We imagine chocolate scented anything is terribly popular around this time of the year (or anytime for that matter!). Below are some amazing Valentine’s Day soap Making ideas. <3 We’re feelin’ the love already!

Handmade soaps featured in this post were made by the following:

Great Cakes Soap Works

Misiuk

DeShawn Marie

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• Fall and Winter at Cibaria Soap Supply
• Gorgeous Summer Soap Making to Inspire!
• 7 Lb Quantities Have Changed to 1 Gal
• Survey Time! What Do you Want us To Stock?

Now on to today’s Featured Soap Making Showcase!

Featured Soap Maker: Linda White

Company: The Healthy Soap Company / Linda’s Healthy Naturals

Hails from: Missoula, Montana

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• Christmas Holiday Soap Making Showcase
• Creative Soap Making Inspired by Food!
• Fall and Winter at Cibaria Soap Supply
• Gorgeous Summer Soap Making to Inspire!

It’s truly inspiring!

As per usual, I don’t blog empty-handed. I am holding on to an announcement, that is sure to make your Holiday season a bit more special.

So stick around, be sure to follow our Twitter, and our Facebook – You’re not going to want to miss this update!

Want to Know Before Everyone Else Knows?

If you’re already signed up for our Cibaria Soap Supply Email List – then you’ve got the special privilege of knowing this announcement before ANYONE else does! Not signed up? Don’t fear! It’s not too late to sign up for our email newsletter, simply enter your email address on in the newsletter slot on our Soap Supply Website!

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• Christmas Holiday Soap Making Showcase
• Winter 2011-2012 Soap Making Showcase Series
• Gorgeous Summer Soap Making to Inspire!
• Survey Time! What Do you Want us To Stock?

To celebrate summer’s triumphant arrival, we’ve compiled a showcase of some of our favorite Summer-Inspired Soaps! As you can see, they range quite a bit in method, scent, shape, and color. We wanted to try to include as many soap making methods as possible, and hopefully we were successful in doing this!

This oh-so-cute creation was crafted by Lily Bay Soap, which doesn’t seem to have a working Etsy page at this time. If anyone knows where this person currently sells, please let us know, and we’ll link their store!

SUPER Cute Watermelon Soap Bars – and they smell like watermelon too! Crafted by Sweet Body Soaps

Words can’t describe how we feel about this soap! It’s just all-around impressive! Besides looking like a deliciously edible treat, this soap features bright colors, and fruit molded shapes on top! We’re not sure how they achieved this look, but it’s great! Crafted by Alegria Mediterraneo Soap

This quenching Raspberry Lemonade Loofa soap looks as refreshing as it does colorful! Gorgeous, vivid colors with a citrus-looking loofa in the middle make this creation a true favorite! Crafted by Eliza Grason

Shea Butter Pomegranate Soap – Made with Olive oil, Coconut oil, Sweet Almond oil, distilled water, sodium hydroxide, Shea butter, fragrance, and mica – This fresh creation hits the spot with perfect moisture and scent combinations! Crafted by Sutter Buttes Soap Company

This Wildberry Zinger Tea soap is bright, cheerful, and creative! We’re loving the white against the neon colors, and the adorable dotted theme. This unique creation was crafted by Burnt Mill Candles & Soap

A CP Soap With Mango Butter and Avocado Oil – This passionate, but simply summer soap looks fresh and lively, as well as moisturizing! Crafted by MacSoapy

This nourishing soap features an awesome variation of the traditional coconut and it’s scent combines coconut milk with lemongrass, vanilla and musk. Crafted by Wicked Soap

Cool Citrus Basil Soap – provides a cool and refreshing kind of clean – perfect for those who spend a bit too much time in the sun happen to get sunburnt – or those who just love the nourishing moisture and clean that this great soap will bring! Crafted by Forget Me Not Soap Shop

Cold Press Boston Tea Party Soap – Features the cool and collected colors of a nice summer breeze! Ingredients include: Coconut oil, palm oil, Shea Butter, Castor Oil, Olive Oil, Avocado oil, vegetable Shortening, Canola Oil, Fragrance, Micas, grapeseed oil, and Cosmetic grade Glitter. Crafted by: Nature’s Essence Soaps

Caribbean Coral Reef Soap – SLS FREE – We love this soap’s bright colors, and all-natural ingredients that include Olive Oil, Shea Butter, Coconut Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Jojoba Oil, Avocado Oil, and Castor Oil! Crafted By Happy Bubbles Soap!

This Sweet Orange Blossom Soap is radiant and skillfully crafted to look nice, neat, and put-together. It’s colors scream summertime sunsets and it’s ingredients include all-natural glycerine with goat’s milk for a smooth and moisturizing lather. Crafted By: It’s Almost Bath Time

What are Some of YOUR Favorite Summertime Soaps? Feel free to leave your 2 cents in our comments!

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• Christmas Holiday Soap Making Showcase
• Amazing Summer Soap Making Ideas!
• A Basic Soap Making Recipe
• The Biggest, Baddest Soap Making Blog EVER!

ORDER LEAD TIMES:

All orders placed before 2PM on a business day will be shipping within 2 business days.

This change has been put in place to ensure that our orders are going out accurately and efficiently. As we enter our busiest season of the year, we very much appreciate your continued business and look forward to growing with you and your Soap Making efforts!

- The Cibaria Soap Supply Team

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• Soap Making and The Holidays
• Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild Conference Growing Closer!
• 7 Lb Quantities Have Changed to 1 Gal
• Survey Time! What Do you Want us To Stock?

I wanted to post a quick announcement regarding our 7 lb product quantities on Cibaria Soap Supply.

IMPORTANT:

As of today, we are now selling 1 Gal product quantities instead of 7 lb product quantities. This will make it a bit easier to measure out, since now it is in a liquid measurement form. Also, you’ll get a bit extra product tossed in there… which never hurts!

We’re also still taking votes on our Soap Making Oil survey – What Addition Soap Making Oils would you like us to stock? Vote here!

Thank you,

-Cibaria Soap Supply

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• Survey Time! What Do you Want us To Stock?
• When Is It Time to Turn Soap Making Into a Business?
• Jojoba Oil – Best. Oil. Ever.
• Handcrafted Soap Makers Guild Conference Growing Closer!

Prices on Our Sunflower Oil

Due to shortages, you will notice the price of our Mid Oleic Sunflower Oil and High Oleic Sunflower Oils rise this month. This may also occur on our Organic Sunflower Oil as well. We will continue our efforts to pass the best possible price onto you, our highly valued customer!

- The Cibaria Soap Supply Team

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• Christmas Holiday Soap Making Showcase
• Winter 2011-2012 Soap Making Showcase Series
• Shipping Lead Times Have Changed
• 7 Lb Quantities Have Changed to 1 Gal

This is your chance to voice your needs! Below, you will find a very important survey.  Cibaria Soap Supply invites you to voice your Soap Making Oil needs! Please select up to 20 items that you are currently buying or needing to buy, but haven’t been able to find on our store. We are especially calling upon our existing customers, as well as those who need to buy from us, but currently don’t because we don’t carry all of your preferred products.

If you are not planning on purchasing in the near future, or are out of our shipping proximity, we kindly ask that you refrain from voting in this survey, so we can keep the data as accurate as possible for our valued Cibaria Soap Supply clients.

Make Your voice heard! Your VOTES COUNT, as they WILL directly affect what products we add to our store!

Select up to 20 products that you’d like us to stock:

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• When Is It Time to Turn Soap Making Into a Business?
• A New Year for Soap Making Oils, Base Oils, and Carrier Oils
• 7 Lb Quantities Have Changed to 1 Gal
• Jojoba Oil – Best. Oil. Ever.

Ultimately, this decision can’t be taken lightly, and it’s one that generally imparts a huge impact on our lives, as well as on our immediate family’s lives. Many Soap Makers that we’ve spoken with have gone from hobby soap makers to making soap as a full-time or even a part-time business. We reached out to our Soap Making friends and colleagues on Twitter and Facebook to find out what made them turn their hobby of Soap Making into a full-fledged money-making machine! While we know that most don’t bring in the big bucks as soon as they start out, we’ve found that quite a few figured they’d charge people for what they were already doing for free. A little extra income never hurt anyone, right?

Out of the bad economic chaos, many Soap Makers found themselves looking for work and when they couldn’t find any, they created their own. That’s exactly what @dreamingtreesw of Dreaming Trees Soap Works did.”We lost our jobs, and there was still no jobs out there, so we made our own and we haven’t turned back since”.

Other stories that we’ve heard are equally as admirable. Tami Thornton of Beehive Soap and Body Care says

“After helping my husband in his business for 30 years, I decided it was time to start a new challenge! So, after the children were basically out of the house, and Bachelors Degree was finally completed, it was time! Been in business about a year and a half now… and loving it!”

And a good amount of other Soap Makers were just happy that someone was willing to pay them to do what they loved, just as a few of our Twitter friends who shared similar stores.

Belonger Botanicals began “as soon as someone offered to pay for the product”.

It’s definitely a joyful experience when you realize that someone finds value in the things that you create. We talk to hundreds of Soap Makers per month, and we find that the joy and care that go into their products really do make the difference. Many people say that once you go “handmade” with your soap, you never go back! (to the store-bought stuff, that is!)

Day Three is another great example of a Soap Maker making the easy decision to turn their passion into a business. They expressed that they started their hobby became a business “when we realized that people actually wanted to give us MONEY for doing something we’d do for FREE!”

Now that’s passion!

We’d LOVE to hear your story and your thoughts! Are you considering turning your Soap Making hobby into a business? Did you already take the plunge!? Tell us about it below!

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• Survey Time! What Do you Want us To Stock?
• 7 Lb Quantities Have Changed to 1 Gal
• Jojoba Oil – Best. Oil. Ever.
• A New Year for Soap Making Oils, Base Oils, and Carrier Oils

I love jojoba oil! The benefits of this oil never seem to stop. We call it an oil, but it’s really a type of wax, called a “wax ester.” This results from fatty acids and fatty alcohol joining together. It’s all very scientific and delightful.

But I don’t care about the science, really. I care about the performance. What can jojoba oil do in your different products?

1. 1. It can add to the moisturizing benefits of handmade soap. Jojoba oil adds a quality to soap that is difficult to describe, but one word I can think of is “awesome.” The lather gets a rich, creamy feel to it, and the skin feels softer and smoother afterwards. I don’t recommend you use jojoba oil at more than about 10% in any soap recipe, as it will accelerate trace and make things difficult. This is where knowing that it is really a wax ester comes in handy—those molecules speed up trace, and can make the soap seize if you use too much. 10% is enough to see the benefits.
2. 2. It can enhance the performance of any lotion. Lotions will sink in deeper, as jojoba oil mimics our skin’s natural sebum. The oil sinks into skin quickly, but because of this, it does not feel very “glide-y.” Using jojoba oil in combination with a slicker oil, like avocado or apricot kernel oil, creates a synergy for the lotion: gliding on smoothly, and sinking in quickly. Fabulous.
3. 3. It can be used directly on the skin. Once again, because of its composition and our skin’s readiness to accept it, jojoba oil is a great choice for a facial cleansing oil. Some folks don’t want to use soap on their faces, opting instead for a cleansing oil. Combining a cleansing, astringent oil like castor or hazelnut with jojoba means the oil will clean the pores and then sink in to moisturize at the same time.  These cleansing oil formulas work with a hot, steamy face cloth. Massage the oil blend into the face, while running hot, hot water on a washcloth. Wring out the cloth, and slap in on the face. Steam the face until the cloth starts to go colder, then dip it in the hot water and steam the face one more time. After that, dip the cloth one more time, wipe off the excess oil, and rejoice.
4. 4. When used on the skin, the effect is near-immediate. This is just observational and not scientific at all. When I apply jojoba oil to my skin, I can see and feel a difference immediately. Because of this effect, I have chosen to use jojoba oil in my lip balm formulation. I want my lip balm to work right away, and I attribute its effectiveness in part, to jojoba oil.
5. 5. It is great for the hair, too. I use jojoba oil in a deep-conditioning hair treatment I make. Again, I don’t have science here, just experience, but when I put just a couple of drops on my hair when it’s wet, and allow it to dry, it makes the hair shiny but also adds to the body and curl. Try it. You’ll see.

What other uses do you see for jojoba oil?

Amy Kalinchuk makes and sells handmade soap in Denver, Colorado. She has written and published three books on soap making, including Making Soap in Your Own Kitchen, available at Craft e-Revolution.

Other Posts You May Find Helpful:

• A New Year for Soap Making Oils, Base Oils, and Carrier Oils
• 7 Lb Quantities Have Changed to 1 Gal
• Survey Time! What Do you Want us To Stock?
• When Is It Time to Turn Soap Making Into a Business?