Good and bad - soaps are therapeutic!

Well.. today has been bad and good.  We went out yesterday afternoon to have a Christmas drink with my Father and we also ate out... lovely evening, lovely meal.  However, when we got home we found that some ***** had broken into our house.  According to our neighbours CCTV, he was only in the house for exactly 2 minutes and yet he managed to ransack most of the rooms and walk away with money and jewellery.  Quite sick making and very upsetting indeed - it is one of the most awful thing to come home to. 

Anyway, despite taking to my bed for most of the day (as is my usual habit when upset), I decided at about 4.00 pm to make use of the rest of the day and cut and wrapped the soaps I'd made on Saturday.  I decided that soaping is therapeutic for the mind and soul and so, on to soaping!

Here are images and descriptions of the four soaps - the first are restocked favourites and one new one:

Aqua Haven is a handcrafted luxury goatsmilk & glycerine soap with added Golden Jojoba Oil, an extra skin hydrating factor and our Aqua Haven Fragrance Oil - a heady mix of marine scents with a soft woody, citrus & sea salt background.

This just smells so oceanic and the swirls are so reminiscent of sitting by the sea - very calming and refreshing at the same time.

Orange Blush - a handcrafted luxury Goatsmilk & Glycerine soap, deeply coloured with bronze orange natural mica with added Apricot Kernel Oil, skin hydration factor and our Orange Blush Fragrance Oil - a fresh cologne blending bergamot and orange blossom with delicate cottony florals with a base of precious powdery musks.

This soap is deeply orange due to the huge amount of glittering bronze mica used to create the swirls.

Zesty Citrus Cream - a handcrafted luxury Goatsmilk & Glycerine soap with added Apricot Kernel oil, an additional skin hydrating factor and all wonderfully scented with our Zesty Citrus Cream fragrance oil - an uplifting, velvety smooth tangy lemongrass verbena citrus scent.
This is so fresh, so bright, so funky and uplifting - you can't help but feel cheerful after using this soap!

Mister Blue Genes - a handcrafted luxury Goatsmilk & Glycerine soap, laden with deeply blue natural mica, with added Golden Jojoba Oil, an additional skin hydrating factor and fragranced with our unisex Mister Blue Genes fragrance oil - a blend of apple and mandarin with a heart of exotic jasmine and violet on a deep musk base; not just a soap for the man in your life!


This is a deeply coloured soap with a very unisex fragrance - very much suitable for men and also for women to steal from them!!!

I hope you like the soaps I've made this weekend and agree that putting behind the bad news and looking to the future is the way to go.

If you are interested in purchasing any of these soaps, don't forget to check out our website http://www.soaperstar.com/ for full details!!!

Random Acts of Kindness already at work!

Just a quick note about my post yesterday - it seems to have started other people's RAK's ... check out my friend Lois' blog here where she shows the lovely handcrafted products she's purchased for friends and family for Christmas - by doing this, she's raised the crafters/producers profiles and helped to advertise their incredible talents.  Excellent work Lois, I'm just loving that!!! And thanks for the link back too!

Random Acts of Kindness - Join the Kindness Revolution!!!

I have been thinking about this quite a lot in the past few days... on Sunday, my hubby and I did something nice for someone, I won't go into it and it doesn't really matter what but it was just nice.  It made us feel good but not because we thought "aren't we great" but the thought of the smile on someone's face when a stranger says that something nice has happened made us feel happy. 

Since then, I've been thinking more about the whole concept of a random act of kindness.  Wikipedia defines a Random Act of Kindess as "... a selfless act performed by a person or persons wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual or in some cases an animal. There will generally be no reason other than to make people smile, or be happier. Either spontaneous or planned in advance, random acts of kindness are encouraged by various communities. An oft-cited example of a random act of kindness is, when paying the toll at a toll booth on a highway, to pay the toll for the vehicle behind you as well."

In these days of rampant consumerism, and especially around Christmas time, we get so caught up in the whole "me, me, me" thing.  It can be depressing and can really drain you.  I felt really good on Sunday - just because we made someone smile.  That is a gift surely? A gift we can all give, every day.  It doesn't have to be monetary.. it could be picking up something someone else has dropped, or saying to someone that they look really well today, or holding the door open for someone.  It really just has to be a nice thing, a thing people would like - generally speaking, treating others as you'd like to be treated.

I don't normally make New Year's resolutions but I'm making one today - I would like to try and committ a Random Act of Kindness every day for a whole year.  That's 365 RAK's ... well probably about 375 or so if I start tomorrow! But still, imagine if we all did that ... imagine if every single one of us just did one nice thing for oner person every day for the next year. 

So, why not? Why not try it out? Would you like to join me? Leave a comment below and lets do it together! It'll be fun and it'll be easy and imagine how good people are going to feel afterwards? Even if it's something simple like when you're putting your groceries through the checkout, add in a bar of chocolate and then give it to the operator and say "that's for your break, I thought you might like it".  When you're paying for your coffee, pay for the guy's beside you too.  When you're taking a cab and it's raining, let the other person have the first one.  Hold the door open, say good morning and smile, say thank you to everyone who helps you out.... it doesn't have to be a lot... but it could mean so much.

So... do you take my challenge? Are you going to committ an RAK A DAY?!!! Leave a comment below - join the Kindness Revolution!!!!!

New Blog for Irish Online Businesses

David from Primary Position and Grainne from Local Discounts have set up a new blog for Irish online businesses - the idea is that the blog will track trackbacks from each business owners own blog and that way we'll create a network and introduce ourselves to each other and get talking but through blogs + twitter. The blog is here or http://ibopromote.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/hello-world/.  Great idea guys!! I'm very happy to link you here, I think it's a wonderful networking opportunity. 



Remember to check out Soaperstar's online store at http://www.soaperstar.com/!

We've restocked two of our most popular soaps!

On Saturday I got back to soaping (having missed it the previous week due to having to wait for materials to be delivered!).. and decided to restock two of our most popular soaps - My Sweet Love and Good as Gold.  Both soaps are made with our trademark Goatsmilk & Glycerine soap with added Golden Jojoba Oil (an amazing oil that is almost identicial to your skin's own oils and so is wonderfully moisturising), and an added hydrating skin conditioner - just to make sure that your skin is as fabulous as it should be when you use our soaps! Both soaps are coloured using only the very best natural mica, I just adore using this material to colour soaps - it adds a wonderful depth to the colour and a fantastic glisten. 

My Sweet Love, pictured on the left, is fragranced with a fresh, floral bouquet with fruity accents reminiscent of sweet raspberries based on a warm wood-musk foundation.  This is a beautiful soap - quite a delicate fragrance that is both floral and fruity at the same time but excellently balanced because neither fragrance overrides the other. 

Good as Gold is fragranced with a sweet, floral nectarine & juicy mandarin complimented by peach & plum on a creamy vanilla base - all beautifully glistening due to the natural golden mica. This fragrance is so fresh.. juicy almost! The goldenness (is that a word? It is now!) has to be seen to be believed!

Both soaps are now available on our website at http://www.soaperstar.com - please feel free to check us out.

Soaperstar Aqua Haven is featured on The Soap Bar blog!

Many many thanks to Jo at Product Body for her wonderfully generous mention of my Aqua Haven soap on her Soap Bar blog (which you can read here) - she's showing some great blue themed soaps from across the world in a post entitled "International Blues".  My soap is featured alongside some other fantastic soaps (both CP by the looks of them) and mine is the only glycerine based soap featured (which is excellent as glycerine soaps don't always get the mentions they deserve).  Thank you Jo, I really appreciate it! What a great mention, I'm really chuffed.  I read Jo's blog all the time and I just love her interest and enthusisiam for soap. 

Aqua Haven is currently out of stock at the moment (unfortunately) in the online store but I'm hoping it will be back by next week! So great timing too!

Check us out at the Soaperstar online store for details on all our soaps!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!

Sorry for no recent posts but I've been mega busy! We've been overrun with orders lately and I've been working evenings to get everything ready for customers.  Our stock levels are quite low at the moment in the online store (http://www.soaperstar.com) but not to worry, I'm going to be making more fabulous handcrafted soaps on Saturday for adding to the store by Monday.  So, if your particular favourite is out of stock at the moment, great apologies but please bear with us - the good thing is that Soaperstar, who are only 6 weeks in business at present, has proven hugely popular with many people this Christmas and I just love the idea that our products are going to delight someone on Christmas Day!!

Soaperstar helps with Christmas Shopping!

I just wanted to thank the lovely @MelanieDawn for her blog post mention of Soaperstar... so glad that she enjoyed the soaps and I really hope her Mother in Law loves them too! How exciting to think that something I made will be given to someone on Christmas Day, that's just fab!! Melanie and I met on Twitter and she's a really lovely person and I was delighted that I could help her out with Christmas shopping and especially for her Mum in law (who, I know from mine, can be rather difficult to shop for!).  If you'd like to read the post, her blog can be found here.

Thanks Melanie! Remember, if you'd also like to purchase some Soaperstar soaps, please do not hesitate to check out our new online store - http://www.soaperstar.com/ - we'll be very happy to see you there!