Welcome back to our series, Common Scents! Common Scents is a collection of articles exploring the history of commonly used essential oils, and how they became so popular in modern day soap and cosmetic crafting. This week, we’ll talk about ylang ylang! This month we are going to talk about everyone’s least favorite essential oil to pronounce: ylang ylang! Pronounced … Read More
Common Scents: Vetiver
Welcome to our series, Common Scents! Common Scents is a series of articles exploring the history of commonly used essential oils, and how they became so popular in modern day soap and cosmetic crafting; in this edition of Common Scents, we’ll take a look at vetiver. Revered by Indian culture and referred to in Sri Lanka as the “Oil of … Read More
Beer Soap For Beginners
Today, we are going to talk about making soap using a popular alcoholic drink; beer! I used the hot process method, but these observations will apply to those of you that use the cold process method, too. Let’s get started! Considerations for Beer Soap When I first began doing research about beer soap, I found many conflicting articles and conflicting … Read More
Common Scents: Rose Absolute
Welcome to our series, Common Scents! Common Scents is a series of articles exploring the history of commonly used essential oils and how they became so popular in modern day soap and cosmetic crafting. This week, we’ll be talking about Rose Absolute! Think of a flower. Was it a rose? If it was, that’s no surprise; the rose is one … Read More
A Beginner’s Guide to Castile Soap
Castile soap is arguably one of the most simultaneously simple and complicated soaps in existence! From debates on its origin, to arguments about what it should and should not contain, castile soap means something different to just about every soap maker. The Debatable History of Castile Soap It is difficult to find a definitive answer as to where castile soap … Read More
Color Me Clean: Colorants in Soap and Cosmetics
If you make your own soap and cosmetics, and especially if you make soap and/or cosmetics with bright colors and beautiful patterns, I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “It’s so pretty, I don’t want to use it” more than once! While breaking the barrier between decoration and usable product is a challenge in its very own category, another challenge that … Read More
BAR-twork: Pencil Lines
If you’ve ever used handcrafted soap, there’s a good chance that you’ve seen soap with a pencil line, or a thin line of mica or other colorant that separates the soap either in the middle, or even in a marbling pattern. What you may not know is that this is actually a very simple technique that can be used with … Read More
Common Scents: Sweet Orange
Welcome to our series, Common Scents! Common Scents is a series of articles exploring the history of commonly used essential oils, and how they became so popular in modern day soap and cosmetic crafting. In this edition of Common Scents, we will take a look at the uplifting history of sweet orange, often referred to simply as orange or orange … Read More
How-To: Lip Balm
Lip balms are a quick and easy to make beauty product that can be the perfect stocking stuffer or addition to your product line. Besides knowing you made this simple yet silky masterpiece, the best part is how completely inexpensive it actually is to make lip balm. The first two things you will need to do are: choose your ingredients … Read More
Common Scents: Peppermint
Welcome back to our series, Common Scents! Common Scents is a collection of articles exploring the history of commonly used essential oils, and how they became so popular in modern day soap and cosmetic crafting. This week, we’ll talk about peppermint! Peppermint is one of the most recognizable scents in existence. Its strong, refreshing scent elicits thoughts of winter, chilly … Read More