Did You Survive The Holidays?

It was a fast paced holiday season with craft shows, filling orders, restocking the shelves, and making soap. I found the time to wrap some gifts at the fair grounds for Project Santa, did some baking (oh, the crack candy at my house was awesome), had family dinners, and even read a book.

I love to make soap, it brings out the creative side of me. I like to wrap myself up in a scent and close my eyes and "see" the soap I am going to create. It is really cool when the soap turns out the way I "imagine" it.

While setting up at one of the holiday craft shows I found myself next to Katie Spencer. She is a wonder woman who used to sell to HUGE chain stores. She now sells her handmade items at Tumblewinds on Esmeralda St. in Minden. One item in her booth just fascinated me.


I love the origami feel to the ornament. I love the sharp angles. I love the bright colors. I just love these ornaments. Being the wonderful person that she is, Katie mailed the instructions and I made 11 ornaments to give as Christmas gifts.


Did I tell you I love making these ornaments?

Every Once In A While.......

You meet a person who has the gift of giving. I don't mean they give you gifts. I mean they give of themselves. They share their passion, their knowledge, and their gift of giving.

I meet one such person through a soap making forum I belong to. I have learned so much from her blog. She does such intense research and provides an overload of information that you can't help but learn something.

Susan is a wealth of information about cosmetic chemistry. As she says, "often strange, occasionally useful, and always worth a stop as a point of interest on your journey through the Intertron." I have been enjoying my journey with her and share her obsession of crafts and the bath and beauty industry.

Now this person does not just give online. She also reaches out to children, and that is a subject near and dear to my heart. Her program is called "Rated T for Teen."
From their web page
"We provide different programs to youth at the Chilliwack and Yarrow Libraries (in Chilliwack, B.C., Canada) and most of the funding comes from the volunteers’ pockets. We offer craft groups to teens, tweens, and pregnant and parenting teens. We provide two card and board game clubs, two video game clubs, and a Japanese pop culture program, as well. We also offer parent-child crafting programs."

Part of her fundraising program has been the Aviva Community Fund Program. Here you can vote for her program to receive community assistance.

As part two of her fundraising plan, she put together a 122 page e-book entitled
"Back to Basics: Anhydrous Products."
" The book includes over 50 recipes and explanations for making lotion bars, whipped butters, balms, oil based scrubs, bath melts, bath oils, oil based sprays, solid scrubs, and facial sera, as well as all the carrier oil, exotic oil, and butter profiles and everything I've gathered about the chemistry of our oils including fatty acids, mechanisms of rancidity, phytosterols, and polyphenols."

For a $20.00 donation that all goes into the project you will recieve a e-book that you will be able to use for years. I am so excited for this opportunity to purchase this collection of facts and information AND to help her project to bring the wonderful world of crafting to their youth.

CHECK IT OUT!

A New Opportunity

I went to Sacramento, CA this past weekend to watch my daughter's high school volleyball team compete in a tournament (They came in second place). It was a fun time hanging with my family on Friday night and all the girl's parents on Saturday during the games. They started at 8:30 am and played until 8 pm. A long day, but nice to know you can hang with the big schools. I heard several comments about "that Nevada team"!

My husband and I drove down Friday and stopped at Apple Hill, CA. I wanted to check out some sites for craft shows and some year round gift shops. We stopped at Jack Russel Brewing Co. located in the Sierra Foothills near the town of Camino.

Picture is from their web site and taken by Lisa Richmond Photography

I have been wanting to try making a beer soap for quite a while. I talked to the girl serving beer and she introduced me to Dave, the owner. He was kind enough to give me a six pack of his favorite beers to do a little R & D. I have 3 different types of beer open in the fridge and I am going to make 3 unscented batches and 3 batches of scented beers. What scents do you use in your beer soaps?

It's going to be fun around here! I should have all 6 batches done by the time I return to Sacramento in a couple of weeks and I am stopping by the brewery to drop off my samples for a little tasting session. I hope they love them and want to carry my soap in their gift shop. Once those beer drinkers see how wonderful beer soap lathers I know they will be buying my soap by the boatload!

Stay tuned for lots of pictures as I venture into the realm of "Beer Soap Making"! I'll be taking notes and lots of pictures on the scents and behavior of the different brews to see which holds up the best. I am hoping the Blueberry Beer does well!

I Confess, I Am A Scent-A-Holic

I have always loved scents. This is Chai fresh out of the pot. I think the nose and how it works is a fascinating thing. When I first ventured into the soap making addiction I scented with a few Essential Oils.


Ok, maybe more than a few Essential Oils.

I joined a few soap making forums. I sold soap in a few craft shows. Everywhere I looked people were talking about scents. On the forums fragrance oil suppliers were advertising the latest popular fragrances. At my craft shows at least one person would come up to me and ask "Do you have ****** scent." I have very little will power. I had to try this blend, then this blend.....Before I knew it I was carrying over 70 different scents of soaps.


The past few years I have been trying to cut back and just carry the best sellers, and my personal favorites.It has been a hard job, but I am down to only 40 different scents.


My biggest problem now is what do you do with all the bottles?




I have great suppliers that ship with great care. Scent Oils are best kept in dark glass to protect them from the light and other elements. I have enough dark bottles to transfer any oils I get in larger containers. Does anyone need any 2, 4, 8, and 16ounce bottles?

Ummm, yum, Kauai Ginger Blossom.

I Am Putting Soap Into A New Store

I put a soap display into a shop in Gardnerville the other day.


Heartstrings Gallery Gifts
1572 US Highway 395
Minden NV 89423
Phone: 775-781-0861

Long-time artist Lee Lewis opened the shop in October of 2009 in the Copeland Center site that now is home to the Arts Council. She makes and sells her own work: silk scarves and ties, jewelry, wall hangings, mosaics, hand painted glassware, candles and original watercolors and prints.


Her partner is photographer Rich Farrar.


She features several other artists.
Laura Burt shows her glass art and fused, leaded, etched and stained glass.


Kim Johnston shows her ceramics and pottery.


And now there is me.


The store is bright and the colors are brilliant. It makes you happy just walking into the door. And now it smells good, too! Lee has the eye when it comes to decorating. The store flows from one treasure to the next. It draws you in, you know there will be another delight to the eyes right around the corner. I am so happy to be here.


As with all the shops I put my soap in, this one is community friendly too! We all believe in shop local and support your local businesses and friends. This is Lee donating a painting to the DAWG representative for their fundraiser. I love our no-kill pet shelter and try to support them any way I can.


Lee will have the shop open for Carson Valley Days, so stop in and say hello!

Heartstrings Gallery Gifts
1572 US Highway 395
Minden NV 89423
Phone: 775-781-0861

It Is All About Choices

A crisp clean scent, Mountain Lake.

While stocking the shelves at one of the stores I sell my soap, a customer walked by and started smelling the different scents I sell. Upon checking the price of a bar of soap she asked me, "how do you stay in business selling soap for $6.00 when a person can buy soap much cheaper at the grocery store?"

That is a good question. First I have to think about the product. Soap is a reusable product. Everyone uses it. Everyone buys more when they run out. I need to be the one they come to when they run out. I can not compete with the stores on price so I have to have a better quality product. My soap sells for $6.00 for a 4 oz. bar of soap. It has been over 10 years since I bought soap at the store but I am sure you can buy something for $1.00. I make sure my soap uses the finest ingredients. I buy local whenever possible to reduce the impact I make on the environment. I support local merchants to keep my money in my community.

A sweet tart scent, Sunkissed Currant.

My goal is not to compete with a grocery store when it comes to selling soap. They can sell a basic bar of no frills soap for a cheap price. I want to sell a quality, luxurious bar of soap that will delight your skin, overload your senses with pleasure from the soft silky bubbles to the heady scents I use. I want you to breathe deep and imagine yourself in a spa instead of your shower. When you are drying off I want your skin to feel soft and pampered.

I want you to have a choice. I want to make the best soap possible so you don't have to settle for less. I guess that is how I stay in business. There will always be people who will not settle for anything but the best. I will be there for them.

A fresh green scent, Clover.

What Is A Fragrance Oil?

A fragrance oil is an aroma compound (a chemical compound that has a smell or odor) that, unlike the essential oil that comes from a plant, is a synthetic blend. Like the essential oils it must be volatile so it can be smelled through the olfactory system in the upper part of the nose. It also needs to be a high enough concentration to interact with the olfactory receptors.

Chemical synthesis is using chemical reactions to get a product. Using physical and chemical procedures one set of chemical substances is transformed to another. This helps insure the product will be able to be reproduced in other labs and the end product will be reliable. The process begins by selecting compounds know as reagents or reactants. They are "substances or compounds that are added to a system in order to bring about a chemical reaction or are added to see if a reaction occurs". The difference between the two is specifically a reactant is a "substance that is consumed in the course of a chemical reaction". Compounds are mixed in a reaction vessel such as a round-bottom flask. This link shows a list of the most well known reactions and reagents in organic chemistry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reactions

Some examples of Aroma Compounds are Esters, Terpenes, Cyclic Terpenes and Aromatics.
Esters include Methyl Butyrate (fruity, apple and pineapple), Ethyl Acetatea (sweet, solvent, also found naturally in wine), and Isoamyl Acetate (fruity, banana and pear). The Esters do not have many of their scents, except wine, occur in nature.
Terpenes include Myrcene (woody, complex, found in Verbena and bay in nature), Geraniol (a rose, flowery scent found in geraniums and lemon), and Citronellol (lemon scent that is found in lemongrass in nature).
Cyclic Terpenes include Limonene (orange fragrance), Terpineol (lilac), and Thujone (minty).
Aromatics include Benzaldehyde (almond), Vanillin (vanilla), and Thymol (thyme).
There is also the Amines, but with fishy, fecal scents I would not use them for fragrance in soap.
A list of aroma compounds can be found here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aroma_compound

Aroma compounds are found in food, wine, spices, and flavorants to improve their appeal. Scents that are not found in nature can be provided by synthesized odorants. Essential Oils that are very expensive, such as Rose, or are an endangered plant, such as Sandalwood, can be substituted with a Fragrance Oil. While plant scents vary by the locations and times they are harvested, synthetics are more consistent.

I first made soap using Essential Oils only. Until I started learning a bit about scent and fragrance and blending my selection was limited to the oils I could afford to buy. I was introduced to Fragrance Oils on a soap forum and soon became a "scent-a-holic". I soon had 60 different scents lining the shelves and more soap than I knew what to do with. Some of the fragrance oils smell so good in soap I would walk by some curing soap and take a deep whiff!

This is Cucumber Melon Soap. You can buy it here http://www.sierrasnowsoaps.com/11.html.

My first supplier of Fragrance Oils was Cybilla. Ummm, her Cucumber Melon and Dragons Blood went straight to your head. Her line was bought out by Anne-Marie, the owner of Brambleberry Soap Making Supplies. http://www.brambleberry.com/ I buy a lot of my Fragrance Oils here. They smell terrific, behave well in soap making, and the prices are in my budget.

This is Sunkissed Currant Soap. You can buy it here http://www.sierrasnowsoaps.com/11.html.

Another supplier I use is Oregon Trail Soap Supplies http://www.oregontrailsoaps.com/. Suz is the owner with her husband Rick. I had the pleasure of meeting her one year while in Oregon. It was incredible being around the supplies in the LARGE sizes.

The third supplier I use is Southern Garden Scents http://southerngardenscents.com/. They used to be Tony's Fragrance oils.

All three of these suppliers are wonderful to work with. They ship quickly, everything is packaged in wrapping to insure nothing breaks or leaks. They all test their Fragrance Oils to give the customer the best information on how it will behave in different types of soap. They all are in the "know" about which fragrances are popular and all add new scents continually. That is where I get into trouble. They all just smell so good, it is hard to decide which scents to use.

The Nose Knows

Even though the nose has been around a long time, little was known about HOW we sense scents, even with a nose as big as Jimmy Durantes. That is until 1991, when Richard Axel of Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Linda Buck at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center took the theory that different odors are attributed to different shapes and sizes of odor molecules that stimulate the olfactory organ and added the cloning of olfactory receptor proteins and pairing of odor molecules to specific receptor proteins. They discovered about 1,000 genes that encode for olfactory receptors inside the human nose. They found that each receptor is tuned for only a small number of odors. Odor receptor nerve cells function like a key-lock system. If the airborne molecules of a certain chemical can fit into the lock, the nerve cell will respond. They went on to become the 2004 Nobel Prize winners. Research is still being done to uncover the secrets of olfactory perception.


How do we smell?

Olfaction, or the sense of smell, is the detection and perception of chemical molecules floating in the air. When you take a breath air is sucked up into your nostrils over bony ridges called turbinates. They add more surface area. The molecules that enter the nose dissolve in mucous cells within a membrane called the olfactory epithelium (a tissue composed of cells that line the cavities and surfaces of structures throughout the body). It is a stamp size sheet of olfactory receptor neurons. In humans this is located up the nose from the nostrils on the roof of the nasal cavity. The cells have small hairs called cilia on one side and an axon on the other side. Humans have about 40 million olfactory receptors while a German Shepherd dog has about 2 billion olfactory receptors. The activity produced in these hair cells is transmitted to the mitral cells in the olfactory bulb, which sits underneath the front of your brain. From there the signals go to the brain areas that are part of the limbic system. When you smell something that reminds you of something it is because the limbic system is involved with emotional behavior and memory.



When your nose is stuffed up or you have a cold the molecules that carry smell cannot reach the olfactory receptors and your sense of smell decreases. Humans can recognize 10,000 different odors. No two people sense anything the same. Several factors, including genes, skin type, and diet are related to how smells smell. Even the weather can alter an odor. When we're hungry, our smell sense grows stronger. Women have better sniffers than men. Our sense of smell is at its worst in the mornings but improves as the day goes on.

And you thought smelling was something simple.

For more technical information go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfaction#Olfactory_epithelium

For a simpler explanation go to
http://kidshealth.org/kid/htbw/nose.html