non-traditional scents that aren't necessarily too girly or floral, like peppermint, grapefruit, white fig, lemongrass, brown sugar vanilla... you name it. And we even make some for the guys, in the same fragrances as our shaving soap, because, really, everybody deserves happy skin.