New Spring/Summer Scents

My new scents for this season are:

Tuscan Melon and Apricot
Lavender Cucumber and Sage
Green Tea and Lemongrass


Coming soon to www.avalonsoapworks.com and www.krafterz.com!!

Some of you may have noticed that I have not posted in quite a while.  We have a new addition to our family.  Rachel Elaine Marie Smith was born Oct 23.  I am once again feeling up to making soap and posting about it. 

Our website avalonsoapoworks.com is not up and running right now, so please check out our etsy story for some great Christmas gift ideas.  I will be listing more soaps, lotions, candles, and some great new crocheted items as well. Check back often :)

Grandma's Lye Soap

I think that maybe I should have called this soap Not Grandma's Lye Soap.  This soap is definitely an improvement over the lye heavy soap that Grandma used to make.  In the past making soap was a kind of guessing game.  It was almost impossible to know what your lye concentration was, so the soaps often turned out with a bit too much.  Everyone has heard the stories about how Grandma's homemade soap took your skin off.  Today we have modern scientific methods of measuring lye, so our soaps are very accurate.  This soap is made with 100% lard.  I hesitated for a long time to try animal fats in my soaps, but I love it.  It makes a very hard, white bar of soap that lathers very well. This soap also lasts a long time because it is so hard.

So give a bar of gentle and creamy Grandma's Lye Soap a try today.

5 Basic Soap Making Tools

     One of the questions that people ask me about soap making the most often is, "What do I need to get started?". So I though I would put together a list of items that are both easily found and affordable.

     I have read many articles and books on soap making in the many years I have been making soap. Most of the time there is a exhaustive list of hard to find,  not to mention expensive equipment to purchase. This list is not meant to provide all the equipment you would need to start a soap making business. It is just a very basic list for those of you who would like to try soap making without a big initial investment.

1)A Stick Blender: Also called an immersion blender, this tool is absolutely necessary for soap making.  When I started out in the soap making business I didn't know about stick blenders, as a result I spent many hours stirring a pot of soap waiting for the elusive "trace"  I had read so much about.  What all those articles and books never told me about "trace" was that it would happen 2 hours faster if I used a stick blender.  Seriously, you can reach  "trace" (the point when the soap looks similar to pudding and is ready for the mold) in a mere 5 minutes, as opposed to the 2 hours it might take with a spoon or wisk. Getting a good stick blender is important.  I had a Braun stick blender that I used for many many years, until one day it up and died on me.  I went and bought a new one, it wasn't a really expensive one, and it didn't work at all.  I could have stirred faster.  I then I broke down and bought a much more expensive one that is similar to my Braun the KitchenAid KHB100WH Immersion Hand Blender, White.  It is a bit pricey but it works great.  The other great option for finding a decent stick blender is to check out thrift stores. Stick blenders are one of those items that are really valuable to soap makers, but not so valuable to everyone else.

2) An Instant Read Thermometer:   A good waterproof instant read thermometer is essential.  You need to be able to make sure your lye solution and your oil is at the same temperature.  The ideal thermometer should be able to read up to at least 250 degrees,  be easily cleaned, and easy to read. I started out with the dial kind instead of the digital, but I am too old now to see those small numbers. I recommend that you have two of these instant read digital thermometers.  It is possible to make soap with one thermometer, but it sure is easier with two.  The one I use is the Taylor 9842 Commercial Waterproof Digital Thermometer.  It is easy to use, waterproof, and inexpensive.

3)A Good Digital Scale:  The most important thing in soap making is measuring accurately.  Get a good scale you will not regret it.  Once again digital is way easier to read for these old eyes, but if you can read those little lines then the other kind of scale is fine.  I think the best digital scale for the money is Digiweigh 600 x 0.1 Gram/g Digital Pocket Scale for home Candle/Soap Making Lab Set.  Once again, you might  find a great deal at a garage sale or a thrift store.

4)A Stainless Steel Stock Pot  It is really important that this pot is staineless steal, aluminum will not workout. The pot also needs to be large enough to hold your water and oils combined. I have used many different pots for making soap.  Most of the time I use my big stock pot from my kitchen, it works, and yes you can still use it for food.  Just wash your pot really well before using it for food again.  You can look for old pots at garage sales, just make sure they are not aluminum.

5)A Mold:  When you are done making your soap you will need a mold to put it in.  I have used everything from Pringles cans and pvc, to shoeboxes.  I have also used candy molds, individual soap molds made out of plastic, and wooden loaf soap molds.  I use a large wooden soap mold now, but to start out you might want something less expensive.  I have found that the new silicon bakeware works pretty well.  This one Smartware Silicone Loaf Pan Includes Storage Lid, Terracotta is pretty good, and even comes with a cover.

Except for a few items that you should already have around your kitchen, and of course the lye and oils, these five items are all you need to start you soap making adventure.  I hope you enjoy it s much as I do.  Happy Soaping.

Birthdays, Holidays, Soap, Sick Kids, and Homeschooling

  I just realized I have not posted to this blog in a very long time.  It seems that I lost track of time. I don't know how I could have manged that.  I spent most of the weeks leading up to Christmas desperately trying to fill orders, plan birthday parties, buy presents, cook food, prepare for a week long trip to visit my family on the other side of the state, and take care of whole bunch of sick kids.  Murphy's Law is always lurking in our house.  I survived December, but succumbed to illness myself while visiting my family (sorry for the unintended present).  We finally drug our exhausted, sick, and fed up with the holidays selves through our door, and collapsed.  We only got to collapse for about 10 hours, then the kids had to be at school.  Back into the swing of things, full tilt. Homeschool, school, work, clean, cook, and repeat.  Needless to say the two little ones are both sick again.  I did manage to make some soap and will post pictures soon.  Someday I will have time to make more, I think.

How to make (or How to not make) Goatsmilk Soap

I made my first batch of goat milk soap the other night.  I figured after 11 years of soap making I cold handle it .  I froze my goats milk into a slush and then added the lye slowly. I got a great creamy color, not orange or burned. I thought, success! I did it.  I couldn't wait to run down the stairs the next morning and find out how awesome my soap had turned out. Much to my surprise I was not greeted with beautiful creamy hard soap logs.  I was instead staring at a log of soap that had a great tan color but was covered in a thick film of oil.  The last thing a soap maker wants to see is a puddle of oil on top of the soap they so lovingly put to bed the night before.  It could have been many things, it might have taken too long to trace and lost too much heat (when I went to mix my lye and oil I discovered that my stick blender had quit working) sometimes hand stirring will do that, especially with olive oil.  It could have been my scale (it is really really old and may not be working so well).  The soap could have gotten too hot, or maybe not hot enough while in the mold.  It is so hard to figure out sometimes.  So I decided to rebatch, if i have to do this I would much rather do it with "young" soap.  So I got out the crock pot and unmolded the spongy oily mess into it.  I reran my recipe and decided to add .25 oz of lye, so I mixed the lye with a little cold water.  Using a potato masher I mashed the soap with the lye. It is heating now.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.  I will let you know how it turns out and post pictures tomorrow.
The Complete Guide to Creating Oils, Soaps, Creams, and Herbal Gels for Your Mind and Body: 101 Natural Body Care Recipes (Back-To-Basics)

Food Grade Sodium Hydroxide Lye Micro Beads, 2 Lbs. (Buy 5 get $15 off)

Soaper's Delight Organic Coconut Oil, 2 Gallon

The Essential Guide To Soap Making For Beginners

Genco Pomace Olive Oil - 1 Gallon

Making Natural Liquid Soaps: Herbal Shower Gels / Conditioning Shampoos / Moisturizing Hand Soaps

Big Sale !

To celebrate the Grand Opening of our New Website and much improved shopping cart, we have a very special offer for you:

$5.00 OFF any order over $25!

Plus we offer Free Priority Shipping for orders of $50!

Offer expires 8/1/2010, so hurry and use your $5.00 and fall in love with our extremely high quality, natural, handcrafted products!

Thank You & God Bless!
Rebecca & Brian Smith, Owners
Avalon Soapworks

You can redeem this coupon during checkout. Just enter the code in the box provided, and click on the redeem button.

The coupon code is 9928500f69
The coupon is valid between 07/08/2010 and 08/01/2010

Vanilla Swirl Handmade Soap

I was so inspired by my cucumber soap experience that I decided to try swirling my next batch of vanilla.  I used the same recipe as the cucumber melon soap.  I replaced the cucumber melon fragrance with vanilla and omitted the cucumber puree. I removed half of the soap at light trace and added the vanilla fragrance (which turns dark brown in cold process soap) to the remaining  half of the soap.  I poured the fragranced soap in the mold and then drizzled the unfragranced soap over it in a zigzag.  Then I just left it alone to set up.

I think it turned out beautiful, and the vanilla is awesome!


Basic Soap Making: All the Skills and Tools You Need to Get Started (Basics)
High Grade Sodium Hydroxide Lye Micro Beads, 2 Lbs.
Soaper's Delight Organic Coconut Oil, 1 Gallon buckets