Lavender Castile

Castile is one of my favorite soaps to make and use because it's so simple and mild. This one is made with organic extra virgin olive oil and simply scented with lavender essential oil.

MPAD intro post

Rose Castile Facial Bar

 

Castile soap is one of my favorites. It's mild and doesn't dry my skin. This castile is made with the addition of dried and ground rose petals and scented with gorgeous rose absolute. 

Salt Bars

Salt bars have become a favorite of mine. Made with a high percentage of organic coconut oil and sea salts these bars are a must-have addition to your handmade soap collection.

Lavender Castile Facial Bar

The mildness of castile makes it an excellent option for a facial bar. This Lavender Castile is made with certified organic extra virgin olive oil with ground lavender buds (also certified organic). Of course it is lightly scented with lavender essential oil. A little extra color was added using alkanet root.

Crazy, Crafty, Cool ~ Meet Patrice Harrison of The Soap Seduction

My passions are soap and candle making. I also love to dabble in jewelry and paper crafts. I am a banker by trade, but a crafter at heart. I developed my passion for everything handmade from my late mother who believed that if it's made by hand, it's made from the heart. I never appreciated that sentiment when I was younger because I always associated something handmade with being "poor." I spend all of my free time making soaps and candles, not only to develop my craft and potentially make a living off of it, but to relax. For fun, I like to make jewelry. It's wearable, but I hardly think it's sellable. I run two blogs right now: Crazy, Crafty, Cool which is all about my craft addiction, and Fat, Black & Losin It with my sister Myia.

I've been crafting seriously for about a year now. It started as a joint venture with me and my late fiance Spencer. I was the creative mind, and he was the marketing guru. Together we started to create some buzz surrounding our soaps and candles, but now that he's gone, I've become the crafter and the seller. Selling is not my strongest point, so I rely on social networks and forums to get the word out about my crafts. I decided to sell because I made some homemade body scrubs for co-workers, and they were so impressed with them, that they asked me to make them more. I knew at that moment that I was on to something, and it just naturally evolved into soaps and then candles.

I get my inspiration to create from the fragrance oils I buy. My soap specialty is MP (melt and pour) crafting, but I also make CP (cold processed ) soap as well. I love FO's, and I'm always buying them. I then search for molds that I think would best suit that fragrance. Also the FO helps me decide if the soap is actually going to be MP or CP. It's weird, but it works for me.

Right now, my biggest challenge is organization. My head is constantly flooded with ideas, so I make sure that I keep my trusty notepad with me at all times so I can take notes, jot down a thought, or just make to-do lists.

Right now I promote on my own website, The Soap Seduction, my blog, Twitter, and Etsy. Etsy has been wonderful because it has a built-in audience. The traffic is already there. I make sure to actively participate in forums at least once daily. I also try to blog at least 3-4 days a week. Twitter right now has become an obsession. It's quicker and easier than blogging. You can just drop a line or two at any time. You can announce sales, giveaways, new products, new blog posts, whatever. I also buy select ads on blogs where I know there's a solid readership that will attract site visits.

My plans for the rest of 2008 is to are to close out strong. Right now I'm preparing for the holidays-packaging, products, website layout, promotions, everything. I haven't decided if I'll do any holiday craft shows this year. They're way too stressful for me.

Blog link: http://bubblesandflames.blogspot.com

Thank you Patrice for taking the time out for this feature!

Vanilla, Orange and Clove Soap

Freshly cut!

Made with organic ev olive & coconut oils, wheat germ oil & cocoa butter, activated charcoal & Australian black clay and titanium dioxide. Scented with essential oils of folded orange, vanilla and clove. Man, it smells good!

A Work In Progress

This is a new blend I started. It's still in the early stages but so far so good. It contains folded orange, black pepper, blood cedarwood, frankincense and sandalwood essential oils.

No name yet...

A Visitor & A Little Inspiration

I had to run errands one morning and upon my return home I saw this little guy hanging out by my garage door. He (she, it?) stayed there all day.

I found the color to be so soothing that I decided to try and bring that color into a batch of soap. These bars are scented with essential oils of lemongrass, fresh ginger, rosemary, clove, black pepper, fir needle, juniper berry and nutmeg absolute.

Unscented Oatmeal Soap

I made this 2 days ago and cut yesterday. It is unscented soap made with ground oatmeal. Sometimes you just want a scent free soap with a little additive to help soothe the skin. It turned out well and is on the curing rack. It contains oils of coconut, olive, castor & wheat germ, along with cocoa butter. Aside from the oatmeal there are no other additives.

If Shakespeare Took A Bath

If you're a reader of Shakespeare you have no doubt come across some of the many herbs and botanicals mentioned in his plays. Many of these herbs and botanicals are used not only for their culinary value, but also for their value in bath and body products. The members of Etsy's Soaper Stars street team make use of these plants in their beautiful artisan soaps. Here are just a few of my favorites.

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."
Rose Handmade Soap

"Lay her i' th' earth, and from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring!"
Sweet Violet and Sassafras Handmade Soap

"The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty, Gave Hector a gift,--
A gilt nutmeg. A lemon. Stuck with cloves. No, cloven."
Lemon Zen Layered Soap

"The count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well; but civil count, civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion."
Satsuma Luxury Cold-Processed Soap with Shea and Cocoa Butters

"Here's flowers for you; hot lavender, mints, savoury, marjoram; the marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun and with him rises weeping: these are flowers of middle summer, and I think they are given to men of middle age."
True Lavender Goat's Milk Soap

"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember"
Rosemary, Mint and Lavender Limited Edition Soap with Shea


For more in soaping artistry search Etsy tag soaper star team

Salt Bars

One of my favorite things to make and use is a salt bar. Salt bars are high percent coconut oil soaps made with the addition of any one or more different types of salts. Dead sea salt, Himilayan pink, Hawaiian red, to name a few. I love the way it softens the water as I use it and the slight scrubiness of the salt crystals adds a bit of exfoliation. And although there is a high percentage of coconut oil salt bars are not drying at all.

These bars were made with an essential oil blend with an emphasis on violet leaf absolute.