First of all, these changes are made with you in mind – the customers who make Bluebonnet Trails successful. I want to be sure you’re getting the very best for your hard-earned money, and that I’m delivering products with your best interest at heart. So we’re going to be offering more products that take into account what people want … SLS-free shampoos, unscented soaps, fewer chemicals. It isn’t that I believe anything I use in my products is harmful – if I did, they would never make it into a BBT line. Instead, listening to the heartbeat of my customers, I know this is the right thing to do.

If you like the scented soaps, don’t fret. I will still offer Surfside year round, since it’s my personal favorite. I will also offer other fragrances on a limited basis, available seasonally. You will be less likely to find glycerin soaps, because I’ve had some quality control issues with them. Basically, they leach moisture when stored in humid areas – and I live in one of the more humid areas of the country. Also, it has been very difficult to keep up with orders for the scented glycerin soaps because they were made to order, which delayed all the orders while the soaps were cast.

All of the soaps currently on the website will be available until they are gone. Our best sellers – lavender and chamomile, the citrus chunk, shea and cocoa butter, and coffee – will be available year round, of course. I plan to keep a larger stock of each of these soaps, ready to be sent out when ordered, so that delays due to manufacturing are reduced.

Look for our new SLS-free shampoo around the end of May on the website. If you’re considering dumping “commercial” shampoos because of this much-debated chemical, I think this is a great alternative. I’ll also be adding body butter to the site – made of cocoa butter, shea and other natural products, I will be offering them in both scented and unscented varieties.

I think that by streamlining the products we offer, our customers will be better served and you will find products that are useful, practical and luxurious. And who doesn’t love luxury??

Until next time … keep it clean!

First of all, the average temperature in Houston during the month of January is about 50ish. I’m not sure what the average temperature has been this month, but I think it’s been much lower than 50. I know that we are currently experiencing 35ish degree weather at night and that’s pretty cold. In fact, this has been the coldest winter I can recall in many years. Not cold in the sense of below freezing temperatures, but rather, the number of days this season that have not been above 50 degrees. For a city who regularly celebrates Christmas wearing shorts and flip flops, this is noteworthy.

So yeah, for a lot of folks in the country, we’re experiencing mild weather. However, those are the folks who have a better heating system than we do, and who do not have air conditioning in their homes. LOL Seriously though, our heating systems are not made for this sort of weather. They do ok for a few nights of 30 to 40 degree weather but for an entire season of cold? No. The downstairs of my home has been so cold this winter, I’ve literally had to move upstairs and I avoid the use of half of my house because it’s just too cold for comfort. You can actually feel the temperature drop as you reach the bottom of the stairs – by several degrees! We don’t have fireplaces that generate a lot of heat – the ones we do have are built to be decorative, not functional. This is why we have so many fires during cold periods – people use space heaters to provide warmth for their families, and they are careless with them.

Another reason why the cold in Houston is more difficult to deal with is clothing. We simply do not have the type of clothing necessary for cold, windy weather (and it’s a rare occurrence for us to have cold weather without a stiff wind). We lack things like long johns and sweaters and such. I’m not even entirely sure what “cold weather clothing” is because I have spent my entire life in Houston. I’m pretty sure it isn’t two pair of socks and pantyhose under your jeans, though. But that’s about all I’ve had. I don’t even have gloves or hats! Someone recently told me that the secret to dressing for the cold is “layering.” In my world, that’s a cooking/baking term, not a clothing term. I don’t have waterproof boots or even long sleeve shirts, nor a heavy winter coat.

All of this has led me to take more hot showers. Why? Because it’s the only way I’ve found to somewhat thaw out. And more hot showers have led to dry, itchy skin. You’d think that using my soaps would combat this problem, but frankly, it isn’t doing the job right now, probably in part because I haven’t been drinking enough water to stay hydrated, but also because I don’t really use lotion much. And between the wind whipping through my practically non-existent clothing and the scalding showers I have to use to melt the ice from my hands, I’m not doing my skin any favors at all. Enter the body butter.

Made with cocoa and shea butters, and a bit of beewax, this is a rich, creamy butter that makes my skin rejoice. Seriously, angels were singing last night when I tried it out for the first time. A touch of tangerine essential oil also helps with dry, cracking skin, and makes the butter smell wonderful. Not yet listed on the website, you can expect to see the Wonder Butter (yes that’s what I’m calling it) up in the next two or three days. I want to tweak it just a bit and then I’ll put it up there for ya’ll. It may make this winter worth it because I think this stuff will be good any time of the year.

The other thing I’m doing with tangerine oil is a new shampoo bar. It will be best for those who suffer from dry, scaly skin conditions like dandruff, eczema and psoriasis, but it will also be good for anyone who wants to put a little more moisture on their skin – it will, as usual, double as a bath bar as well. Look for further information on this over the next few days.

Other than that, we aren’t planning to roll out anything new over the coming weeks. We’re going to be very busy with packing and moving from our current home to new digs, but we’ll still be providing the stuff that we already selll – we just won’t be developing anything new for a little while. Once we get to the new place, however, I’m looking at an exfoliating bar for your face that I’m hoping will rival anything that a particular apricot scrub can do, and another shampoo bar for people with normal hair. Also, I am searching for a container for a lotion balm – this will be a stick lotion that will be great for your purse because I HATE lotions that are liquid in there. And I’m hoping to formulate a stick lotion for dry, cracked feet as well – I just need to find the packaging I want.

Be sure you check back here over the coming weeks though, because I’m thinking about running a contest or two, and also because we’ll be having a “moving” sale soon.

If you’re in the Houston area, we’ll be in Missouri City this weekend at the Weight Watchers open house at 2817 Dulles, at the corner of Cartwright and Dulles. Stop by and check out our products for yourself!

See ya soon. Until then, keep it clean!

OK, so maybe she didn’t set out to get to grunge. But there she is now – at grunge. Poor girl, I feel sorry for her, and I tried to help her out but it doesn’t seem to be doing much good. I do have a hunch that I know why she’s having such a waxy problem right now, though. I remember years ago being told by several hair care experts that Pantene is not good for your hair, because what makes it look and feel so slick is wax. It stands to reason that if Snork has been using Pantene for years, the waxy build up would be significant, and as such … well, it’s going to take a long while for that stuff to exit her head, won’t it? I feel really bad for her, because she’s trying to do the right thing, but in the end, if her co-workers avoid her and her man pulls away from her hugs, is it worth it?

Now, I have a product that can be used as both a shampoo and a body wash. I love body washes, though I typically avoid them in the winter months, thanks to unfortunate dry skin issues. I do love the one I have though, and I use it occasionally in the winter and almost exclusively during the summer months (there is this post’s confession). My niece Kourtney LOVES it for her hair. When I first considered offering it, I did the research to ensure that the ingredients were safe, and according to everything I found, they are. But in light of Snork’s insistence on not using shampoo, and the internet’s underground no-shampoo club, I decided to do a little more research. This is what I found out. I’ll provide links and hopefully some helpful information so you can make the decision for yourself.

First of all, my dad has always said that “Living leads to dying” and of course, that’s difficult to argue. I am all for healthy living, and doing whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better. And I’m all for eliminating those things in life that you feel are bad for you and your family. But you simply cannot eliminate every single element that may cause cancer or might otherwise be bad for you. Unless you live on farm in the middle of nowhere, grow your own food, raise your own animals, make everything you need including clothing, food, cleaning supplies and furniture, you’re going to come into contact with something that’s not good for you. The trick is determining what things are most likely to have the biggest impact on your health and do what you can to eliminate those.

The chemicals that seem to cause the most concern for non-shampooers is isopropyl alcohol, propylene glycol (PG) and butylene glycol, and Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES).  I wouldn’t want to use a shampoo with isopropyl alcohol in it either, unless my hair was extremely oily. It’s very drying and I just don’t see how it could be good for the hair. I suspect that for those with dandruff, isopropyl alcohol would be like throwing fuel on a fire. Fortunately, it’s not one of the ingredients in my shampoo.

Next is propylene glycol (PG) – which IS  in my shampoo base. According to this website, propylene glycol penetrates skin and weakens cellular structure. AND it removes barnacles from boats. But there’s no source for that information, and I read several sites that gave no indication that either of these claims are true. I don’t like to use Wikipedia as a source for anything, but this article is well sourced and seems to be in agreement (and much easier to read and understand) with the other sites I’ve found that discuss propylene glycol and it’s health risks. In short, there is no real effect either to skin or eyes when using products that contain PG. Rats had to ingest significant amounts for it to affect them, but after they were removed from the PG diet, the results were reversed in time. If you’re going to give up shampoo for this product, be ready to also give up milk, cheeses, vanilla extract and other vanilla flavorings, among other items. One final word about PG … the ASPCA recommends the use of PG containing anti-freeze over ethylene glycol, because it generally will not kill an animal that drinks it. So if you hear that it’s used in “anti-freeze and de-icers” realize that it’s used as a safe alternative to ethylene glycol that has traditionally been used in those products.

Butylene glycol is also considered quite safe. It appears that the majority of the hype surrounding glycols is actually because of ethylene glycol, which is mentioned above. Ethylene glycol is fatal to animals at fairly low doses – one source said that it only took a few tablespoons to kill cat or dog, but I couldn’t find exact doses that would cause that. It is considered a poison, whereas the others are not. At any rate, butylene glycol is not listed on my ingredient list, so I will not pursue further it at this point.

Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) are next on the list of harmful chemicals. In 1976, the Cosmetic Ingredient Review was formed to test the ingredients used in cosmetics. They have found that SLS and SLES pose no significant health risk to humans in small quantities and without prolonged exposure. I don’t know about you, but I don’t wash my hair and then leave the soap there. I rinse it out, usually within a minute or so of working it into a lather. In these concentrations and applications, SLS has been deemed safe. You may notice that this link does mention skin and eye irritation, but many natural ingredients will cause the same effect – my daughter cannot use anything with lavender in it because she is allergic to lavender. My shampoo uses Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate and Ammonium Laureth Sulfate both of which have been deemed safe in the concentrations found in shampoos and other cosmetic ingredients. Indeed, the claims made by Nature Moms that “[a]nimals exposed to SLS experienced eye damage, depression, labored breathing, diarrhea, severe skin irritation and even death” could not be found or substantiated. And again, they have no source information on the site as to where that came from, so I cannot substantiate it.

All I’m suggesting is that you have to make the determination for yourself. I personally see nothing that would give me a reason to stop using shampoo, if that’s what I wanted to use. I do use my label at times, and sometimes I use one of my bar soaps. The truth is, it all depends on what I’m feeling when I get into the shower. Because of his eczema problem, my 15 year old son prefers to use soap that I make, and that’s ok too. Like I said at the beginning of this post, the only way to keep yourself completely safe is to know where each and every component of each and every product you use comes from, and that simply isn’t possible.

I wouldn’t recommend that Snork go back to using Pantene, because I never recommend it to anyone. But I see no reason for her to try to keep using water on her hair – because let’s face it. Municiple water isn’t that clean anyway, and if you’re using it to “wash” already unclean hair without some sort of cleanser … all you’re doing is making your dirty hair wet. And no one likes the smell of dirty wet hair.

Another thing I’ve been asked to do – and I’ve been a little more hesitant to jump into – is to develop a line of products for people of color. I’m hesitant only because I’m unsure what special concerns black people have when it comes to skin and hair; all I know for certain is that most of them have issues with dryness. Beyond that, I’m just not sure. But I’ve been researching oils and recipes, and I’m hoping that soon I can unveil my first product formulated specifically for people of color.

And let’s not forget my own son’s request back in December to come up with a shampoo bar for him. That has snowballed into others asking for the same thing – namely, Snork, who decided at the first of the year that she is done with commercial shampoos forever! I haven’t been as .. ummm … brave as she has, because I’m using my own lavender and chamomile soap to wash my hair, but I, too, gave up commercial shampoos. I mean, how can I a) know what works, and b) sell products to others that I myself wouldn’t use?

OK, obviously I’m not going to use the line for people of color, because I’m white as the driven snow, and the products I’m developing for that would probably have me drowning in a sea of moisture. But I’ve approached that from the perspective of, What would I want if I needed these products?

Anyway … I’m pleased to announce that the very first shampoo bar will be ready for sale this weekend. I’ll post pictures and more information this weekend. I’m really excited about this one!

Don’t forget that time is running out on the free soap offer. Place an order for $20 or more and get a free bar of soap, your choice!

Until next time, keep it clean!

Up at 5:20 am this morning (Chris lets me “sleep in” on the days I don’t have to work), I dropped the male half of this show off at his own day job, came home, took a quick bath and began preparations for a day of soap making by steeping some chamomile tea for a batch of cold process lavender and chamomile soap. It has to steep, then it has to cool, which works well for me, because I need to run a few errands anyway.

First stop is the post office, where I need to drop off Snork’s order from last night. Unlike many orders I receive, Snork’s order was strictly for “stock items” so I didn’t have to do anything special for it. I just pulled the bars of soap and wrapped them up, and will pack them in a box and drop them for shipment today.

Second stop will likely be … well, I can’t lie. Second stop will likely be for food because I’m starving already this morning. I doubt I’ll get too far without something to eat. But the NEXT stop after that will be at a local supplier’s warehouse to pick up jars for candles because I’m out, and a few other supplies.

After that, I may stop at the grocery store and grab a few things I need there, like some new tea blends I want to try for soap, and maybe some oil if I’m low (note to self: check oil levels). Then I’ll come home and get down to the real business of the day – making soap, testing out new fragrances (I haven’t forgotten you, Jenn!), making some wax tarts, and trying out a new technique for casting I’ve had my eye on for a while. I also need to take a few pictures and update the website. Again.

I probably make subtle changes to the website three or four times a week. This week, I have, thus far, exceeded that number. If you go check it out right now, you’ll see a new category – Nearly Natural. After my post about  the all-natural tag, I began to think that many of my soaps ARE nearly natural – the only thing holding me back from calling them natural is the sodium hydroxide. I just don’t feel comfortable calling them natural when one main component can cause such harm. So while I was taking a bath (of course, because almost all of my great ideas come from bath time), I came up with the phrase Nearly Natural. To be labeled Nearly Natural, the product will have to meet three criteria:

1. No artificial colors
2. No artificial fragrances
3. No artificial preservatives

This is, admittedly, a very small line for me right now, but as time marches on, you can expect to see more products showing up with the Nearly Natural tag. I’m excited about it! Check it out and let me know if you have any ideas on items you’d like to see there.

Anyway, obviously I managed to fit a blog post into a very busy day, so I really must run and get started on all this other stuff I have going on. As always, I’d love to hear from you if you have suggestions or comments.

Till next time, keep it clean!

Oh … I almost forgot! The Citrus Chunk is now available on the website. Seriously, if you like a clean citrus scent, you really have to try this one. It’s already a legend!

Anyway, one of these one ounce samples turned into a jelly jar and a few tarts. The jelly jar went to a customer for her Candle of the Month purchase, and the tarts are in the kitchen now because I have yet to pop them out of the molds. It was called Bermuda Triangle and may I say it is a great fragrance. I loved it, and Chris loved it, and Travis loved it … it wasn’t citrus-y at all … I smelled more of a coconut base in it. I am thinking of adding it to my summer line, because it reminds me of sitting on a beach with an umbrella, and a fruity drink with an umbrella at my elbow, and maybe a cabana boy wandering around the sand in his little Speedo … I’m sorry, what was I saying? I seem to have lost my train of thought.

…

…

Oh yes! The sample fragrances! Anyway, I have ten more here to try out and so that’s exactly what I’ll be doing with them. Some will be made into little trial glycerin soaps, and some may become tarts. I haven’t put them on the website yet, but they will be in a special section called “Limited Editions” .. and they will indeed be limited … at least for a time. If I decide to add them to my regular line up, I’ll let you know. All of them smell great, and they are all very high quality fragrances, so don’t worry about that. Just, if you order them, let me know what you think. Because if I’m on the fence about one of them, yours may be the opinion that pushes me one way or the other!

Product notes: I am nearly out of shea and cocoa butter soap – I think I have only a couple of bars left at the moment. If I can ever get my order of shea butter in, I will whip some more up and let you know when it’s done. This is one soap I think will work well with the hot process, but I will confess that I don’t care much for the results with my lavender & chamomile soap when using that method. It’s not as pretty as the cold process batches, and I will be making more cold process for that reason – the problem is, cold process takes about four weeks to be ready for use. Hot process can be used almost immediately. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the hot process lavender & chamomile … it’s still a wonderful soap with the same principles of the cold process version. And I have several bars if you want to order immediately. They just aren’t as nice looking …

I’ve had a couple of questions about the glycerin soap, and while I know it’s not “pretty”, the truth is, glycerin – ANY glycerin – sweats in humid weather. After nearly a month of no humidity to speak of here in Houston, it is back with a vengeance. I’ve been trying to keep the sweating down, but it’s nearly impossible. However, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the soaps themselves … just run them under water and dry them off and the sweating should alleviate some. It’s annoying, I know, but … what can I say? Houston is just humid!

I have switched from using soy wax for votives, to using paraffin. It’s not my favorite wax, BUT it’s much safer. We noticed that soy votives melted in on top of themselves – basically they collapse – and it could cause a fire to start. The scent isn’t as strong in paraffin as it is in soy, but I think it’s still quite acceptable.

Look for all sorts of updates to the website coming this weekend, including pictures of new products that lack them, actual new products, the Limited Editions store and more. And remember, we’re always open to any suggestions you may have!

As a closing note, don’t forget about our free soap offer! Order $20 worth of product from the website and get a free bar of soap. Just use coupon code SOAP1 at check out and then let me know what free soap you would like to receive. If you don’t choose a soap, I’ll choose one for you. It’s a great time to stock up!

Keep it clean, folks!

So last night I made a new batch of Lavender and Chamomile, so I’m no longer out of stock on that variety! In addition, over the weekend I made a batch of Woodland, a masculine scent I make with green tea. It’s dark in color, and the fragrance is strong; it’s got a predominence of pine, but a touch of sandalwood also resides in it. Musk brings it all together. It’s a wonderful soap for the man in your life!

I also made a soap called Orange Delight. It’s very … well … orangy! LOL A beautiful mixture of nourishing soaps and citrus, this soap is sure to be a crowd pleaser. I actually made two batches of this one – one cold process and one hot process so I could compare them. But that’s going to take a while … so we’ll have to enjoy the hot process for now!

I do apologize for the lack of pictures of the new soaps. Technical difficulties prevented me from getting them off my camera, but I think I have figured out the issue, so tonight I’ll try to get them up.

In other news, I have several orders ready to go out tomorrow when the post office opens again, so if you’ve recently ordered, keep an eye out for your package toward the end of this week or first of next week. I can’t wait for all of you to get your new goodies and let me know what you think!

Until next time, keep it clean!

By now you’re wondering, what does butter have to do with soap? Well, I’ll tell you what it has to do with soap. AND heaven.

Remember yesterday, when I was bemoaning my dry skin due to using a popular shower gel? And my vow to go home and take a bath last night using only my own soap? Yeah. Well. I didn’t exactly go home and jump right in the shower. I had some other commitments to which I had to attend – not the least of which was making … you guessed it. MORE SOAP. I had other things to do as well – eat dinner, clean the kitchen, play EQ2. You know, the usual stuff. So it was around 10:30 last night before I could get into the bath. I ran a tub of water (I cannot wash my hair at that time of night, unless I want to stay up for hours afterward; I don’t know why, it just IS), lined four bars of soap along the outer edge, and climbed in. It was soap-testing time, and I was READY.

Every one of these “bars” was from new batches of soap. I test everything before I send it out. If anyone is going to be damaged because of my soap, it will be me. I won’t even let Chris or the kids test a soap before I take it to the shower/bath myself. Last night, I had a soap I’m calling Surfside, one shea and cocoa butter, one citrus chunk, and one lavender and chamomile (some of these may look like familiar names from the website; that’s because I test every batch, and these are inventory soaps). Here, in order of preference, are my “research notes” (which, by the way, are committed to memory; have you ever tried to use pen and paper in a bathtub?!).

The clear winner last night was Surfside. Now, this is one of the soaps I made to test out some fragrance oils. Fragrance oils are synthetic, which means they do not occur naturally. Usually made up of both essential (natural) and synthetic oils, they are NOT, contrary to what some people would have you believe, bad for you in any way. Now, of course, you may have an allergy to a particular scent, but that can be just as true of essential oils (my own daughter is allergic to lavender). Anyway, this soap, made with a simple recipe of olive & coconut oils, and a little castor oil, distilled water and sodium hydroxide, rocked my world last night. At first I thought that the fragrance was gone. When I had first cut into it after unmolding it a few weeks ago, the scent was strong – almost to the point of being overpowering. But the minute the soap came into contact with water, the fragrance was released and it was incredible. Not overpowering at all, but not super light either. And the soap – OH THE SOAP!!! I use a scrubby net-type sponge, which I also wet and then lathered it up. This soap has a beautiful dense lather that is almost impossible to describe. Dense, but soft, if that makes sense. I could tell immediately that it was soothing, because when I washed my left leg with it, my skin immediately stopped itching, and my skin felt rejuvenated as I rinsed. I didn’t shave, although I need to, badly, but with my skin so dry I didn’t want to do more damage. I decided to wait a day or two and let the soap work it’s magic. But when I rinsed away the lather, I could tell that everything (even the hair on my legs! LOL) was softer and smooth-feeling. My fot, which need serious care right now, actually sat up and thanked me for being so kind to it.

The second soap was the shea and cocoa butter … I used it to wash my right leg. It’s unscented, made with shea, cocoa butter, olive oil and coconut oil. It also uses goat’s milk instead of water, so if you’re looking for vegan, this isn’t it. But if you are ok with simply “vegetarian” this is one HOT soap. The scent of shea and cocoa filled the air as soon as the soap came into contact with water. Another dense lather, though maybe not quite as dense as the Surfside, and moisture! It was almost like rain from heaven! My right foot stuck its tongue out at the left and strutted around the bathtub like she’d won the Miss America pageant! Soft, supple, incredibly smooth … awesome. It was just awesome.

The third soap I used on my left arm – the lavender and chamomile. When the soap hit the water, my whole attitude changed from excited and happy to relaxed and calm. I was still happy (I mean who wouldn’t be, surrounded by so many luscious soaps?) but calm. Relaxed. This soap has more of a lacy lather than the first two – which means it isn’t really all that dense. This would be an awesome soap for migraine sufferers (ask me how I know about THAT) or people who deal with insomnia, or for children and babies over the age of six months. Use it just before bedtime to sooth and calm the nerves, and to get ready for slumber.

The final soap – the citrus chunk – wasn’t very citrus-y. I mean, it smells good, and it feels good. But it needs more citrus. But since it was just a test batch, I’m not torn up over the lack of scent. It’s a very fresh soap, and I thoroughly enjoyed the dense lather (it was somewhere between dense lather number two and the lacy lather of number three). What I CAN say about this soap is that it would make a really nice hair soap as it is, but it will be even better when I incorporate a few minor changes in the next batch. I finished up my bath with this one, and luxuriated in the feeling of warm water, good soap and a calm feeling.

I did use the shea & cocoa butter to wash my face. It wasn’t drying, though I did put a little moisture on after my bath. This morning my skin looked great and my face has been soft all day, with no added moisture. You really can’t beat that.

So … butter. You’re wondering how it ties in, aren’t you? Well … as I got out of the bath and started to dry off, I noticed something. My skin FELT like butter. Do you know the feeling after a shower, when you’re drying and your skin feels … well, not rough, but not soft either? Like maybe there’s something between the air and your skin, an invisible barrier of sorts? Well, there is, because detergents don’t completely rinse of AND they strip the natural oils from your skin. Last night, I had none of that. My skin was soft and smooth, like butter. No itching. No dryness or redness anywhere. Even my elbows were soft. The bath was like heaven … all those soaps were awesome. But the after effects? I’m going to call it the “butter effect” from now on. There’s no other way to describe the absolute wonderful feeling my skin had last night.

Butter. And heaven. They really DO go hand in hand.

The Surfside and the citrus chunk are not currently on the website but you can look for them this week. The others can be found – with a lot more to boot – at our website!

I’m talking about dry skin and itching. You see, I haven’t been using the soaps I make … not because they aren’t good, or because I don’t like them. But rather, because I had some commercial body wash that I wanted to finish off – something someone gave me. I will admit that I ADORE the scent of this particular wash. And I like the way it lathers. But the truth is, even though it’s a liquid detergent, it is still very drying. And if there’s one thing my skin does not need right now, it’s something to further dry it out. I can do that just fine without the help of a detergent.

So I’ve been using the body wash, taking hot showers (strike number two) and running the natural gas powered heater because it’s been below freezing every night for a week now (strike three).  Normally, I do none of these things; I prefer to take warm but not boiling showers, but I’ve been so cold the last few days, there was no other way to warm up. The heater hasn’t really added much warmth to the house, but it sure has sucked every drop of moisture out of the air. And so last night, I was paying for it, in a very big way. Since I was so cold, I grabbed the electric blanket and put it on the bed, then cranked it up to a very comfy “medium” … which is what I think set off my whole itchy evening. I’d already had a very hot shower and used that bath wash when I crawled into bed under that electric blanket. It didn’t take long for my legs to start itching, and for me to start scratching. I scratched so much I drew blood, and there isn’t a lotion on this planet that would sooth that dry, irritated skin!

Honestly, I don’t use a lot of lotion. I use it at work because I have to use the liquid handsoap they have, and because I use the very drying hand sanitizer a couple time a day. So I replace that moisture with hand lotion. But at home, I rarely need lotion, even in winter, because my soaps are so moisturing my skin is always soft and supple. Occasionally I will use lotion at home, and I keep it around for those times, but I usually have to throw out a bottle before it’s used completely.

Last night, I slathered lotion on my legs, but it didn’t seem to help much. The shea and cocoa butter weren’t doing a lot for me in the lotion, so in desperation (and sheer exhaustion) I went to my soap supplies and got a very small bit of shea butter and rubbed that on my legs. It did help a little but … not much. Finally I gave up and eventually fell asleep but not before going into the bathroom and tossing what was left of the offending bath gel into the trash. Better to be rid of it now than have to go through this repeatedly over the coming days.

The good news is, I also grabbed three different bits of soap and put them on the tub. Honestly, if I have my own soaps in the bathroom when I take a shower, I almost always reach for them without thinking about it. I ran out last week and never remembered to take more in, so I convinced myself that it was ok to use the bath gel “to get rid of it.” The better news is, that after just a couple of days of using my own soaps, my skin will go back to it’s former self and I won’t have to deal with the itchiness anymore.  I am about to start making MORE soap because I realized last night that one can never have too many, and it’s best to stock up on it and make sure you always have your favorites on hand. And this can only be good news for you, our loyal customers!

So look forward to a couple of announcements right here and on Facebook in the coming days … I think you’ll be very pleasantly surprised!

Well, I’m in that position right now, and let me tell you, I’m none too happy about it. I have used a popular facial scrub for years – since I was a teen. Now, I’m one of those people who believe that when something like a facial cleanser/scrub works, you don’t go changing it just for the sake of change. I mean, if it works for you, then stick with it. And work this scrub did! It made my skin soft and it kept the dead skin at bay, until the formula was changed about six months ago or so. To be honest, I’m not sure if the actual formula of the original scrub has changed. But they came out with more scrubs, which means it’s more difficult for me to find the scrub that I like in the sea of scrubs the company now produces. And I am not one to spend a lot of time trying to find something when it appears to be gone. I have bought no less than three scrubs – each one different from the last, none of them what I want.

I am NOT happy, my friends. Not happy at all.

Sooooooo … now I’m thinking about making my own scrub. Because let’s face it, once you’re disenchanted, there’s no going back. After six months of dealing with these new scrubs, my patience is worn thin and my skin just looks pitiful. I never knew that “younger looking skin in just seven days” translates into “in about a week, you’re going to look like a 14 year old with really bad acne”. Apparently, though, that’s exactly what it means. Have I mentioned how unhappy I am about all of this?

I don’t know if my scrub will ever make it to market, but I can assure you, I’m going to try formulating my own. I can’t do any worse than the company who turned on me last year. It make take a few attempts to get it completely right, but I figure it won’t be any more expensive than the endless tubes of stuff I’ve tried lately. In fact, it may be less expensive because I can make up small batches and try it out then make changes as I go.

Stay tuned for word on how this works out for me. LOL