The Alternative Liquid Soap Swap

Recently, I participated in a soap swap with 14 other soap makers from all around the country. It was so much fun that I just have to tell everyone about it!  We did alternative liquids in our soaps.  Basically, we replaced the water with anything but water to see how it affects the soap.  It's not a scientific swap because we all used our own recipes, but it was definitely fun!  I'll bold the different liquids used in the soaps.

I just received my box full of goodies last week, so I haven't had a chance to try out everything yet, so I'll be updating this post often as I test out all the different soaps and extras.

All of the soaps straight out of the box!  Everything smells
soooooo good!!

This soap smells soooo amazing!  I'm definitely going to add
Green Irish Tweed to my collection of scents soon!

This soap had lush, creamy lather that is typical of salt bars.
I loved the dual sided affect.  The bottom was a scrubby
salt bar, and the top was a smooth bar.

Ingredients:  Coconut Oil, Sea Salt, Tallow, Sweet Almond Oil,
Distilled Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Castor Oil, Olive Oil,
Fragrance, Shea Butter, Sodium Citrate, Mica, Titanium Dioxide

This soap smells lovely and clean!

Ingredients:  Tallow, Sweet Almond Oil, Coconut Oil,
Distilled Water, Sodium Hydroxide, Heavy Cream, Olive Oil,
Castor Oil, Fragrance, Sugar, Sodium Citrate, Tussah Silk,
Mica, Activated Charcoal, Titanium Dioxide.

Is this soap not gorgeous??  And I
love that she sent samples of the same
recipe with different liquids to
compare to!

Ingredients:  Tallow, Olive Oil,
Coconut Oil, Hemp Milk, Water,
Sodium Hydroxide, Castor Oil,
Palm Kernel Oil, Fragrance, Mica,
Titanium Dioxide

This bar is absolutely stunning to me.  You can't tell in the
picture, but it shimmered and sparkled like gold!  It's
scented with Nag Champa, which I never thought I would
like, but I love it!  It's a very sweet, incense type smell.

The lather is thick and creamy.  It's slightly hard to work up,
but I was really impressed with the feel of this soap.  I felt
like I was holding an antique treasure and just kept turning
it over in my hands admiring the silky feel.

Ingredients:  Lard, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Banana,
Evaporated Milk, Castor Oil, Sunflower Oil, Fragrance,
Color

This was my submission.  I received one of the bars cut from
the far end of the loaf.  Apparently, when I was pouring, I was
light handed with the batter the further away I poured from
the starting end.  Bars from the other end had bold swirls,
whereas bars from this end of the mold had more whispy
swirls.

Of course, I'm a fan of my own soap's lather, but it has a light,
fluffy lather that can turn rich and creamy with just a bit
more work.

Ingredients:  Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Water, Sodium
Hydroxide, Mango Butter, Sunflower Oil, Castor Oil, Wine
Avocado Oil, Fragrance, Sugar, Salt, Titanium Dioxide,
Iron Oxides, Vitamin E

This was a simple bar that smelled very soapy and clean.  I
couldn't detect any fragrance in the bar, but by the time I
unwrapped it, I may have already overloaded my sniffer.
By any means, it was a very light scented bar.

Ingredients:  Lard, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Cucumber,
Aloe, Castor Oil, Green Mica, Blue Oxide Titanium
Dioxide, Fragrance

This soap smells so much like ginger ale it's
unreal!  I can't wait to test it out.  I didn't
unwrap this soap to take pictures, so look
below for a look at the soap!

The swirls hidden behind the label of
Flurry of Ginger.

Ingredients:  Lard, Olive Oil, Canada Dry
Ginger Ale, Sodium Hydroxide, Coconut Oil,
Castor Oil, Water, Fragrance, Citric Acid,
Titanium Dioxide, Yellow Mica, BHT, BHA

This is Kauai Coconut.  It smells absolutely delicious!  It
reminds me of a coconut bakery treat that I can't quite put my
finger on the name of.  It is so yummy!

The maker actually collected the Hawaiian red earth clay
herself on a trip to Hawaii!

I absolutely love the decorative soap chunks on top!

Ingredients:  Coconut Milk, Olive Oil, Palm Oil, Sodium
Hydroxide, Coconut Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Shea Butter,
Castor Oil, Fragrance, Hawaiian Red Earth Clay,
Titanium Dioxide, Blue Ultra Marine, Mica

This soap smells absolutely stupendous!  To me, most berry
scents have a cough medicine note to them.  This one did
not at all!  Just berry sweet!

Ingredients:  Lard, Buttermilk, Coconut Oil, Sodium
Hydroxide, Olive Oil, Rice Bran Oil, Castor Oil, Fragrance,
Sodium Lactate, Iron Oxide, Manganese Violet, Mica,
Tin Oxide, Titanium Dioxide, Ultramarine Blue, Tussah Silk

This was my least favorite scent of the lot.  It is a very
earthy, damp soil, vegetable garden type scent, which fits
very well with the alternative liquid.  I just didn't care for it.

I love the way the bar looks, however!  But then, I'm a sucker
for camo..  And did I mention her packaging was adorable?
You can't see it but on the back she had used a paw print
hole puncher to give the soap a breathing hole.

Ingredients: Beef Tallow, Lard, Palm Kernel Oil, Water,
Olive Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Aloe Vera Juice, Castor Oil,
Tomato Paste, Kokum Butter, Fragrance, Chromium
Green Oxide, Brown Oxide, Australian Red Clay

This soap is stunning!  I love the
texture that the activated charcoal
gives soaps.

This bar developed a silky gel coating
the minute it touched water.  This gel
easily developed into a rich, creamy
lather.  It was a very interesting bar
to me as it is so different from my own
soaps!

Ingredients:  Lard, Olive Oil, Distilled
Water, Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil,
Sodium Hydroxide, Castor Oil,
Sucrose, Citric Acid, Mica, Titanium
Dioxide, Iron Oxide, Fragrance

I wish you had smell-o-vision for this soap!  It's probably my
favorite out of everything I received.  The maker graciously
shared his fragrance blend used to scent this soap.  I will
be blending it very soon, and plan to name the scent
Nevermore in honor of this bar.  I'll be checking with the
maker first, though, to make sure it's alright.

I absolutely love the story behind the name of the soap.  The
maker used a locally brewed beer by New Holland Brewing
called The Poet.  The label of the beer features a raven,
which is an obvious reference to Edgar Allen Poe. So the
soap maker decided to name the soap after the ominous
call of the raven.

Ingredients: Palm Oil, Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, Coconut
Oil, Shea Butter, Castor Oil, Beer, Kaolin Clay, Sodium
Lactate, Titanium Dioxide, Fragrance

First off, the label!  I absolutely love the design!  The scent
isn't my favorite, but I'm not a huge fan of bergamot or many
tea fragrances.  I can't wait to use this soap, though, as it is
made with ingredients I've never tried before.

Ingredients:  Kombucha (organic raw kombucha, fresh pressed
ginger juice), Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Sustainable Palm Oil,
Sodium Hydroxide, Apricot Kernel Oil, Shea Butter, Sal Butter,
Fragrance, Castor Oil, Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Sodium Lactate,
Rosemary Oleoresin, Extract

I absolutely love the name of this soap!  This is an essential
oil soap and the design makes me think of birch tree bark.

Ingredients:  Aloe Juice, Olive Oil, Rice Bran Oil, Coconut
Oil, Cocoa Butter, Sodium Hydroxide, Castor Oil, Powdered
Sugar, Salt, Citric Acid, Orange 5x Essential Oil,
Eucalyptus Essential Oil, Ylang Ylang Essential Oil

This soap has very pretty swirls to compliment the delicate
scent.  It's light yet sweet.  I loved the smooth feel of this
bar, as well as the creamy lather.

Ingredients:  Olive Oil, Lard, Water, Oat Milk, Sodium
Hydroxide, Coconut Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Fragrance,
Castor Oil, Sunflower Oil, Mica, Titanium Dioxide,
Iron Oxide, Manganese Violet

This soap is a lovely fragrance blend.  It's very juicy and
citrus-y (which I love!).  The color combination is
ingenious and looks amazing!

Ingredients:  Tallow, Aloe Vera Juice, Lard, Olive Oil,
Coconut Oil, Sodium Hydroxide, Fragrance, Micas and
Oxides

And then there were all the amazing bonus items everyone
sent!  The spirulina and sodium citrate were sent as samples
to try in our own soaps.  There were several samples of
different soaps, some lovely lip balms, and two bath truffles.
I also received a 1 ounce fragrance sample called Skinny
Dipping.

What's New at Rustic Silk Soaps

Hi, you!

In the past year, I have seriously neglected my blog.  I eventually decided to close it down until I could figure out how to give it the attention it needs.  I'll be honest, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to post.

Well, I've finally figured it out! At least for now.  Every Friday, I'll be posting of what has been made that week, what has been added to my Etsy shop, and other little updates are going on at Rustic Silk Soaps.

So without further ado, here are some of this weeks projects!

Juniper Fields and Grapefruit Rosemary Aromatherapy Bombs just after
unmolding.

Juniper Fields and Grapefruit Rosemary Aroma Bombs waiting to be wrapped
and labeled.  Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey and Gardenia soaps waiting to be
trimmed up before being moved to the curing racks.

Gardenia, the first soap in my new line of lard soaps, and a restock of
Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey - one of my best sellers!  Ready June 17th.

After many requests, I finally made a Patchouli soap!
eady June 16th.

Patchouli waiting to be trimmed up.

Last but not least, Coco-Not was added to my Etsy shop.  You can find it here.

Introducing Lard Based Soaps!

I began Rustic Silk Soaps with the intentions of only offering vegetarian and vegan products.  I never planned to change that, but recently I've begun to feel differently.  Don't get me wrong, I'll still have plenty of veggie soaps available, but I've finally decided to include some lard soaps in my line up.

When I first started making soaps, I was put off by the thought of using animal fats because I was slightly icked out at the idea of slathering it on my skin while I bathe.  I broke down one day and finally made a soap out of lard.  I hot processed it because I wanted to try it quickly to see how it compared to my recipes at the time...and I found it very drying.  I figured this soap was bound to be inferior to my veggie soaps, so I passed the soaps off to my mother-in-law after a good cure and forgot about them.

After about six months, she asked me if I had any more of them.  I told her no, but that I would make her some and let her know when they were ready.  Once cured, I gave her several bars and kept the others to cure further.  A few weeks later, she contacted me and let me know she wanted a couple more because she had given some to one of her friends that had visited and raved about the soap in the bathroom.

Then, one day while I was visiting, I used the soap by her bathroom sink without thinking.  After I dried my hands, I couldn't help but notice how silky my skin felt.  Imagine my surprise when I realized I had used the soap I had given her!  I was quite impressed with the soap, and started questioning my decision for using only veggie oils and butters.

The final decision came when someone pointed out to me that using fat in soap was an ecologically responsible way to use all of the animal that was sacrificed.  When I was growing up, I spent lots of time outdoors hunting deer with my Dad.  He instilled in me from a very young age that you only take what you need and use everything that you can.  The thought of disrespecting the animal's sacrifice by not using every part slowly nibbled away at my mind until I started seriously rethinking my mindset toward animal soaps.

To date, my mother-in-law has recruited several people who are in love with the lard soap that I began making for her.  They all claim that it's the gentlest soap they've ever used.  So I have decided to include this soap in my line up for the people who need a little gentler soap.

About Rustic Silk Soaps

Hello out there!  I just wanted to welcome you to my business's blog, and give you a little info on Rustic Silk Soaps.

Rustic Silk Soaps opened January 16, 2014.  I knew that I wanted to start a business that would provide people with safer, more effective, and more environmentally friendly products.  For a time before I opened, I tossed around business name ideas and, finally, one stuck!  My product line is ever expanding and I am constantly testing new creations.  I want you to have the best product I can give!

I started out making only melt and pour, or glycerin, soaps in small batches in my kitchen because, to be honest, I was afraid of the lye used to make cold process soap. But my growing curiosity helped me to quickly overcome my fear because I have never settled for the simplistic or easy route. I decided that I wanted more of a challenge than the melt and pour was able to give me so I started making cold process soaps. I have even joked that melt and pour soap was the gateway drug to my soap-making addiction! Since then, my addiction has spread to other bath and body products such as lotion bars, salt and sugar scrubs, bath bombs, and more!

Of course, all of my products are made with the highest quality and most luxurious ingredients available. Many of my recipes include luscious shea butter or mango butter, as well as luxury oils such as avocado, hemp, and jojoba oils. I hardly ever use just plain old boring water in my products as I like to incorporate other liquids, such as herbal teas, milks, or coffee into my recipes to make them even more unique!

Rustic Silk Soaps' soaps are artfully crafted with natural and sustainable ingredients through the time-honored cold process method. My soaps provide a rich, creamy lather that will leave your skin feeling clean and wonderfully refreshed.

I make both vegan and non-vegan products. Some of my recipes are made using wonderful and skin-loving animal "products" like beeswax, honey, or milks. My beeswax and honey comes from a local provider who does not use pesticides or antibiotics on his bees.  I carefully choose products that come from sustainable and responsibly harvested resources only so as to make our products more environmentally friendly.  For this reason, I only use RSPO certified palm oil products.

Thanks for reading!