Stockin' Up

I have been stocking up on our customers' favorites for the Fort Armstrong Folk Festival. Here are a few pictures of the different kinds of soap that are curing right now. 

Oatmeal - A customer favorite that is known as the best complexion soap here at YN. With our most recent batch, we used whole milk in place of water in the recipe, making it much creamier. We used a straight blade to cut this batch, but usually use a crinkle cutter for oatmeal soap. These bars are also much larger and heavier than the other oatmeal soap bars. We got to try this bar out in the shower, and ahhhhhh, you have to feel it to believe it!

 Skeeto - We made sure our Skeeto soap was well stocked up, ready to go in it's season of high demand. That is during the bug-filled dog days of summer, of course. We decided that our efective bug-repelling bar needed something else to make it more complete. So we added a dollop of moisture-drenching shea butter, also known as African Karite Butter. Skeeto soap is officially made whole! Skeeto soap is pictured in the top of this photo, being whitish-yellow in color. In fact, Skeeto soap used to be very yellow until we started adding shea butter in the mixture.

Poochie 'Poo Mark II - Well, that's what I like to call it. Our original Poochie 'Poo bar was made with coconut, palm, castor, and olive oil, but this time we formulated an entirely new recipe using olive, coconut, castor, palm, and wheat germ oils with shea butter. (Rest assured, we still kept our traditional bug-repelling essential oil blend to scent Poochie 'Poo.) Wheat germ oil has the richest source of Vitamin E than any other vegetable oil, and also has a large amount of Vitamin A and D. Both shea and olive are amazingly moisturizing and conditioning. Castor oil helps to build a nice, thick lather when the bar is being used. Coconut and palm oil both contrtibute hardness without sacrificing conditioning qualities, and also help in stabilizing lather within the bar. That is absolutely necessary when it comes to shampoo bars! We also used more strong coffee in place of water in this recipe, because coffee is a effective deodorizer. The coffee  turned the bars a dark color when cut, but are gradually turning lighter as they cure. In conclusion, I now call like to call Poochie 'Poo our bug-repelling, dog-deodorizing, and coat conditioning shampoo bar that is fit for any pooch! I HAVE TO ADMIT......Poochie 'Poo has been tested on animals. Dusty, our Australian Shepherd mix, loves Poochie 'Poo with a passion! (Poochie 'Poo is the mocha-colored ribbed soap above.) 

Here are a few bars of our Calendula soap. We made a fresh batch of this soap last week, and these are some of our untrimmed bars. I plan on writing a post about calendula soap, so I am saving up words for that. All of the olive oil in this soap has been infused with calendula petals, and no scent has been added. Much like Skeeto soap, we are now adding creamy shea to our herbal calendula bars. This soap is most favored by our customers with super sensitive skin.

The bars shown here will be available at and after the Fort Armstrong Folk Festival on August 4-7, 2011

Thanks for reading!

Soapmaker of YN