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Home > Archives for skin care

Sunday Soap Case: Activate your Girl Game!

October 9, 2016 1 Comment

In and Through the Looking Glass

It’s Sunday!* This week has been BUSY! With the Holiday Food and Gift Show at the Tacoma Dome looming over me (figuratively, yes, but also literally as I can see the Dome from my soap shop in Freighthouse Station), I’ve been scrambling to keep up with inventory, online orders and being the best damn mom on the planet** while putting the finishing touches on my new offerings for the event.

I have managed to take a break or two throughout the week and check out some of the new events and shops in Freighthouse, and wow do we have some amazing merchants here! Dan Parker’s crew delivered an excellent Lego event*** this weekend, a few new businesses are starting their build-out, and one delightful little shop quietly opened its unassuming doors.

*It’s not Sunday. I’m writing this on Wednesday, because I’m trying to stay ahead of the curve. I’m mostly failing at that.

**”Best” is a relative term. I’m pretty alright. Sometimes.

***As I’m writing this ahead of time, I don’t really know how excellent the event was. I’m assuming it was awesomely so, though. Because Dan is awesome, and Legos are awesome. Winning combination right there.

looking glass clothing boutique tacoma, waStep Through the Looking Glass

pinup clothing freighthousetrendy boutique tacoma waThe Looking Glass Boutique is, in a word, lovely. With a thoughtful selection of new and pre-loved clothing, the store is Modcloth meets Pinup Girl with a splash of ThredUp. Owner/operator/buyer Jennee Leavitt has had a love of clothing and fashion since she was old enough to dress herself, and her inventory shows that in spades. And I’m not just saying that because her shop looks like an extension of my personal closet. It really does, though. The shop is so perfect that you would find it hard to believe that the business is in its infancy. This is Month Two for Jennee and Looking Glass; she’s a go big or go home kinda gal. Which of course makes me love her. She has a great eye and – perhaps my favorite thing about her – is quick to tactfully let you know when an article of clothing is unflattering to your body shape. Which of course makes me love her even more. And her prices are super reasonable – I picked up two super cute dresses and a top for $50. Which of course makes me love her for life. She has made a wonderful addition to the Freighthouse shops and I look forward to seeing great things from her!

Looking Flawless in The Looking Glass

Playing dress up is fun. Feeling absolutely beautiful in your new dress is fun. Mirror twirling brought to a screeching halt because of a new pimple on your forehead? Not so fun. Face Paste can help! Made with activated charcoal, tea tree oil, and a recipe formulation that yields a highly moisturizing, glycerin-rich soap, Face Paste is great for all skin types but is especially beneficial for those dealing with acne, dry/combination/oily skin, and the sensitive skinned among us. Here’s why:

activated charcoal face care

World. Rocker.

Activated charcoal basically rocks my world. It acts as a magnet, pulling toxins, debris and other nastiness from pores. This leaves skin smooth, clear, and glowing. Tea tree oil also rocks my world. A natural anti-fungal and anti-viral oil, tea tree stabilizes skin’s pH, attacks acne bacteria, sweeps debris from pores, and promotes cell turnover. It does all of this without drying or irritating the skin. World Rocker.

So basically, Face Paste is a disc of awesome. It’s also fun to work with – this product has a built in timer of sorts that is determined by your skin’s needs. Here’s how it goes: Face Paste has a grey and creamy lather starting out, and as you continue to massage into the skin, the activated charcoal is working hard to purge pores and detoxify. Once it has done its job, the lather becomes white and bubbly. This could take anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on how many toxins your skin is harboring. activated charcoal face bar

And in customary Soap Case fashion, I’m giving away these world rockers this week! Enter coupon code ALLABOUTTHATFACE for a bar of Face Paste on me. Code is valid on all orders through October 16th, 2016. That’s it for me this week – please oh please do two things for me: 1) send me some good luck to get through the next 10 days of insanity, and 2) check out The Looking Glass Boutique and show her social media some love! Thanks!

Happy Sudsing!

Filed Under: Sunday Soap Case Tagged With: Activated charcoal, boutique, clothing, face soap, freighthouse, looking glass, skin care, sunday soap case, Tacoma, targeted skin care

Sunday Soap Case: Sugar Lip Butters Rock My World!

July 17, 2016 Leave a Comment

Sunday Soap Case:

Adventures at Freighthouse Square (and some news on a sweet new product).

It’s Sunday and it was so beautiful this weekend! The Soap & Clay family spent the past few days chasing Pokemon, taking the bulldog on adventure walks, and exploring Tacoma’s Historic Freighthouse Square.  This is a pretty amazing building filled with incredible food (they have an international food court; anything you could possibly want in one space. Bad. Ass.), adorable treasure and collectibles shops, and some amazing artwork. I spent an afternoon chatting with two of the local artists from Freighthouse Square’s art gallery, Mike Juetten and Lucy Schwartz.

soap and clay at freighthouse

Mike Juetten’s paintings and glass work.

Mike’s fused glass artwork had me oohing and ahhing (while Mr. Soap & Clay talked muscle cars), and Lucy showed me an amazing watercolor technique wherein she uses soap to texturize and color the canvas. If you’re in the Tacoma area and want an adventure that’s guaranteed to please, stop by the Freighthouse and mingle. You’ll make some new friends, learn some new things, and find hidden gems tucked away in corners of the shops.

freighthouse

Lucy Schwartz.

While I always enjoy family adventures, I made sure to carve out some time for work, as I have a TON of it to complete right now. Most pressing has been prep work for a few events. Soap & Clay will be at Redhook’s Moonlight Cinema on July 28th as part of Oddmall’s Vendor Village. A night of beer, Bowie, and a moonlight viewing of Labyrinth – three of my favorite things! After that, we will be taking a small break before Tacoma’s Hilltop Street Fair on August 27th. This street fair always draws an amazing crowd, so I’m looking forward to mingling with Tacoma’s residents.

In addition to all the prep work, I spent some time updating the website. I’ve added a few new products, including men’s shaving soaps, aftershave balms, and today’s Sunday Soap Case topic: Sugar Lip Butters. Read on for some sweet information on a sweet lip treat!

Sugar Lip Butters

sugar lip balmI’ve been working on the lip butter line for a few months, now. Being a lip balm aficionado, I was pretty picky when it came to recipe formulation. The goal was a medium weight, nourishing balm with great staying power. Also, the consistency had to be just so; if a balm is too soft I end up with more on my finger than I’d like (wasted product es no bueno), but I don’t want to spend more than a nanosecond swirling my finger across the balm before applying. I’m very interested in the repair qualities of high-end balms – knowing that the silky smooth butter blend on my lips is also delivering skin loving EFAs and vitamins makes me happy.

Once I had worked out what butters, oils, and extracts to use, I decided to take it up a notch. I’ve been in love with a certain sugar lip butter for quite some time – it’s sweet, exfoliating, and makes my lips feel amazing. I almost never buy it, though. Because it’s $28. For a tube of lip balm. I don’t get it. So I decided to play with sugars in my butter pots to see if I could manage an exfoliating balm that’s gentle enough to use daily (or hourly, depending on your application preference).

The Line-up

freighthouseI use a cocoa and mango butter blend for these balms (with coffee butter included in the Java pot), because both of these butters are great for dry and chapped lips and have the added benefit of repairing damaged skin and fine lines. They’re also a little bit on the firmer side with a slightly higher melting point (which means they stay firm at room temperature), which helped with the not-too-hard, not-too-soft consistency I was after.

For the oils, I settled on avocado and argan. Avocado oil is nutrient rich, ultra moisturizing, and helps restore the lip’s natural pink color (which is cool, amirite?). Argan oil is also super moisturizing and works to heal skin but is also one of the best anti-aging oils out there; it’s a deep penetrating oil that works to minimize fine lip lines. I also infused the balms with extra Vitamin E to up the moisturizing properties without creating a greasy product.

Now for the sugars. I played with a number of varieties and ultimately settled on a brown sugar and glycerin blend. This blend results in a mild exfoliant, safe to use multiple times a day that plumps lips and assists in cell turnover. This was a bit of a finicky process; too much sugar and the balm ended up waxy and scratched the lips, too little (or added at the wrong temperature) and it all but disappeared in the batch.

The end result is a solid lip butter with a slight grit (that’s the sugar) that melts on contact with skin and delivers exceptional moisturizing, nourishing, and plumping butters and oils. It’s also incredibly long lasting – I find myself reapplying less often than usual since switching to the butter pots. Would you like to try one for yourself? Of course you would! Enter coupon code LIPSLIKESUGAR at checkout to receive a sugar lip butter on the house. Offer expires on Sunday, July 24th, so hurry!

 

Filed Under: Sunday Soap Case Tagged With: anti-aging, argan oil, avocado oil, cocoa butter, exfoliating, glycerin, healing, lip care, mango butter, moisturizing, nourishing, restoring, skin care, sugar, sugar lip balms, vitamin e

Sunday Soap Case: Bath Bombs

May 29, 2016 Leave a Comment

Bath Bombs for DAYS!!!

Sunday Soap Case: Bath Bombs.soap case: bath bombs

Greetings and Salutations! I hope everyone’s May has been amazing. Here at Soap & Clay, we have hit the busy season for vendor events and booth exhibits (and by we, I mean myself and my super helpful booth designer, Mr. Soap & Clay). I’ve done a number of shows over the past few weeks, and I have noticed a new trend in visitor questions. Customers have been asking me about my soaping process; what I put into soap recipes and why, the color and design selection, and the overall inspiration behind my product lines. While this may have something to do with my newly released Game of Soaps line, answering questions about the method to my madness (there is one, I promise) has been so much fun! So, I decided to start a new weekly series, showcasing products and/or lines and my creation process. The idea to make this a weekly series comes from one of my favorite entrepreneur/blogger/soaper/kick-ass women on the planet, Anne Marie Faiola. Do check her out, she has a wealth of knowledge. But then make sure to come right back and read Sunday Soap Case: Bath Bombs to learn some cool things about my fizzy favorite!

Bath Bombs – A Basic Primersoap case: bath bombs

I may have exaggerated a bit when I said “favorite.” Bath bombs and I have a dysfunctional relationship. I love using them, I love smelling them, I love designing them. When it comes to making them? We tend to butt heads. There are too many uncontrollable variables in a bath bomb recipe. With a soap recipe, I know that if I use the proper percentage of certain oils, soap at a certain temperature, and use the proper amount of scents and additives it will yield a successful batch of soap with exceptional lathering, cleansing, and moisturizing properties. It’s not so with bath bombs; they are finicky.

This may have something to do with the extras I put into my bath bombs, however. A basic bath bomb can be made with baking soda and citric acid. But I’ve never been one for “basic” anything. So I try to throw a ton of skin loving ingredients into each bomb so they’ll be both fun AND beneficial. Some of the extras I put in my bath bombs include:

Cornstarch juicebomb

From balancing skin’s pH, soothing red, inflamed, or sunburned skin to treating diaper rash, cornstarch is pretty amazing stuff. It’s a natural cleansing agent, helps with conditions such as athlete’s foot, and is an excellent odor eliminator – cornstarch does it all. As such, I throw some into every batch of bombs I make.

Epsom Salt

Epsom salts soothe sore muscles, help detoxify the body, and can ease the pain of arthritis and fibromyalgia! Pretty cool, right? I thought so, too. So Epsom salts also find their way into my bombs.

beachbombswirlExtracts

Avocado, chamomile, primrose, carrot, buckthorn (an actual thing) – there are loads of extracts available that help with a slew of skin ailments. When used topically (like in a bath) some soften skin, others help with the pains of eczema, psoriasis, PMS, and others tone the skin and assist in achieving a healthy glow. While I don’t use these in my kid’s bombs, I do add extracts to my adult bath bombs quite regularly.

Oils

With all of these dry ingredients, it makes sense to add a skin loving oil to the mix. I tend to favor sunflower oil for its high content of linoleic fatty acid chains. This means sunflower oil is lightweight, ultra-hydrating and anti-inflammatory, all good things when dealing with the skin.

Melts & Botanicals, Soap & Sparklesberrybomb

Making all of the above ingredients play nice is difficult enough, so of COURSE I have to play with inserting bath melts and botanicals into my bombs. Bath melts are great as they add a bit of cocoa or mango butter to the bath, thus extending your tub time. Botanicals such as rose petals or lavender buds are said to have therapeutic properties, but I add them because they’re pretty and make me feel like royalty as I’m lounging in the tub with my candles and book of the week.

Whipped soap tops and sparkly surprises are just the epitome of bathtime fun. I often experiment with both to add a little something special to my bombs. Necessary? No. Fun? You bet your booty.

Soap & Clay’s Bath Bomb Line

Outside of holiday specific gift sets and custom orders, I have been dragging my feet in regards to putting bath bombs on the site. I’ve had a tough time deciding which bombs should make the lineup. I finally decided that the best way to solve this dilemma is to change the line when the mood strikes. As such, the new line will basically always be a new line, so make sure to check back regularly!

Oh, and one last thing for those diligent Sudsers that have managed to make it this far. A coupon code. For a free bath bomb. Consider it a reward for reading (hooray, literacy!). Enter coupon code BOMBSFORDAYS to get a bath bomb on the house. Offer is good on all orders placed between today and June 5th (next Sunday).

 

Filed Under: Soap Science, Sunday Soap Case Tagged With: bath bombs, detoxifying, dry skin, fancy bath, relaxation nation, sensitive skin, skin ailments, skin care, sunday soap case, take a bath

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