big orders, lately

from essential wholesale:

Cleopatra, the last and most famous monarch of the dynasties established by Alexander in the East, was a fragrance fanatic. According to history, she was no great beauty, however she was seductive and striking. She used perfumes and cosmetics both made with Essential Oils, to her beauty and seductive advantage. When Mark Anthony boarded her ship she had her sails soaked in perfume, burned incense around her throne and had her robes scented in the finest of aromatics. Before she seduced him, she bathed in Jasmine Essential Oil.

can you imagine?
rich lady who can't shake the idea that she stinks unbelievably. much to the delight(?) of those around her...

To Do.

- update website (update ingredients page, make sustainability/impact page, make preservation issues page)
- make carrot castille for swap- cured by 3/20. label, pack & send by 3/22.
- make frosting for swap
- label and send frosting by 2/22.
- order more lip balm tubes (use remainder for new batch tea treelief).
- send out invoices from vday boxes.
- owe packages to: becki, hellen, jonb., stanimal, jessm.
- pick a weekend for show? - talk to liz re: lease.


i had way more energy half an hour ago. dunno what happened. time for bed.

salt soaps, redux

salt soaps I & II.
left: coconut & canola; EO blend of rosemary, eucalyptus, tangerine and patch. sprinkled w/ hawaiian pink after the pour.
right: coconut & soy; EO blend of lavender, rosemary, eucalyptus. added a bit of alkanet root powder for blue specks. sprinkled w/ "sel gris" after the pour.

both: blend of medium-coarse sea & kosher salts.

made another batch, this one w/ a regular, no-coconut recipe (aubrey bar I - 6lb) but added the 3 lbs of salt to see how a regular recipe would hold up/perform as a salt bar (ie would it be more conditioning-- i hope so. would it lather AT ALL? we'll see. what would the finished texture be like? etc.)

i made an involved post about it on the forum-- if i'm up for it later, i'll copy/paste it here. i just have a ton of other shit to do, right now.

canola

i like this oil in soap.
some folks shake their heads, believing internet myths that suggest canola is bad, bad, bad for you.

here are some other internet things you can read.

http://www.snopes.com/toxins/canola.htm
http://www.canola-council.org/about/thetruth.html

if you come across any more information regarding any soap ingredients, please send them my way.

salt soaps

i keep meaning to take pictures of those salt soaps. in spite of my earlier worries, they've been curing out quite nicely. i think they'll be especially good in the slick summer, though I do plan on making a normal-skin version, too.
i'll take pictures after i:
1) clean my kitchen and livingroom
2) make the second half of the valentine bombs
3) finish the valentine cards
4) finish my reading for tomorrow
5) pay the billz.

Silly Self-Promotion

oh, ho, so silly!

here are the boxes, btw:
Pink & Brown:

the brown portion of the soap smells like hot cocoa spiced w/ cinnamon and a teensy bit of clove; the pink portion smells of what i'm calling "pinkyfruit" b/c i don't think you can discern its peach & pomegranate components clearly.

Orange & Brown:

same hot cocoa portion, but the orange heart is scented w/ my winter stellar seller, sweetcakes' orange&clove. nice, warm, soapy citrus.

the cocoa butter "Bare Butt(er)" cream is whipped and au-naturale, scent-wise-- it's good! rich, but not greasy. sinks in well.

the lip balm is my vegan base, but w/ cocoa butter subbing in for the shea, and a portion of that cocoa butter is replaced w/ chocolate. a bit of black cherry flavor is in there to boost the Yum! factor.

the bath bomb is cocoa and black cherry-- it's a cherry bomb! smells a bit like Dr. Pepper. fizzes well. i subbed melted cocoa butter for a portion of the safflower oil, so it's a little richer in the bath. stoked to use it, myself.

everything you see here is vegan and all the packaging is recyclable.

i'm making cards tonight, and chasing down the deadbeats, hopefully.
and doing my homework and laundry, too.

Hello.

This is the weblog associated with Sweet June Handmade, whose main site can be found on the web over here.

The purpose of this journal is to kind of keep a running commentary on my thoughts, my developments and my drafts before I offer them on the regular site, and therefore may be updated more frequently. Here witnesses will get to observe me at my worst as well as at my finest-- botched batches as well as best. It may or may not prove useful. We shall see.