Here in Texas, we have a beer called Shiner Bock. It's made in Shiner, Texas and has the characteristic rich, amber color of most bock beers. I know it sounds odd to make soap with beer, but I'd made soap with tea and goat's milk and carrot juice...so I tried making my lye solution with beer, and combined it with honey and a fresh, citrus essential oil blend. It turned out amazing and was a top seller for several years! The only thing better than the rich, creamy soap...was people's reaction when I told them that the soap was made with real beer. Give it a try!
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My Mosquito Repelling Essential Oil Blends article is on both the "What's Hot" and "Most Popular" links for Candle and Soap Making - which means one thing - the mosquitoes are out, and people are looking for more natural ways to control them. Well, you can lighten up our outdoors, and repel the mosquitoes at the same time, with a candle made with an essential oil that repels mosquitoes. Many of you like the Citronella Bucket Candles, or the dramatic, primitive, Citronella Torch Candles. But what do you do if you want a more intimate setting...or are using the candles in a smaller space? Citronella votives! Cute and functional at the same time. They're really not much different than making a regular votive candle. The key is to substitute your normal favorite fragrance oil for a Mosquito Repelling Essential Oil Blend.

Chances are, if you've made your way to this site (and I'm glad you did!), you're a candle maker or someone interested in candle making. Candle makers are a special group of people that, though they come from all walks of life and from around the world, share a common passion for that enigmatic combination of wax, wick, scent and flame. Here's a collection of videos I've found that feature the stories and creations of some innovative, artistic, entrepreneurial, dedicated and passionate candle makers. I'm certain that you'll be as inspired as I was by their stories and creations - and will see yourself and your love for candle making in more than a few of them. (Note: Soap makers are special, amazing people too, but not the focus of this video collection - I'm assembling a collection of fabulous soap maker videos just for you.)
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“Last year I sold out at the festival, and hope to again this year,” is how Brennan Hill looked towards this year's Natchez Trace Festival in Mississipi. He learned to make candles just last year from his second grade teacher, and got bitten by the candle making bug, it seems. He now has a budding business to look after in addition to his third-grade homework. While I think we can all relate to this story and the joy of making our first candles, this is also a really great example of how it's never too early to teach good business sense, responsible money management and most importantly, the importance of setting goals. Read the article...

Mother's Day is upon us...and it seems that the scent for this year's Mother's Day is "Green Tea and Lemongrass." Practically every ad I saw in the Sunday paper featured a spa gift basket with a scent or salt or lotion scented with some variation of Green Tea and Lemongrass. It brought back fond memories of my commercial soap making days. I had a Green Tea and Lemongrass blend, though I used eucalyptus essential oil in addition to the lemongrass essential oil to balance the heavy citrus sweetness of the lemongrass. It was a very popular blend, and one of my all-time favorites. The green tea part of it is just a minor player. You make the soap using brewed green tea instead of plain water...and add the steeped leaves at the end. It's an easy and exotic soap recipe for you to try.
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Cyclomethicone is a silicone oil that is incredibly versatile in a number of bath and body recipes. But one of the easiest, and most amazing, uses of it is as a "dry" oil spray or roll-on. Looking for easy portable aromatherapy? This will do it. Are you (or a customer) so in love with a particular fragrance or essential oil blend that you/they want to wear it all day? Perfect! OR...as the weather is getting warmer and you are spending more time outside, you can make up a batch with some natural mosquito repelling essential oils and have a handy way to keep the bugs off. If you have sensitive skin, you can substitute lemon eucalyptus or lemongrass for the citronella. You'll smell great too!

While we're on the topic of soap killing bacteria, what about candles? Can they kill bacteria too? Evidently so. British researchers did tests with candles containing essential oils of orange, palmarosa, may chang (litsea cubea), thyme, and a tea tree derivative. They found that burning the candles with those essential oils effectively killed both staph and E. coli bacteria. Some oils worked better than others, but all had some effect on the bacteria. Additionally, they found that it was the combination of the essential oil and the flame that worked best. Just the essential oils alone didn't kill any bacteria. Read the Article. Very interesting.
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Why do some people have allergies and some not? This article, entitled The Hygiene Hypothesis, suggests that our modern obsession with cleanliness may actually be counterproductive - by making us TOO sensitive to the bacteria and other icky stuff in our world. They also believe that excessive washing with harsh soaps and abrasive skin care products can cause allergic problems like eczema, by stripping away the protective layers of the skin. Web MD reports that there is No Advantage to Antibacterial Soap. Now while there is certainly a place for antibacterial soaps and cleaners in our lives, it seems that just washing with good old real soap (and washing long enough to sing your ABC's, I'm reminded) is as good at keeping us clean, safe and healthy as anything.
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I know it's barely spring...but (here in Texas at least) there are already mosquitoes out. But the weather is fabulous outside, so it's time to feature some outdoor candles. If you need some fiery accents for your barbecue or backyard get-together and have some giant mosquitoes to repel, you can take care of both with these jumbo dipped outdoor candles. Easy to make and a sure-fire (no pun intended) way to add some style to your backyard (or beach, or barbecue, or tiki-lounge) party. Think of them as a dipped taper on a stick!

One of the most popular special additives soap makers use when making soap is goat’s milk...and rightly so. It makes a lovely, creamy, moisturizing soap. Milk contains all sorts of natural emollients, vitamins and triglycerides that help soothe, balance and moisturize the skin. Here in North Texas, I know at least a half dozen ranchers who have goats that they use the milk in their soap recipes. They swear by it! If you don't have any goats nearby, you can use powdered or evaporated (canned) goat's milk, too. You have to take a few extra steps to make soap with milk, but once you try it, I'm sure you (and your skin) will feel it was well worth it.
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