Yesterday it snowed and I just had to share this beautiful picture with you. Even though the calendar says it is spring, we aren’t in the clear just yet. Here in Northern Utah we have seen snow as late as June and our high mountains have had snow on the […]

Snow and Other News

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Lately, I’ve been dreaming about watermelon and I’ve even found myself with a mouthful of pillow one morning. You can imagine my disappointment when I realized that it was NOT watermelon! Today, I’m going to show you how I made my recent batch of watermelon soap. I don’t know that […]

Watermelon Soap

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Nina submitted her milk soaps for our Milk Soap Challenge. She used the Half & Half Method with sheep milk. Enjoy! I have a special love for milk soaps! In fact I will no longer do without one in my shower. They are all that I make now. For this […]

Milk Soap Challenge – Sheep Milk

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Dirk, one of our web programmers, wrote this excellent tutorial on making a simple soap mold. This tutorial allows anyone to make a mold just with lumber scraps! Enjoy! Making your own handmade soap is a great example of chemistry in practical use. You are mixing fats with a solution […]

Guerrilla Soap Mold

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Stephanie submitted her milk soaps for our Milk Soap Challenge. She used the Half & Half method with Soy Milk and it turned out beautifully. Guess what? I’ll bet if she tries buttermilk again, it will turn out perfectly! Enjoy! I decide to try a soy milk for the first […]

Milk Soap Challenge – Soy Milk

Lynda submitted her milk soaps for our Milk Soap Challenge. She used another variation of the Half & Half method and she also included Lavender Buds in her soap. The concentrated lye mixture is added after the milk. This is a different process for sure. Enjoy! Yesterday we made our […]

Milk Soap Challenge – Goat’s Milk & Lavender

Holly submitted her milk soaps for our Milk Soap Challenge. Again, we have the Skim Milk Method being used to add the milk. I think it looks like lots of fun! Enjoy! I used an olive, palm, coconut, castor, and avocado oil combo. I mixed my lye with distilled water […]

Milk Soap Challenge – Goat’s Milk

Rebekah submitted her milk soaps for our Milk Soap Challenge. Rebekah’s method is simple, easy to follow and should be exciting to try. If you want to make milk soap, but you aren’t sure about the Half and Half method, this is a good compromise to try. What should we […]

Milk Soaps Challenge – Buttermilk

Dear Readers, I’ve been absent from this microphone lately for two reasons. 1) I’ve been participating in a community play and while I’m sad that it will be ending soon, I’m also excited to write a daily blog again. 2) I recently came down with a lovely cold that traveled […]

Milk Soaps Challenge – Goat’s Milk Soaps

I’m so excited to share our latest additions to the catalog with you! We just released the Daisy Lip Balm Pots and they are just so much fun. These pots are easy to fill and a wonderful bonus is that you can stack several pots and have a collection of […]

New Containers

This is a question that comes up for everyone learning to make soap. I recently stumbled across this cute illustrated explanation of saponification. This is a fun way to enjoy learning about saponification without covering several whiteboards with chemical changes at the molecular level. I wish all confusing questions could […]

What is Saponification?

If you have ever been the Master Food Preserver Program with your local university extension office, then today’s paper might be familiar to you. If you aren’t familiar with home canning, this paper will still be useful to you as it explains why jars break, just like the jar in […]

Why Jars Break