Tag Archives: Brooklyn

Fresh New Look: Lavender Breeze

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Check out this new fresh design of Lavender Breeze!
I wanted to try something different with our best-selling Lavender Breeze soap. Same size, same scent but a fresh look. I wanted to make sure that this would be a hit so as usual I made a 1 pound test batch. Why 1 pound? It is a controlled measured batch while still being able to incorporate the fresh white swirls on this soap.

I made the same basic recipe of olive oil, coconut oil, palm oil, mango butter and castor oils, fragrance lavender and skin-safe colorant. The only tweek to this recipe was the added pinch of titanium dioxide to do the white swirls and top white layer. When it was time to pour my soap I decided to pour it ounce by ounce and in different angles in my mold. That’s the beauty of the incredible art form of making soap – you can’t get it wrong!

Once I was finished pouring all the oils like a Mama Bear I covered, wrapped and placed my soap to nestle for 24 hours to cure and do it’s magic. When I unmolded I was excited to see how it look in its entirety.

Uncut Lavender Breeze

So imagine how excited I was when it was time to cut this block into bars….and….the FINAL REVEAL!

Only 4 bars were made and will be ready to sell in our Online Shop: www.brooklynbath.etsy.com

Mark your calendars! Ready Date: 9/29/11

Shaving Soap

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Oatmeal, Milk & Honey Shaving Soap



Lovely round bar of shaving soap made with olive oil, palm oil, coconut oil and a little bit of castor oil for bubbly goodness.  Also added is Bentonite Clay.  Bentonite Clay is said to help lift impurities off the face and gives “slip” to the skin when shaving.

This bar of soap is scented with Brambleberry’s Oatmeal, Milk & Honey. It’s description reads, blended with utmost care, this is the perfect melding of three fabulous scents. Sweet and toasty, this is one soap that you’ll want to take a bite out of!

You can grab one at the online shop of BrooklynBath. Each bar is $5.00

Batch Test: Salt Bars

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I made a batch of salt spa bars via the cold process method. I used a blend of two fragrance oils that really remind me of Apple Jolly Ranchers!

The great thing about these bars is that they bring a “polish” feature to the skin whilst cleaning.

They will take about 4 weeks to dry and should be ready at the end of August. I can’t wait to try and report!

 

 

Salt Bars


New Soaps for April

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On the Curing Rack!

We have two soaps on the curing rack that will be ready for end of April and will be listed at www.brooklynbath.etsy.com shortly.

Zen Green Tea Handcrafted Soap
Ingredients: Distilled Water, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Hemp Seed Oil and Apricot Kernel Oil.

4 oz bar/$5.00 per bar

What makes this soap different from other soaps I’ve made in the past? We used apricot kernel oil -a light oil that is good for dry skin; hemp seed oil – a lovely oil in soaps that yields moisturizing qualities to dry skin.

Ready: 4/15/11
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Lavender Breeze Handcrafted Soap

Lavender Breeze

Ingredients: Olive Oil, Distilled Water, Palm Oil, Coconut Oil and Castor Oil

4 oz bar/$5.00 per bar
(the bars are slightly larger than the usual ones so you get more soap!)

A bestseller every single month! Enjoy the soothing and calm scent of lavender in your bath.

Ready: 4/24/11

Our Ingredients

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As BrooklynBath is growing with its product line I figured I should take some time to explain what are some of the ingredients that I like to use and why.
Through the course of learning and product development I have learned about different vegetable and fruit oils, their properties and how they can contribute to beautiful skin! One of the natural by-products of handcrafted soap is that glycerin is retained in the soap. Glycerin is a humectant that helps attract moisture to the skin. In commercial soaps glycerin is a commodity. It is extracted from the soap manufacturing process and used in other body products such as lotions.
Here are my base oils that I use for making  soap:

1. Coconut Oil – provides a fluffy lather to soap. It’s high in lauric acid which is also found in human milk (breast).  It is highly praised as a “natural skin conditioner” as it easily penetrates skin and hair follicles.

2. Palm Oil – I like using palm oil because it provides the “hardness” that I need in a bar of soap. We use sustainable palm oil.

3. Olive Oil – not just for cooking! Olive oil has been known to have moisturizing properties. It is widely used in skin and hair products.

4. Castor Oil – a multi-purpose oil that is used in such a variety of different things. I like using castor oil because it gives my soap “extra” bubbles.

These oils alone make a great bar of soap. Personally, I barely use lotion after my shower now that I use handmade soap with the oils listed above. My skin feels less dry and much smoother.

From time to time I do add an extra oil such as sweet almond oil, mango butter, avocado oil, etc. for a super luxurious bar. Keep tuned! I will come out with some of these luxurious bars of soap soon enough.

Formulating: Lesson I Learned

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One of the things I love to do as a bath & body company owner is the ability to learn how to formulate my own products. Formulating helps not only to know what ingredients I prefer to use but also to perfect my product. Taking accurate notes of the process from beginning to end ensures that I have a record of the ingredients and how much I used. This helps to duplicate future larger batches.

So what lesson did I learn today?  Label your finished product by adding a sticky note with the percentages to cross-reference with the formula. Why? I made a whipped mango body butter for the first time several months ago. I followed the percentages according to my formula, but I realized as you can see from the picture below my body butter didn’t come out exactly as I wanted.



I decided to change my formula but failed to label the two batches. I now had two different formulas but couldn’t remember which formula went with which batch. I won’t be able to make any batch a potential candidate as a “finished” product to sell later on but, I went ahead and added avocado oil to make the body butter softer. I can still use this batch for my own personal use, and this time I labeled my finished batch. Even though I can’t figure out the exact amounts of my ingredients but at least I’ll know what avocado oil will do for my body butter.  And maybe I’ll use it for future batches….to be continued…..