Shampoo Bar Line Expanding: Vote for New Scents

One of my goals for 2012 is to add new varieties of shampoo bars to my line. I have a hemp patchouli shampoo bar in the works, and I am looking for suggestions for scents for more of my Vegan Aloe Shampoo bars. You can also comment with other suggestions, but I am trying to stick with oils that have beneficial properties for hair or scalp. Thanks so much for your votes.

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.

The Herb Spiral After a Week of Rain

Many of the plants in the herb spiral at Fair Share are loving all this rain we've been having. I spy a Neem tree, Poke weed with ripening berries, Mondara punctata, and Aloes. It's about time to harvest more of that Mondara for liniment. I made a 'Fair Share Liniment' with Mondara, Lemongrass, Mugwort and Rosemary. I must say I like how it turned out. It's in a nice spray bottle, which is quite convenient.