Soap and Human Sacrifice Plus A New Shampoo Bar!

Fun fact... what does soap have to do with human sacrifice? 

Thankfully, not much. However, the two are linked in many old wives' tales and have even made their way into popular culture. 

Have you seen the movie Fight Club? Do you remember this scene about the origins of soap?

Courtesy of IMDB:

Tyler Durden: Now, ancient people found their clothes got cleaner if they washed them at a certain spot in the river. You know why?

Narrator: No.

Tyler Durden: Human sacrifices were once made on the hills above this river. Bodies burnt, water speeded through the wood ashes to create lye. [holds up a bottle]

Tyler Durden: This is lye - the crucial ingredient. The lye combined with the melted fat of the bodies, till a thick white soapy discharge crept into the river. May I see your hand, please?

[Tyler licks his lips until they're gleaming wet - he takes the Narrator's hand and kisses the back of it]

Narrator: What is this? Tyler Durden: This... [pours the lye on the Narrator's hand]

Tyler Durden: ... is chemical burn.

While I can unfortunately attest to the truth about lye and chemical burns, there's little evidence to collaborate the view that soap was discovered from sites of human sacrifices. 

The earliest evidence today of the first soap use was around 2800 BC by the Babylonians and they made it by mixing together animal fats, oils and salts. Most modern day soap makers use vegetable or fruit oils like olive, coconut, and avocado however, the soap making process is still very much the same as it was when the Babylonians did it.

Now, on to something new!

I get a lot of good ideas from my customers so when I had one reach out to me about which shampoo bar would work best for brassy gray hair, I had to say I didn't make a bar specifically for that purpose besides the fact that I have gray hair! 

Gray and light colored hair has a tendency to turn brassy and dull because it easily picks up pigments from the environment. For instance, using a yellow shampoo on grey hair may start to turn the hair more yellow. To counter this, most shampoos made to remove brassiness, are purple since purple is the opposite of yellow on the color wheel. 

Therefore, my Lavender Tea Tree shampoo bar, made with purple mica, would work to neutralize the yellow tones in hair, as would my Patchouli Mint Activated Charcoal bar. 

My new bar made with indigo powder, is another option against orange and brassy tones in hair. 

This bar is made with the same ingredients as my other shampoo bars including aloe vera water, avocado butter, and even silk fibers plus the added indigo powder. 

Scented with juniper essential oil and the sparkling scent of orange essential oil you may feel like you've stepped into a primeval pine forest at dawn. 

This shampoo bar is an excellent choice for gray hair and if you don't have gray hair, you can still benefit from the neutralizing effects of indigo powder! Now available on my website and Etsy shop!

 

A New Year, New Scents, New Products, and a Sale!

And just like that, December is over.

Big belly breaths...inhale, stomach rises. Exhale, belly falls. Ah, January and the long, cold months of winter and hibernation.

Although it's not as hectic as November and December, I'm still in the soap studio making a few new products and they're all about dish soap! 

Last Fall I added a 2.25" round dish soap that would fit in the popular Full Circle soap dishes a lot of people have purchased. This size has proved to be very popular so I've added new scents. Now available are Lavender & Basil, Rosemary & Mint, Basil & Spearmint, Cinnamon & Orange, Anise & Cedarwood, and Lemongrass scents.

For those who don't already have a dish that fits this size soap, I've added some colorful melamine dishes. These dishes contain 4.5 ounces of dish soap and are sold with a dish brush for a complete set. Once the soap is gone, the 2.25" dish soaps will work as replacements.

Likewise, my new square dish soaps come in a few new scents. Choose between Lemongrass, Peppermint Basil, Orange Anise, Lavender Eucalyptus, and Anise Cedarwood scents. These soaps are also offered in a set which includes a ceramic dish and a dish brush.

Lastly, my ceramist included a new color for the beautiful handmade dishes offered in my Etsy shop. These lovely matte purple dishes look so polished and sophisticated and are stamped with a dragonfly print! They are offered on their own or in a set with a large round dish soap and a dish brush.

I'm currently offering my liquor inspired soaps on sale. The Whiskey & Aloe Vera, Gin & Aloe Vera, and Aquavit & Aloe Vera soaps are all 25% off! These make a great boxed set as a gift, Valentine's Day perhaps?

That's all for now, I hope your holidays were delightful and the new year brings you happiness, health, and kindness. 

What's The Best Shampoo Bar For....?

Do you have hair issues? Dandruff, frizzy hair, dry scalp, oily hair, oily scalp, limp hair? Then read on as I may have a shampoo bar to help!

Lora's Beauty carries many types of shampoo bars specially formulated to be more ph balanced than the typical shampoo bar. For more information regarding ph and my shampoo bars, take a look at this blog post. If you're interested in what the best body soap is for a particular skin issue, this blog post may help. Now, if you're interested in what's the best shampoo bar I carry for a particular hair issue, then read on!

Most of my shampoo bars are made with aloe vera juice and avocado butter which are both hair loving. Aloe vera juice will help strengthen hair, calm itchy scalp, and control oily hair. Avocado butter is high in vitamin E making it great at stopping hair loss and breakage, adding hydration and shine, and thickening thinning hair. 

Just like with my body soaps, I start with a base set of ingredients when making my shampoo bars. These include olive, rice bran, castor, and coconut oils. I then add special extras to address particular hair issues. In addition, to all my shampoo bars, I add a pinch of tussah silk fibers which help to repair damaged hair and softens and smooths hair.

I also offer a Pine Tar Shampoo Bar and a Beer Bar. These have the same base set of ingredients but do not have aloe vera juice or avocado butter. Instead the pine tar bar includes goats milk and cocoa butter. Goats milk is rich in vitamin B which is an essential vitamin for healthy hair growth and cocoa butter moisturizes hair making it softer and more manageable.

My Beer Shampoo Bar is made with, of course beer, and cocoa butter. Beer is a wonderful ingredient for hair! It provides body, bounce and shine to hair and being rich in protein and vitamins it helps manage both scalp and hair oil production.

So, what's your specific hair issue and which shampoo bar would help?

Dry Frizzy Hair?

• Pine Tar - the nutrient rich liquid of pine tar is a natural moisturizer for dry hair.
• Spearmint Tea Tree - tea tree essential oil is such a beneficial oil for hair. It helps prevent the build up of chemicals and dead skin allowing your hair to be more healthy and moisturized.
• Lavender Tea Tree
• Beer Bar - Being rich in vitamin B, beer is a great deterrent against frizzy hair.
• Papaya Orange - papaya seeds contain vitamin A which helps against dry and frizzy hair.

Oily Hair/Scalp?

• Lemon Eucalyptus - lemongrass essential oil reduces production of excess oil on the hair and scalp.
• Spearmint Tea Tree - spearmint and tea tree essential oils help control oily scalp and hair.
• Rosemary Mint - rosemary essential oil has antifungal, astringent and decongesting qualities which can reduce oily build up on hair and scalp.

Lifeless Limp Hair?

• Beer Bar - the proteins in beer bind to hair that's become dehydrated from blow drying and other styling products leaving the hair restored and with more body.
• Activated Charcoal Patchouli Spearmint - the spearmint essential oil combined with activated charcoal will add luster to dry, lifeless hair.

Dry Scalp & Dandruff?

• Lavender Tea Tree - lavender essential oil has antimicrobial properties preventing bacteria and fungi from growing, soothing dry scalp, and reducing dandruff.
• Pine Tar - pine tar gives fast relief to itchy scalp and removes loose dandruff.
• Activated Charcoal Patchouli Spearmint - activated charcoal will soothe itchy and irritated scalps and moisturize them to prevent dandruff. It's also makes for a great deep cleaning shampoo ingredient.

Thinning Hair and Hair Growth

All the shampoo bars below contain vitamins and proteins that encourage healthy hair growth as well as limiting hair loss.

• Beer Bar - beer can give extra life to naturally curly hair as well!
• Papaya Orange
• Lemon Eucalyptus
• Lavender Tea Tree
• Spearmint Tea Tree

Color Treated Hair

• Activated Charcoal Patchouli Spearmint is a great cleanser for color treated hair as it deep cleans the hair without stripping away the color.

Gray Hair

The following bars have color additives that are the opposite of yellow on the color wheel and therefor help to neutralize the orange and brassy tones in grey and light colored hair.

• Indigo Juniper Orange - contains added indigo powder.
• Lavender Tea Tree - contains purple mica.
• Activated Charcoal Patchouli Spearmint - has added activated charcoal.

I hope this information was helpful and the next time you're wondering what's the best shampoo for your particular hair need, this can serve as a reference.

Lora's Beauty Holiday Bazaar 2022 Schedule

It's hard to believe but I already feel in the thick of the holiday season! I've probably overextended myself this year but I'm just so excited about this year and this season!! 

So, if you're local to the Portland Oregon area, I'd love to see you at one of these 5 (FIVE!!) bazaars I'll be doing.

• November 4&5 Hinson Holiday Bazaar 9:30 am - 4pm. 1137 SE 20th Portland
• November 25 11am-4pm. Moon Market 914 NW Everett Portland.
• December 3 11am-6pm German American Society Christmas Bazaar. 5626 NE Alameda St Portland.
• December 8 2pm -8pm Madeleine Marketplace 3123 NE 24th St Porland.
• December 10&11 10am-6pm Modo Yoga Winter Bazaar 400 NE Grand Ave Portland.

Each market offers a different feel to the season.

Kicking off the season in only a few days will be the Hinson Holiday Bazaar. This one is a wonderful market. Coffee, pastries, and lunch are for sale and you can take your time checking out the handmade goods.

The Moon Market and the Modo Yoga Winter Bazaar are new venues for me and I'm delighted to be participating in them.

The German American Society Christmas Bazaar is a blast and last year was poppin'! There were food carts out front, Santa made an appearance, as did the Army Band. I expect this year to be just as fun.

The Madeleine Marketplace is a nice neighborhood market. Santa is there and the tree out front gets lit at 6pm. Last year there were food carts as well.

If you can't make it to these events, get 10% off my Etsy shop and website November 17-30th. On Etsy, the discount will be taken automatically. On my website, use the discount code Holiday2022.

Enjoy the season!

What's The Best Soap To Use For....?

What's the best soap for ~fill in the blank~?

I'm often asked this question and I love it! I love it because it's an opportunity to talk about my soaps and explain why I choose the ingredients I do. Being able to pick and choose which ingredients I put in my soaps and therefore on my body is one of the main reasons I became a soap maker.

For almost all my body and face bars I start with olive oil, coconut oil, rice bran oil, castor oil, cocoa butter, goats milk and tussah silk fibers. These luscious ingredients form the base of most my soaps and on their own create a very moisturizing bar. I then get creative and depending on the soap I want to make, I'll add special ingredients that are known to benefit skin in one way or the other. These special ingredients determine what's the best soap for a particular skin type or problem.

Before I go any further, I would like to say that for most skin just changing to a good handmade bar of soap will bring noticeable benefits. Many store bought soaps and body washes contain petroleum products and other harsh chemicals and discontinuing use of them clears up many skin problems. However, if you're still having skin issues, perhaps the special ingredients I've added to some bars will help.

Dry Skin

I'll start with the most common skin problem, dry skin. I have a number of bars that work great for this ailment. 

• 
  Honey Beeswax Honey will deep moisturize your skin and beeswax will hydrate and lock the moisture in.
  
• Oatmeal Calendula For dry itchy skin, it's hard to beat colloidal oatmeal.
• Calamine, Oatmeal, & Honey For very dry skin added calamine is another defense.
• Eucalyptus Peppermint Studies suggestion the eucalyptus essential oil may strengthen the skin's natural moisture barrier.
• Indigo Peppermint Basil Indigo is great at relieving redness and irritation and soothing dry skin.
• Coconut Oil Free Lavender Eucalyptus This bar has no coconut oil in it so extra olive oil is used making for a very moisturizing bar.

Oily Skin/Acne

The following bars work great for acne and oily skin.

• Cinnamon The antiseptic effects of cinnamon fight bacteria that cause acne.
• 
  Activated Charcoal Removes impurities and deep cleans.
  
• Tree Love with Activated Charcoal
• Safflower Anise Both safflower and anise help fight acne.
• Indigo Peppermint Basil Antiseptic and antibacterial properties of indigo powder make it great for healing acne scars.

Eczema/Rashes/Insect Bites

• Himalayan Salt Has anti-inflammatory properties that heal and soothe skin.
• Orange Poppyseed Oh the power of those little poppyseeds! They are full of antioxidants that reduce skin inflammation making them a good choice for eczema and rashes.
• 
  Calamine, Oatmeal & Honey Reduces redness and swelling of infected skin from bug bites, rashes, or eczema.
  
• Oatmeal Calendula Colloidal oatmeal binds to your skin and locks in moisture and relieves itchy skin.
• Lavender Lavender essential oil reduces redness, soothes and calms skin irritations and can help heal rashes. 
• Patchouli Cedar Sage Patchouli and cedarwood essential oil have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antifungal properties while sage relieves annoying skin coditions.
• Pine Tar Pine tar is great at relieving itchiness. It's also has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, and antifungal properties.

Sunburn

• 
  Rosemary Mint Menthol The cooling properties of menthol are great at soothing and relieving the pain associated with sunburn.
  

Skin Allergy?

• 
  Coconut Oil Free Lavender Anise If you've ever had redness or itchiness after using a bar of good handmade soap, you could be having a reaction to  coconut oil. Coconut oil allergies are not common but not entirely uncommon either and most handmade soaps are made with coconut oil. Likewise, if you have a known tree nut allergy it's best to avoid coconut oil. These bars are a great alternative being made with no coconut oil.
  

I hope this list is helpful and can serve as a reference whenever a particular skin issue arises. Check out this post where I tackle the question "what's the best shampoo for....?"

So Many New Things To Talk About

It's been about 1 1/2 years since I retired from my job as a software developer. I kept telling myself once I retired I'd have more time to deep dive into my sales data from Etsy and my website. I had illusions of downloading the data and loading it into a database and writing all kinds of queries against it to determine my best sellers, what people ordered most, ordered least, etc. Basically, do what I had done for the past 20 years at my job.

Well, I'm happy to report I haven't done that. I haven't written one single query against any data anywhere in the past year and a half! Amazingly, I didn't need to. I know what sells and what doesn't because I make the soap, package it up, and mail it every day. And you know what? I make a lot of dish soap and shampoo bars and conditioner bars. Those items really sell on my Etsy shop.

I also know from practical experience that my body soaps sell more on my website and in person bazaars and markets. So armed with that knowledge I'm happy to offer more dish soaps in new scents and shapes, more shampoo and conditioner bars in new scents, and new body bars as I prep for the upcoming holiday markets.

Let's start with the new dish soaps that have hit my Etsy shop and website this month. I'll now offer a GIANT sized rectangular bar! This bar will be 3.5" X 3" X 1.5" and 8 oz, twice the weight of my round soaps and will come in several scents including the new Basil Orange. 

Speaking of new scents, I've added a new scent in my popular round dish soap, lemon basil. 

Another new dish soap shape I've added is a smaller round bar. This bar is approximately 2.25 inches in diameter and has been created, per a request from a customer, to work as a replacement for the dish that comes with the popular Full Circle dish soap set. Naturally, it will work in any soap dish, but if you purchased the Full Circle set, think of this bar the next time you need dish soap.

For a limited time, I have a cube sized dish bar. This is limited because I discovered it was painfully hard to remove these bars from the mold.

Two new shampoo bar scents are coming to my Etsy shop and website this month. 

There is a lavender tea tree bar

and an activated charcoal bar scented with patchouli spearmint. 

Both these bars are vegan and made with aloe vera water, avocado butter, and the other same great ingredients as my current shampoo bars. 

For more variety, I've also added a lavender conditioner bar to my Etsy shop.

Three new body soaps will be available this holiday season. Two of those will make it to my Etsy shop and website, the other one will be sold only at the holiday markets. 

I've been wanting to make a Honey & Beeswax body bar for sometime and am happy to offer this one made with goats milk, tussah silk, and all the nourishing oils and butters found in my other body soaps. This bar can be found in my Etsy shop and website.

Also debuting online later this month is my Indigo Peppermint Basil bar. So much more than just a dye, indigo has been used for centuries as a medicinal herb and contains many skincare benefits.

Stay tuned as the holiday season progresses I'll have new gift sets and discount codes for subscribers of my blog! 

If you're local to the Portland Oregon area, my first holiday market will be November 4 & 5 at Hinson Memorial Baptist Church, 1137 SE 20th Ave. Add a reminder to your online calendar! this is a nice, laid back market that also serves coffee, pastries and lunch.

How your package gets to you

I've written before about packaging and shipping your Lora's Beauty orders. As someone who does a lot of ordering by mail, I know it's important. 

Today's post is about how your package gets to the post office. I either walk or bike all packages there. I do this because I love the calm of walking or riding through my neighborhood and it's a great way to get exercise since the round trip is around 3 miles, but most importantly, I do it to be as environmentally friendly as possible. 

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you have probably seen my 'Journeys to the Post Office' posts. I deliver packages everyday to the post office except on Sundays. That means if you place an order on Monday, it will be in the mail and on it's way to you on Tuesday. Sometimes, if you time it just perfectly, I'll get it in that day's mail.

In case you don't follow me on social media, or you've missed my 'Journey to the Post Office' posts, I thought I'd share some photos from all the season's walks here today.

Let's start with Autumn! Don't worry, that little dog can get his head out of the fence.

Most of the time winter involves a walk with an umbrella but this day we had snow!

As always, spring follows winter!

Finally, summer!

Next month I begin gearing up for the holiday season! That means making a batch of soap just about everyday. I've been keeping a list of new holiday soaps to make including a honey&beeswax bar, an orange eucalyptus mint bar naturally colored pink&green, a navy blue and white bar naturally colored with indigo and scented with cedarwood, peppermint & basil, and finally a smaller round dish soap that will fit in the popular Full Circle dispensers as replacement soap.

Until next time, enjoy the last days of summer!