Our New Cell Phone Sized Solar Powered Aquarian Bath Webserver Runs on 5 Watts

The new Aquarian Bath web store was recently upgraded and given a new home on one of these palm-sized machines which are built with the power efficient processors designed for smart phones. The open source Cubieboard ARM based integrated computer serves as the bare metal for a Debian Linux based web, database, and email server. Drawing just 3 Watts 5 Watts under load, it is one of the most power efficient computing platforms available, allowing us to run our new website on solar power, courtesy of industry leader SolarNetOne.  We upgraded our server since this article was published last week to include an extra hard drive which draws 2 Watts in order to keep up with holiday traffic, therefore the server draws 5 Watts instead of 3 Watts.

In comparison, the average video card in a gaming computer draws about 100 Watts by itself. Another 150 Watts is required for the main computer. 250 Watts is also about the average power consumption for a typical server. An average compact fluorescent light bulb draws 13 Watts, more than 2 times the power of our new e-commerce website.  

With this new hardware upgrade, we also updated the shopping cart, reorganized and categorized many of our items and sections. We hope you find it easier to navigate. You can now shop by the following main sections Soap (and Shampoo), Natural Skin Care, Herbal Products, Gift Ideas, Flaxseed Pillows and Reduce Plastic. 

For example, this Gingerbread and Star Anise 2013  holiday soap set can be found in the soap, Gift ideas, and Reduce plastic section.  Thanks for reading and please check out our new site.  

New Hemp Soap & Shampoo Bar Gift Sets from Aquarian Bath and Giveaway

These are our new Hemp Soap and Shampoo Gift sets.  Each gift set comes with one of our Peppermint, Lavender, Patchouli body soaps, 2 cedar soap decks, and your choice from one of our 4 hemp oil shampoo bars.   We have Citrus Bay Rum Patchouli (above) with red Moroccan Clay.

We have our original Patchouli hemp shampoo bar with French green clay.

We have a new Lavender- Patchouli Hemp shampoo bar with Rhassoul Clay.

We also have the very popular Rose Hemp Shampoo bar.

You could win one of these gift sets at Beth Terry's Plastic Free Life blog.  She is taking entries through the end of the week.  Tell her we sent you!  She has a great blog which is very informative regarding reducing plastic in your life. 

Aquarian Bath Welcomes Bitcoin

Aquarian Bath has recently added bitcoin as payment method in our main online store at AquarianBath.com. All product prices are now listed in USD and Bitcoin.  

Shop now for for ecofriendly handmade bath and body products.  We ship internationally within 1-4 business days, but usually next day.  Our products have been featured in the book Plastic Free by Beth Terry and British Vogue.

If you haven't heard of bitcoin, check out this trailer for the new film The Rise of Bitcoin.  And here is a little introduction from Wikipedia:

"Bitcoin (BTC) is a digital currency first described in a 2008 paper by pseudonymousdeveloper Satoshi Nakamoto, who called it a peer-to-peer, electronic cash system.   Bitcoin creation and transfer is based on an open source cryptographic protocol and is not managed by any central authority. Each bitcoin is subdivided down to eight decimal places, forming 100 million smaller units called satoshis.  Bitcoins can be transferred through a computer or smartphone without an intermediate financial institution."

Mother's Day Gift Ideas

Mother's Day is coming right up and we have a few special offerings in limited quantity.  These "I Heart MOM" soaps are scented with  Bulgarian Rose wax, and essential oils of Rose Geranium,  Lavender , and Blood cedarwood.  

 Purchase these soaps singly or in a boxed gift set together with a cedar soap deck to extend the life of your soap and a 4 oz after bath Lavender Massage oil.  

Our hot or cold therapy neck pillows are available year round but we have many new fabrics in stock for Mother's day as these are popular gift items.  This blue and white floral flaxseed pillow reminds me of my grandmother and mother's Blue Willow China.  Find more pillows to choose from in the Neck pillow section.

We also have many new Facial Pillows in stock.  These pillows are designed to cover the eyes, forehead, and TMJ area.  They can be used hot out of the microwave or cold out of the freezer and come with a matching washable pillow cover.  The gold leaves fabric used in the pillow pictured above was designed by Daytona Beach area illustrator BJ Lantz.  Shop for more facial pillows here.

Best of Indie Spotlight: Gifts Teens Will Love

My ecofriendly gift set was featured in Nerd Wallet's Gift's for Teens Blog post.  I love this patchwork cloth wallet too.  Read more here Best of Indie Spotlight: Gifts Teens Will Love

Shop Local for Christmas with the Daytona Beach, Florida Etsy Team

If you are looking for Local and Handmade gifts for the Daytona Beach, Florida area, then check out this selection of items from the Daytona Beach Etsy Team. This great collection was curated by The Wooden Bee.

'Winter Finds from the Worlds Most Famous Beach' by thewoodenbee

Shop local for quick delivery! Handmade Daytona Beach Florida Facebook.com/DaytonaEtsy

Blue Natural Aquama... JHPoriginals $6.00	Margarita Soap - Le... AquarianBath $5.50	Tornado Swirl Lampw... beadloverskorn... $17.00	Night Heron Notecar... KristinHeron $3.50
Be Calm Salt Scrub ShantiAromathe... $10.00	ON SALE Snowflake H... SharingAPassio... $4.46	Green Silk Necklace... DelicateAdornm... $50.00	The Odyssey Hand Wo... Funkyarns $85.00
Women's Green B... trulysanctuary $32.00	Shabby Shelf re des... DistinctiveByD... $30.00	art greeting cards,... ablazeincolor $9.00	Blue Beaded Angel ... Ladyswan $5.00
Resin Mold BROKEN H... JeweledLizard $7.50	Bronze- Nice Big Se... BlackSparrowSu... $33.00	Reclaimed Wood - Cr... TheWoodenBee $17.00	Vintage hand embroi... houseadorned $15.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Need more ideas?  Check out this collection, also by TheWoodenBee from the Florida Etsy Street Team (FEST).  Many items are also from Daytona Beach Etsy Team Members.

'Winter Blues from Florida' by thewoodenbee

Shop local to get your gifts on time! 100% Team Fest - Happy Holidays some of my favorite FEST shops. Thank you for supporting the team all year!

Flaxseed Neck Wrap ... AquarianBath $17.00	Tie dye wire star o... AntsyArtist $20.00	Pastel Glass Christ... creationsbyjdb $15.00	Beach Photography O... AspiringImages $33.00
Angel of Hope MoreThanColors $29.95	Blue Topaz Glass Eu... beadloverskorn... $8.00	Fused Glass and Dic... uniquenique $25.00	Sterling Flower Rin... cyndiesmithdes... $35.00
Bicycle Basket Line... GypSeaBlueBags $20.00	Holiday Sale 20% Of... Studio47hundre... $32.00	Steampunk Vacuum Tu... MadScientistsD... $95.00	Crochet Long Scarf ... CinfulArt $38.00
Ethnic Style Sun Di... MonasCreations... $39.00	Heirloom Fish Peppe... MoonlightMicro... $2.50	Men Osprey Tee, Ris... Seventy1Percen... $16.99	Charm Anklet Blue T... ReneeBrownsDes... $16.00

Treasury tool supported by the dog house

Weekend Production Streak: New Veggie Soaps, Balms & Perfumes

I had an extra looong weekend which started on Wednesday. It was so nice to be home working on restocking and making new products. First here is a little peak of what is put up to cure for December. The white soap at the top of the blog is a Lavender essential oil veggie soap. I used the same veggie oil formula that I use for my pumpkin poppy seed soap. That soap has a lot of repeat purchases and raves about it's very creamy and bubbly lather. So I decided it was time to make a few more soaps with this oil combo. Yesterday I also made a batch of veggie patchouli soap. I just cut it this morning. It has a pretty in the pot swirl made with cocoa powder as a contrasting natural colorant.


Rosemary mint was the second batch that I made yesterday. I decided to practice my bicolor layering, because I had a special request for 100 bilayer soaps over the weekend. Most of these green clay top layer soaps were perfect, but a couple like this one had a little dip into the white. Good thing I had a practice run. It's been a little while since I've made layered soaps.


Okay enough of what is curing and not ready to ship. I also made and listed some lip balms and perfumes over my long weekend. I was getting low on Sweet Orange and Licorice lip balms, so those are back in stock. Also brand new I have a Lavender Sweet Orange Lip balm. This is my first vegan lip balm made with Candelilla wax instead of Beeswax.


In the perfume department I added a single note Jasmine sambac perfume to the mix. It is strongly aromatic and long lasting.


A couple of more perfumes I actually added last week but haven't posted about yet, so I will mention them as well. The first is a single note Fine French Lavender essential oil roll on Perfume. The highly volatile Lavender is anchored with a small amount of vanilla-like Benzoin.


The second is a Spearmint roll on perfume also with Benzoin. The natural green comes from herbal Isatis tinctoria powder and alfalfa.


Lastly this beautiful Mandarin perfume is colored naturally with annatto seed and is a blend of Mandarin, Sweet Orange, Litsea, and Patchouli essential oils.