New Packaging Contest

I am experimenting with new packaging for my Vervain Shea Butter Soap, and want your input. Please vote on top or bottom as your favorite and put your vote in the comments. On January 15, I will randomly choose one of the commenters to get a free bar of soap. Thanks!

For your calenders if you are in Colorado:

how-liday cards coming soon!

Upcoming Shopping!

For your calenders -- the Jefferson Unitarian Church holiday art/craft show will be November 30 and December 1 in Golden, Colorado. I did most of my holiday shopping there last year, and I will have a table with my new soaps, sage smudges, cards and drum beaters. Stop by and say hello!

heavenly.

Just ordered more bulk coconut oil and olive oil, and thawed out the organic shea butter from the freezer.  Opened the tins of organic vervain . . . . I love making soap, it smells divine.

New batch of soap!

Just started making my holiday soap -- the whole house now smells of rich shea butter, coconut oil, and mostly lemony vervain. 

I love my job!

new smudges!

I just harvested the sage for this year, and lots of echinacea and lavender for the smudges.
It is drying, and in a week or so will be ready to assemble!
I love the smell of my studio, and you will love your smudge.
Coming Soon to http://www.etsy.com/shop/emtheartist

Why use this soap?

From my friend Julianne, a massage therapist, I am reminded that many of the products we are told are safe are not tested.  Most commercially made soaps are full of chemicals that are very bad for your skin.  I don't want to scare you, but please read this:

*Top 6 Raw thoughts on Why To Go ALL Natural with your Beauty Products

1) Lead paints have be recalled, yet lead is still found in most major brand- name lipsticks.
2) Many popular cosmetic ingredients like sodium laurel sulfate, and tetrasodium EDTA have been proven to be carcinogens, neurotoxins and reproductive toxins in animals. We are animals.
3) Less than 20% of the synthetic chemicals used in cosmetics are tested for safety.
4) A study by the Environmental Working Group showed an average of 232 toxic chemicals found in the blood of brand new babies.
5) Europe has banned many of the ingredients we allow in cosmetics in the USA.

My Vervain soap has only all natural Shea butter, olive oil, coconut oil, sodium hydroxide (which is the alkaline which makes soap lather) and vervain.   and a wee bit of lemon oil.  Your skin will love you.  Mine went from looking like an alligator purse to looking like it did when I was a child.  Never again will I use commercial soap.  Get some at my shop on ETSY.

 

Vervain

Vervain is the reason I make soap.
When I lived in the South of France, I learned to order un infusion de vervain in the cafe.  Somehow it seemed a healthier choice than the lovely coffee.   Only later did I learn of vervain's magical and calming properties, and that it was considered a powerful medicinal.
Called "lemon verbena" in this country erroneously, vervain is a very hard to find herb on this side of the ocean.  What is used in the US as lemon verbena has a different latin name, Verbena triphylla, and this plant is native to South America, not the Mediterranean.
The two species are similar, but not the same thing.



True vervain is verbena officianalis, and has been known since the Roman times as a medicinal herb, reducing anxiety, strengthening the immune system, and helping with migraines.


If your holiday soap is getting small, time to order a new bar -- I have my inventory back in stock and can ship immediately!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/emtheartist