Fresh Start

I know that I have not blogged religiously as I had anticipated. I come up with great ideas but time is not as forgiving as I would like it to be. But as the bleak, dreary weather slowly subsides, and the blossoms are appearing... I know that spring is near. If the weather can bring a fresh start, then I believe that I am deserving of one too:-) I will be highlighting a new fragrance or product each week on my blog.

Today I would like to highlight my linen and room sprays. These are highly concentrated sprays that can be used to freshen your bedding, couches, curtains, rugs, car interior....the possibilities are endless. The best part is that they are completely natural. You can choose from any of our fragrances or blend of fragrances and I will create it for you.

New Season

As the Summer comes to a close, our "season" begins. What I mean by this is that we start gearing up for our busiest time of the year. All Summer long we participated in the little local farmer's markets and I must say that they were wonderful. Apart from the opportunity to be able to sell my products and make some money, I came home with some of nature's freshest blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, tomatoes, corn, squash (even though I don't personally like squash) and who can forget the ginormous watermelons.

Now, with Fall right on my heels, I am starting to anticipate the many new fragrances that I get to play with at this time of year... pumpkin pie, spiced plum, pomegranate (yay for the real ones that will soon delight my palate and stain my fingernails), mulberry, apple jack & peel, orange spice.... I take a whiff of these delightful fragrances and a plethora of memories immediately flood my mind. I've been told that everyone has a fragrance that evokes a memory. Mine are the fall scents, because it was in the fall that I got married and then a few years later it was in the fall that we bought our first place ever while living in Florida. It was also in the fall that my soap making hobby really took off so these were the first scents I "experimented" with.

I can say that this is my favorite season by far. Soon the evenings will be crisp, the leaves will start changing, my persimmons will ripen, we'll take long walks in our yard, throw the football around with the boys and my kitchen will give forth fresh baked pumpkin pie smells.

Indeed fall to me is a new season that brings back fond memories but also a chance to make some new ones!

USC Healthy Carolina Market

Tomorrow, April 14th, may be your last chance to catch the Healthy Carolina Farmer's Market that takes place at the University of South Carolina on Greene Street (in front of the Russel House). It has been well supported by students and faculty alike and the vendors are varied and plentiful.

You will find local honey, cheeses, breads, fruits and vegetables, goodies for your four-legged friends, and some local craft as well....AND of course we'll be there as well with our handmade soap!! The market runs from 10am to 2pm, but come early as some vendors sell out quickly. Hope to see you there:-)

Favorite Soaps

We base our business on the philosophy that if "we wouldn't use it, we wouldn't sell it". All our products are "tested" right at home. We use our soaps in our showers, our linen & room spray on everything from our bedding to our couches to our curtains to our cars. Then there are our friends who willingly volunteer to be guinea people for our products. I get a lot of the: "Are you making anything new you NEED me to try?" We love our friends!!!

Anyway, as you know, we have expanded tremendously since our initial "ugly soap". We now carry over 50 different kinds of soaps. I will be highlighting some of the best sellers in this post. To view our full line of soaps, you can check out our website at http://www.beckyssoapshoppe.webs.com/ .

First we have our Honey of a Scrub. It is a glycerin base soap with sweet South Carolina Honey, crushed almonds, ground oatmeal and apricot seeds. It exfoliates and then replenishes the moisture in your skin.... plus glycerin soaps rinse clean, leaving no soapy residue on your skin.

Next is our Peppermint Scrub Bar. It is a goats milk base soap with chunks of glycerin soap inside. Scented with cool peppermint essential oil and packed with ground walnut shells and ground loofah. Pure Heaven!!!

Our oatmeal soaps are also very popular. We have four different kinds - all goats milk based. There's the fragrance free for people with sensitive skin and it's great as a facial cleanser as well. Oatmeal vanilla is great for those who absolutely love vanilla fragranced products. Oatmeal, milk and honey has the skin-healing property of honey added in glycerin chunks. Then there's Lemongrass & Oatmeal which has lemongrass essential oil which is great for aches and pain. I absolutely love lemongrass because it takes me back to my native country of Belize. My mom still grows lemongrass which we call "fever grass" and makes this delicious tea from it. So the fragrance brings back fond memories of home♥.

A few years back, I found a fragrance called Monkey Farts!!! YES, Monkey Farts (lol). The fragrance description is "everything a monkey eats...bananas, berries, coconut, mangoes, oranges...". I decided it would be a great children's fragrance and started making glycerin soaps with a little monkey finger puppet inside. Unbelievably, this shot up to the top of our favorites list quickly and not only with the kids but with adults as well. I've since learned that people of all ages are fascinated with the word "Fart". Who woulda' known?!?!?

Don't let this list of favorites keep you from trying our other soaps. I'm sure you'll find a favorite of your own from our variety of fragrances...lavender, gardenia, creme brulee, hot chocolate, key west sunset, Caribbean coconut, blackberry, love spell, passionate kisses....♥♥♥

It Started With A Baby...

One of the questions I'm asked all the time, was "why did you start making soap?". Sometimes I would love to give a very profound answer that would leave people speechless. But alas!!! This dame hath none such reply. I had already had baby # 1 and had dreamed about the day he would go to school. I would drop him off and re-enter the work scene, aka grown up life, that would allow me to have conversations that would not include words like potty, binky, sippy cup and Mr. Bear. I can see God now, pointing and laughing and saying: "Ha ha. That's what you think!!" For before that much anticipated school day came, I had baby #2.

Here I was with this little tiny, crying, dependent pink ball with peach fuzz on his head - knowing that it would be another five years at least before any dreams of working outside the home would be realized. During this time, my skin was breaking out majorly and I had tried everything on the market. Hubby said: "I think it's stress!" YA THINK?!?!?

I was flipping through a crafting booklet one evening and came across an article on soap making. Whowoulddathunkit? It had never occurred to me that I, ME...yes ME...could make my own soap. I couldn't wait till morning and ran over to my local craft store and bought some over-priced soap making junk. I remember my first bar....ugly as sin...but it smelled good and bubbled and that was the beginning.

Through the years, I've researched ingredients and discovered the good, the bad and the ugly. I started with just glycerin soap, but soon learned how to make lotions, old-fashioned soap, wax tarts, candles, lotion bars, linen & room sprays, body sprays.... and much more all from scratch!!! It's been an adventure the last 7 years and I've loved every minute of it!!!