Holiday Soaps Now On sale!

Just a heads up to everyone, that all of the new items are now available for pre-order purchase on the website at www.alifedeliberate.etsy.com

Happy Holidays!  :)

Holiday Soaps - The Breakdown....

No not my breakdown, that was last week.  Ten A few drinks later and a good hour of Oprah teaching me all the answers again, and I was a brand new...

Man!  I thought she was annoying when she gave James Frey a fourteen billion dollar reaming on her show that day, (Remember that ego-fest? Heinous.)  but now "Oprah's Life Class"?   Really?!

Kill me.

Anyway - A few of you have asked me to concentrate my Holiday soap range in one area for easier reading, instead of all scattery-like on Facebook and You Tube.  Great idea.   So let's see what we have available....

This is Sugared Spruce.  A twist on the traditonal Christmas Tree pine scent.  It's mellowed out with some yummy citrus and a sugary note that smells really great.  Almost a "candied" scent.

Next we have "Christmas In Aspen".  Unisex and drool-worthy.  It has notes of aspens, citrus and a zesty middle note that just makes it so nice.  Just like a cabin near the slopes!

I also went on a Sugar Plum bender, and soaped two differen't kinds.  First up is "Frosted Sugar Plum Spice", which is a deeper plum with spice notes and sugary notes. 

The next one is sweeter....more docile, and kitten-like.  :P  It's called "The Land Of Sweets" because as you know, that is where the Sugar Plum Fairy lives, in The Nutcracker!  (Thanks for the awesome name, Carrie!)  It's a sweet, sugary plum with added notes of oranges and vanilla.

The next one is "Berry Christmas" (Clever, right?  :P ) It's a really tart/sweet/yummerific berry scent.  Blackberries, raspberries, mulberries, blueberries, dingleberries.....ew, no...wait....scratch that last one.  It also has notes of peaches, oranges, cherries, grapes and more. 

Next up?  This is "Christmas Candy".  We're talkin' straight up Candy Canes! 

The next one in line is called "Cookies For Santa".   Yes, don't mock me.  It's the infamous Nipple Soap from YouTube.  Lawd ha' mercy....

What else?  Let's see.....Oh!  What's Christmas without Gingerbread?! 

And last but not least....a li'l kooky, a little whackadoo, but fun.  I call this "Santa's Midnight Ride".  Really yummy smelling with notes of cherrywood, cherry pipe tobacco, vanilla, raspberries and cherries.  It's predominantly cherry so son't let the "tobacco" thing scare you.  That note is subtle but oh so goooooood. 

So there ya have it.  The entire holiday range of fun new soaps.  Great for gifts, and they'll all be going on sale on Halloween.  They're going fast in pre-orders!

Until my next post!

An update and some rambling about soap....

Hey everybody!  It's been awhile since my last post, huh? 

 I just wanted to update you guys on what's been happening lately for the shop, and give some information on when the holiday soaps will be released.  I've been getting tons of messages for a time frame, and...well....I'm getting them done as fast as possible but I can't really nail down a specific date for ya.  I'm shooting for the end of the month, right after Halloween, so there isn't so much of a mixture out there at once.  Sound good?  It's been so busy (Thanks for all your awesome support!) that I don't even know what the heck I've made in the last month or so.  A few are:  "Sugared Spruce"..."Cookies For Santa"...Frosted Sugar Plum Spice"..."Christmas Candy".....ummmm...what else?  OH!  "Berry Christmas" aaaand...."Gingerbread".  I have at least 3 more left to make and that'll be it for the season.  I will be making a new "Trio" of some kind, as well.  If you'd like a look at some of them, check out the videos on my YouTube channel.  It's going to be a fun batch, and I hope you like them. :)

I also wanted to talk a little bit about a trend I'm seeing on YouTube lately.  Many non soapmaker soapaholics are a unique breed and we love ya.  We do.  When someone is passionate about products that we soapmakers put so much time and heart into, it really makes us feel so good when it's appreciated and loved by buyers and afficionados.  Sometimes I wonder where the heck you people store all of that soap (Next...on "Storage Wars"....lol) but I love ya.  It makes it all so much fun. :)  You are the fuel for our businesses and also our creativity.

I've been seeing a lot of people doing "Lather Tests" on video.  Now, it's not rocket science, and I don't want to insult anyone's intelligence by this mild rant, but I'd like people to keep in mind a coupla things when doing these.  I see many people take stacks of soap from various soapmakers, and one at a time, test their lathering ability on...say...an arm, over and over again.  It's important though to consider that no matter how "good" a soap is, a certain amount of oils will be stripped from the skin, just by the very nature of the product.  Some more than others.  But with each consecutive "test", more oils will have been removed from that spot, and the following soap may appear to lather more than the first one, and on and on.  Ya following me?  Less oil on the skin means that the soap will "grab" more and produce more lather.  So my point (and I do have one) is that this generally isn't a fair representation of a soap, or soapmaker.  It is also important to know something about what makes lather in a handmade soap.  Big fluffy lather is created by specific ingredients in soap.  Coconut oil, castor oil, sugar etc.  Stable lather is produced by other specific ingredients.  The factor to remember is that it is always a trade-off.  The high-lathering ingredients are also more stripping to the skin.  If you have a soap that has so much lather, it's frothing all over the place, I will guarantee you have a soap with a very high percentage of oils that create that.  You will almost always have a soap that is also less conditioning to the skin, despite the high superfats and other tricks of the trade.  The key is balance.  It takes many years sometimes, to create a recipe that produces great lather and also doesn't dry out the skin, and strip all the nutrients away.  Additionally, one person's skin differs from another's.  And what one person likes may be completely different than what someone else enjoys.  It's a wonder I don't blow my brains out....  :P   We try our very best to find that delicate sweet spot that balances all of the elements.  It isn't as easy as it looks.

Now, I don't wanna be a buzzkill here, because the videos are kinda fun...but many people watch these videos for recommendations, and I'd hate to see fledgling businesses get a poor rap because their product wasn't accurately represented.  It hasn't happened to me yet, but sometimes I think to myself "Ouch - that soapmaker just got nailed for lackluster lather", when really, if that soap had been used further down the stack, it would have almost certainly produced more, and that soapmaker's product wouldn't have looked so lame in front of all of YouTube. 

You smell what I'm cookin'?  Good. :)

(Please be sure to check out Holly's other great points in the comments section too!)

So what's a YouTuber to do?  Maybe just switch up the spots on your body or maybe even review a particular company on one video, singularly.  Disclaimers like "This is just my opinion, get off my back" in the downbar, are really sort of flippant and MeanGirlish, honestly.  It makes me sad when I see that. I know most soapmakers welcome honesty and feedback, but just be mindful of the damage you may be causing someone's business.   I know nobody would want that to happen. :)  Let's keep it light and fun and accurate.  So now, armed with more information and food for thought, bring on the new videos.  I always love to see them!

Okay...so that's all.  I hope everybody's having a nice, seasonably warm, fall.  Looking forward to seeing what everyone has been making for the holidays.  You guys are so talented!

Have an amazing day!