Shaving Soaps, Pearls, and Hummingbirds

Shaving Soaps

Last week, I listed a couple of shaving soaps. Now, these soaps don't have to be used only for shaving, they also make wonderful bath soaps!

First, Ginger Lemon Shaving and Bath Soap. Scented with a blend of Ginger, Lemon, Palmarosa, and Lavender.

And, Cedarwood Patchouli.

And what, you ask, makes a soap shaving soap? Well, it's all in the lather and the slip. All the oils, butters, and additives I use are all geared toward making a creamy lather that will stick around for the duration of the shave, aide the razor in a smooth ride, and help condition the skin. For instance, helping with a creamy lather is cocoa butter, sweet almond oil, goat milk. Helping with a bubbly lather is coconut oil, castor oil, and a bit of sugar. Helping with giving a bit of slip for the razor, clays and castor oil. And helping to condition the skin is olive oil, cocoa butter, wheat germ oil, and goat milk.

A couple of other soaps I listed recently (not shaving soaps).

Lemon Patchouli .. Something about patchouli lately. I never liked patchouli before. When I first started making soaps, I couldn't wait to get the patchouli soaps off my kitchen counter and into the soap room so I wouldn't have to smell them. Now, I don't know why, I LIKE patchouli. I made this soap for me to use (hey, I don't mind sharing it!! :-D ), with lots of goat milk, no coloring, just plain soap with lemon and patchouli essential oils. This is the soap I have been using for the past few weeks. But I want to know why I now like patchouli. Is it like green vegetables that you hate as a kid, but grow to love? I don't know! I just don't know! :)

Black Raspberry Chai Tea - now this smells good! This is a mix of 2 different fragrance oils, and I'm really happy with it!

Dragon's Blood. I love how this gets so dark just from the fragrance oil. It smells so sweet and sexy!

And I just want to show you, it doesn't start out this dark. Here is a pic of the Black Raspberry Chai Tea and the Dragon's Blood right after they were poured into the molds. The Dragon's Blood is the lighter yellow looking one on the top! Yeah, it went from that buttery color to dark dark brown! 

Pearls

My sister asked me to make a necklace for her. She's been wanting a 3 strand pink pearl necklace. I did have one in my shop, but she was looking for a rosy pink, and these were more of a salmon pink. So we went looking on Etsy to find the pearls she wanted. And this is what I made (I've already shown this but here it is again)

So as long as I had my tools out, I made another 3 strand pearl necklace, this one with smaller white pearls. Very simple, very pretty.

3 Strand White Pearl Necklace.

Hummingbirds

These Hummingbird Earrings are all sterling silver! The connectors have lovely faceted garnets surrounded by more sterling silver. 2 1/2 inches long. Purty!

Next photo is one I stole from Ray. :) One of the MANY hummingbirds we get on our feeder, which is just outside the window where the computer is, so we can watch them all day long.