EGCG Swag Bags are here!

You've been waiting for them and they are here! Only a few bags will be available, so make sure to grab yours before they sell out.


What ARE EGCG Swag Bags?
The Swag bags are a collection of 18 generous sample-sized products from different Bath & Body shops - all members of EGCG ( Etsy Green & Clean Guild!) It's a great way to try different products from different shops at the same time. It's also a great Mother's Day gift idea!
Another awesome feature is that your EGCG Swag Bag is a special reusable, eco-friendly shopping bag! So make sure you put it to good use long after you use the products.

What's IN it?
This round, we have a variety of handmade bath soaps, lip balms, lotions, facial soaps, laundry soap, candles, bath fizzy, body mist, sugar cube scrub....wonderful goodies!

Where to get them?
Swag Bags will be available on April 15th on EGCG Etsy's shop.

Participating shops:
Morgan Street
Bunny Butt Apothecary
Spa Therapy Works
Right As Rain Creations
The Bath Project
DressGreen
Jadewicks
You Stink Soap
Shower Treat Soap
Sweet Creek Herbs
Farnham Soaps
Kelle's Kitchen
Mea Culpa Body and Bath
Inseine Creations
Rachel Rene
Grumpy Girl
SudzNThings
Mirasolfarm

(A big thanks to Shannon of The Bath Project who originally authored this post and allowed me to use it word for word on my blog :)).

Just Listed - Damask Rose

My Damask Rose soap bar is now for sale in my Etsy Shop!

Going on Vacation!!

I thought it only appropriate to warn any customers reading my blog (if any do? :)) that I will be putting my Etsy Shop on vacation from Friday 4/3/09 until Wednesday 4/8/09. It's not such a long time but it's necessary. Coll and I are relocating temporarily - we have a sublet in Milwaukee and I am heading home to my parents house for my month of vacation! But first I will fly to Phoenix to look at houses with our realtor and hopefully make an offer before all is said and done! First-time home buying is one of the most intimidating things I've ever done (and I go to Medical School, ha ha!). But it has turned out to be really fun as well. Now we'll just have to see how fun I think it is once we have counter offers and slow-moving banks to deal with!

The Battle of the Bulge (to be continued)

I just wanted to alert anyone who is following my weight loss goals that I am going to take the next two weeks off of focusing on that. I will hopefully maintain what I've lost through these weeks if not lose more, but I'm not going to worry about it and keep close track right now! With our move and me traveling to Phoenix to look for a new home, I wish to focus on those things at this point! I will be back with an all new weigh in on 4/14/09!! Keep your fingers crossed for no gains at that point :)

Coming (really) Soon! Damask Rose

While I usually post about new creations within a week of creating them, this time my busy day job and procrastination got the best of me. I will actually be posting this bar for sale in my Etsy shop later this week but still wanted to share photos of the awesome new kid with you :)


I love floral scents but not the "grandma" floral that is overpowering and...just plain gross. This bar is scented with an essential oil blend but its primary note is that of rose essential oil. When I first thought to make a rose scented bar I was wary, but it smells absolutely wonderful!

This batch seized but luckily I am well aware that floral essential oils, especially rose, are known for this and was prepared - I added my rose hip powder (natural colorant) in prior to the essential oils for maximum chance of success. What is "seize" you ask? Well usually you pour soap into a mold at trace which is kind of runny pudding consistency (and if you dip a spoon in to the liquid and then drip the liquid over the surface it leaves a "trace" along the top) - you can push batches a little farther to do things like peaks to the tops. When soap seizes it goes from this runny pudding to a non-chunky oatmeal consistency in a matter of minutes. It gets hard quickly! That makes it difficult to get into a mold or do anything "fun" with it as you have to work extremely quickly!

I managed to get this bar in the mold, though, and all is well with the world :) I wanted to talk a bit about rose hip powder, one of my favorite natural colorants. The powder, itself, is a mustard yellow color. I was quite shocked the first time I saw it, actually, because I was planning to use it to color a soap pink! But with soaping colors can be deceiving!

After you pour cold process soap containing rose hip powder into a mold it looks white (see photo above). In a few hours it will go through a "gel phase". This is an exothermic (heat producing) chemical reaction that makes the soap look more like a gel (more translucent) and this reaction is required to make soap! When the soap hits gel phase, the rose hip powder turns this fun blue color (see photo below)!


When you remove the bar from the mold once it has cooled and hardened enough for cutting, it is a light peachish color (see photo below).


As the bar cures, it turns progressively more pink. It's the soap of many colors :)

Just Listed - Minty Fresh

You heard it here first, folks :) My Minty Fresh bar has just been listed for sale in my Etsy shop! Coll and I have been testing the bar for the past few days and its passed inspection with flying colors! This one even got a special, "Kell, I really LOVE this Minty Fresh bar!" comment from Collier. I knew he'd love it :)

An Ode to Phoenix

I managed to get my Etsy-loving self together enough this week to make one treasury. I called it an Ode to Phoenix as I felt the need to do something to celebrate my move on Etsy! Sunshine and warmth here we come!