"Steppin" It up A Soaping Notch - Labor Day 2012

What a summer it's been, but I've learned a ton!  So, I am stepping it up a notch and changing a few things in Bon Logic.  My husband just finished building me a brand new shop and this is really the first weekend, I have really got to come out and be creative.  I absolutely love it and feel very blessed that he built it for me!

Bon Logic Shop

The things I am changing:

I am creating three separate retail soap categories:

#1 Gourmet Soaps - Beautiful usable soaps.  They are the ones that will smell and look beautiful!  But, you may not want to use them! Below are pictures, still in the molds, curing and setting up the first 24 hours, on the insulated curing shelves in my shop.

#2 Essential Oil Soaps - Using only essential oils in the soaps, for those that want natural products, not fragrance oils.

#3 Regular Bar Soaps - Nothing fancy, just bar soap, made with fragrance oils.  Many fragrance oils are not available in essential oils. We would be so limited if we only had essential oils to choose from, like huckleberry soap for example:

Huckleberry Heaven (fragrance oil) Cold Processed Soap

Grapefruit Essence (essential oil) Cold Processed Soap

I'll have to update the blog when I cut them.  The shelves I cure them on are wonderful and designed by my husband.  It makes the initial curing and setting up of the soap a breeze.  They are a metal shelving unit, insulated on the top, sides, back and front.  You just slip the molds in, put the front on and presto, no worries.  You just let it cure and set up the first 24-48 hours, remove and cut the soap for further 3-4 week curing.

Insulated Cold Processed Shelving

I also made my own Laundry Soap this weekend.  Something, I have always wanted to do.  Here is the recipe for any of you the want to try it.  At the last fair I did last week, one of my fellow vendors gave me the recipe.  It makes 5 gallons and costs about 3 cents a cup.  You can buy the ingredients at a local Winco or Walmart:

Heres what you need to get started:

5 gallon Bucket with a Lid

1 cup Washing Soda

1/2 cup Borax

1 Bar of Fels Naptha Soap

Bring a pan of water to a boil and add the shredded Fels Naptha Soap.  Stir to melt.  Fill a 5 gallon bucket half full of hot tap water.  Add the three soaps and stir well.  Then fill the bucket to the top and let it set overnight.  It will thicken overnight.  I used my stick blender the next morning to blend it.

Use a cup for normal loads.  This calculates out to be about 3 cents a cup.  Much less expensive than normal laundry soap for sure!

One bar of Fels Naptha is about 97 cents at Walmart.

One 3.7 oz box of Washing Soda at Walmart is about $2.77

One 4#  box of Borax at Walmart is about $2.98.

Happy Soaping!!!!!

Bonnie