My daughter, Emily, originally did the write up for this one over here.

Our Bar None Goat's Milk Soap is all natural, and is just the ticket for people with sensitive skin and people that have sensitive noses. Made with double the amount of goat's milk than any of our other bars, this soap is made to be gentle. Bar None contains absolutely no fragrance and no colorants.

We took some more pictures of the Bar None and as we all gathered around we all came to the same conclusion. The bars look just like vanilla fudge.

This batch of Bar None will be cured and ready for shipment mid April.



My ingredients are as follows:

goat's milk
olive oil
palm oil
coconut oil
palm kernel oil
castor oil

Today's guest blogger is my daughter, Emily.

Haha! I have officially taken over my mom's blog, though she says she gave me permission, I say I've commandeered it. So, on Saturday of this weekend, the fourteenth for those mathematically challenged like myself, Mom and I made a batch of Bar None goat's milk soap. Well... she made it while I watched and chattered her ear off. It turned into a nice buttermilk color as we mixed all the ingredients together in her big pot of soapy goodness. It lightened a bit after that when we poured it into the wooden mold she has, giving it the appearance of some delicious vanilla pudding. She wrapped it up and put in the pantry, trying to save it from poking little fingers. We left it be after that.

The next day, Sunday, we took the Bar None out of the pantry and took the wrapping off, simply to see if it had set up nicely. To our surprise the soap turned out a nice cream color and was ready to cut into bars as soon as we took it out. Mom used her new Feral Moon soap stamp to mark them as her product, before giving them the longest photo shoot I've ever seen soap have. Backdrops and talking to them included. All I did was wield the hammer to hit the stamps. Yay me!


Jenine here again. The wonderful custom stamp done for me (great picture of it below on one of the bars of Bar None) is from Melita at Print Letterpress on Etsy.

Well I finally made my first sale on Etsy. Although my shop lists 19 other people on Etsy labeling Feral Moon a favorite, I haven't had one nibble until a few days ago. On the same day I had one person asking a product question and one person asking if I'd consider doing a trade. Well nothing came of the product question but the trade went through.

Trades are a normal thing that occurs on Etsy. It's a professional courtesy and a way of marketing yourself and getting your name out there. People will often look at other shops and items and if they have something of a similar value to offer, they'll ask for a trade. It's up to the individual shop owners if they're open for trades or not. I decided to be open for now and see how it goes.

My trade was for one bar of soap. The person asked if they could either have a coffee or an oatmeal bar. I chose the oatmeal. In return, I'd get a homeschooling magazine that they self publish. I also threw in a hand crochet heart (since Valentine's Day is coming up) that I made myself.

Just before Christmas, I finished up two more bars of soap. One was a repeat of a favorite - the all natural Rosemary Orange goat's milk soap. And the new addition was finally my BaHaBa goat's milk soap. So today I took some pictures of the bars of soap using natural daylight and a few creative elements. Both bars are now up in my shop on Etsy.

I've been extremely busy putting together some things to ship out for the craft fair that my parents are involved with in their community. It's going to be on December 1st and I finally got the package out to them. The package contains 71 products and 3 gift baskets. Everything looked really great when I spread them all out on the counter as I was wrapping it all up and decorating each one. Here's what it all looked like.

Newest batch of Lemon Verbena. The swirl looks nice on this one and the bars smell so good!

Made some more Rosemary Orange. This is an all-natural soap using essential oils for fragrance and mineral pigments for color. These bars have sort of a layered look going between green and orange. I made the soap 6 days ago but just got around to stamping them and photographing them today. I increased the amount of essential oils in these so they smell very good. Eddie would give them two thumbs up if he did that sort of thing. He says this soap is one of his favorites.

My ingredients are:

goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
palm oil
coconut oil
palm kernel oil
castor oil
essential oils
natural mineral pigments

Here are the cut bars of How Now. Just got around to taking the photo. They look pretty neat. The bars are a nice caramel color with white dots and they smell like ginger.

Made another new soap. How Now. It's a ginger honey soap. I used the same method as Purple Cow, with the previously made white soap tubes. The How Now, however, is all natural. I used only essential oils for fragrance and I was trying to encourage the color change in this soap, rather than trying to arrest it via temperature control, so that the combination of the goat's milk, honey, and essential oils would color the soap naturally. It worked. Smells very gingery.

The picture to the right is of How Now about 30 minutes after it was poured into the mold. You can see that the soap is still a bit translucent. You might even be able to make out the white soap tube that's sitting just under the surface. When it was poured, the batter was a very light, creamy color. With the goat's milk/honey, EO combo, the soap heats up quickly. In fact, if you insulate it (which is what you normally do with non goat's milk soaps), sometimes the soaps gets too hot and people have reported lava-like effects with the soap actually bubbling up and over mold. Not a good thing. With the addition of honey, the likelihood of any strange phenomena is increased. That's just the nature of things.


The next picture to the left is of How Now just after coming out of the mold and before cutting into individual bars and stamping. This soap block, at least from the outside, came together a lot more smoothly than the Purple Cow. That's due to this one being poured into the mold and around the soap tubes while still quite fluid. Both soaps will even out in the end due to the process of hardening and evaporation but I liked the pour on the How Now a lot better. I'll be keeping it in a more liquid state for future pours of either soap.

Here are my ingredients:

goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
vegetable shortening
coconut oil
palm kernel oil
beeswax
essential oils
castor oil

About a week ago, I made a new soap but only got around to taking a picture of it. Purple Cow. I don't know if purple cow ice cream is available other places, but that's where I got the inspiration. Raspberry, chocolate, and I threw in some mint. Smells as good as the ice cream tastes! The color of the soap was supposed to be purple, but it turned out more of a lavender/gray. I need to increase the amount of dye next time round. The white circles were created by pre-making some white soap using the same recipe and pouring the batter into lined tubes. When the soap tubes were ready, they slid right out. I let them set up a few days and then when I made the Purple Cow soap, I decreased the amount of ingredients by the same volume as the tubes. I then poured the Purple Cow batter (with fragrance and dye) into the mold and inserted the previously made soap tubes, suspending them in the batter. When the soap was ready to cut, there were my white cow markings!

Here are my ingredients:

goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
palm oil
coconut oil
palm kernel oil
castor oil
fragrance
natural mineral pigments



I also made some Strawberry Lip Butter. I don't have labels printed for these yet and pictures of lip balm tubes without labels are really boring but I'll put a picture up when the tubes are labeled. I was going to make the lip butter without cocoa butter but Eddie suggested that I put it in because if I could taste the chocolate, then I could call it Chocolate Covered Strawberries. However, I can't really discern any chocolate so it's just straight strawberry. I didn't color these so they're just a neutral lip balm type of color.

Ingredients:

sweet almond oil
cocoa butter
shea butter
beeswax
vitamin E
flavor oil

I wanted to make a different soap and I was running with the idea of using a rose scent but wanting to add some other elements so that the soap wouldn't be TOO overly rosy. I also realized that by making a rose scented soap, I was treading on the territory of 'old lady land' because most of the women I've met in the past that have been over the age of 70 all have some sort of perfume or lotion that they apply VERY liberally in the scent of rose. But as I like the scent of roses, I wanted to walk on the wild side and take the plunge to see what I could come up with. So I played around with scents and combined the rose with the scents of some citrus fruits and apple. The rose is definitely there but the fruit brings it down a notch into what I think is a more appealing overall aroma. It kind of reminds me of a rosy skittles scent.

Additionally, I was itching to experiment with alkanet root to color my soap. Alkanet root (Anchusa tinctoria) is an herb that has been used as a dye for ages. The first reported use can be found in the works of the Greek botanist and scholar Theophrastus (c. 300 B.C.). Usually alkanet root, after it has been ground into a powder, is diffused in oil to achieve the tint you want, ranging from purples to burgandies. It is documented that the powder CAN be used directly into soap batter but the results are sketchy. This is what I wanted to find out and I got something completely unexpected. I wound up with a black soap that when used actually foams up white. Pretty cool! Also my result gave me my wanted modernization of a rose soap, complete with groovy name! My ingredients are as follows:


goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
palm oil
coconut oil
palm kernel oil
castor oil
alkanet root powder
fragrance


Also, as you can see in the photo, I got to use some of my previously made soap chunks. For this soap I used pink. I like the way the chunks turned out in the soap. I may use more next time because I think it's really neat.

Yesterday, in addition to the embeds, I made a brand new soap - Lemon Verbena! This is a goat's milk soap and the fragrance is light and refreshing. For the lemon verbena fans out there, you know what it smells like. The color turned out a little more orange than I would have liked due to the whole goat's milk/insulation process, but it's still a very pretty soap. And it smells just great! I might have to redo the label, it looks a bit on the pale side. This soap will be cured close to the end of the month. My ingredients are as follows:

goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
palm oil
coconut oil
palm kernel oil
castor oil
fragrance
mineral pigments

Today I remade my Blackberry Sage Goat's Milk soap with the help of Eddie. I changed the formula just a little, but it is still a luxury soap with the added shea butter, shortening, and increased amount of castor oil. We used ultramarines and oxides for color. I had Eddie help with the coloring and pouring. I'm still using a very small mold so mixing the colors is hard to do. These bars look pretty good. Since this was our first experiment using powder colorants, we were just trying to get the feel of things. Here are my modified ingredients:

goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
palm oil
coconut oil
vegetable shortening
palm kernel flakes
shea butter
castor oil
fragrance oil
mineral pigments

This soap was a big hit and therefore we ran out of it pretty quickly. I remade this soap making a few modifications. I added palm kernel to give the lather a boost while decreasing the amount of coconut oil to minimize any potential dryness problems. I also made the bar with a little orange color in the actual bar, instead of all green, which was the way it was last time. In addition, I increased the superfatting to make this a really gentle and moisturizing bar of soap. The soap is curing now. My ingredients are as follows:

goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
coconut oil
palm oil
palm kernel oil
castor oil
essential oils
orange zest for decoration
FDA approved colorant

I think I'll make yet another experimental batch of this because I really want to refine the color. I have some new colorants on order and will be using those from now on. Can't wait to try them out.

We were out of the Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey Goat's Milk Facial Bars too (can that name be any longer?) so I remade a batch. I made only two notable changes. I was trying to get the total oils down a bit because when I first made this batch, there were lots of little soap balls and scraps left over and frankly, I don't need all those hanging around. I also wanted to increase the percentage of nourishing and moisturing oils, and decrease the amount of potentially drying oils. So in a nut shell, I decreased the amount of coconut. The percentage of coconut oil in my original recipe was fine in conjunction with all the moisturizing oils but I felt that I could probably decrease it a bit and still retain good lather. This should help some folks a bit that are a little more sensitive to the drying agents (Kate). :) I also really pulverized the heck out of the oats. I put them through two different food processors and still didn't like the way the oats turned out so I also put them through a spice mill. I can't wait for this version to cure because I'm anxious to try out the new batch to see if I like the texture of the oats better than the previous batch. Oh and this time I used a scant amount of nutmeg for the speckly darker brown color instead of the cinnamon that I used last time round. So once again... my ingredients basically remain the same, only different amounts and different oat texture. Here's the list:

goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
palm oil
coconut oil
jojoba oil
grapeseed oil
shea butter
castor oil
ground oats
fragrance oil
whole oats for decoration
honey
nutmeg for color specks

Our inventory has been depleted of a lot of items so now I'm busy remaking some of them. It also gives me the opportunity to try and make them a bit better or make some adjustments to them. I increased the amount of olive oil and decreased the amount of palm and palm kernel. This should be a slightly more gentle bar than the previous version. My ingredients are as follows (the same as the previous batch just different amounts):

goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
coconut oil
palm oil
palm kernel oil
castor oil

I also made this batch using the CP method (I used hot process for the previous batch) and made sure to control the heat using frozen milk and an ice bath during the process to see if I could lighten the bar a bit. I refuse to add a lightening agent like so many people do to get a whiter bar of soap. After all, this is supposed to be a bar with NOTHING added. Take a look at the results. The bar on the left is the new version.

I made Rosemary Orange soap via the cold process method yesterday and unmolded it and cut into bars today. It smells wonderful! I used two shades of green for the coloring and put grated orange peel along one of the short sides for decoration. Eddie says that with the scent and color, it might be his favorite so far. Here's a picture of the bars before stamping. My ingredients are as follows:

goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
palm oil
coconut oil
castor oil
essential oils
FDA approved colorant
orange zest for decoration

The two shades of green didn't turn out to be as much of a contrast as I would like. Although it still is very pretty. So now it goes in the cupboard for curing.

I think in the future, I will bump the total amount of ingredients up a bit again so that I'll have a little extra left over to shave off the soap to make 'samples'. Either that or I'll cut a bar into half or quarters for this purpose. Since I make very small batches, I run out of soap pretty fast and smaller portions for sampling might be a more effective way of doing things.

Kate and Brad - The package to you went out this morning via ground. Let us know when you get it. I think I put eight soaps in there plus a lip balm. I wrote the contents on the outside of each brown paper wrapper so you'll know what is in them before you open them up (in case you don't want to crack them open right away). My fancy soap sleeves aren't in yet, so brown paper it is!

I didn't enclose a note or anything so let me give you the brief rundown on them. You can always look each soap up individually on the blog. They're all listed.

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Blueberries & Coffee Kitchen Soap - Use in the kitchen. Obviously. Coffee grounds will help with aromas.

Blackberry Sage Goat's Milk soap - A soap that can be used on the entire body. Foams up blue but won't stain skin.

Cranberry Almond Soap - A soap that can be used on the entire body.

Bar None Goat's Milk Soap - A soap that can be used on the entire body. Specifically designed for people with sensitivities as there are no colorants or fragrances. Extra goat's milk for more gentleness. Great as a facial soap also.

Lavender Dreams Soap - A scrubby bath soap that is HEAVY on the lavender. If you like scrubby and exfoliating soaps, then use as a body soap in the bath or shower. If you are sensitive to abrasives, then you can use it as a foot scrub.

Glendenwood Shaving Soap - This soap CAN be used as an overall facial and body soap. However, I recommend using it for shaving because I specifically designed this soap with a lot of ingredients in there that will help with razor drag, burn, healing, etc. Works great on both face and legs.

Pumpkin Patch Soap - An ugly little soap, but it works well. It has a lot of pumpkin in it and the appearance is due to the water evaporation. Can be used on the entire body. Foams up orange but won't stain skin.

Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey Goat's Milk Facial Soap - A soap that CAN be used on the entire body but I specifically designed it for use as a facial soap. All the ingredients in it are extremely gentle for facial use. The ground oatmeal feels a little rough on the hands (as you're lathering up) due to it drying out between uses. When you get a lather going and apply to your face though, you can't feel the abrasive.

Chocolate Mint Lip Balm - A lip balm for moisture only. It does NOT have any SPF ingredients in it. So being in New Mexico, remember your SPF! But this balm is great for moisturizing your lips.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

You'll notice that the majority of the labels have a website address of www.feral-moon.com. The newer ones (Pumpkin Patch and OMH) have the new website address of www.feralmoon.com. They're both ours. The one links to the other. It's a placeholder page anyway until we can get something up.

A note to Kate: I know that you are very hesitant in using any soap on your face but you might want to give these soaps a try. I'd recommend either the Bar None, Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey, or the Glendenwood. Those three are EXTREMELY gentle and have very nourishing ingredients in them and are specifically formulated for facial use. There is nothing in them that should cause you any irritation or cause clogged pores. If you are really nervous about it, try the Bar None and go from there. The OMH has fragrance oil and the GW has both fragrance and color.

Please let me know how you like all of them and how they work for you. Leave feedback! :)

Brad and Justine - We mailed a package out yesterday for you. If I remember correctly, there are seven soaps inside. Two of them are the newly cured ones of Oatmeal and Pumpkin. The post office said that you should probably get them at the beginning of next week. I was at a loss of how to place them all in the box to avoid 'scent swapping' so I wrapped them all individually in brown paper to try and keep all the different scents from merging. I didn't write on the paper which soaps are which but they're all labeled within the outside paper. I shoved some bubble wrap in the box so hopefully you won't get a box filled with little soap crumblies. Oh also I lied (in a previous post) about changing out all the labels. The only thing that's changed is the website address and the old address is good too so it would be such a shame to waste all those other labels. So the two new soaps have the new website address on them. Let me know how you like all of them and how they work for you. Leave feedback. Feedback, I say!

If anyone has any suggestions as to how to ship several differently scented soaps in one box without running into the merging of scents problem, please let me know. I might not have to be worried so much about it during the relatively short shipping times, but I'd like to do everything I can to keep each soap as fresh and self-scented as possible. I can always try to shrink wrap them but technically, you aren't supposed to shrink wrap home-made soaps. The soaps have to breathe.

I've been trying to make soap all morning but the kids haven't been cooperating. Hopefully, I'll have some made sometime today. Possibly sometime after Eddie gets home from tennis so that he can divert the kiddie traffic. Will keep you posted.

I wanted to make a soap that was very gentle, nourishing, and exfoliating - something that could be used as a body soap, but was also made up of ingredients to be wonderful as a facial soap. On October 2nd, I did just that. My ingredients are as follows:

goat's milk
extra virgin olive oil
palm oil
coconut oil
jojoba oil
grapeseed oil
castor oil
shea butter
ground oatmeal
fragrance oil
whole oats for decoration
honey
trace of cinnamon

I kept the idea of a facial bar in mind when I selected my ingredients. I left out the palm kernel oil that I include in a lot of my recipes because I know that some people feel that it is drying. I added oils that are proven to be exceptional for face and skin for their ability to cleanse while being extremely gentle. I kept the coconut oil relatively low because it also tends to be drying, yet with all the nourishing oils in the soap, I didn't have to cut it back a lot. Besides, who doesn't like lather! I pulverized the oatmeal for a gentle exfoliant. I added honey and just a touch of cinnamon. All this I put into a goat's milk base. With both goat's milk AND honey, a lot of soaps turn a dark brown. So I experimented to see what I could do to control the heat and get a lighter color out of it. Success! With a combination of freezing the goat's milk, using an ice bath to combine the lye, letting the oils cool before blending them all together, and NOT insulating my mold, I wound up with a light-colored bar. I guess you could call it an off ivory. I pressed in oats on one side of the loaf while the soap was still soft just for aesthetics, cut into bars, stamped them, and now the bars are 'curing' in the cupboard.

I've already tested the soap for pH and it's good to go. Just needs a little more time to harden. I haven't actually used this soap yet. That's a first! So when it's ready to be used, I'll post and if you're interested, you can be among the first to test it out. Should be ready at the very end of this month.

I can tell you right now that the next time I make this, I might leave the oatmeal off the surface next time and reduce the fragrance a touch. I had already cut back on it but it seems pretty strong to me, especially if you're going to be using it on your face. Who knows though - when I use it, I might just like it that way.