Honey Bee Soaps Blog

Our own Vermont Maple Syrup Sugar Scrub

Well, Maple Syrup season is well on its way and probably coming to an end soon. I must admit that I am not totally up on the season. I did have the opportunity to enjoy some fresh syrup last week. My Aunt came by with a pint of freshly made syrup from their Sugar House deep in the woods of Hardwick. We don't normally have breakfast for dinner but we made an exception that day. Homemade pancakes, yummy!

Maple Syrup is so sweet and rich with flavor who wouldn't want to enjoy that! I was of course inspired to make up a fresh batch of our Maple Syrup Sugar Scrub. It came out quite yummy if I do say so myself. Here is a picture of the batch, right after I have stirred it up.

 

We are now offering this scrub in 2 sizes, 10 ounce & 20 ounces.

 

We have reformulated our Maple Syrup Sugar Scrub to include Vermont made pure maple syrup sugar which we purchased from the nice folks at Butternut Mountain Farm. I wonder how they make the syrup into sugar. However they do it, it is wonderful. It smells and tastes like syrup.

I hope that you take the opportunity to try our Vermont Maple Syrup Sugar Scrub.

Enjoy

Handcrafted face and body soap, natural soap, natural lotion, Vermont made, Made in Vermont, Vermont Maple Syrup Sugar Scrub, honey bee soaps, www.honeybeesoaps.com www.honeybeesoaps.typepad.com, honey bee soaps blog

Lemongrass Soap Making

Yesterday when I woke up I had every intention of working on my taxes. I sat at the dining room table with my coffee and breakfast and a stack of paperwork to sort through. Now I have already sorted everything by month but I need to sort by category and tally up my year long totals. I got through January and February, while I started with March I looked up at my soap rack and noticed there was not lemongrass soap there, WHAT? How could that be? I had better get to making some soap right away (you see it was a good excuse to not finish my paperwork) so I retrieved my recipe and began to work. I did take pictures along the way to share with you. Every Soap maker creates their soap differently which is why we all have soaps with different characteristics. I thought you might like to know my basic process.

• Gather your ingredients.
• Weigh your oils, I usually start with my hard oils.

 

• Heat my hard oils just until they are melted, and then I remove them from the heat.
• While my hard oils are melting I weigh out my water and lye, separately!
• I take them both outside and slowly add the lye to my water. I do this outside because

  when you add the lye to the water it releases strong vapors, which subside after a

  couple minutes. Also, I mix it outside when the weather is cool so the lye water stays

  at a lower temperature. While this is cooling, I continue with my other steps.

• Weigh my liquid oils (olive, sunflower, jojoba etc.) and add them to the melted oils.

 

• While both the melted oils and the water solution are cooling a bit, I line my wooden

  molds with freezer paper. If the molds were not lined I would not be able to get the

  soap out efficiently. I am working on getting new molds that will not require the use

  of so much freezer paper, I do not like using materials that cannot be reused or recycled.

  That is just who I am down to my core.

• Weigh out my essential oils and vitamin e.
• Now here is the fun part, I slowly add the water solution to the melted oils and within a

  few minutes I have trace, which is when the saponification starts to be really active.

  Usually I have to start working relatively quickly depending on the recipe. Yesterdays

  soap traced quicker than I had thought it would.

   

  

   

   

   

• While the soap is traced you add your extra ingredients. Today's ingredients were just

  essential oils and vitamin e but it could include extra oils, grains, flowers, clays, colorings

  if you use them, and many other goodies.

   

  

   

   

   

  

   

   

• By now my soap was relatively thick so I quickly poured it into the molds and got them

  covered up with a wool blanket. Covering the molds help keep the heat in so the soap

  completely saponifies. It's just the way I do it!

   

  

 

• Here it is ready to sit overnight. I will unmold it tomorrow and post some pictures

  Of it unmolded.

It smells divine, if I do say so myself. I also hope that you've enjoyed watching how I make soap.

Honey Bee Soaps, handcrafted soap, lemongrass soap, soapmaking, handmade soap, Vermont made, made in Vermont, handmade face and body soap, natural soap,

March’s Special is a Relaxing Lavender Gift Set, 20% of the sales will be donated to the Clarina Howard Nichols Center.

I have been inside way too much this winter and my skin is need of some TLC. Well, I decided to get in the tub and relax with this lavender gift set, my body was very thankful and felt rejuvenated afterwards.

In our March newsletter we talked about helping families in need, in Lamoille County we have a wonderful organization that helps battered and abused families get out of unsafe situations. I would like your help in raising money that will be donated to the CHNC which helps families get back on their feet.  I have put together a soothing and simple lavender gift set to include a 10 oz Lavender Sea Salt Scrub, Smooth & Silky Lavender Lotion, Lavender bar of soap, 5 ounce Lavender soy candle and a plain lip butter valued at $36.00 but on sale for $32.00 thru March 31, 2008.  For every Lavender gift set purchased I will donate 20% of the sales to the Clarina Howard Nichols Center for information on their services please go to their website which also offers information on local resources that are available to anyone who needs them. 

I hope that you take time to read their red flag page, I was surprised to read some of the red flags that were listed you never know when you may be able to help a friend or acquaintance and being armed with information may make it easier for you to talk with them.  Let's get together and raise some cash for the Clarina Howard Nichols Center. Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to your friends and family so that they can help too.  I will post on April 1st the results at my newly formed blog check it out.  I will also let you know in Aprils Newsletter how we did.  Thank you!

If you would like to order this set please click here, I do not have this set on my website.   

The sun is so beautiful today, get out and enjoy it.

Handcrafted soap, handcrafted lotion, handcrafted natural body scrubs, natural lip balm, handmade face and body soap, natural body care, Vermont maple syrup, Vermont beeswax, clarina howard Nichols center, Vermont made, made in Vermont, gift sets, locally made.

Winter Vacation.

Last week we took our kids on our first mini vacation in 6 years can you believe it? Wow it was a well needed rest. We all had so much fun; we went to The Great Escape Lodge and Indoor Water Park. The room was nice but of course the highlight was the water park. They had a nice mix of water rides for the older kids and adults while the little ones could play in a nice shallow pool with mini water slides, water fountains and bubbly water. Our little ones also enjoyed meeting some of the cartoon characters, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Granny and Marvin the Martian. Check out this cute picture.

Every room has a mini refrigerator and microwave which came in very useful. We had brought fixings for breakfast, lunch and dinner for all but 1 night and I am glad that we did it made our time at the park easier, we went to the room to eat and then back to the water for more fun. If you get the chance to go, you should give it at try. We had fun.

Of course we brought our own handcrafted natural soap, peppermint.

Have you gone on a mini vacation recently? I would love to hear about it.

Welcome

Welcome to our new Blog.  I hope that you will find this blog fun and interesting.  I also intend to provide you with news and updates of what's happening at Honey Bee Soaps. 

I have good news, I have been making all kinds of goodies in February and have more plans for March, please keep checking back with us. 

Have a wonderful day.