Two shampoo bars & the fun of it all!

Ah shampoo bars . . . .

Well, it was an experiment that turned out to be quite interesting; so interesting in fact, that I decided to make two bars instead of one!

The difference between standard soap and a shampoo bar of soap is the oils. Being that it's going on your head and hair, shampoo bars contain superfatty, nourishing oils that are meant to leave hair soft and thick. Thus the oil range and the richness of these bars kicks the pants off standard soaps . . . well not ALL standard soaps, at least not many of my own!

The first looks like a desert sunset - honey yellow, warm orange and bloody reds. The colors are completely natural, as I refuse to use "soap dyes" or other chemicals that tend to irritate the skin (not to mention the environment once it flushes down the drains). Turmeric powder creates an amazing show of colors in the first bar. And why not? So many spices create gorgeous colors when diluted in oil or water.  Hibiscus is just one example. 

The second bar looks like a dark Florentine paper. The honey yellow base has been dimmed by the addition of black marbling, all created by high grade charcoal (the same kind you'd use to filter water or take internally to cleanse the system). It's astounding. It spent it's first night brewing mercurially beneath the coverlets, ranging from coffee to honey, back into pitch and up once more to it's stable self.

Cold process soap changes often during saponification, which is why I describe the flux of colors in the second soap. Even the first batch, the one that uses turmeric for dye, flushed into a muddy red brown for awhile, before a calico dapple marked it's surface.

I'm hoping to put up pics this week, so you can see my words, rather than simply read them.

Oh, and new today on my Etsy store site - Bright Eyes Renewing Under Eye Salve and a book in my "surplus sale" section, Wire and Bead Celtic Jewelry by Linda Jones. Go check 'em out!

www.twostrandssoapworks.etsy.com

And for all of you who were hoping to buy some Burning Florals Offeratory Blend for Midsummer - you're out of luck! I had a wonderful buyer drop in this weekend and buy the whole lot! She loves the ingredients and the words I chose to describe this precious and rare product, so she is cleaning me out. It'll be late summer before I'm able to stock more as I must wait for my mom's buttlerfly bush to bloom!

Blessings and best to you all

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Ra shines and the Ab sings! My heart, my heart, my mother, my heart!