HSCG 2015 Conference

At registration we got this giant goodie bag.  I took it to my room and spread it out and took a picture.  Great stuff!

Busy getting ready to go to Indianapolis next weekend to the annual conference of soapmakers sponsored by the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetics Guild April 17-20.  Going to be lots of information swapped, meeting people I've only known on the internet, and lots of fun and food.  Maybe a drink or two as well.  :-)

Here are some of the soaps I have made since my post last August.  The first is my answer to the Dove Beauty Bar (which is not soap) - it has shea butter, cocoa butter, greek yogurt, heavy cream, and goat milk.  Now that's a beauty bar.  The next one is the tomato soap cut into bars - wonderful for your skin.  The last is a combination of the other two for a really great bar of soap.

I've neglected my blog for too long.  I made some lotion bars and put them in deoderant containers and they were a big hit.

Making soap again!

I finally have finished all of the paperwork involved in settling my Dad's estate and am back on track making soap.  I made a 5lb loaf yesterday using my standard recipe but substituting tomato juice for 2/3 of the water.  This makes for a great facial soap.  It will have to cure for 4-6 weeks before it is ready for sale.

New Car

I'm still dealing with my Dad's estate.  There is so much paperwork and I keep getting requests from the insurance people for the same things over and over.  Haven't sold his house yet either.  I did, however, buy a new car because mine had 162,000 miles on it and was about to need a few thousand dollars in work.  If I bought now I should get it paid off by the time I retire.  It's a 2014 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.  I love it!

New soap

I got back to making soap now that most of my Dad's estate has been settled.  I made two batches using the lard, olive oil, coconut oil, canola oil and rice bran oil I had on hand.  On loaf was scented with peach and pineapple mixed and the other with Dragons Blood.  The blue/gray batch was scented with honeysuckle and used for swirling and the leftover was made into bars.  The batter got thick very quickly so the drop swirls didn't penetrate very deeply, but that's OK.  Dragons Blood makes soap get dark due to the vanilla content.
Check out my web site at http://www.nomadhandcraftedsoap.com.