The power of suggestion

Ever since Rex mentioned the pedicure my feet have felt insanely dry (see post below "Real men use naturally good soap"). The mere mention of the pedicure heightened my senses to my own "need" for one. Have you ever stood in line unable to make up your mind and just ordered what the stranger in front of you ordered? I have. Crazy, that a stranger would influence my decision making. Well that's just how the world of consumerism works. We are influenced by people, especially those we respect.

I make this soap called Nature's Goodness. It's a soap packed with a ton of nutritive ingredients like aloe vera, sea kelp, vitamin E, rosemary, lavender, etc. Anyway, the sea kelp kind of throws the aroma, so it has a very unique fragrance and people either love it or hate it. Well I wasn't really selling a ton of it and it was destined for extinction until ...

A good friend hosted a soap naturally party for me to share my products with her friends. She raved about Nature's Goodness. Well, guess what? I sold out of Nature's Goodness that night. So Nature's Goodness was brought back from extinction and I've learned a great lesson: never underestimate the power of endorsement.

Real men use naturally good soap

I just have to talk about this comment from my good friend BJ. This comment was generated from the post below "The best things in life are often not planned", check it out.

So here's BJ's comment:
Ok this it "BJ" the guy that likes the fancy, black soap (I also like quiche, occasionally wear a pink shirt and tie but still consider my self a real man....)and i do like this soap... it has a soothing smell. With the economy the way it, i consider it a small treat for myself (and white chocolate mochas).And black soap... who would tease a guy for black soap... awesome marketing plan...

I so appreciate this comment because I totally agree. A small luxury like awesome good soap to incorporate in your bathing ritual is a great way to beat the economy blues. As for my marketing plan, LaVader just happened upon me. I'm glad it did.

But BJ brings up an important point. What is the deal with men and soap? Why is it not okay for men to want to smell good? I just don't get it. When I do shows I see men walk by my booth with intense interest but like this inability to come in and smell the good stuff. Or they buy it for their wife or significant other. I am most inspired by the real men who come out and say, "I just love handmade soap". Like the other day, Rex, a very manly gentleman from my pilates class, came out and told us that he'd had his first pedicure and loved it. No Rex is not gay. He's just a man who doesn't need to prove his manliness, so it's okay to get a pedicure, and tell the world about it. Don't worry dear hubby, Rex is old enough to be your dad, and tall enough too! Anyway, guys enlighten me.

Insights from a 7 year old

I went on a field trip with my son's class today. As I was driving down the road I felt like a fly on the wall of their conversation, it was amusing. But I also heard some practical insights that the adult world could benefit from. One little girl said, "I believe in monsters, and it scares me." Another little girl said, "then stop believing in them." I chuckled out loud and thought, "could it be that simple?" In this case surely it is that simple. But think of the things we are afraid of. How often are the fears that we have really just imagined threats to our security, like a monster living under the bed? It's just a thought ...

Ravenous for greens

My doctor recently turned me on to green smoothies. It has turned my taste buds upside down! I'm like ravenous for greens now. Over the past several years I've noticed that I feel my best when I'm eating lots of leafy greens. But I usually get tired of chewing a salad before I get full of it. So this simple approach to adding more greens to my diet has really given me the energy boost I needed to get through the holidays and now the January funk that usually follows the flury of holiday activity.

To get me going on the green drink, my doc recommend Victoria Boutenko's book "Green for Life". I highly recommend this book, a great read, full of great information about how and why to consume more greens. She mentions that soon after consuming more greens she started looking at greens differently. I've had a similiar experience. When I walk to the produce section I get excited about experimenting on the next green drink. She explains the importance of using a variety of greens in her book. So trying new things all the time is definitely the way to go. I look at a handfull of carrot tops, you know the green part, and think, "I wonder how this will taste in my smoothie".

It took me a while to get started because I felt like I needed to read the whole book and get to the recipe section. But now I realize how easy it is. So I thought I'd let you know what I've discovered as three simple steps to more energy. Take your blender, add two cups of water, one piece of fruit, and two large handfuls of greens. Blend. It's that simple. I feel great when I drink it regularly. I look forward to discovering what the next smoothie will taste like depending on the fruit or greens I have available. And I look forward to shopping for the next load of greens (and shopping is something I really detest). My favorite smoothie is pear and spinach with a hint of cinnamon and nutmeg. Also, most of the recipes I've seen have more fruit than I use, so if you're just getting started and want to sweeten your smoothie up a bit add more fruit.

For more information on Victoria's book go to http://www.rawfamily.com/index.htm

Idaho Mossmint

Soap with moss in it? Yeah it's kind of weird, but I LOVE it, and it's getting rave reviews from my customers, that is, they're buying it!

The story behind this soap is simple. I saw a soap with moss in it and thought it was cool. When I discovered moss growing on the trees at our favorite campspot I was inspired. The camp spot is on a secluded lake on privately owned land; my family has been going there for thirty years and it still looks much the same as it did when we first started going there - rugged, pristine, serenely beautiful. This camping experience represents everything I longed to return to Idaho for, the quiet beauty of the outdoors, largely untouched. So for me, making Idaho Mossmint soap is all about bringing the outdoors into my bathing ritual.

More on Idaho Mossmint Soap: I add spearmint and rosemary essential oils for incredible uplifting aroma. The moss creates beautiful lichen green highlights throughout the soap and feels like a very soft loofah. In all of my recipes the highest percentage of oil is olive oil, which produces a very gentle bar of soap, but to this recipe I also added safflower oil, and I've noticed this bar seems to produce larger creamy lathery bubbles than some of my other soaps while maintaining the same great gentleness.

Painting my world

I don't know how many days it's been since we've seen the sun in Boise ... at least a week ... going on two. But really this is getting dreadfully depressing!

I'm so thankful I talked my husband into a painting project over the holidays. Color is so uplifting!

Today I made a batch of Orange Oatmeal Soap. Customers have requested that I share the story behind each soap I make. I decided that today is a good day to write about Orange Oatmeal. Orange essential oil is amazing! I was seriously down yesterday with a migraine too. The bright spot of my day was receiving an order of essential oils. I quickly opened the package and inhaled deeply the bottles of spearmint and orange essential oils. My daughter looked at me and said, "Mom, are you getting high off your oils." It was an attempt to be sure. According to Susanne Fischer-Rizzi in Complete Aromatherapy Handbook, "The essential oil of the orange is sweet, warm, sensuous, radiant, and alive. The oil is wonderful to use when we take everything too seriously and forget how to laugh - when we feel tense, nervous, and withdrawn." She also states that orange essential oil's "influence on mood is positive and joyful; it harmonizes feelings and awakens creativity." Making orange oatmeal soap today has been the best antitode to this inversion yet. I'm continually amazed at the effect that essential oils have on me, especially orange. By nature I tend toward the melancholy side of mood, but especially with the icky gray clouds looming over me, day after day, I've sunk into this aimless sort of existence. But today, I made soap, now I'm blogging, and I have a new outlook despite the gloom outside.

Back to the soap, I also add lemongrass essential oil to this recipe, it too has refreshing and mentally stimulating properties. An infusion of annatto seeds in the olive oil gives this soap it's radiant sunshiney glow, and to all that I add oatmeal for mild exfoliation. This is a great morning wake me up soap. It's kind of like having oatmeal and oranges for breakfast. Only in the shower, it is mentally stimulating, the orange essential oils really does make me happy.

This brings me to an important point, I started making soap as a creative outlet for me. But I soon discovered that having my family test the soaps was creating shared experiences and as my test subjects they were soon lending their creative ideas to the process. This led me to what has become the underpinning of my goals with making soap and bringing it to the consumer: to create soap that provides multisensory goodness on three levels. I want the aroma to be inspiring and revitalizing, the color to be soothing and of course match the aroma, and I want it to feel rich and luxurious on the skin. Because each of us is unique, I make lots of soaps with the hope that you will find one that will nurture a unique you. But honestly I use them all, and I have anywhere from five to eight different soaps in my shower, primarily because I test everything before it heads out the door, but secondarily because aroma and color have such a powerful effect on my brain, I get to pick the one or two I need for that day.

I am grateful for my husband who partnered with my in coloring my kitchen world so that when I'm in that room my mind is soothed. But since changing the color of my kitchen every day is not so feasible, picking the soap of the day is a way for me to color my world with aroma and color that nurtures my mind and body. So that's my tip for the inversion blues, pick up Orange Oatmeal soap, or if you don't have a bar, pick up an orange and take a good sniff.

If you'd like to get your hands on a bar of Orange Oatmeal Handcrafted Soap go to http://www.lavandedebois.com/

Peppermint Craze

I went on a peppermint craze over the holidays. It began when I made my first batch of Candy Cane soap in September. When I took it out of the mold it smelled so awesome I immediately walked over to the pantry and took out a Candy Cane left over from the past Christmas ... and ate it. By the time I sold out of my 70 plus bars of Candy Cane soap I was making Peppermint Bark Lip Balm, Purifying Bath Oil, and then took the craze a little further to food, and made Peppermint Bark Popcorn. I gave the homemade popcorn away with a lip balm as lip smackin' treats to friends and family. Anyway, I'm posting the peppermint bark popcorn recipe here because several have asked for it. It was scrumptious and addicting. http://www.foodbuzz.com/blogs/643885-peppermint-bark-popcorn

Yesterday I used up the last little bit of my very last bar of Candy Cane soap and wondered if I would be able to wait until next September to make more. Peppermint essential oil has become one of my surprising new favorites. The aroma is intoxicating! In any case, you'll probably see peppermint appearing in more of my products soon.

The best things in life are often not planned

One of the greatest life lessons that making soap has taught me is the best things in life are often not planned. I am a recovering perfectionist. When I started making soap I expected to produce perfect little bars of soap. When a batch of soap didn't turn out the way I had planned I sunk in discouragement. Or if I didn't cut it quite right I would be irritated. Well this is contrary to the whole notion of "handcrafted". The entire process of making handcrafted soap is this interaction between the soapmaker and the ingredients and tools producing bars of soap that are inherantly unique. I quickly discovered that the uniqueness of my soaps is what drew people to them. People who want perfect shape and form can get it that at the drugstore.

One of my favorite unplanned soap stories is "La Vader". I planned to make a goat milk & lavender soap that was a hazy purple color. Using natural colorants is tricky because each ingredient reacts with the others affecting the outcome, especially the color. When the soap went in to the mold it looked exactly like what I was going for. Two days later when I pulled it out of the mold it was black. I was bummed. But it had this beautiful aroma. Just a touch of lavender with chamomile, very mild. So last Christmas I packaged it up with a little note that read "La Vader Handcrafted Soap - Feeling melancholy? Try the dark side of clean. Let lavender and chamomile soothe your mind and body." I gave it to my friend BJ as a joke and he loved it. I told him it was an accident, and he said "No, I really think you've got something here ... keep making it." So this past fall I added it to my line-up of seasonal soaps. People really love it. It cracks me up because I never would have planned this.

I see this irony in life. I have struggled (in vain of course) to create life that is according to my plan. I have often resisted the things that go against my plan. But if I roll with the unplanned there is great mystery and goodness in it. I find the greatest fulfillment in life when I surrender my plan and appreciate what comes my way. I've lived this habit of being disappointed over the things that didn't go according to plan. By living in this mode I have missed the joy of appreciating the unexpected. Especially as we head into the holidays which are often replete with expectation I want to live out the soap lesson learned, to enjoy and celebrate the unexpected, and even look for it.

You can find out more about LaVader all natural handmade soap at http://store.lavandedebois.com/servlet/-strse-48/lavender-chamomile-goat-milk/Detail

Happy Anniversary

This month marks the first anniversary of launching my business, Lavande de Bois! I'm celebrating by inviting my friends over for a little mojito twist and hors d'oeuvres. Of course, I've never made mojito twist, it sounds good doesn't it? Kind of risky, inviting friends over without a trial on the recipe first. Oh well, isn't that what a business venture is? Putting something out there for people to like or dislike everyday of the week?

The mojito will be my (twisted) variation of the cuban cocktail, Mojito, that has inspired the most recent addition to my product line, Coconut Mojito Handcrafted Soap. It's an awesome combination of spearmint and lime aroma with coconut milk adding luxurious skin softening properties. Swirls of mossy green and creamy vanilla colored soap create visual luxury too (at lease for those of us who like green, can you tell I'm on a major green festish?)

So back to the anniversary celebration, the invitation reads "celebrating one year of soapmaking and the inspirations behind it". I plan to make a toast to my friends for being "inspiration" for me; and to my husband and children for brainstorming with me, encouraging me, and taking part in the adventure. I also want to celebrate the things that have inspired, basically the world around, the cuban cocktail mojito, the colors of my daughters room, the moss on the trees at my favorite campspot, lavender (of course), herbs, aroma, everything! But ultimately it's not the things of the world that provide the inspiration, it's God who created them. Have you ever wondered why God had Adam name all the animals? I think it was our Creator's way of giving Adam a piece of the action, just like he gives us of a piece of the action when we use our creativity.

I so appreciate this gift. And I thank Him for releasing me from the things that have bound me to unleash creativity for me in a new arena. Not just in making soap, but in putting myself, my soaps, my business, out there for the world to see. I've spent a lot of years hunkered down, hiding out. I'm thankful He has pushed me way out of my comfort zone into a new wild adventure that is full of creativity, full of ups and downs (what would a roller coaster be like anyway if you didn't go down?), full of good things.