the feto soap blog

…used my class listing to explain how to register for classes in their catalog! Oh, and my next Houston, TX Soapmaking class dates are July 27th and September 21st! You can register online at http://llu.com or by phone.

Scanned by Jessica Merrit of www.snaptacularphotos.com Thanks Jess!

Lori Nova of Nova Studio fame inadvertently reminded me to do this with her blog post today.

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Tonight I’ll process the week’s orders. Happy soap will be on its way to happy recipients!

Charley of Skunkwerks Soap Co. (formerly from MO) has started a new Houston Soapmakers Meetup Group that meets once a month. We had our first meeting on Sunday and I’m trying out his Pine Tar Soap in the shower now. He’s got a lot of great ideas for the group.  I can’t wait to see what he comes up with!

I’m going to be in Austin during the next meeting at the Texas Soapmakers Association Convention, going batty over soap July 18 - 20th.

In addition to running my microbusiness, I fix computers a  hospital during the day! Here’s what a typical week looks like:

This is a typical (Monday - Friday) Day

7 am - wake up and get ready for work (the hospital where I fix computers)
8 am - Work (fix computers)
11am- lunchtime! I usually run errands like go to the bank, drop packages off at FedEx, run to the office supply store/Discount store for supplies/displays and or run home to process orders or go to my dr’s visits at this time. and scarf down some lunch.
5 pm - Gym - usually cardio for an hour
6:30 pm Dinner - usually out with friends (have to be social sometime!) or I eat at home.
7:30 - 11pm Make Soap and process orders, update website, blog, twitter, do product photography, clean my apartment.
11pm - I aim for this time to be sleeping. I don’t always make it, but I try!

Saturday (when I have a market)
6am - wake up and get pretty for market
7am - set up for market
8am - Noon Market!
Noon Break down market.
Lunch
Make Soap
When I’m done making soap, I go dance, usually around 10pm.

Sunday
Laundry
Grocery Shopping while laundry is going
Clean Entire Apartment
Make Soap
Relax!

I will be vending at the Midtown Farmers Market Local Crafts Spree on Saturday, June 14th from 8am - Noon. The Midtown Farmers Market is located in the front of Monica Pope’s T’afia. 3701 Travis Street @ W. Alabama directions here.

Don’t forget Dad! Father’s Day is June 15th! I will have many manly soaps for Dad such as Bay Rum, Man Smell, Cold Water & Pepperberry!

opps, this post never got published. Here you go!

My apartment smells so good right now because of these soaps.

Green Tea Soap - The tea is “glowing”.

Lavender Essential Oil Soap - I love the heart patterns all over this soap.

This is what a typical order at feto soap looks like packed up and ready to be sent out into the world.

My student Micky came over last night and we made three new limited edition soaps together. Lavender Essential Oil Shea Butter Soap swirled with ultramarines, a Green Tea Soap swirled with - what else, Green Tea Powder and a Salt Bar.

The Lavender Essential Oil Soap came out as planned, all swirly.

The Green Tea soap had the same kind (ok, I think they were better) of swirls going on it until I:

1. Forgot to put the dividers in my mold
2. Covered it with plastic wrap
3. Dropped the plastic wrap on top of the perfect swirls I had just finished making.

I grabbed my stirrer and did a quick “blind swirl” to fix it. It’s still a swirled soap, but they are just not very precise, which is fine. I learned a couple of things. Green Tea powder goes from a nice green to a dark brown quick in fresh soap. I added some green colorant hoping to get a dark green color out of the swirl, but it wasn’t happening. Which again is ok. It was an experiment and the deep brown color is nice, though everyone thinks these pictures of soap are some kind of dessert.

The Salt Bar

It was my first time making a salt bar. I’ve been seeing these around and curious enough to make a batch of my own. I used 50% Coconut Oil and a combination of Shea Butter, Olive Oil & Castor Oil and I used the same amount of salt as the amount of oils I had in the recipe. Normally I have to wait a few days to unmold cold process soap. Not this one. I unmolded them within an hour and a half. I scented them with a lovely coconut fragrance… and now need to wait for them to finish curing so I can use one for myself! They will be ready to use on June 26th along with the other two soaps I made yesterday. I’ll add the Salt bar picture to this post as soon as I get it photographed. I have some other soaps I want to make, so I’m going to write them down. If you have any special requests, let me know!

To make this soap I brewed up some Chai Tea from Te House of Tea and used it in place of water. The caramel color is from the tea and the fragrance oil. I’ll be making a Green Tea Soap tonight with a swirl colored with green tea powder.  The Chai Tea Soap will be ready to use on June 24th! It’s curing now.

The Limited Edition White Tea & Ginger Shea Butter Soap I made with my bud Mikey Sunday afternoon:

We added the lye to the water that had tea in it and let it brew up that way. After it cooled a bit I strained out the tea. The tea got really dark, so we added some titanium dioxide and white kaolin clay to the batch.

The soap became a tan color and I didn’t think the powdered ginger root was going to show up in contrast to the already tan colored soap, so we added Brick Red Oxide to the cup of soap we were using to swirl. The soap has lightened up a bit since setting up. More pictures to come later! This soap will need to cure for at least a month before you can use it, but it will be worth the wait! Stay tuned! More tea soaps will be coming your way!

My name stamp from Vista Print finally came and I put it to use on the bookplates I bartered for with If’n Books a while back.  Feto Soap customers - your invoices are going to be stamped up! (You’ll see on your next order!) I have been ordering stamps like crazy from Vista Print lately. I hope  you’re having a happy Sunday! I will be making some Shea Butter Natural Lip Balm today and a small batch of Cold Process Shea Butter White Tea and Ginger Soap swirled with Ginger Powder  (9 bars). I bought some White Tea from Te House of Tea to brew up and use tea in place of water for this batch. I’ll post pictures when it’s ready!