Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Making Shampoo Bars and Soaps with Fresh Aloe



I use fresh homegrown Aloe vera in my Vegan Aloe Shampoo Bar and my Sesame Aloe Shampoo bar for Sensitive Scalps. Yesterday I restocked my Sesame Aloe Bars so I harvested from this Aloe in the planter box outside my front door. The yeild was about 8 oz. I also harvested a couple large leaves from my mother plant in our raised bed, for about the same amount of gel by weight. After I cut the leaves, I let the yellow orange sap drain out for a while.



Then I slice off the spiny edges, the tips, any other irregular areas. Then I separate the green leaves from the inner gel.



I weigh out approximately one part fresh gel to 2 parts distilled water and put it in the bender.



Then I have a beautiful frothy bubbly liquid for creating a 28% Sodium Hydroxide solution to mix with the base ois.



The rest is just basic cold process soap making.

Today I cut the bars and they will be curing for about 4 weeks. In the meantime I still have 2 of these Sesame Aloe Bars in stock.

Here is some feedback on this shampoo bar from one of my customers:

"I LOVE the aloe vera shampoo bar. I have been facing itchy and flaky scalp for years, since I still used commercial liquid shampoo. After I switched to shampoo bars, the itchiness hasn't disappeared but it did lessen a bit, and some shampoo bars did actually clear the flakiness away. Since the first time I tried your aloe shampoo bar, the itchiness disappeared! The flakiness disappeared too! I have used it 5 times with very satisfying result. It also gives my hair volume and doesn't dry out my hair. Amazing! I wonder what your secret is for creating such a wonderful shampoo bar :)"

Now you know one of the secrets!

Thanks for reading. If you have an older browser and had trouble viewing the products at AquarianBath.com, then you can also find my shampoo bars on Etsy.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

I missed this blog!

I have tried to get into a groove with the new blog at my new AquarianBath website. So far I haven't managed to post much at all. I miss this blog. The format is so easy and I'm somehow attached to it. I haven't decided yet if I want to switch my RSS feeds back here or not, but for now if I feel like making a blog post here, then I'm just going to do it!

I'm busy today trying to tie up loose ends before Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I'm making cranberry sauce. I found a recipe for herbal cranberry sauces here. I'll also be making pumpkin pie with my Seminole pumpkins from this summer. Right now I have a yard full of green pumpkins that I hope will be ready by Christmas or New Years at the latest.



Starting on Friday I will be having a 10% off sale with my Daytona Etsy Team Mates. You can use the coupon code "2011holiday" through December 2nd at AquarianBath.com. Check out all the Daytona Etsy Shops participating below: