Jabón de Almendra

Jabón de Almendra

Hoy nos tocó cortar el lujoso jabón de almendras. A nuestra base regular de jabón hemos agregado manteca de cacao y aceite de almendras, también hemos sustituido parte del agua utilizada con leche de almendras recién hecha.

La manteca de cacao es un excelente hidratante, proporcionando elasticidad y nutrición a la piel.

El aceite de almendras se usa para suavizar todo tipo de piel incluyendo pieles secas y escamosas. Es emoliente suavizante e hidratante y ayuda a desinflamar.

Nuestro jabón también es elaborado con leche de almendras, preparada fresca cada vez que elaboramos el jabón. La leche de almendras contiene fósforo, potasio, magnesio, calcio, hierro, azufre, cloro, aluminio, manganeso, cobre, zinc, vitaminas A, E, B 1, B 2 y PP; de las cuales cabe destacar la vitamina E - un antioxidante que protege la piel de los efectos dañinos que pueden provenir tanto de toxinas ambientales como de procesos metabólicos normales, contribuyendo a prevenir el envejecimiento de células y tejidos.

Éste jabón es recomendado para pieles secas y maltratadas. Luego de su uso, notarán un mejoramiento en la piel, quedando ésta suave y humectada.

Sparkling Green Tea Soap

It's one of those fragrances that are yummy out of the bottle but then turn blah in soap. At least that my impression...but boy does it sell well! For this round I've done an in-the-pot swirl, with a lovely Celine top. I didn't want muted colors so I combined my hydrated chromium green with neon green, and my pearl yellow with neon yellow - the result was fantastic! A lovely forest green and bright yellow, just what I wanted!

Before Celine Top

To top it off, GLITTER!!!! It is sparkling green tea after all :)

After Celine top and glitter

Right after I took that last photo I dropped my phone in the lye water of the second batch!! DUH!! Happy to report that it survived...hopefully no internal damage :(

Thanks to all my lovely customers, I've had to double my production, so instead of making one batch at a time, I have to do two just to keep my inventory levels at a decent rate. And with Christmas season coming, I might have to do three at a time. I've resorted to CPOP to cut on the curing time, but still keep the artistic part of making soap - so far with excellent results! Hope to pick up production quite a lot so I can go to all the markets and fairs scheduled this season.

How's your Holiday season production coming along?

xoxo
Irene

Catching up with my inventory

Thanks to my wonderful customers, and due to my vacations and my day job - my inventory got pretty low this month. I'm finally catching up and I'm starting to have a workable number of soaps.

About a third of what my inventory should be - lots of work ahead this next week!

The major customer I have is soon opening another store in a part of town that I've been asked to sell my products lots of times, so I'm really exited for that. It will also mean a pick up in my sales, hopefully double what I have right now (or more) - which also means I have to double up on production YAY!!

I've also been contacted by another store that purchased one of my soaps and loved it! They have three stores distributed quite well around town. I'm set up to meet with them and hopefully start working with them by next week.

I'm struggling with reducing the number of fragrances/styles of soap, but it's so fun to make each and everyone one of them that I think I'll end up adding to them :) there's just so many cool things to do with soap and so many pretty scents that I just can't cut any. Especially with the new Great Cakes Soap challenges every month - the soaps featured there are to die for!! So much talent :)

As of right now, here are some little piggies that are being delivered tomorrow, in search for their new homes.

49 piggies looking for a new home

xoxo
Irene

Paso a paso-jabón proceso frío

Esta semana me he dedicado a hacer jabon. Mi inventario bajó a cero en muchas clases de jabón gracias a mis maravillosos clientes. Así que me he puesto manos a la obra. En el interín, tomé unas cuantas fotos de cómo es mi proceso...espero lo disfruten! El modelo de ésta semana es Naranja y Especies.

Paso 1 - decidir que jabón van a hacer


Paso 2 - preparar la lejía, combinando cuidadosamente la sosa con el agua

Paso 3 - preparar el molde, medir los ingredientes, derretir las mantecas y preparar los colores









Paso 4 - mezclar las mantecas con los aceites y agregar la fragancia/aceite esencial, mezclando bien

Paso 5 - agregar lentamente la lejía a los aceites

Paso 6 - batir hasta que esté emulsionado pero no en etapa de  traza

Paso 7 - dividir y agregar los colores. Mezclar hasta llegar a traza mediana

Paso 8 - volcar en el molde y dar unos golpes para expulsar las burbujas de aire. Decorar a su gusto.

Paso 9 - dejar descansar en un lugar cálido un mínimo de 24 horas

Paso 10 - desmoldar y cortar

Paso 11 - dejar curar en un lugar aireado un mínimo de 4 semanas

Espero hayan disfrutado del paso a paso. Si tienen preguntas no duden en contactarme.

xoxo
Irene

Un dato interesante acerca del jabón natural

http://marianadelasflores.blogspot.com/2012/08/por-que-el-jabon-natural-y-ecologico.html

A beautiful inspirational workshop

I found this beautiful inspirational workshop on flickr. I could not find the soap brand but her screen name is ellenapril if you want to check her other pics out.
I would really like to upgrade my soap lab to this...it's nice and cozy, very well organized and set up into different stages...which is required by law in CR.
I need to convince the hubby to take this on along with building our house...which FYI is on week 4 of 18 :-):-):-)

Does your workshop inspire you to be the best?

xoxo
Irene

Nomada fair

After a long pause...I'm trying to get back on the horse...the blogging horse that is. Today I have for you guys a nice pic of my table at what I hope will be a permanent fair, every Saturday and Sunday.
I'm a little scared as the venue seems a little dead, but the project includes a space where I could give lessons during the week. Today was the first day so anything can happen!
I feel like I should be doing more but I don't know where to start...It's a little overhwelming to say the least.
Enough whining and more action...take risks is this year's motto...so of we go!
xoxo
Irene