My printables page, done. New layout, thumbnails for everything. Yay!
The shampoo bar from Gladheart Acres.. LOVE. The scent just floored me of course, but most of their soaps get me that way, and buying soap from them is something that the kids and I look forward to during the summer and for the shows they do in Anchorage in the winter. I decided to try it for the first try without a vinegar rinse, just see how did on it's own. TONS of lather. I've used shampoo bars before, but I've never used one that lathered up this much and this easily. After my hair dried, it was comb-able and clean with a faint hint of the scent of the soap. It's not at all dried out and it feels good. I've found my shampoo bar for the gym! I'm not sure how it will do on E's flaky scalp issues, but I told her to try it out. My previous experience with shampoo bars had me wondering. I've liked a lot of them, but most of them did best with a vinegar rinse, but because I've loved Gladheart's soaps so long, I was eager to try it. I figured, at the worst, I had another bar of their wonderful soap to shower with, instead, I have a nice portable shampoo bar that I really love. It's in the soap category, listed as Essential Shampoo Bar.

We use their "Moosetakes" which aren't on their website for handwashing, some clothes washing, and for felting as gifts. We use their nice 4 oz bars in the bath and shower so we can just really indulge in the scent of them. My son is wild for the Ginger Lime, and E just sniffs soaps until she finds a couple she wants.

Craft mag posted this cute project. Love! E will enjoy it a lot.

And the winner is.. Gladheart Acres. If you aren't going to make your own, it's nice and soft, so no tugging. It's made with olive, grapeseed and sunflower oils, shea butter, Beeswax, Vit E, a bit of flavor, and Alaskan honey. It feels great going on, and I need to try the peppermint, but Mike might very well like it as well as he likes mine. If the peppermint is peppermint-y enough. He likes tingle.Contact them to find out about it, because I don't think it's up on the site yet.
I'm going to be testing one of their shampoo bars tonight.

Threadless reprinted that Red design I loved so much since it won the Bestee award for last month. Still love it so much. Coolest teeshirt ever!

I've been experimenting with non-shampoo methods of washing my hair, and yesterday I tried Chinese Bee and Flower soap in rose. You've seen the stuff I'm sure, it comes in a pretty flowered paper wrapping with wrapped cigar band label and a gold colored medallion sticker? It is NOT a vegan-safe soap. It contains tallow. I washed my hair twice with it, then did a vinegar/water 1:1 rinse. My hair came out shiny and clean. Not quite as easy to comb as using baking soda/vinegar, but not impossible either. I won't do it regularly, but occasionally when I want suds, it's a definite option. It worked a WHOLE lot better then trying Dr. Bronner's with a vinegar rinse. (but All-One is still great for almost everything else in the world)

Working on a new bun cover, and it's turning out well.
( pictures of trees )
Would it be awful to ask for people to look at my Amazon reviews to help boost my review ranking?

If you're interested..
I got 2 8 oz mister bottles, and in one of my 2 cup measuring cups I poured
3/4 c vodka (left over from making the vanilla extract)-antiseptic,disinfectant, evaporates quickly for a cooling feeling
1 1/4 c witch hazel- astringent, antiseptic also anti-itch, it's the active ingredient in things like Tuck's Medicated Pads
30 drops peppermint oil or a little more if you like. Cooling, smells good, this gives your feet a happy tingle.
20 drops tea tree oil- anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, awesome for anything feet related.

Mix well, then pour into mister bottles. Amounts can be adjusted, and I'm sure rubbing alcohol would be fine. I had extra vodka, so I used that.

Wow... I just got an obscene phone call from someone who doesn't seem to understand the concept of "Caller ID". I'm sort of impressed.

Yesterday, I tried showering with old coffee grounds. I'm pretty sure I'll try it again, there were some definite pros to the experiment, but also some drawbacks.
They were MESSY. Really messy. Felt like washing myself with dirt and a bit counterproductive, but pro, I drink a very dark roast coffee, and umm.. not the mermaid, but dark roasted coffee that's not burnt or dried out, they left a light coat of coffee oil on my skin which made it very soft. I didn't have to use body butter after my shower. The grittiness felt good, very exfoliating.
Another con? Trying to explain to Mike why there was coffee in the shower. He was pretty baffled. It's really a lot messier then using sugar as a scrub. But the oil in it made me think it might work well as a pre-treatment to washing my hair occasionally to add some conditioning. I'll have to try it.

Last night when Mike came home, W was giggling up a storm. We had been watching True Blood, and discussing vampires in books. Mike asked why he was laughing so hard, and W tried his best to gasp out the answer, and I finally I told him..
"You know those books E's reading?" He said yeah.. I said "Well.. written for tweens right?" and he looked wary, but asked what it was that had W laughing so much.
"Well, vampires don't burn up in the sunlight, they sparkle."
"Oh, okay." He goes into the bedroom to change his clothes, and a couple seconds later (he was pretty wiped from work)
"They do WHAT? Are you F*&%ing KIDDING ME?"
And E yelled (from the computer room, she was NOT watching True Blood with us) "WELL.. IT'S BETTER THAN BURNING TO A CRISP!"
At which point W is holding his sides from laughing so hard.
Mike came out glowering "Let me burn. Unless Liberace is one of the undead, there is no reason for vampires to SPARKLE."
E said "What about Michael Jackson?"
I didn't hear much after that. I was having hysterics at that point.
After I calmed down, Mike said "Well, I don't get it, look at all the people who died in the Harry Potter books? If kids can handle that.." and I said "Ah.. but Twilight was written by an American author, and American authors are frequently guilty of making the world of children's literature a gentle, kind, happy, unicorn princess fairy tale kind of place."

And yes, E and I have had several discussions about the romance in the books, so she knows what I'm uncomfortable about with them.

It was a day for spending our accumulating pile of gift cards we've gotten over the last year since last December. Not particularly wanting to seriously shop at Penney's, Mike suggested I get some cologne. Smart man! *grins* As much as I love my custom rose scent, I'm a scent whore, and there are some commercial scents I have a lot that goes back years, I'm not fond of candy scents, or the modern very clean scents. I like strong scents, a lot of them, the scents my mother used to wear.
My favorite, Opium, was reformulated a few years ago, so the Opium knock off I can get at the same place that mixes my rose is closer to the original Opium scent then the new one, but I love the new one too. So that's what I got.
Other favorites- Chloe's Narcisse, L'Air Du Temps (old formula though, or a good knock off of the old formula),Guerlain's Shalimar and of course, always, Chanel No. 5. All classic floral blend scents. Mom's favorite perfume was Chloe's Narcisse when it came out, before that, she loved L'Air Du Temps. My grandmother wore mostly Estee Lauder's Youth Dew, but also had a lot of other fragrances she wore regularly too.
Coco Chanel suggested putting perfume everywhere you wanted to be kissed, which I don't quite do, but I do spray it directly on, and not just into the air then step into the scent. I want more then a light mist. Then I spray my hair, so it just takes tilting my head slightly to move my hair for me to smell it.
So.. I feel absolutely decadent, with my big bottle of Opium, but we did get in and out with that gift card pretty quickly.
Then we went to see Dad and W, and they were just heading up to the comic book store, so we followed them, and suggested after W got what he went for, that we go spend another of those cards at Bear Tooth Bar and Grill, and had a wonderful dinner finished with their creme brulee. More decadence.
So I didn't get much done today. I was too busy being spoiled. *grins*

Well.. E wound up with something like 5 lbs of candy, which she made clear she intended to share with everyone in her family, she also got one packet of popcorn and a New Testament. No toothbrushes though!
( a bunch of pictures )
So it's over finally. But it was a lot of fun. My brother wasn't home when we hit his house, but we ran into him while E was trick or treating. W is TALLER then him now. I mean.. I probably knew it if I thought of it, but W is still a kid in my mind even if he's a young man really, and my brother is an adult.
As far as my hair goes, the beer made it very soft, and full of body, not quite as absolutely straight as usual. I wouldn't use it every time I "shampoo", but for special occasions, I think it's a winner.

( Yeah.. trying to sell the world on real soap again )

We always have leftover bottles of beer. Not because we drink a lot, we really don't. But people give Mike bottles sometimes, and occasionally we buy a 12 pack of a beer we like, and it lasts us about forever. I do plan to make bread with some at some point. Today though, I grabbed a bottle and used it instead of ACV after washing my hair with baking soda. I'll let you know how it turns out!

I'm actually going to be doing a few posts today so I can keep my patterns separate, I've got the pattern for the bow off E's mouse ears (NOT posting the hat pattern, will explain why in that post), the knitted rainbow-y kerchief (fun.. not. I don't KNOW knitting. Trying to write patterns for it takes too much thinking) and this one. About lipbalm.
( follow the cut to see the picture )
So I misremembered the label size, the labels are just right for the long slim tubes, but a bit too long for the short standard tubes, but I was able to trim them down to fit, it just cut off a bit of the ingredient list, but these are for family and friends and not for sale.
They are vegan friendly. I used candelilla wax instead of beeswax, what I learned making them-

13 yos love using the pipettes to fill. So I didn't have to do that part, but they aren't always the best judge of when the balm needs to be reheated to keep from cooling in the pipettes too quickly.
Candelilla wax takes longer to melt then beeswax. A lot longer.
Don't trust E's judgment on what enough sweet almond oil is. She just wanted to use the pipettes.

We made 25 tubes total, and it's the right glide for us, and the leftovers I mixed in a bit more sweet almond oil, and some teatree e.o. to use as a cuticle cream, and poured it into an old pill bottle.
E decided she definitely prefers homemade. Mike and I already knew we did.
Making lip balm-
You'll need a wax and oil and some sort of double boiler. I used a pyrex glass measuring cup in a little sauce pan.
I chose candelilla wax, cocoa butter and sweet almond oil. The cocoa butter is hard at room temperature, so it counts more as a wax then an oil in the formulation because it makes a harder lip balm, but since does have a fairly low melt point, you do need wax as well. You melt the wax and cocoa butter, and stir in oil. What I did to check and see if I had the glide right was dip a metal spoon into the mixture, pull it out, and it hardened pretty quick, then I just tested it off the spoon on my hand, add in more oil to make it softer, more wax to make it harder.
Everyone has a different ideal. We don't like it as hard as chapstick, but we also don't like it as soft as some of the organic ones we've tried in the last couple years, so I was going for a point somewhere between the two. After it's done heating and melting and mixing, mix in your essential oils or flavors. You could also melt in some chocolate, a bit of lipstick for color, or I've use non-sweetened kool-aid powder before for tint and scent. This was just really basic. I did add in a few drops of peppermint e.o. because Mike likes the tingle.
Use a pipette to put it in your choice of containers, and label them. I covered the labels with packing tape, and they do look awfully nice.
Bramble Berry has everything you need to make lip balm. Plus aliens. Someone send me some aliens please?? *grins*

I decided when I was nearly done with the pendant bag I'm working on now that I wasn't happy with the size, so I frogged. And picked up stitches. And I gotta tell you.. picking up stitches after frogging perle cotton knitted with size 4/0 needles is not my idea of a good time. Really. And Mike mocked teased me gently about my OCD issues, because I knew I wouldn't be happy with it almost right.
Then when I was 9 rows from the end of the body of the bag, the thread broke on a partially broken bead. So I frogged the thread back to the beginning of the row and picked up those stitches, tightly knotted the thread back together with tails long enough to weave in, and now I'm back to finishing up the bag part.

I couldn't get to knitting lessons today. I was too busy knitting and frogging and saying bad words.

Anyway, remember way back when I did an entry on antiperspirant alternatives? Well, the wikihow feed had this link for making underarm guards. They look sort of uncomfortable and inconvenient to me, but I do like the idea of using baking soda to absorb odor. Having a bunch of clever seamstresses who read this, I'm certain someone can come up with something better then Mom's bit of velcro to stick to sweaters, or that harness. I think what I'd like is something along the lines of a choli bra type top made out of a nice cotton knit with built in but fairly slim line pockets that you could spoon a bit of baking soda into because that would be convenient for the gym, which is where I sweat the most, but I also need light support while I'm working out. Anyway, a camisole of some sort made with 4 oz cotton knit would almost have to be more comfortable then a harness.
Kim has found a good solution for her is to use vodka and lemon juice. But that's a lot easier when you're a bartender. I wonder if you could use dry lemon powder or lemon slices and infuse vodka for a while, and keep flannel pads soaked with in a water proof pouch and reapply when needed? Witch hazel if you absolutely can't stand the scent of vodka.

Well.. back to my knitting.

There was a book I wanted to get for W, and I had to make a choice between ordering it from Microcosm for full price, or Amazon for 7.00 less. I chose Microcosm, I'll be reviewing that later, but since I was ordering from Microcosm anyway, I ordered a few zines.
As usual, no where near all the zines I wanted, but a couple at least off my wishlist.
Slave to the Needles 1 and 2, I had issue 3, and loved it, so I decided to order the first 2. Yep. Still love it. It's full of wonderful comic strips with stories from the authors life about knitting, simple knitting patterns that don't look too complicated even for a non-knitter like me, and interviews with people about knitting. Some of the patterns are definitely adult oriented, like the bc cozy, but it's nicely written and I don't have a problem letting my 13 yo read it. She was absolutely entranced with the drawing of the a cat bath mitt, and wondering if we could do something like that. The projects include things like how to make mittens and how to salvage yarn from a thrift store sweater. I think my favorite comic in it was about going to a knitter's guild meeting and the intimidation about showing off beginner projects. I really recommend it for knitters or almost knitters like me.
Complete Soapmaker Zine, okay.. I actually have the book this is photocopied out of, and the book is really good, what the zine does is condense the basic information, and includes handwritten notes and tips. I'm happy with it, but a lot of people would be happier with the book, which you can get pretty inexpensively from Amazon sellers or ebay. What I wanted was the cliff notes version with someone else's notes, and that's what I got. Sort of like having someone else do the homework. I still don't think I'll ever make soap from scratch, but I also think I understand the process fairly well. What it doesn't have is saponification tables, but those are easily available in a lot of places.
Wild Fermentation subtitled "A do-it-yourself guide to cultural manipulation"
I love that sub-title. Sounds like you are going to learn how to ferment dissent and culture in culture (sorry.. couldn't resist) a subversive attitude. But that's not actually what it is. It's a cookbook of sorts, with stuff me and the kids are interested. Foods that are cultured, not in the "Are you using the right fork to eat your salad with?" sort of culture, but live cultures. Culture really seems made for jokes doesn't it? Okay. Getting on with it..
Sourdough, cheese, sour cream, vinegar are all examples of foods that are made with cultures, or in it's most basic terms "Allowed to go bad in a controlled way for flavor.". This zine is full of recipes for different sorts of cultured food, fermented soybeans, Ethiopian Honey Wine, sauerkraut, and the sourdough, cheese, sour cream vinegar, and of course yogurt. It's really well written and laid out, with a font that's easy to read. I think I may order an extra copy of this next time I order, so I can use one in the kitchen and not worry too much about it getting splashed with stuff and have one in with my cookbooks in case I do ruin this one and it's no longer available. I've actually been considering asking my friends who occasionally drink wine to save their leftovers for me to make vinegar from. Sure, vinegar is cheap, but it's wine that would be going down drains anyway, and free is better then "Cheap". Plus.. less waste. I'm not buying that extra plastic bottle for something I can make from other people's left overs.

In other news! This made me insanely happy last night.. Mike's new job is working out well for him, and apparently, the hotel was looking at printed keycards (they aren't using printed ones now) and Mike found a company that sells biodegradable keycards for a 1/2 cent more then regular kind. His boss doesn't mind paying a little extra for green products, so he's sure he can get them. That's one NEAT thing about his new job.. his boss doesn't mind green options as long as they are pointed out to him, good quality and at least close to the price of the regular options, and Mike, being Mike, will look for them. Yippee! Now we just have to work on that water bottle thing at hotels. See, the problem is, hotels know that Brita water pitchers will walk off, believe me, the coffee makers do, and outfitting all the rooms with filters on the faucets will be prohibitively expensive. Truth is, Alaska has really drinkable tap water, some of the best in the country, but you can't convince people that tap water is safe consistently. Well.. he's thinking on it. But I love that he's using his job to make a difference. Getting the best hotel in town to go to biodegradable keycards makes a HUGE difference!

I've decided my Alpineglow shampoo bars are the perfect thing for the gym. I can use them to wash my body and hair with after a workout, and since they are so conditioning, that's all I need, my shampoo bar and a towel. Can't beat that for convenience. Plus.. *grins* having one in my bag helps keep my bag from smelling too much like my gym sneakers!

( Picture of soap )
That's not the bar I took my shower with, I used the Vanilla Mint. That bar is the one E picked, and it's called Glacier, also very minty and cool smelling.
First off, how it looks, the picture doesn't do it justice. Because this is a HUGE bar of soap. She sells smaller bars less expensively, but I like the huge chunk of soap. The packaging is minimal too. A tag, a piece of embroidery floss. It smells amazing. The Vanilla Mint was more mint then vanilla, but a sweet mint. It smells like mint candy.
It's not superfatted, or at least not terribly so. Sometimes handmade soaps can be a bit TOO moisturising to use on my face. This wasn't. I feel clean, my skin doesn't feel dried out, but it also doesn't feel oily. It smelled so good using it, I almost scrubbed a second time just to enjoy it again.
If you like patchouli, she makes one called Earth Goddess (I think?) that's patchouli and ginger that smells fantastic. Unfortunately, patchouli makes me sneeze. I was tempted though, it smells that amazing.
I think this soap will be what I use all summer. My skin can get oily and dirty in the summer and prone to breakouts, but since this isn't full of extra fat it won't aggravate the problem. During the winter, I'd use a body butter after showering I think.
It's 4 BIG bars for 30.00, or 5 little ones for 20, the little ones are 3-4 oz each (about the size of a standard bath bar) and the big ones are 7-8 oz each, so it's really reasonably priced. She does make vegan soaps too, including a vegan unscented bar if you've got sensitive skin or allergies.
You can get the soap from BathBucket.com

Well... I mentioned to some of you, I got a bottle of rum, this stuff. SN 938514 if you're curious. I also have a smaller bottle up too high for me to reach it to see if I can find a review of it, also from the Dominican Republic. I don't drink. Mike doesn't drink. This stuff got a review that makes me wish I did, I used to like rum and cokes. You know, when I drank.

I'm not sure if I'm going to the zoo today. The hotel is being renovated, and Mike had to work. E and I went to the Saturday Market though yesterday. First day and it was a blast.
( cut because this could get long )
In other news, last time I bought cologne, I got a bottle of violet. The scent is totally not making it for my family. Mike says "It's nice, just not what I'm used to." and E flat out says she doesn't like it, and wants me to wear rose or that other stuff (Opium). Ah well.

Well.. singingwolf had life going on last week when we ran out of soap. Since the car has been broken down, we haven't had a chance to get soap from any of my favorite local sellers, and I need to do something. So I bought 4 bars from Special Needs Handmade Soaps, one of the bars was peppermint, which is a good thing, because since I've been using Mike's Dr. Bronner's, he was out too, and forgot to get more. I LOVE the bergamot citrus which is the first bar I opened.
I was trying to explain soap to a friend a few weeks ago.
( soap )
When Mike and I got together, he was an Irish Spring user. Since he switched to real soap, he hasn't looked back. He uses Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap. To him, clean is a tingly feeling all over.
Well.. now that I've told you more then you *ever* wanted to know about soap..
Currently working on:
Update for Beadwork at BellaOnline
More boxes. Nearly done with boxes. Thank goodness. Had to redraw a lot of art in the last couple of days.
Thinking of: Melting crayons and maybe making some caramel popcorn later. I don't actually want to EAT caramel popcorn, but it's so pretty to make.

This is frankly, about feminine hygiene products and alternatives. So if you aren't interested skip it. Especially if you're one of the few men on my flist and you get squeamish about such things. I will be frank and honest. Because I'm writing this to refer friends I'm pretty comfortable with to.
( I prefer yonic symbols )

Remember a while back when I made my post about alternatives to deodorant?
( cut for the people who'd rather use chemicals )

Instead of doing dishes, I'm in youtube land again.
( a couple uses for vodka )
I love it so much, plus the music is just great.
I get, as I've mentioned before, my cologne from Laura's Body and Soul. They custom mix my "signature" rose scent to my specifications, plus a few other scents I wear when I'm feeling a bit more creative then just roses. They use a glycerine/alcohol/water base I believe. The glycerine makes the scent stay on like you wouldn't believe, alcohol is just a carrier and evaporates pretty quickly, but the glycerine makes it stick.
( psoriasis stuff cut for the uninterested )
Bead chat tonight at 6pm PST. I probably won't make it, since I didn't make it to the gym this morning and I was *bad* yesterday. I had a soda and potato chips and a cup cake.

Well.. an odd comment on an old entry made me realize I've been almost completely shampoo free for 2 years now. My hair is about 6 inches longer then it was then, and I've had a few inches trimmed off in those years. I can go longer between trims now without getting fairytale ends. When my hair has been braided, the braiders comment on how healthy it is. It's waist length now. And I love shampoo-free!

Today all the people who made it through all of the weight loss thing were treated to dinner/lunch at Nino's. If you come to Anchorage, go there. Yum yum. Mike, who lived in Italy for 3 years definately wants to go back. Mark the Hitman and his family, and Vince were there. We ordered dinner family style, and everyone got a little bit of everything. Oh gosh it was good. Very relaxed and slow dinner. It's casual, but with really good food. I like that combination. Vince and Mark were talking about their first meals after the whole thing was over, and both of them went out. Mike talked about his roast chicken and gravy. Friday night, when the gravy got done, Mike was right there with bread. He's missed bread and gravy so much! He had it confirmed he won, and total weight loss was 398 lbs for the whole group.
After that, we went and did some more holiday shopping, then came home and I started dinner. Actually, finished it. Last night I started a soup with the leftover chicken, but I needed veggies for it, so before I went to bed, I put it in the fridge so I could skim off the fat, then while we were out I stopped and got veggies, got home, skimmed the fat off the soup, and dumped in the veggies and some wild rice.
Working on W's blanket still.

You know the little hamster wheel cars? I told Mike the other day at the grocery store he needed one. With heating and some sort of system that would allow the car to go faster then he can run/walk so he can get too and from work and get his workout at the same time.

I don't think he was amused. He told me to shut up.

I missed hamster time today because I left my shoes at home, and got there just in time to get in my weights. So I lifted weights, but then I realized I left my notes in the locker room. With the weights I've been working at and the settings the seats et cetra are at. So I guessed to get done quicker.

End result? I remembered most of them. Forgot one, and went way over what I'm supposed to do. So as soon as my body figures that out (like after I go to sleep and wake up) my arms are going to hurt really badly. Ahh well.. tomorrow is a no-weight day. I'm doing the weights Mon-Wed-Fri and just cardio the rest of the days.

Nobody could agree on what we should have for dinner, so Mike got what he wanted. Since I didn't care, and Mike's the grownup. More mushrooms, more onions. Actually, it was mushrooms, onions, lots of garlic cloves, some herbs, a bit of sea salt, and some gorgeous grape tomatoes sauteed in olive oil oil until they were cooked down nicely and then I tossed in some shrimp, cooked that too. Served over rotini with fresh grated parmesan. It was yummy. Normally I wouldn't do two mushroom/onion dishes in a row, but Mike really likes them, and it's one of William's old favorites, in fact he usually requests it for his birthday. E had frozen chicken patties and carrots with pasta, since she thinks shrimp is "well.. pretty much awful."

A lot of scientists think sulphur helps promote healthy hair growth, it's known a sulfur deficiency can lead to weak nails and hair. So the theory is, that rubbing an onion on your head can help hair grow. So you'll have long lovely onion scented locks. Uh.. actually, egg yolks have a lot of sulphur in them too if you aren't a vegan, and without the onion smell, or worse.. finding out you accidently cut your scalp by brushing too hard just as the onion hits it. Ouch.
I'm going to try the egg thing once a week. Goodness knows I use enough other stuff from the kitchen in my showers. I'll let you know how it progresses. According to the Long Hair boards, long hair should be measured from the front of the hairline (where your bangs grow from) over the top of your head, down the length. My hair right now, using that measurement is 32 1/4 inches long.

At some point, I'm going to put all my Alaskan product reviews and commentary under the tag "Buy Alaska".

But today, you all know my aversion to commercial soaps, and other then Dr. Bronner's (which Mike uses), we buy handmade soaps locally. I love trying out different types, and found one recently at New Sagaya. One of the things I love about New Sagaya, other then being the only big locally owned grocery store is that they carry LOTS of local products. Not just the big ones. We go there very regularly because they carry my coffee. Unfortunately, they don't have a location on my side of town, or I'd do a lot more of my shopping there.
Alpenglow soap is a recent find in there. I bought a bar of the shea butter soap, and one of their shampoo bars. I had mixed feelings about the shampoo bar because my results are so mixed. The Burt's Bees one is wonderful for my daughter's hair because it does leave a waxy build up that helps keep her curls under control. It's less stunning on mine. I use it with a vinegar rinse afterwards.
Just took a shower with my new things. The soap? Of course I got the Alaskan Wild Rose. It's so fragrant, I thought I'd goofed. I thought for sure it had to have fragrance oil in it, which is fine in colognes, but I'd rather not scrub my face with extreme amounts. No, it really is just that fragrant. It uses wild rose petals and rose geranium e.o. for scent. For an anti-bacterial, this stuff uses rosemary e.o., not chemicals. It smells so good. I felt decadent. It did leave my skin just a little on the dry side, but I used some moisturiser and it's fine. The dryness isn't enough to put me off of it when the scent knocked me out. No itchies which commericial (read: detergent) soaps can do.

So the shampoo bar. I got the lavender. I've got a weakness for floral scents and I love layering them. It's got lavender and ylang ylang e.o.s in it, and if you know about aroma therapy, you know how sexy ylang ylang is. The lavender of course is soothing. I've got nearly waist length very fine straight hair if you don't know. So build up is absolutely my worst enemy, any sort of build up on my hair shows. I didn't use a rinse or conditioner after, and was able to pull my detangling comb through without any issues. Dry, it's not at all oily or waxy, which happens with some shampoo bars. It's clean, and shinier then I've seen it since I was a kid.

I still need a bath icon.