Top 3 Essential Oils to Have in Your Medicine Cabinet

Essential oils are great for a number of applications. They can be used for everything from warding off bugs to perfumery to antiseptic treatments. Below is my favorite list of essential oils to have on hand and why. 1. Lavender Oil My favorite is Hungarian lavender since its scent is more soft and floral rather than the medicinal scent of French lavender. Uses: a. Makes a great room deodorizer when mixed half and half with vodka. b. Perfect for treating shingles. Helps prevent the spread of the lesions and heal existing ones. c. Helps relieve tension and promote sleepiness if put on the bottom of feet. d. Apply neat to acne to lessen the length of the outbreak. e. Make sachets with dried flowers and a few drops of lavender oil and hang in the closet to ward of bugs and moths. 2. Eucalyptus Oil Uses: a. Apply neat to bottom of feet to relieve evening coughing and to break up phlegm in the lungs. b. You can gargle with warm water and a few drops of eucalyptus oil to treat sore throat. c. Apply neat to skin infections or abrasions as it has great germicidal properties. 3. Tea Tree Oil Uses: a. A common acne treatment, you can mix this not so great smelling oil with lavender oil to make a nice skin tonic. Add the mix to olive oil for a night time moisturizer and watch much of the acne start to fade away. Even if you have oily skin, this helps reduce the output of your pores and treats the acne with nourishing olive oil instead of the falsehood that you need to dry it out. b. Great for treating fungus, anything from athletes foot to ringworm to certain yeasts. c. Using soap with tea tree oil can help curb body odor. For more essential oil uses try visiting Netherfield.For purchasing, our favorite is Bramble Berry.

When Handmade Soap is Not Better

Hi Soaperific fans. I've been tooling around the internet on lots of soap sites checking out the awesome wares of the talented people I share the industry with. There are some really amazing soaps and soap makers out there. One thing bothered me though. Often I saw "all natural" advertised, but when I looked at the ingredient list there were chemicals like sodium laureth sulfate (not to be confused with sodium lauryl sulfoacetate)and diazolidinyl urea. The FDA deems these chemicals as GRAS (generally recognized as safe), but the EWG says they are high on the list of harmful ingredients. I don't agree with everything the EWG stands for. In fact most of the time I think they are eccentric and one sided in their view. It has been argued that all things are bad if you use too much of it. You can make your own decisions about the products you use, but consider this. Let's say, your shampoo has 20 ingredients and 19 of those ingredients are on the EWG's list of top carcinogens, you'd probably look for another brand right? People look for natural products because they don't want the garbage peddled in the main stream. So maybe its just me being...Well, me, but I really get irked when I see "all natural" on a product that contains even fragrance oil. Fragrance oil in my opinion is safe for the most part, if its phthalate free, but natural it is not. If there was one good thing the EWG is wonderful for, I would say it is the availability of Skin Deep. This site can be used by anyone to find the danger level of any one ingredient. I use it frequently when trying to decide what to use in my soap. The one thing they stink at is this campaign of trying to get everything in a soap bar listed on the label. What I mean is, if there is water in a soap (which there is) they want the water analyzed and each micro ingredient in the water listed on the label. This would make most labels so long that it would take a few pages of chatter that no one would care to read because it would be so long, but I digress. Bottom line: Read the labels...for now anyway. Make sure the basic ingredients suit your needs and don't believe someone when they say something is "all natural" when its not.

Updating The Blog

So I'm in the process of revamping the blog. If it looks weird its not your eyes. The old template worked well with the placement of certain...words, so now I'm reorganizing and in the process losing a bit of quality until I have it right. All the older posts will be wonky, but the new posts should look right.

Argument For Handcrafted Soapy Treats

Tie Dyed Felted Soap by Precious Gems I was standing in line at Starbucks the other day and it hit me. I was getting ready to pay $5 for a cup of coffee. Of course it was a big cup of coffee with lots of frills, but nevertheless, it was a cup of coffee. Coffee! It would be gone in a matter of minutes. I was almost, literally, eating money. Then, I got to thinking about all the other things I spend money on, food, gas clothing, cleaning supplies...Cleaning supplies! Naturally this brought me back to soap. One of my favorite things. Its a necessary part of life, soap that is. We need it to get clean. Unlike coffee which, even though some people (me) would argue is a necessity, the reality is, we don't really NEED coffee. Then I realized that my handcrafted soap addiction was rather justified. It WAS a need (work with me). If I spend $5-$10 dollars on a bar of soap that I really love that soap will likely last 2 weeks to a month and its getting me clean. With sites like Etsy and local brick and mortar shops, I could choose the scent of my desire and get it without sodium laureth sulfate or phthalates and it can also be visually appealing. I began to realize that handcrafted soap was a far more economical way to spend my money than buying a coffee and it would bring just as much joy. I could even get coffee scented soap if I wanted! What a bargain! Shopping around on Etsy I found these soaps that look like something I (a soap maker) would really love. Sunbasil Garden Use Java Latte Handcrafted Soap in your shower and wake up to the delicious scent of fresh roasted coffee. Made with vegetable glycerin. DeShawn Marie has a 10 pack we are drooling over! DeShawn Marie also offers 3 pound soap loaves which can be found by clicking here. Desert Soapstone also offers swirly big bars inspired by nature's color palette and scented with the finest phthalate free fragrance oils around. AJ's Sweet Soap (below) Specializes in dessert themed soaps. They have everything from cupcakes to ice cream. They even have beer in a cup. As you can see, there's quite a variety when it comes to handcrafted soap. So the next time you head out for a cup of coffee think about how much deliciously scented soap you could buy for the cost of taking your family out and it lasts about 100 times as long (if not longer). If you have a favorite soap or are a soap maker please post your links and likes. We'd love to hear from you!

Consistency is Hard

Why is it so hard to be consistent? O.k. Those of you that have it down are thinking, "Um, its not, you just decide to be consistent and then be consistent." That reminds me of a scene in the movie Say Anything when Joan and John Cusack are debating how hard it is to be in a good mood. "How hard is it to decide to be in a good mood and then just be in a good mood?" he asks (something like that). She follows with an annoyed, "Its easy." Really? Is it easy to do something we loathe, but know is good? I think for those that say its easy are just better at faking it. So what am I struggling with? Better yet, what am I not struggling with? O.k. o.k. life is actually pretty awesome right now, except for a couple people missing from it, I can't complain, but struggling...Yes. Exercise. Why I can't stand this healthful activity that always makes me feel better is a mystery. Maybe its my long history of being a klutz or maybe its the time I went for a jog as a teenager only to wake up on the side of the road with a mouthful of dirt because I forgot to eat before I started on an epic jog without any prior running experience. Run on sentence. Did you follow that? So exercise is currently a bit of a thorn in my side, but I know its good for me so I'm gonna do it. If anyone has any tips on finding the motivation...What? Hang on, someone's trying to tell me something...Oh you mean I already exercised today when I went on that four mile bike ride with the family? Does that justify donuts tomorrow with a friend? No? So you mean I have to exercise every day for it to really benefit me? What about the donuts?

Winners!

3rd Prize: Small Footprints wins (1) 3oz bar from our shop.
2nd Prize: Anne JK won (2) 3oz. bars from our shop.
1st Prize: Salad for Breakfast won 1 pound of soap. Pick a scent from our shop.

Thank you for participating everyone. You should be receiving an email soon from us regarding where to send your prize(s).

Fall Handcrafted Soap Giveaway

Phoenician Blu

Its time for another giveaway! This one is a soapy one. No scrubs allowed. We are streamlining things at DS Soap Company. We like focusing on what we love making most...Soap! So check it out. Give us your feedback and follow the hows and whats its below and win some sweet soap!


Cranberry Fig

The Prizes:
1 Grand Prize: One pound of soap, (4)4 oz. bars, you decide the scents from our shop.
2 First Prize Winners will receive their choice of 2(3oz.) bars of soap (you choose any bar scent from our soap shop).
3 Second Prize Winners will receive 1 (3oz.) bar of soap from our shop.

How to participate (you may do 1 or all of the below):
1. Post your favorite things from our website http://www.desertsoapstone.etsy.com on your FB page and then send us the links in a comment on this blog. = 2 entries.
2. Make a blog post about our giveaway on your blog and post the link in a comment on this blog. = 1 entry.
3. Make a post about our giveaway on your Twitter account and give us the link in a comment on this blog. = 1 entry.
4. Make a post about our above website and post the link here. = 2 entries.
5. Follow our blog. = 1 entry
6. Become a DS fan on FB https://www.facebook.com/pages/Desert-Soapstone/60275213527?ref=ts = 1 entry. If you are already a fan make sure we know so we can give you an entry.
7. Visit our website above and tell us what your favorite item is and what you would like to see more of and post it in a comment here. 2 entries
8. Join our mailing list. Send us a comment with your email address (we will not publish these posts. Please post this post separate from your other posts so I can include your other posts on the blog. 1 entry.

There is the potential to have up to 11 entries for this contest. We can't wait to hear from all of you and get to know you better on your FB pages, blogs and Twitter. So get busy, your prize awaits you!

Frankincense and Myrrh

Some New Things

Hi handcrafted soap fans!
This has been a crazy year and although its not over yet, it is drawing to a close. We have had the privilege of meeting so many new people all due to our Etsy shop and we are so thankful for our new connections. We would like to bring you up to speed with the shop. We have brought scrubs back for a limited time, however you will always be able to get them at our Exfoliate site. We are behind on our gift packages as far as photos go as our camera was unfortunately dropped on its eye and broken. The future of our photos hangs in the balance...o.k. not really, but we are thinking we will have to wait until the end of the month for new gift packaging photos. Until then, here are some mediocre shots of some of our new soaps.

Please check back at our shop for more items in the coming weeks and don't forget our 100 bars for $250 deal. Psst... You can use coupon code SUPER10 for 10% off. This is a great package for staying under budget these 2011 holidays with your gifting and you can change it up and request any scent you would like. Did we mention how much people like handcrafted soap? Once you try it you'll never want to use store bought again!

So just a friendly hello and what's happening. Hopefully we will have some great photos of us and the soaps and the haps soon.

Smiles,
Kelli (Sass)

New Clearance Section, Discounts and Incentives

Greetings bath and body enthusiasts!

Now that summer is drawing to a close, its time to start pampering your skin again. To help you, we will be adding more and more clearance items to our new clearance section as we gear up for the new Fall and Winter scents and designs. Don't forget to check out our scrub site too as we will be adding some amazing scents for this upcoming holiday season.

Whether you buy clearance or not you can always use coupon code LOYAL20 at checkout for an additional 20% off whenever you shop at Desert Soapstone online. Feel free to tell your friends, but make sure they tell us about you. If they mention your name in the comments field at checkout when they spend $30 or more, you get a free bar of handcrafted soap as a reward for the referral.

So what are you waiting for? Luxurious, premium quality handcrafted soap awaits you.

A Word From One of Our Nation's Greatest Leaders: Abraham Lincoln

Found this very interesting.

“[I]t is the duty of nations,
as well as of men,to own their dependence upon
the overruling power of God … and to recognize the sublime
truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all
history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the
Lord. … We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties
of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace
and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power
as no other nation ever has grown, but we have forgotten
God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved
us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened
us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our
hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior
wisdom and virtue of our own.”

-President Abraham Lincoln