Custom soap orders for weddings or showers

Planning a wedding or a baby shower and need small gifts for your guests? Did you know that you can order custom soaps from Ladybug Soapworks? You choose the scent, color, and shape and I do the rest! Beautiful, moisturizing handmade soap a great way to give your guests a special treat that will not clutter their house or add pounds to their hips! If you are interested in setting up an order contact me at contact@ladybugsoapworks.net.

Ladybug Shaped Soap

As you can see from the pictures, I can make soap in different style molds or in the regular rectangle shape. Wouldn't the little animals just be perfect for baby shower gifts!?! I can also make heart shaped soap which is a great shape for wedding and bridal showers gifts. It gets even better though, all custom orders over $50 get 10% off and orders over $100 get 20% off! This is a great savings.

Animals!

More Animals!

Mochacchino Butter Sugar Scrub Tutorial

Need an extra boost to wake you up in the morning? This Mochacchino sugar scrub should do the trick. I like to scent mine with a mix of coffee, vanilla, and chocolate fragrance, but the butter already has a delicious scent so you could really just eliminate the added fragrance.

Ingredients:

2 oz Mochacchino butter

2 oz sweet almond oil

1 cup Demerara sugar

1/8 cup ground coffee

25-30 drops of fragrance or essential oil 

Procedure:

1. Weigh out the Mochacchino butter and melt in the microwave.

2. Weigh out the sweet almond oil and add it to the melted butter.

Melted butter and oil

3. Add the sugar and coffee grounds to the melted oils and stir.
4. Add fragrance to the mixture and stir.

Mixing up the sugar and oils

 5. Package it in a pretty container and then rush off to the shower for a nice scrub down!

Pretty and packaged

You may find that this needs more or less liquid oil depending on your taste. I would let the mixture cool to room temp and then modify it if needed.

Let me know if you try it and how it turns out!

Ingredient Spotlight: Shea Butter

Shea butter is one of my favorite ingredients to use in soap. It comes from the nut of the African Shea (Karite) tree (Vitellaria paradoxa (also known as Butyrospermum parkii)). It is typically a yellowish or ivory color, but can be refined to remove the nutty scent and color leaving it pretty much pure white. I find that the the raw unrefined butter is great when used in soapmaking, but if you are wanting to make a lotion or whipped Shea butter, the white refined version tends to suit that purpose better.

Shea Butter and Shea Nuts

Shea butter is mainly used in the cosmetic/body care industry though it is also used as a cooking oil in some African countries. You will find Shea butter as an ingredient in many products such as lotions, creams, salves, lip balm, soap, and hair conditioners. Shea butter is made of a variety of fatty acid components and many unsaponifiable (they do not react with the alkali (sodium hydroxide) and will not become soap) components. This results in soap that is more moisturizing. Shea butter melts upon contact with our bodies and is highly emollient. It has been traditionally used to reduce the appearance of scars, stretch marks and skin discolorations and sooth skin irritations like eczema, psoriasis, and sunburn.  The unsaponifiable components are also thought to protect the skin against sun damage by absorbing the ultraviolet radiation. Another great fact about Shea butter is that it has a long shelf life and can easily last 1-2 years or more when stored in a cool, dry location. This means I can buy it in bulk to keep costs down and then include it in almost all of my soap! Only my Castile soap, shampoo soaps, and salt soap bars are formulated without Shea butter.

Want to know more? Check out this great page of information on Shea butter over at the National Geographic website.

Ladybug Soapworks blog now available on Kindle!

I am so excited to announce that the Ladybug Soapworks blog is now available on the Kindle store for a monthly subscription cost of $0.99. This allows you to read my blog even when you are not connected to the internet. This is also a great way for you to take my recipes and tutorials with you into your kitchen or soap "lab" and have them easily accessible without printing them out and wasting paper. Want to sign up?  Click here.

Indian Samosa Casserole

If you know me, then you know I LOVE Indian food.  If I could, I would eat it every night! So when I came across this recipe for a Samosa casserole, I just had to make it! The recipe below is based off of the one on the vegetarian times website (see it here). I have modified a few things in my recipe to suit my tastes, but you may prefer to use the original.

Indian Samosa Casserole Recipe

Crust

• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole-wheat flour
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil

Filling

• 2 Tbs. yellow mustard seeds
• 2 tsp. curry powder
• 2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional)
• 5 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered (1 ¼ lb.)--I used closer to 2 lbs
• 1 ½ tsp. vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, diced (~1.5 cup)
• 1 large carrot, diced (~1 cup)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (1 Tbs.)
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth
• 2 tsp. agave nectar or sugar
• 2 Tbsp milk

1. To make crust: Preheat oven to 375°F. Whisk together flours and salt in bowl. Stir in oil and then add 6 to 10 Tbsp cold water  until dough holds together. Shape into ball, cover with damp towel, and set aside.

Crust dough

2. To make filling: Stir together mustard seeds, curry, ginger, cumin, and red pepper flakes in a small bowl and set aside.

Seasonings

 3. Cook potatoes in boiling salted water for about 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain, return to pot, and mash, leaving small chunks.

Potatoes mashed

4. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion, carrot, and garlic, and sauté 5 minutes, or until carrot is tender. Move onion mixture to side of pan, and add mustard seed mixture in center. Toast for about 30 seconds.

Toasting seasoning

5. Stir in frozen peas and broth. Fold onion mixture into potato mixture; stir in agave nectar or sugar and season with salt and pepper to taste.
 

Mixing the onions, carrots, and pea mixture into the mashed potatoes.

 6. Spread filling into a 9-inch pie pan and set aside.

Filling spread in pie pan

7. Roll out crust dough to 11-inch circle on a lightly floured work surface. Cover filling with dough and crimp edges with fingers. Cut X in center to vent steam and lightly brush with milk just before baking.

Filling covered with crust dough.

8. Place pie on baking sheet to catch any potential bubbling over and bake 40 to 50 minutes, or until crust is golden. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Cooked until the crust was golden brown

 9. I topped it with a tamarind-date sauce I bought from an Indian grocery store.  Yum!

Delicious!

Let me know if you make this and how it turned out!

Sweet treats for your Valentine

Looking for something great for that special person in your life? Ladybug Soapworks has an assortment of products that would make anyone happy. To find the items in the picture below, go here for the cupcake soaps, the bath melts here, the bath salts here, and the geranium rose soap can be purchased here. Order soon as Valentine's day is in only 20 days! 

If you prefer, you can find all the same items listed at my etsy store here. Be sure to friend me on Twitter and get a 15% off discount for use on either site!

Soaps, Drugs, & Rock and Roll

I have to admit that this is really old news, but I am sure that most people have not heard this story and I wanted to share this great video. The video below explains how real soap tests positive (false-positive that is!) for the date rape drug. This is simply a problem with the drug testing kit, but it turns out to be a great way to find out if what you are using is indeed real soap and not a mixture of synthetic detergents. Their are many cases of products being mislabeled and claiming to be soap when they are in fact detergent. While this test is a pretty cool trick for us soapmakers, I am sure most people will not want to check their soap with a drug kit to determine if it is really soap. An easier way to determine what is in your product is to look at the labels. Be on the look out for "soaps" that have Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate, Ammonium Laureth Sulfate, or Cocomidopropyl Betaine as these are all common detergents used in soap-like products. On the other hand, if the label lists oils and sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide as the ingredients, then you have real soap. I should note that real soap and detergent products can be found in both solid (bar) and liquid forms.

Check out the video below and at the very end you will see a list of companies that are falsely advertizing their product as soap. As a consumer, you should be able to make an educated choice about what products you are putting on your body.

Geranium rose bath (oil) melts tutorial

Bath melts are a wonderful way to to add scent and skin nourishing oils to your bath. They are essentially bath oils made up in a solid form. All you have to do is drop 1 or 2 of them into a nice, warm bath and they will melt dispersing the oils and scent into the bath water. The melts pictured below are made from a combination of cocoa butter, shea butter, and sweet almond oil. The are scented with a Geranium Rose essential oil and topped off with some red and iridescent glitter, because sparkles make everything better!

Geranium Rose Bath Melts

A simple recipe to make your own bath melts is given below.

1. Melt 1 part cocoa butter and 1 part shea butter in the microwave.
2. Add to the melted butters 1 part liquid oil.
3. If needed, let the oils cool to below 120 degrees F and then add your fragrance (1-3% for fragrance oils and 1-2% for essential oils).
4. Mix and pour into small molds (about 1 oz mold size is good)
5. Allow to cool and harden either at room temperature or for a faster cooling place in your fridge until solid.

If all these "parts" are confusing, here is an example using oz.
1 oz cocoa butter
1 oz shea butter
1 oz liquid oil (sweet almond, hazelnut, hemp oil, or pretty much any other liquid oil would be fine).
17 (1%)-50 (3%) drops of fragrance

You may want to play with the ratio of hard oils (butters) to liquid oil to find what looks and feels best to you.

Tutorial: Calendula Salve

Calendula (Calendula officinalis) commonly known as pot marigold has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties. It has traditionally been used for treating sunburn, cuts, insect bites and stings, acne, soothing sore or inflamed muscles, diaper rashes, and other skin irritations.

Using one of the methods I explained in this previous blog post, prepare some Calendula flower infused oil. I prefer to use Olive oil for this recipe. You may also add Lavender essential oil to this salve to give it a soothing, sedative effect. Lavender is known to relax muscles, calm anxiety and promote sleep. It is also antiseptic and can be used on cleaned cuts and bruises to minimize scarring and relieve skin irritation. Lavender and Calendula really complement each other in a healing salve.

Calendula Flower

© Lessadar | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

Ingredients:

3.5 oz Calendula flower infused herbal oil
½ oz Beeswax (small pellets will be easiest to work with)
20 drops Lavender essential oil (optional)

Directions:

Melt beeswax in the Calendula infused oil over a double boiler until melted. Beeswax melts at 144 to 147 °F (62 to 64 °C). Remove from the stove. Once the temperature has reached 120 °F, stir in the Lavender essential oil. Pour into clean (sterile preferred) tins or glass jars. Allow to cool thoroughly before using or placing caps on the jars. This salve should last 1-2 years if kept free of water.

Chocolate Coconut Sugar Scrub

I have been working on some sugar scrubs this week and I have made some that I think are unique. One of my favorites is the chocolate coconut sugar scrub. It is made from unrefined coconut oil (retains the lovely coconut scent), sweet almond oil, demerara sugar, and a bit of chocolate fragrance oil. This is such a yummy scent, it reminds me of a candy bar! I love that I was able to get half of the scent from the coconut oil. This helps to keep the product even more natural by eliminating some of the fragrance oil.

Getting the ingredients out.

 I first measured out the oil and sugar. The coconut oil was then gently melted in the microwave.

Mixing the scrub

 The sugar was added to the oils and mixed. Then the fragrance was added and mixed into the scrub.

In it's pretty little container

I packaged the scrub into cute 8 oz containers. No preservative is needed in this scrub as it does not have any water in it. Since the scrub will be used in the shower, you may want to scoop a bit out with a clean spoon instead of your fingers to keep out the water and any germs on your hands.

It looks delicious!

Since this is not an emulsified scrub, it will leave your skin smooth and moisturized. Scrub made from oil may leave your tub a little slippery, so you need to be cautious when getting out of the tub.