Get Muddy!

Natural Blue Clay, also known as "healing mud", has been used by Indigenous cultures as a natural medicine, remedy and cure for various ailments.  This clay is ethically sourced and harvested by hand from Costa Rica, providing a source of income to the villages located in that area.

When used regularly, this mask will draw toxins and oils to the surface to be washed away, which will help reduce the appearance of acne, blackheads, and millia. The exfoliating and polishing action gradually reduces the appearance of pores, and helps increase circulation, bringing fresh blood and oxygen to the skin to help tone down inflammation and puffiness.

As a result of the "healing" action of the mud, combined with the natural mineral components, you may feel a "tingling" sensation on your skin as the clay dries.  This is a normal reaction by the skin to the experience.

Charcoal and clay create a gentle facial mask that gently exfoliates the surface of your skin to remove dead skin cells and detoxify your pores.

The ingredients in this clay mask are gentle enough for all skin types, but it works especially well for oily skin. Your skin gets smooth from gentle buffing on the surface while the clay and charcoal suck up excess oil, dirt and impurities from your pores.

Kaolin clay is recommended for balancing oily skin.  Bentonite clay reduces inflammation and absorbs and removes toxins by binding with them to remove them from your body.  Activated charcoal absorbs excess oil, clearing dirt and pollution out of clogged pores. Anapa White Clay is widely used in mask formulations because of its cleansing properties and high mineral content which saturates the skin with essential trace elements.


French rose clay is perfect for sensitive skin, as it has a gentle cleansing action that isn’t too harsh.  Atlantic Sea Kelp nourishes your skin with the vitamins & minerals your body craves.

When used regularly, this mask will draw toxins and oils to the surface to be washed away, which will help reduce the appearance of acne, blackheads, and millia. The exfoliating and polishing action gradually reduces the appearance of pores, and helps increase circulation, bringing fresh blood and oxygen to the skin to help tone down inflammation and puffiness.

As your skin gets used to the regular special treatment, it will also respond by regenerating collagen and elastin, giving you a more lifted, firm appearance. The consistent exfoliation can also help reduce the look of fine lines and wrinkles, as well as fade hyperpigmentation, age spots, and scarring.

We absolutely love clay!  Clay is alive. Clay is a naturally-occurring mineral and is a skin-friendly eco-alternative to lactic, salicylic or glycolic acids. It is rich in silica, calcium, iron and magnesium. It shimmers with electromagnetic energy. Used for thousands of years to treat skin, it is appropriate for all skin conditions. Clay loosens clogged pores, drawing impurities to the surface without dissolving the protective epidermal layer. It exfoliates dry, dead skin cells, increasing tone and clarity.  Clay feeds the skin ... gently ... naturally.

Armed with this knowledge ... it's okay to get muddy ... in fact, we insist ... your skin will thank you for it  =)

Wakanisha ... a Sacred Essential Oil Blend

In this particular batch of soap, we've blended shea & coca butters, sunflower & coconut oils ... 4 mica colors with activated charcoal, an apricot wheat beer, and scented with a blend of 14 essential oils we call Wakanisha (in honor of The Lakota, meaning "sacred"). Wakanisha is a powerfully spiritual, essential oil blend, intuitively created to ground, attune and focus physical and spiritual energies; to anchor, align and charge the chakra and auric energy grid; to heal and protect the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual bodies; to allow for the psychic and emotional release of attachments, fear, self-hatred, and self-deprecation; to aid in the focused manifestation of financial abundance; and to assist in the outward and internal projections of peace and compassion, from a space of pure, balanced, unconditional love.

This soap contains a proprietary essential oil blend of: Amber, Nutmeg, Elemi, Anise, Myrrh, Sweet Fennel, Amyris, Patchouli, Black Cumin, Vanilla, Ginger, Styrax Benzoin, Allspice, and Ashwagandha.

<3

Soap and Synchronicity

Over the Fall Solstice, we were vending participants at this year's Symbiosis Gathering ... a transformational festival in Central California.

Once again, our space at the festival was blessed by the meeting of old friends and new.  The lovelies of Bless.ed Booch in Laguna bequeathed to us a few bottles of their newest creation:  Symbiosis Booch.  This kombucha brew is an especially high vibrational infusion they created specifically for this event! This exceptionally medicinal blend is rooted with a concentrated cocktail of wild harvested mycelium, including chaga, reishi, and cordyceps. Goji berries and golden berries from Imlak'esh Organics add a powerhouse of antioxidants, and a dash of cinnamon and mint to sweeten and cool the pallet.

(photo credit:  Bless.ed Booch)

Our challenge:  to create an equally amazing bar of soap, using their beautiful booch.  Challenge accepted!

Shortly after our arrival home from said festival, we went to work creating the essential oil blend to complement the ingredients to be used in the new soap recipe.  In the lab, I set up a sacred space and began blending ... drawing upon the ingredients in the booch and our recent festival experience for inspiration.

An afternoon of focus and intention resulted in an aromatic blend that was born from an Amber base with an evolutionary twist.  Not having an Amber oil on hand forced me to create from divine inspiration alone ... using ingredients I had on hand, loosely guided by what I knew of Amber.  The final creation:  a complex blend of champaka (wild orchid), styrax benzoin, copaiba, patchouli, geranium, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, and black pepper.  The name for this new blend, which had suddenly popped into my head as I was wrapping my soul in its aroma:  Elemental Alchemy.

Oil blend in hand, I went to work creating the soap for the lovelies at Bless.ed Booch.  Using their Symbiosis Booch as my liquid, I added ample amounts of avocado oil and cocoa butter to the batch, a pinch of Tussah Silk fibers to smooth the edges of the recipe, mica colorants to create shimmering swirls of color that dance through each bar of soap, and a generous infusion of our Elemental Alchemy Essential Oil Blend.  The end result is an evocatively luxurious bar of soap that will tantalize your senses and leave your skin feeling reborn.

While awaiting the complete curing of this batch of soap, I received an email update (yesterday) from Symbiosis Gathering, announcing their 2017 Eclipse Gathering in Southern Oregon.  Pictures don't show up in my email messages ... they haven't for as long as I've been with this particular hosting company.  For once, for this particular email message, I wanted to see the pictures ... I don't know why (I never really cared before), I just did.  So I wandered into the convoluted recesses of my email settings configurations to figure out how to make the pictures in my messages show up.  Twenty minutes later, with my settings reconfigured, I had pictures ... and thus I returned to my message from Symbi.

The message itself was nothing that I hadn't before read ... broadcast excitement over next year's gathering ... video playback of some of the highlights ... gratitude expressed over the success of this year's event ... ticket and camping and activity information ... and this ...

An advertisement for Symbiosis' 5-day immersive program ... named Elemental Alchemy.

Coincidence?  There's no such thing ... it does not exist.

Synchronicity?  Absolutely!

Tuned in to the frequency that is "right" for me?  In deed.

Elemental Alchemy ... the perfect name for this oil blend ... and the new directions in which we are headed.

Stealth Mode - Soap for the Outdoorsman

If you're of the Hunter-Gatherer species, you need this soap! The 100% coconut oil cleanses your skin with intense moisturizing lather and rinses clean. Activated charcoal pulls dirt and grime from the skin's pores, while the incredible anise essential oil helps rid your body of those pesky human scents. This is one soap no camp trailer should be without ... especially during hunting or fishing season.

(because wildlife prefers humans to smell like licorice)

biofriendly ingredients:  coconut water, coconut oil, activated charcoal, essential oil blend of anise and sweet fennel

size:  5 oz

Did you know ...

Activated charcoal powder adsorbs more poisons than any other substance known to mankind.  It can absorb lead acetate, strychnine, DDT, many pharmaceuticals (including cocaine, iodine, penicillin, aspirin, phenobarbital), and inorganic substances (chlorine, lead, and mercury).

Activated charcoal powder can adsorb thousands of times its own weight in gases, heavy metals, poisons, and other chemicals; rendering them ineffective and harmless.  

Activated charcoal powder ( like what is used in this soap recipe to impart the black coloring) can do these things because of its ability to attract other substances to its surface and hold them there.  This is called "adsorption" (not the same as absorption).  A single teaspoon of activated charcoal has a surface area of more than 10,000 square feet (our recipe uses 1 Tbsp in each loaf).

It's use in soap helps to detox the skin.  When combined with Anise essential oil, it works to nullify and mask the human scent ... making it one of the best soaps for those who hunt and fish.

For more information about the amazing properties of Activated Charcoal and why every medicine cabinet should contain a jar of it, check out Natural Holistic Health.

The Making of Skin Füd ...

I made a 100% coconut oil liquid soap last week with zero superfat and using only KOH. 32 oz of CO (run thru soap calc) was diluted with 128 oz of water ... and after 3 days it is amazing for laundry soap and dish soap (better than Dawn). I wanted one for hands & hair ...

This recipe is one I adapted from a group post on Facebook, using dual lye, that was supposed to be really easy to work with; making a creamy soap that could be either a shampoo or a hand soap, depending on how much it was diluted. It's really, really soft on my hands after having been testing and washing with it all day.

14 oz water
1 1/2 Tbsp fine grain sea salt
3.2 oz KOH
2.2 oz NaOH

11.2 oz avocado oil
4.8 oz shea butter
4.8 oz cocoa butter
4.8 oz palm oil
3.2 oz coconut oil
3.2 oz castor oil

My personal notes: 
Cooked all of that in crockpot on high until it was a paste. Original recipe called for 1st dilution to be 128 oz water ... I went with adding 64 oz of room temp water for 1st dilution (because my crock only holds 6 qts and I wanted to be able to work with it). Turned off crock, blended in water, covered and let sit overnight.

The next morning, I discovered a giant jello soap lump. Carved out 64 oz, added 64 oz water (gradually add this in 8 oz amts) + 8 oz vegetable glycerin + 1.5 oz combined preservatives. Whipped with stick blender at room temp (76 degrees). Let it sit overnight to rest. If it looks like slime in the morning, add water in 4 oz increments until it no longer looks like snot. Let it sit another 24 hrs before scenting and bottling. I used 1 full oz of a natural fragrance to the 128 oz batch.

And with the last 48 oz of soap jello, I went with a 1 1/2x dilution, no glycerin, 1.5 oz combined preservatives, and split into 3 parts because I wanted 3 different scent types. I let it rest overnight before pouring into bottles. If it looks like snot in the morning, add small amounts of water, hand blended in, until you get it to where you want. It will thicken up a bit, due to the NaOH in the recipe.

I went with this recipe because I wanted to create a high-end shampoo and hand soap that would be highly beneficial to the human body ... one without the other crap so many other people keep putting in the recipes to make it exotic. I wanted it simple enough that I could relate to it ... and not have to fuss with adding citric acid to thicken or drop the PH ... the NaOH keeps the PH of this lower. I don't have a lot of patience for liquid soap, so I was guided to a recipe that felt just like stepping into a tried and true CP soap recipe. 

And now that I've worked out most of the dilution hurdles, I think I have a winner!

Please note: my secondary dilution water amounts are guestimates off the top of my head ... I know that the total 2nd dilution for the shampoo was 1 1/4x (including 8 oz veg glycerin & preservatives) and the total 2nd dilution for the hand soap was 1 1/2x (including preservatives).

I preserve my lotions and liquids using a blend of tetrasodium glutamate diacetate, leuconostoc, safflower oleosomes, and aspen bark extract. These are plant based preservatives and are known to be beneficial to the human body.

If you want to see the video we published on YouTube ... you can see this here:  https://youtu.be/E6ZNZv71JyY

A Lightbulb Moment!

While I was online researching Brambleberry's Sustainable Palm Oil, I was sidelined by a new recipe ... the pictures of their Orange Poppy Seed Salt Scrub caught my attention ... so I went and looked. In my review of the ingredients, I saw that potassium cocoate is used as a surfactant ... I don't have this ingredient ... and I got a niggle in the back of my mind, so I clicked the ingredient link to go check it out. They charge $10/lb for potassium cocoate.

More research led me to the information that this ingredient is a plant based foaming/cleansing agent (a surfactant) ... and is (in the simplest of terms) nothing more than a liquid soap made from 100% coconut oil with 0% SF. The lightbulb came on when I realized that I can not only make this ingredient for far less than $10/lb (plus shipping) ... but that I was already planning on making it due to having run out of laundry soap.

Anyone who has ever made liquid soap can make this ingredient ... along with any other liquid soap saponified oil (potassium olivate, potassium castorate, potassium tallowate, etc) called for in recipes that use a foaming agent.

Brilliant.

If you'll please excuse me, I have some liquid soap to go make.

(recipe courtesy of Brambleberry.com https://www.soapqueen.com/…/orange-poppy-seed-salt-scrub-d…/)

=) C

Festival Face Paint

It's Festival Season!  

Time to experiment with Colorants and Pigments and create your own Silky-Smooth Face Paint. It’s fun to make, easy to clean up, and safe for kids and adults alike!

Equipment You’ll Need:

• Measuring cup
• Measuring spoons
• Mixing bowls
• Whisk

Ingredients:

• 4 oz Carrier Oil (any light oil, like jojoba or fractionated coconut oil, will work)
• 1 oz Colorant or Pigment (make sure it's skin safe ... micas or oxides work well)
• ¼ cup Arrowroot Powder (use less if colorant is an oxide)
• 1 tbsp Vitamin E oil

Customizing:

 STEP 1

Add 4 oz of the Carrier Oil to your mixing bowl, slowly mix in ¼ cup Arrowroot Powder.

Mix until Arrowroot Powder is fully dissolved.

 STEP 2

Slowly add 1 oz Colorant or Pigment and mix thoroughly.

If you would like to have a thicker paint, add more Arrowroot powder, a little at a time, until you reach your desired consistency.

 STEP 3

Add 1 tbsp of Vitamin E and mix well.

STEP 4
Pour into a bottle or jar.  Your new Face Paint is now ready to use!

(all photos and how-to instructions are courtesy of Essential Wholesale & Labs, 2016)

Enjoy!

- Zephyr -

Manifestation vs Borrowing

Manifestation of abundance is a 5D practice.
Borrowing toward an end result is a 3D paradigm.
Manifestation involves paying the benefits forward.
Borrowing involves paying the benefits back.
Manifestation is a gift.
Borrowing is a debt.

These are the lessons learned on our recent excursion to Lightning in a Bottle. We manifested our acceptance, our placement, and our opportunity to do what we do best in the sharing of our gifts with humanity.

To be able to fully immerse our placement upon this path, we borrowed to cover our travel expenses. We were graciously abundant and profitable at this event ... but those profits will be going to repay what we borrowed to get there ... at the expense of having to cancel our event in Colorado in August.

That's a huge price to pay for a small business working its ass off to place its gifts in as many hands as possible. I'm not ungrateful for having traveled this particular path ... simply wiser.

Lesson learned and Paid in Full.

- Zephyr

Essential Oils and Soapmaking ... making your smells "stick"

As an artisan soap maker, I belong to more than a few soap making and other body products groups on various social media sites. It is in one of these groups that I have stumbled across many, many folks who use essential oils in their soaps and then post inquiries about why their EOs fade after a period of time. They ask what can be done to make their scent blends "stick" or last longer and are often given advice that the addition of clay or other ingredients will help. Yes, clay will aid in making an EO "stick" in a bar of soap ... but that is not addressing the reason that a smell fades in the first place.

In the case of essential oils, whether or not your fragrance lingers in the finished product lies in what type of oil you are using to scent your soap batch.  Are you using a single Top Note, like Lemongrass?Or a Top/Middle Note, like Lavender?

EO Top Notes will give your products a burst of scent, but tend to fade after a period of time, after the terpines (the molecules that create the smell) have dissipated. In the case of soap, the EO that is closest to the surface will fade ... only to reappear as the bar is used.

Your Lemongrass soap scent has not "disappeared", its scent is simply no longer on the surface of your product. Lavender EO will last a bit longer because it's both a Top and a Middle Note ... it has longevity in its application and you will continue to smell it much longer than a simple Lemongrass EO scented soap product, though not nearly as long as it would if you included sandalwood or cedarwood in your EO blend.

In soap making instances, when faced with the addition of any number of essential oils to my finished product, I tend to include some sort of Base Note to my EO blend. Base Notes serve to anchor the entire EO blend, giving it longevity in the finished product.  In short, my soaps scented solely with essential oil blends last significantly longer than those scented with one or two EOs ... and the batch doesn't require the addition of some sort of clay to the recipe to anchor the scent profile.  

In the case of my recent kombucha soap recipe, I used 9 essential oils, balanced between Top, Middle, and Base Notes. It took a day or two to research the EOs I was using, as to their individual properties and how they fit together into the whole blend, and an hour or so to figure out the math to create the amount needed for a 12 pound batch, but in the end, the surface smell of this soap will outlast my simple Lavender & Lemongrass soap without the need to add clay to my recipe.

There is a wealth of information on the interwebs about basic aromatherapy and how to use EOs in your soapmaking (and other projects). In general, I keep the following in mind when creating my EO blends:

Top Notes (30% of your EO blend) The majority of essential oils are classified as top notes. Top notes evaporate fast. They are fresh and uplifting in nature.

Middle Notes (50% of your EO blend) Middle notes normally give that extra punch to the blend and have a balancing effect. They are very soft in nature. Base Notes (20% of your EO blend) Base notes are very heavy, the scent is very solid, and will linger for a long time.  These fragrances are very intense, rich and relaxing in nature. AromaWeb has some incredible information on their website about essential oils and their profiles ... they are one of my go-to places for instant information when I sit down to blend a new smell. Most importantly, they will tell you if your searched oil is a Top, Middle, or Base Note, what it blends well with, and max usage rates (if there are any). I know this is lengthy ... and I hope it helps at least one person in their soap making endeavors =)

It's been a really ... REALLY long time!

Wow.

2015 ... not really sure where it went ... but, it's gone.

For that matter, so is January of 2016.

We've been a bit busy.  Festivals and a few more festivals.  Unschooling our youngest.
And then the holiday season.

*poof*

Like an incredible dream from which you awaken, unable to remember the details yet knowing the whole experience was absolutely incredible.

yeah.  like that.

So ... I'm back ... in the saddle, so to speak.
Heading in a new direction with our little soap company, making enormously wonderful products.

And to kick off this whole "new perspective, new direction" sort of thing, I tweaked the recipe for our amenity soaps a smidge ... added a bit of natural, swirly color to the recipe.

 

Excited to see how it all turns out ...