New Project: Liquid Soap!

I just realized I have not posted since before thanksgiving! (gasp) I have been THAT busy and I want to take a moment to sincerely thank each and every person who has bought from my shops in the past year. I am eternally grateful for your business as it has helped me and my family thru some insanely rough times I wont bother to get into here. Just know each dollar you have spent has HELPED me tremendously and it was all VERY appreciated. Thank you all SO MUCH! ((HUGZ))

I wanted to let you guys know all the exciting things I been up to since the "busy season" is pretty much over. Sales have went down to usual numbers and now I have time to catch up on some things I been dying to do like make LIQUID SOAP!!

I had quite an adventure making liquid soap yesterday I had done my homework for sure but you never know how something like this will go till you jump in with both feet. So I jumped!

I had what was supposedly a fail proof idiot proof recipe in hand that had been tried by others with success. This made me feel at ease a little bit more.




I mixed my potassium hydroxide and oil and stick blended the daylights out of the mixure till I got something I was pretty sure was trace...then I blended more. I wasnt taking NO chances with this one!! Everything I read said if you cant get the potassium hydroxide and the oils to trace then it WILL separate on you later on down the process.

The only part of this process that I dont think I fully "got" was the fact you really do have to keep this stuff HOT! I put it in a double boiler set up and had the water just below simmering...that wasnt enough, I needed to keep the water boiling the whole time. Once I turned up the heat I got better results.

I figured out from the "test" globs I took out of the "paste" I was cooking that I needed to BOIL the water that I was testing the globs in. So I had a ton of boiling water around the house yesterday LOL

I finally got tired of cooking this "Paste" I was supposed to be making after about 7 hours of cooking so I boiled yet more water and poured it over the paste I had made. I boiled this for about 15 to 20 minutes.

I broke up all the chunks of the paste in the boiling water as best as I could. This was the hardest part was breaking up this stuff so it could dissolve and thus make my liquid soap. I went and watched a movie and when I came back all I had to do was hit the whole mixture with my stick blender and it blended just perfect. AND to make it even better for my ego, it was just a WEEE bit cloudy. I was shooting for 100% clear, but you never know when this stuff sits for a couple of days it may be as clear as commerical dish soap! I am OK with partly cloudy though, as long as it isnt milky I am happy.

I have tested this so far in laundry : works AWESOME!
Dishes: I was amazed! It took the tea stain off my tea pitcher and commercial dish soap wont touch it unless you SCRUB with a scratchy pad. All I had to do with my soap was rub!

You could put this in a foamer bottle and make foamy soap for handwashing too! So many applications for this stuff the possibilities are really limitless and I am so rejuvenated and excited to be able to KNOW I can definitely make this stuff now!

I have in the works a new product I wish to announce here today! This week I hope to be unveiling my newest invention: ~JIGGLE SOAP!~ This will be similar to Jell-o as it will be jiggly and squirmy but it will be soap you can take in the shower with you. This will be 100% chemical free unless there is a fragrance oil to scent it but those are always pthalate free at least. This will also be 100% vegan! I will be making an experimental batch this week. I know it wont be till at least wednesday cause I have no car to get supplies till then...UGH!! but be on the lookout! I will most likely announce it here when I get this made. I am super duper excited!!!

I will also be coming up with an original recipe for shampoo. I am still researching oils and deciding what I would like to see a shampoo do, so that will be coming up in a couple more weeks as I get time. its definitely a top priority of mine to release a completely natural shampoo that works great!

I am so excited about all this, cant you tell! (jumps up and down and claps hands)

And, I am rapidly approaching 1,000 sales in Maylee's Garden on Etsy ! As of right now I have 982 sales. A lot of sales came in the past 2 months, I remember recently having my 777th sale and being all excited about it...and here I am staring at the big 1,000! I feel SO successful right now, and to make it special, I am gonna do SOMETHING nice for the person who buys that 1,000th product. I dont know what yet, maybe free shipping, free goodies...not sure. But I promise SOMETHING nice will happen to the 1,000th customer!


Again thank you ALL for your continued support of my little business. I truly enjoy cranking out all natural goodness for you all so we can all be healthier. I am so proud of what I have accomplished, and I could not have done it without each and every one of you who have supported me along the way.


THANK YOU!!!!

Black Friday Cyber Monday Sale

Its that time of the year!

SAVE 25.00 % On
All Items

Use Coupon Code:

BLACKFRIDAY25

during checkout.

Green Products

For the occasion I am offering coupon code in Maylee's Garden Artfire shop ONLY!!

This coupon is good Friday 11-27 thru 12-01 for the late night cyber Monday shoppers


The coupon will take off the percentage at checkout once you enter the code in the appropriate box, no waiting on a revised invoice from paypal! YAY!

This coupon is good on my WHOLE shop. Clothing, laundry detergent, soap, dreadlocks shampoo bars, destash, base soap for your own soapmaking..the whole 9 yards!

Thanks so much for your business, my family and I appreciate each and every one of you. I have had 308 sales in my Artfire shop and 809 in my Etsy shop as of today. I thank each and every one of you who have helped make my shop a HUGE success! Over 1,000 sales total and counting!

I decided to have a sale!

Well actually "life" made me decide to have a sale....

But for a limited time only YOU can be the proud owner of some new soap OR a discounted custom order on my awesome plus size clothing, if you BUY NOW before Sunday June 28th!

BUT WAIT THERES MORE!

With each purchase I ALWAYS give free samples. Anyone who buys from me during this sale can PICK 2 samples but ONLY if you send me a message on artfire or leave a note to the seller mentioning you seen it on the blog. Its like an extra blog sale ONLY mentioned here! YEAH!

For the best hot process vegan soap in town.

Click the pics to go to a fun fan site!

Need your help with scents!

Ok I have a craft show to do saturday. I am making lotions like mad HOPING they will sell, and I am also planning a batch of soap for thursday. Now help me out guys, I dont know what to make everything smell like!!!!

I know what sells on etsy and artfire, but I am not sure about this show cause I never did it before. I have NO idea what people in Kentucky like...yes I lived here all my life....I know, I know....

So please vote in the poll to your right and let me know what YOU think may sell, and I will choose scents from that category plus a few others and we will see how well it sells! My heart says go with the sweet candy scents...but judging by the sales at my last show a month ago I think the fruity scents may win out...but I dunno! I may make a few of each and hope for the best but honestly I dont want to be bringing any lotion home with me LOL Its so good I want everybody to have some!

Oh yeah, and I decided on flip top bottles for the lotion packaging for summertime. Now when winter comes around i will go back to the baby food jars cause I dont have to worry about product melting and leaking out when its freezing outside. The votes were a tie between baby food jars and the squeezy bottles, so I went with squeezy bottles. I dont have to worry about them leaking. Thanks for your help on that one too!

Oh yeah and my team has a new giveaway for June. If I was you I would totally get in on this one too. The prize was donated by the mega talented Jama Watts...she let me TOUCH her necklaces she makes!!!!!....she has made a gorgeous pair of earrings for the lucky winner of our blog contest, so head over there and enter!