My rant about the term Pure African Shea Butter

My mom told a woman that I offer shea butter and she subsequently asked me, "Where do you get YOUR shea butter from?" I responded confidently, "l order it online." She replied, smugly, "Oh! My friend gets THEIRS from AFRICA." Like that makes it more special. She proceeded to describe to me this seemingly huge amount (probably around 2lbs.) that she gets for $10! Hard for me to believe, but ok.

I tried to get over it but the more I think about it the more I become concerned that people are saying their shea butter is from Africa just as a selling point. It's all from Africa!

I believe that it is redundant to say 'african shea butter' since the karite tree that it comes from is indigenous to Africa. And to my knowledge there is no where else to get it. Furthermore, they say it's from Africa as if they know the person that got off the plane with it. Or their family lives there, harvests and ships it to them directly. If that's true I'd like to meet them so that I can order from them too!

Maybe I'm disturbed because these people can sell theirs and I can't sell mine because I am truthful about my products.

I apologize for this rant. I think I feel better now. Thanks.

"About Me"

Sensitive skin? Me too. I have eczema and can't use any scented commercial products. But I like the feeling of smelling nice and not just clean. I would go into stores looking for something I could use to no avail. I was really disappointed when I went a popular bath shop (that advertises "natural" products) and found I could not use these products either.
That's why I started making my own bath and body products. At that time I was making silk floral designs so while searching for floral supplies, I found a website that offered ingredients and other supplies for soap making. I thought, " maybe I could make something I could use" and so I did. At first, friends and family seemed very supportive. But then they started requesting the things that they like.d Since I wanted to please them (and make money) I tried to make the things they wanted.
Over the years it became overwhelming and too costly to make what each person desired. And it has been very hard to market to everyone because I'm a one woman show. I have small batches of this and that laying around plus many failed experiments and bad ideas. Needless to say I haven't been making money. It has been very discouraging.
So now I've decided to regroup and focus on something specific. I am going to stick to the natural line since it is the reason I started soapmaking. Natural bath & body products are the only ones I can use. I believe in them and plan to market to those with sensitive skin and/or eczema like me. I think this focus will be better for me and my business in the long run.

I made a batch of coffee soap. I can't wait til it's finished.

I made a small (4lb.) batch of coffee soap. I used my normal soap recipe but instead of water I used coffee. I read that it would smell bad when the lye is added and Ew!!! They were right but they said it wouldn't make the soap smell bad and so far I think they are right. I will see when I cut it. I only had a little coffee EO and I don't think it was enough to make the soap smell like coffee. I have had too many excuses for not getting things done, I just didn't want to wait any longer. Maybe the coffee, grinds and bean will enhance the scent throw. Also, I used coffee to make the whole batch of soap, hoping I would be able to lighten some of the soap, with colorant, enough to look like whipped topping. Well it is more like caramel-colored whipped topping, still looks yummy but not what I wanted. Next time I will make the whipped topping a separate batch with water and no coffee..

So why make a coffee soap, you say? Well I like to drink coffee (and love Starbucks) and thought it would be fun to make a soap made from coffee. I heard that coffee soap removes kitchen smells like onions and garlic from you hands. And for marketing purposes I looked up benefits of coffee on skin. I found that coffee is very beneficial to the skin. Supposedly, it is an antioxidant and has firming and tightening properties making it great for eczema and anti-aging. I put coffee grinds in for exfoliation and every ingredient is natural and vegan friendly.

I guess I will find out if these claims are true because as soon as it's done, I am using the first bar. I am currently out of some of my ingredients but as soon as I am able to place an order for supplies ( and when I get them), my next batch will be oatmeal, milk and honey. Another challenge I have been avoiding is the milk soap. But I am gonna try it with coconut milk instead of goat's milk, pretty much just to be different. I'll let you know how that goes.

Here they are after I cut them. Mmmm...Yummy!

Ingredients: Saponified Shea butter, Mango butter, Olive Oil, Palm Kernal Oil, Coffee essential oil, Coffee grounds, Coffee Beans. Oh and Coffee!

I'm sooo excited!!!

The other day I was reminded that I'm supposed to be working on my all natural lotion formula. So yesterday I gave it another try. I used a recipe that uses beeswax as the only emulsifier. I only made a little because I am afraid it will not work. But this morning I checked on it and it is still lotion, (no separation back to oil and water). This is great!!! Because I didn't want to use emulsifying wax because of costs, availability and although it is plant based, I don't think it is all natural by definition.

Also, I have decided to try the flea markets again. I was discouraged in the past because of bad experiences that caused me to give up on that idea. I began to hope that I could just make my website work so that I wouldn't have to go out in public. But I am going to go for it again and see if I can make it work.

I have also formulated a shea butter hair care solution. I am gonna start marketing that soon. The last time I made it some crust or grit had formed. I read that the grit formed because the shea butter was heated to high for too long. So I just softened it and so far no crust. I made this yesterday so I will still give it time to make sure the crust doesn't form.

ok bye bye for now.