homemade deodorant recipe

Make your own deodorant? Yeppers!

This is a really easy recipe. You can find most of the ingredients in your own kitchen and the rest you can find at any corner convenience store. Plus it's not loaded with all sorts of questionable chemicals or aluminum! We love that~

You will need:

2 tablespoons cocoa butter

2 tablespoons coconut oil (extra virgin)

2 tablespoons arrowroot powder or corn starch

3 tablespoons baking soda

1 capsule of Vitamin E oil

*optional, skin safe Essential oil

First you need to melt the cocoa butter. You can do this in a small pot on low heat or the stove *watching it carefully or use your microwave. For the microwave, you can use a pyrex measuring cup and heat for 30 seconds. Check it and see that it's almost completely melted. If it's not all melted, don't worry, it will melt sitting on the counter, very quickly.

Then add your coconut oil. You do not need to heat it again, because the coconut oil will melt from the heat of the pyrex container and the already warmed cocoa butter.


Stir with a spoon. Add the arrowroot or corn starch and baking soda. Stir.

When the mixture is cool to the touch, you can pierce the end of the Vitamin E capsule and squeeze out the oil into your mixture.

At this point, you're finished, unless you want to add scent, which you can add 6 drops of your favorite skin safe essential oil. We used lemon essential oil as it adds a fresh and clean smell.

What you end up with is a very thick paste. The thickness can be adjusted by reducing or increasing the amount of arrowroot or cornstarch powder, to you liking.

Split the finished product in half, store both portions in a sealed plastic container and place one container in the fridge. The other container can go in your bathroom for daily use. When you get low, remove some of your back up from the fridge.

To use, simply take a pea sized amount, rub it on the tips of your fingers and apply to your underarms. Viola! Homemade deodorant!

While it's not 'antiperspirant' is is a natural deodorant that will keep you fresh and clean smelling, for a fraction of the cost! ;)

Enjoy!

peace~love~happiness,

wedding favors

So much better than a bag of Jordan Almonds! Although I love jordan almonds, a slice of handmade organic soap is memorable and such a nice gift for your wedding guests.

Here we have our zen blend and lemon poppy seed organic soap in 1.75 oz slices, wrapped in corrugated paper, tied with a green raffia bow and placed in a champagne organza bag. So adorable!

Here are a few other options...

green weddings~ eco friendly organic soap packed in a corrugated pillow box and tied with a green raffia ribbon.



posh weddings~ a handmade slice of organic soap tucked in a gorgeous pearl embossed tab top box and tied with a cream satin bow.



peace~love~and happily ever after,

fresh face masks!

Getting together with your girlfriends and having a spa day is delightful, however, as many of us know, it's not always possible........so, here's a few FRESH at-home-spa-facial recipes that are easy, affordable and simply scrumptious!

First, before you ever apply a face mask, you need to steam your skin. This helps to soften the skin, loosen debris and open the pores.

We recommend a tea steam. Take your favorite tea (we use loose leaf jasmine & green tea) but you can cut open any bag of your tea of choice and put in large bowl. You could use a metal pot, but beware that metal heats up and be careful not to burn yourself. Next cover the tea liberally with very hot (almost boiling water.) You want steam to be coming off the top of the water. Let the tea steep for about 2 minutes. Next tie your hair back (if its long) and drape a large bath towel over your head to create a tent. Steam your face for about 2 minutes.
Now you're ready for the mask.

You can make your mask in advance and store in a covered container in the refrigerator. The mask should be used within 48 hours.

Who wouldn't love to slather chocolate on their face? :) This chocolate face mask is simple and so much fun, you'll love it!

Chocolate has all sorts of anti-aging properties, yogurt contains lactic acid, which deep cleans and refines the skin, honey is a natural humectant (meaning it attracts & retains water) and has anti-bacterial properties and lastly, oatmeal is a powerful skin soother.




Chocolate Cuppycake Fresh Face Mask

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 tablespoon honey
3 teaspoons ground oats

Mix all ingredients and apply to the face. Leave on for about 15 minutes and rinse with lukewarm water.
Enjoy!

Some other face masks that you may enjoy, based on skin type:

Dry Skin~

Ingredients:

1/2 finely grated carrot
1 avocado, mashed
2 tablespoons almond oil *if you have a nut allergy, you can substitute olive oil

Oily Skin~

Ingredients:

1 apple, peeled, cored & finely grated
1 egg white
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Combination Skin~

1/2 banana, mashed
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1/3 cucumber, peeled & grated

Mix all ingredients and apply to the face. Let all the goodness work its magic and after 15 minutes, rinse with lukewarm water.

These easy, at home facials can be performed bi-weekly and are deliciously good for your skin!

peace~love~and a little spaaaaahh,

eating lotion bars

What?! Who's eating lotion bars?! Yes, that is the question.....



I kid you not.....this is an actual lotion bar from one of our retail locations....A Voodoo Magic Lotion bar that is scented with cinnamon leaf & peppermint oils with a BITE taken out of it!!! Ewwwwww!!!

This bar smells heavenly and is pure sin on your skin, but seriously???!! I STILL can't get my head around this. We always joke about things smelling 'good enough to eat' but shea butter, beeswax and essential oils?? This HAD to taste like crap! lol

peace~love~and scratching ones head,

chocolate cream puff

SCRUMPTIOUS! Creamy & dreamy whipped soap smelling like a freshly baked cream puff, drizzled in chocolate! YUM! One of our Valentines goodies.



We also made a Wickedly Sinful Chocolate Organic Soap! Wicked because of the pinch of ancho chili powder and sinful because of the luscious cocoa powder. This is one deep, dark, rich bar of chocolate (soap that is!) It's wrapped up in our seeded soap box, that you can plant and will actually grow wildflowers.

peace~and lovin' the chocolate,

clean the world

Have you heard of Clean The World? It's a non-profit, charitable organization that recycles soap, shampoo and lotions and distributes them worldwide to people who cannot afford it.

**you will need to stop/pause the ipod playing on the left side of the screen before playing this video
<----------------------



For all of the soapers out there, simply bag up all of your soap scraps (unlabeled) drop in a medium flat rate shipping box and mail to:

Clean The World
Attn. Steve Cooper
4625 Old Winter Garden Rd. #B7
Orlando, Florida 32811

Easy peasy! Pass it on. :)

peace~love~happiness,

etsy treasury

Are you as tired as I am waiting for the treasury to get low enough to even make a treasury?! I cannot tell you how many times...I've sat and sat and waited till that little number drops down...and down....it's almost there....a little bit more....ok, I think I'm in...then WHAM!!!! the number jumps up to 440! WHAT?!

Ok, Ms. yummy heard from a little birdie about Craftopolis! It actually has a treasury clock that times when you can get into a treasury!

Check it out :)

peace~love~happiness,

makeup tutorial

A little off topic, but I love to share the knowledge! This young lady is adorable and gives great tips/tricks for a barely there everyday look. *You may want to shut the ipod off playing music...which is down on the left side of the blog.


<-----------------

And here, a more dramatic,smokey-eyed look! So fabulous dahlings!!!



peace~love~happiness,

time for yourself

Do you take enough time for yourself? With kids in tow (or maybe your kids are the furry kind) life, work, friends, errands, meetings and the stresses of every day....life sometimes seems to be flying by at the speed or light! Do you ever feel like you're missing it? Like you wish you could hit a 'pause' button for just a little bit or slow it all down. This nagging feeling of needing a few more hours in the day....that you're here, but are consumed in the every day doings of life, you sometimes miss enjoying it, or as Eckhart Tolle said, being in the present?

This is for you (and me)! A reminder to slow down....smell the flowers and just be.

I sat yesterday, looking through a few cookbooks for some ideas for dinner and decided to make a indulging session out of it. So, I made myself a cup of my favorite tea, Earl Grey with milk & sugar and kicked back front of the fire. Doesn't sound like much, but it was really nice & needed!

How do you find your ohm?

peace~love~and a little me time,

back to basics

I realized that we make about 80 different products! YIKES! Well, this includes the 25 different scents of soaps, which is just too much! lol

I am a Mercury Gemini and want to make EVERYTHING under the sun, dahlings, but its simply not possible...so back to basics!

Yesterday I made a completely organic, unscented and non colored loaf of CP soap. It's natural buttery color comes from the oils and the organic fair trade cocoa butter that's in it. For the non-soapers out there, CP stands for cold processed. I do a lot of HP (hot process) where the soap is actually cooked and can be used rather quickly and CPOP (cold process oven process) where some heat is applied the soap can be used within a week or so and CP is no heat at all.

Cp produces a creamier feeling, more opaque bar. The down side of CP is waiting for the soap to cure (4-6 weeks.) For someone that has no patience, thats like a lifetime! lol :)

I'm kinda diggin' it! :)

peace~love~happiness,

give back

What do you do with your soap scraps?





If you're producing a lot of soap a month, you end up with a lot of soap scraps. These can be shavings, bars with dents, morphed soaps (which I seem to be on a roll with lately) or end cuts. We tend to end up with a lot of scraps and stumbled upon a way to make use of these soaps.

I know a lot of people rebatch or confetti into other soaps, which works, however I am NO fan o rebatching and had been looking for a better solution.

We contacted our local homeless shelter and womans center asked if we could donate our scap soaps to the organizations...needless to say, they were happy to receive the soaps!

If you shave your soaps, even this can be saved in a garbage bag, rewetted and shaped into a soap ball, so nothing goes to waste. Gotta love that!! :)



peace~love~and giving back,

I'm kinda doing a haul post

Know this....I was not asked, nor paid, nor requested in anyway to do these reviews. These reviews are honest, heartfelt and it is what it is people. We as women, share information and this is some information you SIMPLY must have dahlings....so here it goes!

My first little diddy on the menu.......The Soap Seduction.



If you haven't been to Patrice's blog, you simply must! She dishes all the daily doings of soap-making with such a humor, you literally laugh out loud and Ms. Yummy LOVES that! She's honest, sassy and funny all at the same time! It's PERFECT! I nominate her for her own reality show! It would be a HUGE hit! :)

I ordered from the Soap Seduction, a bar of her Royal Soap Black Tea & Rose. Scrumptious! Smells just like tea and rose. No artificial weird smells here. It's just the right balance. And it's pretty to boot! Isn't' it pretty?! Makes a nice gift.
Well, I lucked out because apparently the slice I was getting was a smaller than usual slice so Ms. Patrice was kind of enough to send me a second bar, which was the Mango Meringue Soap!



Let me just say, both soaps are gorgeous and lovely, both smell FANTASTIC- Ms. yummy happens to have a love affair with food, so anything that smells like anything I could possibly eat....PERFECT! This hunk of Mango loveliness had my name written all OVER It!

I for one, don't think things happen by accident...so this piece was CALLING to me! And can I just say, family members were actually stealing this soap from out of MY bathroom! Oh, no! It's that good. It's creamy!!!!!! A lot of handmade soaps lose that creaminess, but this is CREAMY and feels so good on your skin! I HIGHLY recommend this bar and you need to check her out!

The next soap diva I'm going to dish on is Ms. Regina with Margarita Bloom!



Have you hear of this soap company? FANTASTIC! I opened the box and was digging thru it...finding the Cupcake Love soap cupcake i ordered....the Hot Cocoa sugar scrub I ordered and a hot chocolate soap that I also ordered. She threw in a free sample of lip balm! How nice is that?!

The product I need to rant about....other than her packaging, that is sooooooooooo adorable.......the Wickedly Good Creamy Hot Cocoa Sugar Scrub. I mean......honestly.....I was taken aback by the way it was packaged. Carefully thought out. All of the items I received, top notch packaging, and the contents just matched it. I was floored to see the detail she put into her packing slip, which is adorable too! No detail untouched.

The Hot Cocoa sugar scrub was something I wanted to eat. Literally! Give me a spoon and I'm all about it! lol
It's fantastic! These make great gifts too!
She is not on etsy, but check out her website! You won't regret it!

Next I ordered (with some holiday $$) an adorable wristlet ( or clutch) from MaryJMaalouf on Etsy.



Isn't it perfect?! I'm not a gigantic, hobo bag type of person. These days, it needs to be compact and cute or it just won't cut it. Handcrafted and absolutely flawless are MaryJMaalouf bags! You can tell a lot of effort goes into detail of the product. It's perfect! Comes with a cute little mirror for last minute makeup checks! Sturdy and trendy and SO cute~

You know that song that is on all of the Old Navy commercials where the cute little girls are singing "how cute are these boots?" well I want to sing, "how cute is my bag?" lol

You really need to check her out too, awesome clutches, ipod cases, wallets, change purses and handbags!

And last, but certainly not...in any way, shape or form the least.............The product I ALMOST ate! No kidding! Verbena Custom Blends on Etsy.


I ordered this frothy, made from scratch, whipped up soap in a Double Vanilla Buttercream scent..because I happen to LOVE buttercream....and what I received SHOCKED me! Not only did I receive this absolutely buttery, have died and gone to heaven, smooth textured cream soap...but I received a sample! Again...not one to believe in accidents---> this sample literally stopped me in my tracks.....I had EVERYONE in my house smelling it and EVERYONE was making the same.......(eyes closed, smile on the face) look...and I hate to say it, but kinda like sex in a jar! :) hee-hee!

Really, I thought?! Did she just do that?! Make something so incredibly scrumptious and smell edible that I literally want to eat it and I was SOOOOOOOOOO tempted! Trust me! I ALMOST took a lick. It iterally took willpower. My brain registered FOOD and down the pike it should have gone!

I do not know this woman. I have never met her! I don't' even know if she's a she or a he, but whoever it is, he/she needs to walk around with a sign that says 'my stuff smells so good, I should be illegal!' lol No kidding!

I'm thinking it should be named "touch this and lose a limb" or better yet, simply, "MINE!" because that's the word out in this house! Hands off mommas goods buster or ELSE! lol

That's my rave and I'm sticking to it!

peace~love~happiness,

baby its cold outside!

Burrr! It's COLD outside.....at least for my sunny state of Florida, where we've seen record lows! Ms. Yummy's toes are cold!

Here's a little power point presentation showing some VERY and I mean VERY icy places!

Burr Winter

Stay warm!

new location for yummy

Spavana is located in Brooklyn, NY and offers an assortment of scrumptious spa services, from hot stone massages to skin revitalizing facials to laser skin treatments.

Check out their website and if you're around their lovely spa, check them out!

peace~love~happiness,

more chocolate!

Wickedly Sinful Organic Chocolate Soap! One of our yummy retailers called us and requested a chocolate with ancho chile spice to it holiday goodies...and we thought.....we can do that! ;) And so, Wickedly Sinful Chocolate Soap was just made. We used all organic oils in this soap, some cocoa powder and indeed, a pinch or two of ancho chile powder. It smells, like deep rich chocolate with a touch of smokey spice. YUMMERS!

I've also been playing around with our cuppycake fizzies. I originally had a whipped soap on top of these fizzies, which is great if it's being sold locally, but shipping the cupcake was another story. The soap never dried hard, so it would get ruined by the time it made it across the country! Because of shipping we started using royal icing, but this just isn't the topping I wanted. It works well and allows you to ship anywhere, however, the icing tops notoriously pop off and it's not soap.

I've made the soap cupcake, made entirely of soap, but wanting to stick with the half fizzy half icing cupcake- I've been on a mission. I have tried many recipes with hard toppings even one with melt and pour but couldn't find the right consistency that kept that creamy icing look AND the top didn't pop off!

Many moons ago I stumbled upon Nizzy's whipped soap tutorial. Fantastic things he's doing down undah, in the outback! So, I contacted him with my questions about he was quick to respond with a full email of recommendations! :) Thanks Niz!

These are the test bunnies in the soap kitchen....made with no added colorant, as I simply wanted to test the texture and see if it would INDEED stick to the top of the fizzy. So far, so good...they are sticking!

Notice my warning note and the clever comeback from my witty daughter.







I'm also creating bath creamers...kinda a fusion of a bath fizzy and bath melt! Really loaded with organic cocoa butter...which I love~love~love! I'm going to post a tutorial at a future date for those of you who would also like to create these:



They are FUN and are lovely in the bath. These were made with a half of my bath bomb mold. I've ordered a round mold, that would create bath creamers about the size of golf balls. Wouldn't they be adorable in a little box with a clear top and a bow?

peace~love~happiness,

death by chocolate anyone?

I just realized Valentines is quickly approaching and about that time, cupid shot me in the rear and said...."we need some scrumptious valentines day goodies, woman!" :) So Death By Chocolate came about. Oh it's just a scrumptious sugar scrub parfait with layers of rich decadent chocolate, slathered in a gooey marshmallow cream drizzle and a whiff of steaming hot Godiva® Chocolate coffee. YUMMY! What's not to LOVE~LOVE~LOVE?!

It also contains a buttery blend of skin loving fair trade shea & cocoa butters. You seriously could be tempted to take a lick, or a spoonful!

It's colored naturally from the ground cocoa powder and bits of Godiva® Chocolate Coffee grounds.

I'm starting to wonder if I should put a warning label on this temptingly sinful concoction?!

peace~love~happiness,