image courtesy Photobucket.com

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived,  reclaimed, and redeemed; Never throw out anybody.

Remember, If you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the  figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides.

The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!

- Sam Levenson

Audrey Hepburn favored these words so much so that people often believe she wrote them!  I encountered them on the pages of Sagescript Institute, a site well worth checking out for natural products crafted with intelligence.  Cindy Jones, Ph.D. is an author, educator, formulator, and biochemist.  Her blog is required reading for anyone who wants real, factual information about their skincare products.  Cindy’s writing, and that of many other experts, can also be found at Personal Care Truth, a wonderfully informative site working tirelessly to dispel the fear mongering we’re exposed to about our cosmetics. I was very honored to recently have one of my own articles featured there as well.  I’m among very good company.

Thanks for reading, and have a fabulous weekend!

After my well-publicized posts (here and here) on the Colorado Personal Care Products Act of 2010, I’ve remained conspicuously silent about the proposed nationwide Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, a bill that is even more onerous in its intentions and harm to the industry.  I wanted to take some time to reflect on this legislation and my feelings about it.  I’m finally ready to speak.

In case you haven’t heard about it, the best way I can fill you in is by having you read what industry experts have already written.  It all started with a cute video that slams the cosmetics industry. This video was shown to Congress by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a nonprofit (though its associates and creators of the “Skin Deep” database, the Environmental Working Group, are becoming very wealthy) lobbying group (not a group of scientists!) who has nearly completely alienated the cosmetics industry, only partly for using inaccurate science to give natural ingredients negative rankings in their safety database.  Soon, a firestorm raged.

Read more from:

• The Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild
• Donna-Maria Coles Johnson at OpposeSCA
• “5 Ways the Safe Cosmetics Act Will Harm Consumers” from Personal Care Truth
• Kayla Fioravanti, Essential Wholesale
• Sagescript Institute: “How the Safe Cosmetics Bill Will Affect Natural Cosmetics”

This is a deeply polarized and emotional issue that leaves natural products manufacturers, and especially those that are microbusinesses,  in a very curious position. What? It’s only intended to protect us all from the “big box” cosmetics companies?  Think again.

The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, should it pass, will require such extensive reporting, testing, and labeling practices that it will probably shut down artisanal cosmetics, soap, and perfume manufacturers nationwide.   Proponents believe this will protect consumers from cancer and other disease.  Opponents believe it won’t achieve this goal, that cosmetics aren’t the problem, and it will only decimate small business at a time when our economy is in tatters.

It leaves the natural products industry in a real lurch.  The Act will insist that products be labeled to include every trace element of every substance detectable in every ingredient so that consumers can make informed choices.  Even when consumers don’t know what those substances are, their levels present (you understand a toxin is NOT a toxin below certain levels, right?), or what their function is.  Many, many people think that natural products are safer and that only “chemicals” are harmful.  I hate to be the one to tell you this, but everything contains chemicals.  EVERYTHING.  Essential oils contain a staggering amount of chemical constituents.

Remember that whole “if you can’t pronounce it, you shouldn’t use it” thing?   Well, here’s a sample of what ingredient labeling for a lotion bar containing THREE natural ingredients–olive oil, cocoa butter, and lavender essential oil–will look like under the Safe Cosmetics Act.

Ingredients: Olive Oil (Tri-Glycerides of Palmitic, Di-Glycerides of Palmitic, Palmitoleic, Stearic, Oleic, Linoleic, Arachidic Acid, Linolenic Acid, Squalene, Beta Carotene, Campesterol, Methylenecholesterol, Stigmasterol, Sitosterol, Fucosterol, 28-Isofucosterol, Stigmadienol, Brassicasterol, 7-Cholestenol,Ergostadienol, Avenasterol, Triterpene Alcohols, Tirucallol, Taraxerol, Dammaradienol Beta-Amyrin Germanicol, Butyrospermol, Parkeol, Cycloartenol, Tirucalladienol, 24-Methlene 24-Dihydroparkeol, 24-Methlenecycloartanol, Cyclobranol, 4-Methyl Sterols, Esters of Tyrosol, Esters of Hydroxytyrosol, Vitamin E (Tocopherols), Carotenoids, Oleuropein) Cocoa Butter (Tri and Diglycerides of Stearic Acid, Palmitic Acid, Lead, Oleic Acid, Linoleic Acid, Isoleic Acid, Beta Carotene, p-Hydroxybenzoic Acid, Vanillic Acid, Ferulic Acid, Syringic Acid, Phenylehtylamine, Theophylline, Aliphatic Esters, Aromatic Carbonyls, Caffeine, Theobromine, Diketopiperazines and Alkylpryazines), Lavender Essential Oil ( Cineole Octanol, Octanone, Alpha Bisabolol, Alpha Cadinol, Alpha Humelene, Alpha Phellandrene, Apha Pinene, Alpha Terpinene, Alpha Terpineol, Alpha Terpinyl Acetate, Alpha Thujene, Alpha Thujone, Beta Bisabolol, Beta Pinene, Beta Thujone, Borneol, Bornyl Acetate, Camphene Camphor, Cineolealpha Terpineol, Carvone, Caryophyllene, Carophyllene Oxide, CIS Alpha Terpineol, CIS Alpha Bisabolene, CIS Carveol, CIA Linalol Epoxide, CIS Ocimene, Citronellal, Citronellol, Coumarine, Cuminaldehyde, Eugenol, Furfural, Geraniol, Geranyl Acetate, Geranyl Butyrate, Hexanol, Hexyl Tiglate, Isoborneol, Lavandulol, Lavandulyl Acetate, Limonene, Linanlol, Linalyl Acetate, Methyl Heptenone, Myrcene, Nerol, Neryl Acetate, Oleanolic Acid, P Cymene, Rosemarinic Acid, Sabinen, Terpinenol, Terpinolene, Trans Carveol, Trans Epoxy Linalyl Acetate, Trans Linanol Epoxide, Trans Ocimene, Ursolic Acid)

(courtesy The Soap Queen Blog, Anne-Marie Faiola, Brambleberry Soap Making Supplies)

Tell me… will you feel safer reading that?  Natural products still look pure and innocent? How do you feel about synthetics?  Think natural products manufacturers are hiding things from you?  (Answer: we’re not.)  How do you suppose the tap water you drink would be labeled, if we used it in a product?  Do you begin to see the magnitude of this now?

Some people are arguing about how to interpret the bill, saying the Secretary can’t possibly mean that every trace constituent will need to be included on the label, only those of concern. My opinion: If that’s true, let’s get rid of all ambiguous wording in the bill, especially in a litigious country like ours.

Many consumers are furious (and that is not too strong a word) that personal care products do not require final batch testing here in the US.  I can completely understand that.  And you know what? I support fair regulation! If the FDA wants a few chunks of Sarva soap to test on a regular basis, bring it on.   I have a few bars to spare and I want my customers to have safe products! If the FDA wants the names and addresses, and possibly other personal data about my suppliers, employees and/or subcontractors, resubmission of these lists when one supplier runs out of lavender essential oil and I have to go elsewhere, resubmission of my formulation data every time I make a minor change, complete revenue reporting for my company, and more, bring it on.  I’m great at administrative tasks.  If it’s really a good idea to make an ingredients list that reads like a novel, and if consumers will truly feel safer when they know every single chemical component of the distilled water I use at a level of parts per billion, bring it on because I type incredibly fast, and I can crank out that packaging.  The FDA wants safety data for all of my raw materials?  Bring it on… where there’s a will, there’s a way. All 50 states want the right to impose further and more stringent laws?  Bring it on… I’ll follow the strictest laws and bring you the most stripped-down product possible while you complain about your lack of choice and price, which is due to all the red tape, and I go out of business.

But do you know what’s really getting to me? The hatred, fearmongering, polarity, divisiveness, and just plain ugliness.  I can’t believe the venom I am seeing online from proponents of the bill, many of them advocates for all-natural and organic products.  The very products which are basically damned under this legislation. Why?

• It will change consumers’ perception of what natural is; labeling will scare and confuse customers.
• The bill is based in bad science that is, amazingly, in favor of synthetic products.  Please revisit this post where I discuss the concept of NOAELs (a “toxin” isn’t a toxin unless its dose is high enough).Many natural ingredients, such as olive oil, will be banned because they contain trace elements of recognized carcinogens.
• Natural ingredients have so much variance from batch to batch, and contain so many chemical constituents,  that continual testing will be completely cost prohibitive. Many of the businesses who make all-natural/organic products are so small as to not be able to afford the mountains of paperwork, testing, and reporting required. They will shut down, or they will make synthetic products, which are cheaper to begin with, and will be cheaper to test because they are standardized and have less constituents to analyze in testing.

It’s stopped being a reasonable debate that is meant to better everyone’s lives, and it’s become an “us versus them” battle where businesses like mine are made out to be villains who are intentionally (or unintentionally, I’m not really sure which), carelessly poisoning every one of you and giving you cancer.

It’s challenging enough that I’m not permitted to tell you these are “aromatherapy soaps”.  The FDA considers aromatherapy a drug, and aromatherapy claims would make Sarva subject to drug regulation: Sarva soaps would have to be tested the same way a chemotherapy protocol must be tested prior to going on the market.  I already can’t tell you how wonderful these products are and I rely solely on your word of mouth.  And now, you are being led to believe that I am poisoning you. Or is it the big box companies who are poisoning you?  No matter, they can afford the legislation and their products will be your only choice.

I, and other artisanal cosmetics business owners like me, am not your enemy.  We aren’t putting things into our products willy-nilly just for the fun of it.  At Sarva, we create from the heart, from a backbone of solid research, and we use the products we make for you in our own home.  We give them as gifts to our own family members.  Do you really think I’d be so careless as to use ingredients that are going to harm my loved ones, let alone open me up to litigation were I to harm a consumer I have never met? Do you really think we don’t do our research?  And if you think that poorly of me, why on earth would I continue creating products for you?

Don’t we have enough of a climate of fear already? How are you feeling as a result of it all?  Let’s be reasonable and work together. Last I looked, we’re all human and we’re all in this together.

The current atmosphere of fearmongering, polarity, and hatred–NOT the fear of legislation–is what will shut down Sarva Soaps. I am not afraid of legislation, but I will not create products for people who think I’m careless or, worse, out to harm them.

You deserve to know the truth about what you are putting on your body, and it is unfair and unethical to frighten you.  Our sense of safety and reality is being manipulated, not just about cosmetics but in countless other areas of our lives, and it makes me downright angry.  We all want safe products from companies we respect and trust. I don’t believe this is the way to achieve it.  If you oppose the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010, please sign the petition.

Suds Beer Soap

Gah! It’s been way too serious around here.

Spring’s around the corner; the crocuses are popping up in my garden and the snow is melting! And we have another holiday coming our way. You know, the one where everyone’s Irish.

In honor of St. Patty’s Day, we have a special batch of Suds Beer Soap for you, made with Conway’s Irish Ale from Great Lakes Brewing Company.

AND it’s on sale on our website for $7.50 through Sunday March 14, nearly 20% off!

Now, I made absolutely sure this beer was up to par for our fine soaps by testing it out the old-fashioned way first (oh, the hardships I must endure for you). Not that I was concerned! We’re major fans of Great Lakes Brewing Company, and they have so many great beers. But they do more than make great, award-winning beer.  They are one of the most eco-friendly businesses in Cleveland.  We’re proud to have Suds soap featured in the Great Lakes Brewing Company gift shop.

As for the soap… it smells great, it feels great, and it lives up to its name! There’s an ounce of beer in every bar, and I’m no scientist, but I’m pretty sure that Suds’ amped-up lather is a beer thing.  Those of you who are soap-as-shampoo aficionados might want to give this one a try; you know what they say about beer being great for hair.  I still haven’t found a way to describe the scent other than awesome.  Sure, it smells like beer.  But not beery.  It’s fresh, full, spicy, fruity… well, you just have to try it and find out.  Plus, this batch looks way cooler than the photo above.

So, if you’ve been dying to try Suds, here’s your chance, and at a great price!

As I discussed in an earlier post, I’m often asked, “what do you do with all of your soap scraps?”   Sometimes the result can be very, very beautiful.  However, the most correct answer is, “it depends.”  Some soap scraps are beautiful additions to new soaps.  Others, however, have a different fate.

I’m going to show you a soapmaking project that you can do yourself!   No worries… the lengthy instructions belie the absolute simplicity of the project.

Rebatching is a fun way to transform ugly odds and ends of soap, otherwise destined for your garbage, into perfectly usable, cool-looking soap.   There are as many methods are there are soapmakers, but this is what I find to be easiest.

Please note that this process can only be done with REAL soap.  Save your Sarva Soaps scraps, or any other handcrafted or “true” soap.   Detergent bars or “moisturizing bars” or the like are NOT soap (and aren’t biodegradable!).  If the ingredient label lists “sodium hydroxide”, or says “saponified oils of…”, then you’re good to go.

Tools:

• food processor with grating blade,  or a hand grating tool
• a “soap mold” (some ideas:  small cardboard or wooden box, clean milk carton with one side cut off, or a glass baking dish without a lid )*
• parchment paper to line your mold
• glass baking dish with lid (the lid is important) (and if you use a glass baking dish for your mold, you need a separate one with a lid too)
• bowl or bucket to collect soap scraps
• bowl or bucket to hold soap after you’ve grated it
• oven
• stainless steel spoon (MUST be stainless steel!)
• stainless steel blade (MUST be stainless steel!)
• time and patience (this is best done over a weekend)

*Alternative mold idea:  Silicone ice cube or muffin “tin” – you don’t need to line it!  But please don’t use it for food after you’ve used it for rebatching.

Ingredients:

• soap scraps (for personal use, it is fine to save scraps from used soaps, but for my purposes, I rebatch only clean, sanitary scraps that have been in long-term sealed storage)
• water (distilled is best, but tap will do)
• optional: essential oils (or fragrance oils if you are so inclined; I personally do not use synthetic substances)
• optional: milk (cow’s milk works best but is not vegan; substitutes are coconut milk or soy milk)

Procedure:

1.  Collect all of your scraps of soap.  I suspect you’ll have a lot less than I do!

2.  Run scraps through your food processor with the grating blade in place.  I use my studio’s food processor, which is dedicated solely to soapmaking.  But it’s okay if you use your own kitchen food processor as long as your soaps are for personal use.   Just be sure to soak it until all of the soap rinses off, then wash it thoroughly.   You may also use a hand grating tool.   You’ll end up with grated soap, below:

3.  Add water to moisten your grated soap and stir it with  your hands to distribute.  How much water, you ask?  Um… I eyeball it.  Not a lot.  Enough to make it a bit slick, but you don’t want to start sudsing your soap or have pools of water in your container.   Even if you add too much, it’s okay.  The worst that will happen is your rebatched soap will take longer to harden.   Maximum amount would be 1/4 cup total liquids (water plus milk) to pound of soap.   If you’re adding milk, wait until you are just about to put the soap in the oven.  Don’t let the soap sit out overnight with milk in it!  (Sorry, no photo here)

3a.  Cover your shredded soap and let it sit, ideally overnight.  This lets the water sink in and soften your scraps.

4.  Here’s the “quick and dirty” method to deciding what size mold you’ll need:  Take your grated soap and pack it into the mold you have in mind.  See if it fits, maybe overflowing a bit.  Does it work out?  Great, you have your mold!   No?  Find a different one!

Here’s my method:  I weigh my soap shreds on my soapmaking scale.  Since I know how much soap (in pounds) each of my molds yields, I can easily choose a mold.  In my case, I have about 15 pounds of scraps this time around.

You’ll need to line your mold completely with baking parchment.  I didn’t take a photo of this step – everyone has their own method.

5.  When your grated soap is softened (just a little squishy), turn on your oven to about 200 degrees.  Pack the soap scraps into the lidded glass baking dish.  Put the lid on, and put your soap in the oven.   Don’t leave the house, don’t take a nap, don’t forget about your soap!  Plan some meals, read the paper, have a cup of coffee with a loved one, do a puzzle… enjoy time in your kitchen, what used to be the center of our homes.  Dawdle!  It’s a lost art.

Check your soap now and then.  Take it out and stir it with your stainless steel spoon every 20-30 minutes.  Oh dear… it looks like shreds of soap in some really weird mashed potato-like gel!  Yes… that’s good!  And after a couple hours (give or take; this is not a scientific process), despite the funny smell (hey, it’s cooking soap), nearly all of the soap will be “gellified”, like below:

You can let it get really gellified if you want, but you must watch it carefully so it doesn’t boil and make a mess of your oven.  I like to keep it “less gellified”, because then I still see little flecks of color in the finished product.   I took mine out of the oven at this point.

5a.  This is where you’d add any fragrance or essential oils.  Your first time, I suggest you don’t add anything.  But once you get comfy with the process, you can add about 1 tsp or so of scent per pound of soap.  Stir thoroughly!  (side note:  you can “superfat” by adding extra oils too, if you want, such as almond, olive, or castor… add only 1/2 tsp per pound of soap)

6.  Glop the soap into your mold.   Glop really is the best word.

Now, because I care about you, I must warn you.  This is HOT.  It was in the oven for a couple hours, it holds heat, it’s gooey like candle wax, and it’s HOT!   I know… I know… it’s obvious.  But it’s easy to just think, “oh hey, soap” and forget that it’s HOT!

Put on an oven mitt, put a piece of parchment over top of the soap, and press it down, down, down so that it packs into the mold.  Otherwise you’ll get big air gaps, and that looks funny.  Take out all your frustrations on your poor soap.  It can handle it.  But you must work fast!

I ran several molds of this size over an extended period of time, so here’s one of mine:

7.  Let this cool for several hours… or overnight is fine… and cut into slices, chunks, whatever you like.  Use a kitchen knife or any clean stainless steel blade.  It doesn’t have to be sharp.    I used my super fancy industrial soapmaker’s slicer, and here’s what I got:

8.  When you first slice it,  it will be a bit soft.   No worries.  Let it harden for at least 1-2 weeks, maybe longer.   It’s usable right away, but the longer it hardens, the longer it lasts.

Cleanup:  Be sure to soak all of your dishes, spoons, etc., for a long time in water.  Once the soap has softened and rinses right off, just wash everything thoroughly.  If you do this often, you really should dedicate a set of utensils and bowls specifically to this task.

9.  Use and enjoy!   And save the scraps from these soaps, because you can keep on rebatching.

Since I accumulate so many scraps, I routinely donate my rebatched soap to the local homeless shelter association. This time around, I had enough to make about 130 mini bars for them.  Our homeless shelters are very much in need these days.  While I don’t recommend you donate your rebatched soap (because it’s made of used soap scraps), do please consider contacting your local agencies to see what they need, be it supplies, a donation, or even the gift of your time.  If you’re like me, it’ll make your spirit smile.

Be well!