Thoughts and ideas from the world of Majestic Mountain Sage.

Denise

About Denise

I'm a crazy goat lady who got into making my own soap with goat milk, found MMS to order supplies, and now I get to combine my love of creating skin care products with a job to pay the feed bill. I live in Alaska and greatly enjoy the unique aspects of my northern home - summer days when it never gets dark and the Northern Lights dancing above in winter. Favorite scents include Wild Mint and Ivy, Rhubarb & Sugar Cane, and Eucalyptus Spearmint.

Many years ago I bought a jar of something called Lemon Créme Shea Butter. The label touted its age-defying, ultra-moisturizing properties. Using it hasn’t made my skin look any younger, but it sure is a good moisturizer, and I love the lemony scent. I asked our Technical Support folks to […]

Recreating Lemon Créme Shea Butter

December 14, 2021 in Lotions and Creams by Denise

We’re so excited to debut our newest fragrance, Rainbow Beach! This is no ordinary beachy scent. From our catalog: “Take a trip with me to visit the cool and rocky Pacific coastline stretching from Monterey, California, up to Vancouver, British Columbia. This fragrance is a complex blend of chill ocean […]

NEW! Rainbow Beach Fragrance Oil

December 9, 2021 in Fragrances by Denise

Do you ever chew on your lower lip? It’s an unfortunate habit of mine, and as I was considering what to make next for the blog, I was peeling dry skin off my lower lip with my teeth. It only took me about 15 minutes of this activity to come […]

Chocolate Cream Luscious Lip Balm

December 8, 2021 in Lip Balms by Denise

Watermelon is a popular flavor no matter the time of year, and you can enjoy it even more when mixed into our Shea Butter Lip Solutions! Our most popular Lip Solutions variety, Shea Butter Lip Solutions is available in 5-lb bags as well as jars and buckets. For our samples, […]

Watermelon Shea Lip Balm

December 2, 2021 in Lip Balms by Denise

We are excited at The Sage to be the December sponsors for Amy Warden’s Soap Challenge Club! This month’s challenge is Back to Basics. The primary goal is to create soap that is uniform in color with completely smooth texture and crisp lines between colors. The secondary part of the […]

We’re Sponsoring Soap Challenge Club in December

December 1, 2021 in Notices and Alerts / Soap by Denise

The idea for this soap was born when Andee texted me a fragrance blend she’d created for one of our customers. The idea the customer wanted was a citrusy, oceany fragrance. Andee combined 2 parts Lemon Zinger Fragrance Oil with 1 part Sea Salt Fragrance Oil, and the result was […]

Citrus By The Sea Soap

November 30, 2021 in Cold Process Soap / Fragrances in Cold Process Soap by Denise

Don’t you just love everything about peaches? I sure do! I ran across a bottle of Peach Fragrance Oil and was inspired to make a cream featuring it. My first thought was to use Peach Kernel Oil, but it’s out of stock at the moment. So I went to the […]

Peachy Cream

November 23, 2021 in Lotions and Creams by Denise

When I began making cold process soap, Juniper Breeze type was one of the first fragrances I ordered from The Sage. My husband was crazy about the fragrance in lotion, so I decided to put it in soap for him. Boy, was he happy! This is a fabulous clean, fresh, […]

Fragrance Friday: Juniper Breeze type

November 19, 2021 in Thoughts from The Sage by Denise

How is it possible that Thanksgiving is next week?! Time flies when you’re having fun! It’s time to do our annual holiday schedule post so you know what to expect when ordering. Starting on Friday, December 17, there will be a questionnaire when you check out, and you can choose […]

Holiday Schedule

November 17, 2021 in Thoughts from The Sage by Denise

We highly recommend Marie Gale’s excellent book “Good Manufacturing Practices for Soap & Cosmetic Handcrafters” Do you calibrate your scale? We depend completely on accurate weights, and if you don’t regularly calibrate your scale, it may not be correct. Incorrect weights can wreak havoc in your carefully crafted formulas – […]

Good Manufacturing Practices: Calibrating Scales

November 16, 2021 in Thoughts from The Sage by Denise

What a wonderfully rich, deep, and captivating fragrance! Ancient Oudwood is our interpretation of the highly sought (and very expensive) oud resin that won’t break your pocketbook or hurt conservation efforts of this threatened wood. The oud resin comes from the Agarwood tree after the heartwood has been infected by […]

Fragrance Friday: Ancient Oudwood

November 12, 2021 in Thoughts from The Sage by Denise

Here we are again with yesterday’s Macadamia Shea Oat Body Butter that turned out too heavy and feeling waxy. (If you didn’t see the first post, click here.) To remedy the two problems, I removed the 3% Stearic Acid, adding that 3% to the water. I considered dropping the percentage […]

Macadamia Shea Oat Body Butter – Take 2

November 11, 2021 in Lotions and Creams by Denise