Winter Solstice Soap

In all the mad hurrying and scurrying to get ready for the holiday sales season, I made a blunder on one batch of soap.  I accidentally added the essential oils from two different varieties to the same batch.  Happily, it turned out to be a lovely mistake.  It's a little like those old Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercials from the 1980s where two people run into each other on the sidewalk and chocolate and peanut butter collide...a wonderful accident.

Winter Solstice Soap is made with honey, beeswax and the oils of frankincense, myrrh, clove and orange.  It's warm and spicy and sweet, all at the same time.  It's a perfect winter scent.

I wanted to choose label art for it that made folks think of the cozy glow of candles in the long, dark winter.  I chose today (Daylight Savings Day) to make it available because I think there's lots to love in this stretch of time until the Winter Solstice on December 21st.  The darkness of the longest night is always lifted by candlelight.  

Thanks to the Graphics Fairy for this great image.

Each bar is individually wrapped and labeled for gift-giving.  There is only one batch, so don't miss out!

Hockey Soap

Probably because of the northern latitudes where I’ve lived, I’ve always preferred the cold-climate sports like skiing and ice skating.  It’s a bit surprising that I never had much of a connection with hockey growing up.  There weren’t any rinks or teams near us in North Idaho, so the sum total of my hockey exposure involved playing pick-up games on a frozen Coeur d’Alene or Fernan lake in the wintertime, using a Stick Up air freshener as a puck.  I always loved it though.  I think if I’d been able to play hockey on a real team, I would have gotten sucked in easily.

A few years ago my son was introduced to hockey through a friend whose parents are expat Canadians.  He was hooked, fast.  It’s been so fun for me to watch him over the past six years as his skating skills and strategy have improved exponentially.  I truly enjoy watching the games.  The sport of hockey takes multitasking to a totally new level.  It’s awesome. 

Hockey does have a downside though.  It stinks.  Literally.   I’m sure that other sweaty sports are the same, but I’m astounded every time I walk near a locker room (or my son’s hockey gear drying out) at just how fragrant it is.  They work hard on the ice, and they produce the sweat to prove it.  I've been thinking for a while that a hockey soap would be a great idea.  Plus, the round shape of my soaps have often been compared to hockey pucks…so the union was clear.   All I needed was a great, beneficial ingredient that turns the soap a deep hockey-puck shade of black.  Activated charcoal was just the thing.  Add to it the refreshing scent of peppermint and tea tree essential oils and you have a winner!   

Slap Shot Soap

Body & Soul

Music is very important in my life.  I have always been surrounded by it, played it, belonged to bands that performed it, and basically let it soak in and wash over me on a regular basis.  My life is better because of music.  I was fortunate to begin my musical life when I was young, as I wish all people could.  

This is me, singing "Don't Fence Me In" at the school talent show when I was in kindergarten.

My children love it too and are now lucky to be able to make music every day. The Seattle Public Schools  try to provide music opportunities for kids and have a number of great ensembles.  But like most other arts programs in schools across the nation, the music programs are in need of financial support to purchase essential supplies like instruments and sheet music, and to allow students an opportunity to refine and showcase their talents through performance and competition.

For this reason, 30% of all profits from the website sales of my new Body & Soul Soap will go directly to support our neighborhood school's blossoming music program.  

The theme (and name) for this soap was inspired by the Jazz standard that's been performed by so many great musicians over the years.  Billie Holiday's version is the one that I've listened to the most, though there are many other beautiful renditions like the one done by Amy Winehouse and Tony Bennet. It's an elegant and smooth piece of music that I hanker for, especially this time of year, when  the air is crisp and I just want to slip into the sound like a warm bubble bath.

The scent of Body & Soul Soap comes from a complex mixture of essential oils that include the more masculine bay rum oil, as well as the very feminine ylang ylang.  The subtle green color comes from French green clay and the rich lather is complimented by moisturizing shea butter.  It's a really nice soap.  I had fun writing the text for the insert card too.  It reads: This smooth, groovin’ soap was inspired by the soulful sounds of jazz greats like Billie, Louis, Ella & Chet. It’s a fusion of natural ingredients, with a subtle, layered scent. Let it wash over you, because soap cleanses the body like music cleanses the soul. 

When you buy it, you not only get some great soap, but you help spread music to a whole new generation. 

Tough Chick Soap

I have a new One Batch bare bar soap available on the website today.  It's called Tough Chick Soap because it's a mixture of floral, feminine sweetness and rough and tough ground organic oats.  It's scented with fine French lavender essential oil and is made with honey from the Ballard Bee Company.  The smell is a complex, sweet floral.  It's lovely.  You should try some!

Feelin' the Love

I have to brag a little about some positive press I've received recently.  Two great interviews have been done of me in the past month, and I'm very excited about it.  The Soap Queen Blog, courtesy of Anne-Marie Faiola of Bramble Berry did a fun post about me and my company a few weeks ago. And then today, a great feature on the Seattle Met Magazine blog.  Thanks so much for all the attention!  It makes me feel like I'm doing something right.  

Kristin Boyett Photography

Dancing Bears Soap

I have a new small batch soap to introduce.  It's called Dancing Bears Soap because it's sweet and brown colored...awwwww.  It's made with fresh goat's milk, which is where much of the sweetness comes from.  It lathers wonderfully, also thanks to the goat's milk.  I added just a touch of vanilla oil to further sweeten it, though it's definitely not an over-the-top vanilla smell.  I only made one batch.  Let's see what people think!!

Real Soap, Drugs & Rock and Roll

This is incredible...hilarious and very informative.  I had no idea that I was producing such an illicit substance!

Thanks to the folks at Dr. Bronner's for putting this video together.

Fun Soap Facts: Weddings

Here's an interesting little tidbit that I read recently:

In the 1500s, June weddings were the most common because people typically took their annual bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June (relatively speaking). However, June is a whole month later and they were still pretty ripe, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide their odor. This is what started the modern day custom of a bride carrying a bouquet of flowers ... and also the (welcomed) custom of bathing more often than once a year!

Addendum:

After further research, it seems that this great story is only that...a story.  Here is a bit of additional information that is quite interesting on the topic-The Bad Old Days: Weddings & Hygiene

Great Shaving Lather

I have spent quite a long time trying to perfect my recipe for great shaving soap, but even great soap can be disappointing if you're not using a good method for building shaving lather with your brush.  The following is an illustrated example of one reliable method, though it's not by any means the only one.  Since I didn't grow up shaving myself, I had to learn from somewhere.  My thanks goes to the guys over at Badger and Blade for their suggestions and shaving "how to" resources.

Loading the Brush with Soap:

Fill sink with hot water and soak brush for 3-5 minutes. This allows the bristles to retain and control the amount of water in the lather.

Place a thin layer of water on your soap and let it soak for at least a couple of minutes.

Remove brush from the hot water and squeeze bristles vigorously, wringing out most of the water. Give it a couple of good shakes as well.

Dump the thin layer of water off of soap and begin swirling your brush in a circular motion with light to medium pressure. Add some plunger motions, using the whole brush and including the sides of the brush. Continue swirling until a paste-like consistency begins to form on the top of the soap and on the brush.

Bubbles mean too much water. A large volume of lather means too much water.

Continue to swirl until a noticeable audible and tactile difference is made when the brush moves over the soap. When the paste is forming the brush is noisier and seems to drag over the soap instead of smoothly going over the top.
Take a look at your brush, do the bristles clump together? If yes, you're done. If no, continue to swirl and load.

Now you can build lather on your face (see following), in your hand, or in a separate bowl.

Face Lathering Method:

Follow all of the preceding directions for loading up your brush with soap.

Give your face a liberal splash of warm water and leave it dripping.

Take the brush to your face and swirl/scrub/paint until the lather reaches a nice, thick consistency (peaks that stand).

If lather is too thick, add water to the brush a few drops at a time by dipping only the tip of the brush into your hot water. If lather is too thin, return to the soap for 5-10 second intervals. If you need more lather at any time during the shave just work the soap with your brush again.

Here's a great video that shows this technique, along with some others, for building lather:

Happy shaving!

Potty Mouth Soap

photo courtesy of Tack-o-Rama

I never had my mouth washed out with soap as a child (I was angelic), but my husband did…several times. The most memorable instance was in junior high when he cursed out the father of a good friend. The practice of mouth washing with soap goes way back and has mostly been followed in Britain, Australia and North America. I don’t think I could ever actually do it to my own kids, but it makes a great theme for soap, doesn’t it?

My new Potty Mouth Soap has been in the planning stage for quite awhile. I’ve run the concept by many of the parents at my kids’ school and always gotten a chuckle and thumbs up response to the idea. So here it is! It’s actually a lovely soap in its own right, with clove and sweet orange essential oils. You might not want to waste it on mouth washing.

But then again…maybe you would. Because we all know that prudence and youth do not always go hand in hand.

Exotic Escapade

My mother taught History of Civilization in college for many years. She has always loved learning about different countries and cultures and tried to visit them, if she could. My mom and stepfather used to travel overseas almost every summer, and often led others on study tours of far away places.  The two of them were even married in Athens.  My  brother and I were very fortunate as youngsters to go abroad with mom to places that expanded our understanding and interest in the world. I think my fascination with other cultures and ethnicities is a large part of why I decided to become an ESL teacher as an adult. Some of my clearest memories are of the places that we traveled…with new sites, tastes, sounds and smells. I can close my eyes and imagine them now, even though I visited many years ago. Travel to new destinations is like manna to me. I even met my husband overseas!

In honor of this hankering, I have created a new soap that celebrates travel to distant lands and the exotic adventures that can be had there. I chose a sumptuous essential oil blend that includes frankincense and myrrh, and then added nourishing mango butter to the mix. And to top it all off, the handy travel tin that it comes in makes it just perfect for accompanying you on all those great escapades you have yet to experience! Just keep it clean and don’t get arrested on a midnight train to Istanbul.

Couture Soaps

As I promised, here is a sneak peek at the custom soaps that I did for the Luly Yang Couture fashion event, which takes place this evening at the Seattle Aquarium. I think that they turned out quite nicely, if I do say so myself! It's hard to see from the photos, but the labels have a lovely iridescent shimmer to them, thanks to a little trick I have up my sleeve. What do you think?

Graphic image for labels created by Izzy Girl for the Luly Yang Couture Ocean event.

A Sappy, Soapy Celebration

Twenty years ago this week I met my husband.

It was not love at first sight. As a matter of fact, neither one of us made a very good first impression on the other. We were both attending Glasgow University for our junior year of college and it was orientation week for new and foreign students. A student “mixer” was being held at the GU Union, a stately, 200 year old building with character and history. The large library and reading room had been converted into a beer bar for the evening. A space that was normally quiet and studious with its walls of books and large, red leather reading chairs had temporarily become abuzz with alcohol fueled conversation. I walked into the room with a bunch of Norwegian veterinary students I had befriended. There I saw my future mister sitting in one of those red leather chairs, holding two glasses of beer, wearing a fraternity baseball cap and t-shirt with a picture of drunk Bill the Cat, and in the company of a very loud American friend. If you could see me right now, you’d know that I have my fingers and thumb in the shape of an “L” on my forehead. I’m sure I shot daggers at him with my eyes. He thought I was a complete...ya know. We never spoke that first night, but I remembered him.

The next night there was a different event at the GU Union. This time it was a Céilidh, a traditional Scottish dance complete with fiddles, whistles and bodhráns. I grew up doing a bit of Scottish dancing because of that bagpiping thing I do, so this was not a new experience for me. It was, however, for most of the other foreign students in attendance. I couldn’t get anyone to try the dances with me, which I love (they’re a bit like square dances or Contra). The only person I could get to give it a try was that obnoxious guy from the night before. Turned out he was a pretty good dancer…and not nearly as obnoxious as he’d previously seemed from across the room. We danced and had a great evening. I also happened to have laryngitis and couldn’t really speak…not sure how much of a factor that was in us hitting it off. Hmmm.

Anyway, a few dances turned into dating, which turned into a trip to visit him and his family when he returned to the states a few months later, which turned into a long-distance relationship our last year of college, which turned into moving to Seattle together, which turned into marriage and three lovely children. It’s a good thing he was such a great dancer!

Because I feel that fate has been so generous to me, I am feeling generous in return. In celebration of twenty years and a friendship, partnership and love that has gotten better with time…I feel like giving away some soap! All you have to do to enter for a chance to win the give-away is comment on this post. My husband and I love watching movies together, so I thought it would be appropriate to have folks comment with their favorite romantic movie of all time. I couldn’t seem to narrow it down, so here are my top three:

#1 Across the Universe
#2 The English Patient
#3 An Officer and a Gentlemen

The winner will be chosen by a random number generator and will get TWO BARS of my soap in tins, varieties of your choosing. The winner will be announced on Monday, October 11th. Spread the word! I'm curious to see what everyone else's favorite romance flicks are!

Salmon Days

Autumn is truly in the air! This weekend is the annual Issaquah Salmon Days festival which celebrates "the annual return of salmon to our lakes, streams and historic downtown hatchery."

Did you know that there are seven indigenous salmon and trout from the genus Oncorhynchus in Washington and Oregon? They are chinook, coho, chum, sockeye, and pink salmon, and steelhead and cutthroat trout. Salmon are vital in the transport of energy and nutrients between the ocean, estuaries, and freshwater environments. As a seasonal resource, salmon indirectly affect the entire food web. They are super important and so have an entire festival dedicated to their return!!

The celebration includes all sorts of salmon education opportunities as well as a golf tournament, fun run, parade, orienteering event, international food booths, children's "field of fun" and a HUGE craft fair. Festival volunteers are called "Ohfishals" and the entire event is free thanks to "Spawnsors". Tee hee. I will be particiapting this year as a vendor at booth #65. So plunge into the event and soak in the sights and sounds of the season!

photo credit: Issaquah Chamber of Commerce

Gender Neutral

My kids and I love root beer. We love the smell, the taste, and the refreshing sweetness of it. True root beer is made from sarsaparilla root, but in some parts of the country there is a carbonated beverage that is very similar to root beer called birch beer. It’s made from sap extracted from the bark of the Black Birch tree (Betula lenta). Apparently, in the dairy country of Pennsylvania a float made with vanilla ice cream and birch beer is called a “Red Bull” and one made with chocolate ice cream is called a “Black Cow”. Yum.

When sweet birch essential oil is combined with vanilla oil, it blends their sweetness and herbal spice into a smell very much like birch or root beer. I use these two oils, along with pure cocoa powder in my Gender Neutral Soap. Since kids often love root beer, I wanted to stick with a child-like theme for my root beer soap. One day I happened across this hilarious vintage image of two toddlers and knew I had to use it somehow. Don’t you wonder what it was intended for originally? I would love to know!

Like us? Let us know!!

OK!! Seattle Sundries needs more friends on Facebook, so I'm doing a give-away! The goal is to reach a new total of 250 "Likers". My three lovely children have chosen three random (and secret) numbers up to 250. Three lucky folks will win two bars in tins, or three bare bars of LUSCIOUS Seattle Sundries Soaps. Spread the word so your friends can win some and maybe they'll give one to you!

Redmond Town Center

Come on over today to Redmond Town Center and enjoy the Saturday Market as well as the Sidewalk Sale and Craft Fair. I have a booth today from 10am-7pm and again tomorrow from noon-4pm. I'm in the mall area at booth #19...between The Body Shop and Bath and Body Works. Seriously. I don't know who thought that was a good idea. I could see that the employees of both chains were quaking in fear as I approached with all of my natural, biodegradable products. Smiles.

Scents and Sensibility

A potential customer emailed me this morning asking about the scent of my soaps and needing more description before she could choose. That's the downside of selling online...the sniff test is important. The only issue with smell is that it's so subjective. I don't know how many times I've had two people (husband/wife, mother/daughter, BFFs) walk up to my booth at a fair where one picks up a soap, smells it and swoons in delight, then hands it to the other person to sniff and gets a rodent-like expression in return. People's opinions about smell differ widely. For this reason, I have hesitated to include too much of a scent description with each of my soaps. I don't want people to get them in the mail and say "Hey! That's not what it's supposed to smell like!" However, I completely understand this customer's need to know..so, here's MY opinion of what each of my soaps smells like:

Backwoods~strong pine overtones with a lighter, fresh citrus underneath.

Bitchin" Kitchen~spicy cinnamon leaf. This is different than cinnamon stick, which most people are familiar with. Often customers think that it smells more like nutmeg than cinnamon.

Buck Naked~completely, truly unscented.

Cowpoke~fresh herbal with a little woodsy thrown in. The eucalyptus lemon and the lemon essential oils are the most dominant scent, but there's a noticeable undertone of cedarwood as well.

Fish Tale~anise, spicy black licorice. I've also added tea tree to this soap because it tones down and rounds out the smell of the anise, but it's got a very dominant black licorice smell.

Gardeners Gold~fresh citrus with floral undertones. You quickly notice the grapefruit smell in this soap, but the overall smell is really more fresh floral. Lavender and geranium are not very sweet flowers (like rose or jasmine), so I would put it in a more herbal/fresh category of floral.

Gender Neutral~sweet with spicy undertones. This soap smells like root beer. The dominant scent is vanilla, but the sweet birch essential oil (which is like wintergreen) adds a distinctive spice.

Hard Working Hand~ fresh and slightly herbal spiciness. This one's a little hard to categorize. It's not a heavy scent at all...mostly fresh and light herbal.

Haute Goat~unscented, but the goat's milk has a natural sweetness to it that comes through in the soap. Someone with a good sense of smell would notice it, but others might not. If you put it right next to the Buck Naked, you could definitely smell the sweetness.

Highland Fling~sweet like brown sugar, but not in a cloying way. The honey gets a bit caramelized during the soapmaking process, and combines with the natural sweetness of the beeswax. Love it.

Lap of Luxury~minty with citrus undertones. The dominant smell is spearmint, which is a more sweet herbal scent than peppermint. Tangerine lightens the mint smell and gives it more depth.

Lavender Lover~straight-up, high quality lavender essential oil. Good stuff.

Manly Man~musky and smokey with fresh citrus undertones. This is probably the hardest one to describe. Clary sage has a very herbal smell and vetiver is quite smokey on its own. I add lime to lighten and give complexity to both of those oils. Many people who smell this soap say that it reminds them of their grandfather or some older gentleman. Clary sage and vetiver were both commonly used in men's products a couple generations ago.

Naughty Nellie~floral, with herbal undertones. This has a sweet, slightly herbal floral smell, with some extra hoppiness from the ale that the soap is made with.

Rejuvenation~heavy, sweet floral. I would call this one almost Victorian in its smell. Very girlie.

Road Trip~patchouli, but lighter...not the heavy hippie smell often associated with that essential oil. I add orange to soften the sometimes overwhelming scent of patchouli. Often customers will smell this soap and say "I usually don't like patchouli, but this is really nice!"

Sasquatch~ woodsy and herbal. Cedarwood and tea tree are both very distinctive smells...one person described them as smelling like shoe polish. The lemon essential oil lightens and freshens the scent. This soap always makes me think of mossy bark, and being in the forest.

Smooth Shave~ fresh with herbal undertones. Coriander and cilantro are the same plant. Think of cilantro salad with a citrus dressing.

Summer Slacker~ sage and lavender with a fresh kick of light citrus. This soap has a dominant herbal smell. If you like sage, you'll love this. It reminds me of summer...hence the name.


Hope that helps!!

Ree & Me

Today I got to meet Ree Drummond (The Pioneer Woman) in person. She was doing a book signing nearby for her recently released cookbook. I stood in line with hundreds of other people...OK, women...and maybe two guys. I was amazed at the whole book signing process and how organized the store was that hosted. Third Place Books had some well-established systems to move large numbers of people through the line very quickly. I wasn't nervous at all until I got up to the "next" spot, then suddenly my adrenaline surged and my heart started beating and I felt like I was at a junior high dance or something. My lips twitched when I tried to smile for the pictures that were taken of the two of us. I won't show you one of them because I look like I'm in pain, and I wasn't. Just nervous. Ree was really friendly and remembered my soaps and my company right away. That was very nice for me.

A month or so ago I made up some custom bars to send to her as a thank you gift for the lovely blog post that she did in February about my business. I was planning to send them in the mail to her, then I found out she was coming to Seattle. I decided to wait and give them to her in person. I got to hand her a little bag with the gift soaps (actually just four of them, I sent the others by mail) when I met her. I hope she likes them. They were fun for me to make...

Meet Your Maker, Part II

Me, part deux…

When we first moved to Seattle, I started waiting tables at an Indian restaurant and going to school for my master’s degree in teaching. My future mister tried a couple different career paths, eventually settling into a financial field. We lived in the Fremont neighborhood “the center of the universe” and got a puppy named Molly.


I finished graduate school and quickly got an ESL teaching job. I was frequently mistaken for a middle school student in the halls at school. I’m about the same size as most of the students, and apparently I looked pretty young (I hated getting carded then…now it makes my day). I loved my job and the young immigrants that I got to work with. They were (still are, in fact) interesting, industrious and engaging. I often feel a pull back to the classroom that I may follow at some point, or maybe I’ll just travel the world to visit the places they all came from.


But I was busy. We had one, then two, then three little chunky-cheeked babies. I gardened, made soap, sewed slip covers, made baby food and changed diapers. I decorated one house, then another. We finally landed in a part of Seattle that we just love: Ballard. It reminds me in some ways of the small town where I grew up, but is still very much a part of the city. I also like that it has the only Nordic Heritage Museum in the United States. My son’s soccer team chant a few years ago was “Lutefisk, lutefisk, lefse, lefse! We’re the Ballard Vikings! Ya, Ya Betcha!” Priceless.

My older kids have started school and we now spend lots of time in 4-H, music lessons, hockey and soccer. I am one of the founding members of Elliott Bay Pipe Band and do my best not to embarrass my banditos. It helps that I have 28 years of piping experience to fall back on. I try to grow lots of berries and vegetables, sew things, and learn something new whenever I can. I try to be faithful and mindful of the earth and the trees and the creatures around us, like my parents always have been. I try to be careful about what we consume and what we throw away. I try to do, more than I talk. I also try to stretch a penny as far as it will go (Granny Gretha) and wash out our Ziplock bags many times before they get thrown away (Grandma Evie). Stewardship takes many forms.

So that’s me, for now. I have big plans for the future. I have not gone back to teaching or learned how to knit yet, because I am budgeting my time in the event that I become the overlord of a vast soapmaking empire. We’ll see what happens.