Soapstress in Action

Pink Flower Garden in the Shop

Purchase Pink Flower Garden Now

Weight: Approx. 3 oz.*

My mom is deathly allergic to anything containing coconut oil, so I made this soap with her in mind. This soap contains no coconut oil, and smells very floral. It’s a great soap for those who are sensitive to coconut oil.
Olive oil, which attracts moisture, holding it to the skin and allowing the skin to produce its natural oils
Castor oil is a humectant which attracts and helps the skin retain moisture. This also gives the bar the steady and smooth lather you would want from shampoo.
Avocado oil, which contains vitamins A, D, & E, protein, amino acids, chlorophyll, glycerides. easily absorbed by skin, regenerates skin cells and softens tissue. It is great for skin and hair.
Palm oil gives the soap a creamy lather.
Ingredients: Water, lye**, Olive oil, Palm oil, Castor oil, Soybean oil, Fully hydrogenated palm oil, Partially hydrogenated palm and soybean oils, Avocado oil, Mono and Diglyserides, TBHQ and Citric acid (antioxidents), Fragrance oil, Fusha lab color
* Due to the handmade nature of my soaps, each bar is slightly different.
** No lye remains in final product
 
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Check back later this week to see new soaps that will be coming to the shop in November!

Gather a Lather and the Big Stitch

For those of you who find your way here from the Knit and Crochet Tennessee blog, here's some pictures of the soap samples that will be in the goody bags Saturday:

Everyone will get a sample of one of the following soaps:  Gather a Sunbeam (White very light fragrance), Rooibos Scrub (Speckled), or  Pink Flower Garden (can be either white or pink).  Each sample is at least half an ounce of soap, and I hope you like it.

In addition to samples I have donated a gift basket for a doorprize:

Pictured (starting at the top left and working clockwise):  Pink Flower Garden, Gather a Shampoo, Rooibos Scrub, and Gather a Sunbeam. 

Now for those of you who live in the Nashville area and do not know about the Big Stitch, I'll give you a little more information.  The Big Stitch is hosted by Knit and Crochet Tennessee, and brings together knitters and crochetiers to work on charity projects.  Saturday is Make a Difference Day, and we will be gathering to donate and work on hats, which will go to various charities.  We're making chemo hats for cancer patients, hats for homeless shelters, and hats for sick or premature babies.  It's a fun and exciting time, and if you knit and/or crochet you should come.  Also if you want to learn how to knit or crochet, there are always folks there who are willing to teach.

As for me, I'll be there on Saturday, if you want to come say "Hi."  Here's a picture of some of the hats I've made (because if you came here with the Big Stitch in mind, you probably also like looking at fiber art):

The ones on the left and the turqoiuse one are knitted.  That's the Photography Hat on Ravelry, and it's a very fun knit.  As you can see, I enjoyed knitting it so much, I made four of them.  The baby hats (brown, flower, and pointy) are all crocheted.  I did my own thing on each of those, and I'm not even sure I could tell you what I did.

Rooibos Scrub in the shop

Remember Rooibos Scrub? I've been using a sample bar for the past couple of nights, and I really really like it.  Now you can purchase your own Roobios scrub through my Etsy shop.

This soap uses organic rooibos tea as its base and ground rooibos tea to add texture and scrubbing power. Rooibos contains alpha hydroxy acid zinc, and vitamin C which are all good for your skin. Rooibos has long been used in traditional African medicine to treat a variety of skin problems. Similar to green tea, rooibos tea contains beneficial antioxidants, but unlike green tea, there is no caffeine and much less tanic acid


This soap also contains:

Olive oil, which attracts moisture, holding it to the skin and allowing the skin to produce its natural oils.

Coconut oil, which also has moisturizing properties in the right amount (too much can be drying). Coconut oil also adds a nice creamy lather to this soap.

Palm oil, works well with coconut oil for a creamy lather.

Avocado oil, which contains vitamins A, D, & E, protein, amino acids, chlorophyll, glycerides. easily absorbed by skin, regenerates skin cells and softens tissue. Avocado oil helps moisturize and regenerate skin.

Jojoba oil (actually a liquid wax) works a greaseless moisturizer for the skin and works with the skin’s natural ability to control moisture

Castor oil is a humectant which attracts and helps the skin retain moisture

Fragrance oil (provides no added skin care benefits) adds a citrus fragrance with Grapefruit, Lemon and Lime, and added hints of fresh Cucumber and Jasmine Pineapple, Blackberry and Champagne


Ingredients: organic rooibos tea, olive oil, lye (No lye remains in final product. This is used in the chemical reaction to make soap.), coconut oil, palm oil, avocado oil, jojoba oil, castor oil, fragrance oil

Grand Opening

Gather a Lather Soaps is now open for business!!  Here are some pictures of what I have to offer.  More will be added next week!

Gather a Sunbeam Honeycomb bars: $3.00

Gather a Lather Rugged Brick Bars $2.00

Visit the Gather a Lather Etsy Shop, and tell your friends.

Direct Questions to: gatheralather [at] gmail [dot] com

Pumpkin Soup Yumminess

I made this soup yesterday as part of my plans to cook something with pumpkin every week this fall.  While my husband and I were eating dinner together he made the following declarations about this soup:

"If they served food on Mt. Olympus, this would be it."
"I've never tasted anything this good before."
"I'm so glad you are good at the art of homemaking."
"I could eat this every day."
"I'm tingling because this is so good."

First, here is the original recipe for Velvety Pumpkin Soup with Bacon and Blue Cheese.  This recipe was my inspriation, but in the course of making the soup I realized that I made enough substitutions to warrent a writing out what I did in the form of a new recipe.  I recommend looking at what ingredients are available to you and making substitutions based on that.  For example, I substituted the garlic and onion because I didn't have a shallot.  Others probably don't have raw, dark wildflower honey or country bacon and would prefer looking at the original recipe.  I got most of my ingredients at our local farmer's market, but you could easily get most of these ingredients at any grocery store.

Ingredients
2 pumpkins, pureed using this method or method of choice* (see notes below before pureeing)
1 quart chicken broth (low sodium variety)
1 cup half-and-half
1 onion, sliced in half-inch slices
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup raw, dark, wildflower, local honey
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnimon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 lb. local country bacon
crumbled blue cheese to taste

1. Put pumpkin puree, chicken broth, half-and-half, onion, garlic, honey, butter, bacon, and spices in a large crockpot
2. Cook on high for about 2 hours. Remove the bacon, cut off the fat part of the bacon and return to crockpot. Slice the meaty part of the bacon into 1cm cubes and return to crockpot.
3. Cook on low for about three hours. Remove the fat part of the bacon.
4. Serve in bowls and with blue cheese sprinkled on top as desired, garnish with parsley or wrinkled crinkled cress from the garden

* I like to remove the seeds and stringy parts before I put my pumpkin in the oven.  I also separate out the seeds and roast them in the oven when I'm done making the puree.  Pumpkin seeds are my favorite snack.  To roast the pumpkin seeds, set your oven to 385 degrees, put seeds on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt or seasonings of your choice (I like to mix a little bit of ground mustard, sage, and Toney's Chachere's Cajun seasoning.).  Bake in oven for 5 minutes.  Eat pumpkin seeds in the same way you would eat sunflower seeds.  You can also use this method to roast acorn or butternut squash seeds, which taste slightly different than pumpkin seeds but are also delicious. 

* When I make pumpkin puree, I always set aside some of the puree for my daughter.  This is enough puree to fill a large baby food jar.  Therefore I used a little less than two pumpkins worth of puree in this recipe.  I like being able to give Felicity the same food we are eating, and she really likes pumpkin.  If you have a baby eating semi-solid foods, I recommend saving some of the puree for him or her.

--Photo by Muffet

Soapspirations

I've taken a week off from actually making soap in order to set up my Etsy store, package soap, and brainstorm about the kinds of soap I want to make next.  Here are some inspirations for soap I plan to make in October:

Chrysanthemum tea:  I love the beautiful flowers in my chrysanthemum tea.  This tea has been used by the Chinese for centuries as a natural remedy for multiple ailments.  I'm trying to figure out how I want to incorparte chrysanthemum tea in a soap and what sort of fragrance should I use for this.

Pumpkin:  Pumpkins are one of my favorite things about fall.  You can read more about my love of pumpkins at my Meandering Home blog.  I've been trying to use pumpkins in different ways each week during the fall.  (As I type this, pumpkin soup is brewing in my crockpot).  I read a few articles on using pumpkin in soap, and I look forward to making my own recipe.

My daughter:  Babies have sensitive skin, and generally only need water baths.  I give my daughter a water bath as part of her bedtime routine, but only wash her with soap once a week.(unless she's super dirty).  I want to make a very mild, gentle, and fragrance free soap to use for my daughter.  I'm going to order to some new ingredients for this soap, and I want it to work well for those with sensetive skin.

Pink Flower Garden

These soaps are now curing on the soap rack.  They have a slightly different texture than my other cold process soaps, and I'm going to give them a little bit longer to cure.  In the end I'm very satisfied with the Rosehip Jasmine fragrance and the pretty pink color.