Fight Flu, Wash Hands! Helpful Discount

Cold and Flu Season is in full swing and I am just terrified of my kids getting sick. I know sleepless nights will come, non-stop crying and stuffy noses can happen any day now. I am preparing myself for possibility of juggling holiday shows, ton of holiday orders and being sick myself or having sick kids at the same time. It seems impossible to prevent cold or flu when you share everything with everybody in your household. But there are two things that everybody can do: take vitamins and WASH HANDS! I remember, before I was making my own soap, every winter we all had to use a ton of regular soap as frequent as 20 times per day! And I remember that my hands felt like if I wash them one more time, my skin would peel off of them. Harsh detergents in soap burned, dried and scaled my skin and no lotions, no matter how much or how often I would use, could help. My husband had the worst case of dry hands in winter, it was painfully uncomfortable. After constant washes the skin on his hands would turn white and it felt dry, like paper. He would use a ton of lotions but at the end of the day would always end up with the same problem. For the past few years that I have been making my soaps and using only soaps I make, I can proudly declare that our household is “dry skin-free”! It is truly a miracle. Even in winter months I do not need to saturate my hands in lotion every 10 minutes. My husband’s hands feel great and even sometimes he can forget to use lotion completely.
I wish everybody could experience the power of natural soap and wash hands as frequent as possible to stay healthy and happy this winter season. So I have decided to run a promotional SALE on some of our most soothing and gentle soaps until the end of this year. Just add WASHHANDS09 at check out and get 20% off on the following soaps:
Lemongrass Moisturizing Soap with Shea Butter
Classic Lavender Moisturizing and Nourishing Soap with Shea Butter and Goat Milk

And don't forget to check out our Seasonal Sales, Oatmeal Honey and Forest Sprite would be an excellent choice for Gentle and Moisturizing Hand Soap and they are already discounted!



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Full Steam Ahead

I have been making soaps like madwoman in a last few weeks. What seems like madwoman to me, however may look more like slow moving snail to somebody else :) Juggling kids, every day chores, house keeping and business is NOT an easy task. Unfortunately, most of the times business gets lowest priority. But I know that I just have to keep moving and make continuous small or even micro steps forward, whether making a new product, blogging, researching or making labels - whatever I have time for. And I have made some progress, one small task at a time. I have added a new soap book to my soap-making book collection and it is by Soapylove It is so inspirational, fun and quite unique. Melt and Pour soaps are not exactly up my alley but I love all the techniques, designs, clever ideas that Debbie has to offer. I had a little time to experiment with some of her ideas and the first one was Soap Balls! Before I have been rebatching my old soap by Hot Processing it and then together with my 5 year old rolled soap balls for embedding…it could have taken up to two month to make those soap balls. Now I have successfully made batch of 28 red and yellow Cold Process soap balls using ice cube mold recommended by Debbie, and all it took is 24 hrs. I’ll let them sit on my drying rack for few more days and they’ll be ready to go into my Zesty-Cranberry soap. Yippee!
I just have to brag about my new Gingersnap Milk and Honey soap! I made it yesterday night! It smells delicious and looks even better! Pardon my lighting, it was late night outside. It is made of fresh, creamy goat milk, local honey, oats and the most amazing smelling Gingersnap fragrance! The scent will make you want to sink your teeth into it. I bet it will be a crowd pleaser at the Holiday Gift Show this year!



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Back to work!

I had a few minutes today for myself before my older one returns from school and while my youngest enjoyed his jumper. So I finally was able to return to blogging. It was a long and busy summer but it was planned to be this way. I am glad to be back to work! An opportunity to get back to business kept me on my toes all summer long! I just couldn’t wait to get back to my studio, make new products and search for new scents and ingredients! However, I am very happy with our summer and the progress we made. We have finished remodeling 1/3 of our house, what at one time used to be Marmalade Hills studio is now a home office and a family room. My husband had supervised his first project at work, and even though it took him out of the country for three weeks, it was an important step in his career. And finally we had a fun family trip to Chicago. The most memorable part of the trip for me was Cloud Gate sculpture in downtown Chicago or The Bean. It is so simple, yet unique, modern, engaging, fun and absolutely breathtaking! Check out for yourself…

Unfortunately it was too crowded to capture true beauty of it, but found many gorgeous pictures of Cloud Gate here.

Here are some night pictures of Chicago

Now the summer is officially over (today we had first frost overnight!); schedule for Fall/Winter season is set; new products and scents are finalized; and I am back to work at my studio! Because all of Marmalade Hills’ soaps have to cure for 6 weeks I am whipping new batches of soap every other day to make sure that I have enough fresh and yummy smelling soaps this holiday season! As far as new products go, you will be able to try new Bath Truffles and completely new Lotion formula, which is divine in texture and extremely beneficial for skin. I am so excited about new products that I will have to blog about each one of them individually!



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