New scents comming

It has been a crazy ride this month here at Piece of Pisces.  I had a huge scent order come in, the same time we had 1000 bars of wedding orders come in.  Scents that I made were selling before we had a chance to list them, so now we're curing rebatches of them for listing (68 lbs of Lavender Peacock bars have sold, and not one has made it into the store yet).  This week you can expect some new scents, but we only have a few bars of each while the others in that scent cure, so we may sell out.

May Promo - Out of the Box Samplers

This month we are honored to be included in the Out of the Box Sampler boxes for Mother's Day.  A sample of our scent Moonlit Garden will be in each box.
http://www.outoftheboxsampler.com/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=BuyABox

 The boxes sell out fast, so grab them quick if you'd like one, or you can order your bars directly from me.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70907750/moonlight-in-the-garden-rose-jasmine-and

Word to your Mother

Or soap to your mother, we have several new scents coming out in time for Mother's Day next month.  One was inspired by our trip to wine country, another by our love of all that is caffinated, and the third you can get a preview bar in May's Promotions.  Details on Friday.

Banana Ice Cream in the Tub

Our new scent Funky Monkey was inspired by my son's love of banana ice cream.  He asked for a way to take a bath and eat ice cream at the same time.  While the mommy in me nixed this plan, I decided to make a bar that smelled like his favorite ice cream.  We now have one sweet smelling son who's still all monkey.

Bunny Business

April is a busy month for my family.  We have several birthdays, and it seems I spend alot of the month baking birthday cakes.  With spring on full blast in the desert it's the last bit of time to use the oven before the days of 100 degree heat.  Today I'm multitasking, baking a cake for my granny's 73rd birthday, which we're celebrating tomorrow, making parker house rolls from scratch for Easter dinner and cinnamon rolls for Easter Brunch.  Sunday afternoons are usually my soapmaking day so I'm having to move things about a bit this week.

New soaps out! Funky Monkey & Strawberry Smoothie

Today our newest soaps come online!

Funky Monkey ~ Vanilla Bean, Banana and Chocolate Swirls.  This smells like a banana split.  Featuring real cocoa powder and vanilla beans, this bar is sure to make your sweet tooth happy. 

Strawberry Smoothie ~ Strawberry Oil, Vanilla Bean and Poppy Seeds.  This smells like a perfect smoothie, fruity and lush, with a silky skin feel and rich lather.

Hint on Friday's new soaps!

This Friday we're debuting 2 new soaps, pictures of them are available on our facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=119964211415229&id=111041142307536&aid=23316 ), to win your choice of our new soaps, here's what you need to do:

Find the name of our new soaps, using these hints:

Do the monkey with me!

Strawberry shortcake would've loved this one!

Enter the name of the soap below, and I'll pick a number to receive a bar of their favorite scent.

April Soap Giveaway!

On Friday we have 2 new soaps coming out, you can win one free, on Wednesday by guessing our new soaps.  Game and hints will be up Wednesday morning.

Scent of the Month - Sakura - Japanese Cherry Blossoms

April's scent of the month is Sakura, the word for Cherry Blossoms in Japan.  Mr Pisces and I have 3 dear friends who live and work in Japan, and while we are blessed to hear they are safe, the people's needs are still great.  We're going to offer a scent of the month for the next year, and donate to the red cross for Japan relief 100% of the profits each month from those scents. 
So here's how it works you can pick any shape in the store, Circles, Hearts, Cupcakes, Lego Men, Bricks, Beach, Cherry Blossoms, Mini Hearts, Mini Rectangles, Stars.  You'll receive 2.5-3oz of soap in your shape, made fresh when you order it.  You can try out a new scent and give some love to Japan as well.

Here's where you can order:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/72359697/scent-of-the-month-sakura-japanese
   

Seeking Inspiration in Unlikely Places

Today I have that rare thing called an afternoon off.  While my sons go see a movie with grandma and grandpa, Mr. Pisces and I will be off in search of new trends and inspirations for the summer line.  First up is a trip to wine country to sample this years hot wines (we'll be looking for new fruit and scent pairing to try out).  Then to the Farmer's markets to see what new herbs and flavors can be found there.  As always we'll have a notebook in tow to take notes to bring you fresh new exciting soaps.

Busy days in the lab

This has been a busy week, been working on our natural line, and adding in new summer scents, I'll be previewing them on facebook and gearing up for summer promotions, you can peek at them below.
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/photos.php?id=111041142307536

Sugar Scrubs - How to use em!

One of the items that has people sometimes scratching thier heads is sugar and salt scrubs.  Here's what they are not... snacks.  I know, but last time I dropped soap off at Dad's office, one of the guys tried to take a bite out of brownie soap.  Here's what you need to know to have a srubby good time.

~ Sugar scrubs can be mushy if they sit in water, so open the container, take 1 out and close it back up.

~ Take your scrub into the shower and smush it in your hands with a little water, it'll make up a paste, then rub this paste where you want some exfoliation.  Good spots are elbows, knees, heels, feet, legs pre-shaving (helps get rid of irritating ingrown hairs), and anywhere else you need extra scrubbiness.

Currently each batch of scrubs are made to order so you can choose the colors and scents you'd like from our full line.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pieceofpisces?ref=si_shop

Wedding Weekend Sale April 8 to 10th!

This is our first wedding weekend sale of the year! 

We love weddings, and working with brides is fun.  Alas, we are mere people not octopi, so we only have 2 hands each.  We can only do so many custom orders each week, so spots can fill up fast.  Our solution? Wedding Weekend sales, if you book your date now, we can have your favors made, completed, and sent to you, all you have to do is open the box and hand them out!

Have an unusual request? no problem, if you want lychee fruit in pink, we can do it!  If you want mint chocolate in sea foam? sure!  Lettuce and tomato? yep I can swing those too.  Need an exact shade?  get a box of Crayola Crayons, pull out the color you want and convo with that name, I'll match it.

How to order favors:

Pick your scents and colors (2 scents and 2 colors)
Look for the soap shape on our site, want a theme you don't see there?  send a note I'll find it!
Convo me with your scent, shape and color choices, event date, and quantity needed, I'll make you up a custom listing.  The day you pay for your listing is the day your soaps get made, but we can only accept so many custom orders at a time, so order early.

Use coupon code: weddingweekend for 10% off your custom orders

http://www.etsy.com/shop/pieceofpisces?section_id=7993458

Brand New Beer Soaps Out Today!

Today has 3 new soaps out!

Lime and Cervesa - Made with real corona beer and fresh lime, this is the perfect bar for the man in your life.  Made in out custom mold with waves, it has gentle massage on one side and smooth lather.

Cherry Vanilla Beer Hearts ~ Made with a cherry vanilla micro brew beer, it smells like a cherry muffin and is thick to lather and makes a perfect pair with our Lime and Cervesa bar. 

Goldilocks and the Three Beers ~ This trio features one of each of our beer scents, Lime & Cervesa, Cherry Vanilla Beer Hearts and Irish Barmaid (Guinness Stout and Oatmeal), perfect for a his & hers shower, the beer fan in your life or anyone who just wants clean hair (beer soap has been used for decades to perk up blond locks).

You can find all of our soapy goodness here:

http://www.etsy.com/your/listings?ref=si_acc

Comming Soon ~ Man Soap!

Exciting things going on here at POP!  We're adding to our men's line with new manly scents and products.  They go on sale this Friday, but as always, there's a sneak peek on our facebook page.

Remember to like us on facebook to see our new soaps first.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Piece-of-Pisces/111041142307536?sk=wall

On Husbands and Cheesecakes - Recipe

If you ask Mr Pisces why he doesn't mind a messy kitchen while his wife's playing with her chemistry set, he'll say "cheesecake".

Today I'm sharing my inspiration for this week's newest soap, Cherry Cheesecake Swirl.

24oz of cream cheese (it's great, not diet)
1 egg
1cup sugar
1 tbsp vanilla (use the good stuff!)
1 gram cracker crust (premade is fine, no one notices)

Using your mixer, beat the egg, sugar and vanilla till smooth.
Slowly add in the cream cheese an ounce at a time, beating smooth each addition.
Once the filling is smooth (it should be thick like pudding), use a rubber spatula to fill and smooth out the filling in the pie crust.
Bake at 325 for 35 mins, and peek, if the top is too brown, tent with a piece of foil, if not leave uncovered and bake 15 minutes more.
Carefully slide out of the oven, and let cool fully (4 hours in the fridge minimum, overnight is better).

Topping (I make it 5 mins before serving, but you can do an hour ahead):
1.5 cups frozen cherries
.5 cup whipping cream
.5 cup powdered sugar
.25 tsp lemon juice (squirt from a lemon wedge)

I use a food processor, but an immersion blender or a blender does the job.

It's like making a smoothie, pour in the cherries, lemon juice and add the whipping cream and blend.  Add in the sugar 1/3rd at a time to thicken up the topping.  Chill and serve.

Second Date Sipper

Mr. Pisces and I had known each other for several years before we begun dating.  On our second date, my cousin had arranged a surf weekend.  I knew that my new guy didn't surf, but he could swim and who doesn't love a good camp out on the beach, so I brought him along. 
On the way up the 3 hour drive became a 5 hour one, because the driver wanted to try out the state scenic route (mind you this was before GPS), and we got hopelessly lost.  Then the tire popped, and we waited 3 more hours for AAA (yes we were *that* lost).  By the time we got to the beach campground, there was no spaces left.  Luckily we had a friend who lived an hour away, so we backtracked and popped up a tent in the yard of his apartment.  After a night of beef stew and cervesa with lime wedges and nachos, we decided to make it work.  Needless to say we did not get much rest.

Next morning we headed to the beach determined to make the best of things.  Since we were a few boards short, we offered to sit out the first hour, and lie on the beach.  Unfortunately we both fell asleep on our towels, in full sun. 

Three hours later we woke up to skin a vivid shade of scarlet.  Now I freckle, and get tanner after a sunburn.  My new guy was several shades lighter and his skin blistered!  He even managed to burn the bottom of his feet!  We had to take him to the hospital for sun poisoning and blistering burns.  I was so sure I wasn't going to get a 3rd date, but I had to make sure he recovered; after all I darn near killed him.  So every day before and after work I'd go to his house and make him a milk bath and rub aloe into his mangled skin. 

Lime and beer is a flavor that reminds me to make the best of things. 

Artist Collabrations

Recently I had a chance to collaborate with a fine local artist.  As a soapmaker, I can be caught up in the chemistry of making soap, and at times it takes a fresh set of eyes to see the potential of the art of soap.  Working with Kriss did not disappoint, we went thru the available fragrances and colors and pigments on hand and designed new combinations.  Soap was dyed, swirled and micas glittered on, and at the end we had several limited edition styles that will be offered in the next few weeks.

On Moonlight in the Garden and Young Love

For me I create by scents.  There is a wonderful primalness to how the scent of a thing can grab you and transport you to a memory, a moment in time, or even to a new place.  I create in reverse, that is I try to capture a moment, then think about the scents that would make that moment in time. 

I wanted to find a scent that would recall the early weeks of my husband and my courtship, that scent of soft goodnight kisses at the front door, under the moonlight.  A time of young love, sweet embraces and my mother's garden inside our courtyard, when we'd say our goodnights.  I blended a french lavender, roses jasmine, and freesia, to make that sweet longing scent I remembered. 

The resulting bars are peachy with soft veins of rose pink swirling thru, the perfect shade of young romance.

You can find the bars here, if you want one of your own.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/70463597/moonlight-in-the-garden-rose-jasmine-and

How to Use a Bar of Real Soap - A tutorial

OK so you now have a bar of real soap, ordered it with your amount of scrubbiness... now what?

Well the easy answer is go to the shower, but after so many people using liquid cleaners for so long, well a primer in soap use can't hurt.

First thing to know, letting your new artisan soap sit in water is bad.  It will become mushy and not last long at all, so unless using it, keep it dry (letting it air dry in a soap dish without standing water is perfectly fine, put away the blow drier). 

My technique is to use a bath scrubbie (the thing that looks like netting wadded into a knot, that they sell for liquid cleaners).  I take my bath scrubbie, wet that and then swipe it a few times over my soap bar.  Place soap out of the water and smush the scrubbie a few times for lather. 

Really that's the whole secret, no more flipping a bottle over and shaking out the cleanser, no more squinting to read if it's shampoo, conditioner or body wash in the bottle (I got that wrong plenty of times.)  Use the scubbie swipe 3-5 times and squish for bubbles.

I got me some review love!

I got some review love today.  Below is the link for you to read for yourself. 

It's nice to be recognized for working hard, and even better when you have work that you love.  There's a promotion giveaway going on until April 4th at 3girls reviews, which you'll find at the link below.

http://3girlsreviews.blogspot.com/2011/03/giveaway-piece-of-pisces.html

Help! My soap has bumpy things in it!

Often in artisian soap you'll find some exfoliants blended in.  Some common ones include: clay powder, rice flour, ground oatmeal, sugars, salts, pumpkin seeds, poppy seeds, or coffee grounds.  The finely powdered options, like clays, rice and oat flours provide "slip" and are almost always used in shaving soaps.  Medium sized pieces like sugar and salts provide a gentle scrubbiness good for exfoliation and preshave scrubbing.  Large sized bits like coffee grounds, poppy seeds and other seeds provide a firm scrubbing, ideal for heels, hands, elbows and knees.  I perfected a high-lather base formulia, so regardless of the type of exfoliant mixed in, you'll get alot of bubbles and no scratching.

Kinds of Soap

If you're not soap obsessed, you may not realize that there's several kinds of "soap", you most likely never think about the soap you rub on your or your kid's bodies at all.  So I'm tossing together a mini primer on the kinds of soap, because once you know what you're looking for, it's easier to find.

Commercial "soap":  Actually it's usually not soap at all.  Ever wonder why it's a "beauty bar" "cleansing bar" or "moisturizing bar"?  It's because by law, soap is made from fats and alkali (here that's oil and lye), and most of what's sold commercially is actually a solid detergent bar (like laundry detergent), made from cheap petroleum oil by products.  This is what causes most skin sensitivities and rashes.

Cold Processed Soap: This is the natural soap making process, it involves the reaction between fats and alkalies (here it's Organic Vegan oils and butters and Sodium Hydroxide), it's the soap Granny would've made, if she had a chemistry degree.  The process keeps the natural glycerin within the soap for maximum skin soothing and gentle cleansing.

Glycerin Soap:  It's the solid glycerin (usually clear or white, depending on recipe), that is extracted after the soapanification reaction, before the fresh soap has a chance to harden.  It's moisturizing and skin-friendly, and allows for some artsy effects, not available otherwise.

I work in both cold processed and glycerin soaps, as both have worthy and unique properties.