Studio and Shop Opening

We are opening the shop on Saturday July 14th and even though there is so much left to do.... I am so excited!  It's been a wonderfully long and adventurous journey getting to this point.  And I know there are many more adventures to come...  This is just the beginning!!

Admidst political turmoil and intense economic crisis, Spanish football euforia, heatwaves when it reached 46º celcius last week, a generation of young people without work here and abundant fear and negativity from people who express that we are nuts to be opening a business...   with all the hope and dreams and passion possible - WE ARE OPENING THE DOORS TO OUR STUDIO AND SHOP!!!  Yippee Yahoo!!

Thank goodness optimism comes easily to me. I push away negativity as I don't want it in my life.

My technical advisor and I finally submitted everything required to Health Safety and paid them their fees... and we got permission from Town Hall to open.   So it is official.

Anyone that is nearby, please come celebrate with us on July 14th from 10am to 1pm.  We would love to see you there.  To anyone who it not nearby, but has been supporting me with your lovely comments over the years since I started this blog... hope you can think of me on this special day and send a smile.  To all of you - thank you for being a wonderful part of this journey.

Love, hugs, passion and dreams to you all.

xo

Jen

Soap Dishes

I am thrilled with the soap dishes that the ceramicist created for me!  Here are some of them. 

 

The others sold. He is making more so I will post again!

 

Farewell Wild Lavender... the last bars sold!

The season is in full swing and my evening markets have STARTED! 

My shaving soap on my sea-side stand…

Happy summer!!

Xo

Jen

Meet Honey Lavender! I lost my purple...

I lost my purple… Well, I kind of left it behind.  Sadly, I am retiring my Wild Lavender soap for now.  I really liked it… and it sold well too.  Problem?  Short shelf life.  Something that didn’t make me proud to sell it any more.  I have never had this problem with any of my other soap, which all have a lot of Olive Oil in them, anywhere from 30 to 100%.  By short shelf-life, I mean that it gets that rancidy oil smell, something that has never happened that I am aware of, to any of my other soaps.  I have had soaps last for years without it…

Retiring "Wild Lavender"

In order to get the purple colour (from Alkanet or Ratanjot) in my Lavender soap, I had to leave the Olive Oil out.  I love olive oil in my soaps and it is one of the main agricultural items we have in this area of Spain. It is so much a part of the Mediterranean identity.  I decided I don’t want to make soap without it right now.  I am not willing to compromise quality for aesthetics, in other words performance for colour.

So I tried several Lavender soaps again with varying quantities of Olive Oil...





... until I made another decision – scrap the colour for now.

Meet Honey Lavender.  Same Essential Oil blend.  Now with fresh local Honey.

I am really enjoying it!!

Liquid Soap & Some Studio Details...

I have been experimenting lately with liquid soap… and really enjoying myself!

The first liquid soap was a hand (or body) soap, scented with orange and grapefruit essential oils and it leaves my hands nice and soft, though it doesn’t get the same suds I love in my bar soaps.

First liquid soap

The one on the left has Essential Oils, the one on the right doesn't. I am sure I will learn all about the right moment to add the Essential Oils to keep cloudiness down.

The second one was a shampoo.  Not bad!  It has crazy suds and as I wanted a herbal scent reminiscent of this area… I added Rosemary, Lavender and Spearmint (plants which all grow wild here) essential oils.  Although liquid, it performs much the same as my solid shampoo bars.  Difficult to get a brush through my hair, better with the vinegar rinse but lovely when my hair dries.  Great on my scalp too!  When I make another shampoo, I think I may decrease cleansing a little and increase conditioning…

Shampoo

They are both really LIQUID though.  What was I expecting?  A nice thick gel?  It will probably take a lot more experimenting before getting the exact consistency and performance that I want.

For now, experimenting will be mostly coming to a halt until after the summer.  I am moving into the high season when this area is full of tourists.  I am doing the night markets again this year so will be busy at the markets 7 nights a week, then producing during the mornings!

Some shelves that the carpenter made for the shop! We were going to paint them white, but the natural wood is so nice that we are not sure now...

I have really been enjoying contracting local talent to make things for the studio and shop. It would be so easy and quick to just get the place entirely kitted out at IKEA... but it wouldn't feel the same.  I love hand-made and I want to support local artisans.

A bowl made by the same ceramisit who made the studio sign. He is also making some original soap dishes and shaving mugs for me...

A stained-glass candle dish made by a wonderful local stained-glass artisan.

One of her mirrors as well.  She is making another mirror for me, bigger and in different shades of green, to go above the bathroom sink here at the studio.  Yes that's me taking the shot!!  I kind of liked this self portrait...

Hope you are all well, enjoying beautiful summer weather and happily soaping!!!

Xo

Jen

The Studio Sign

The Studio Sign arrived on Monday - my 42nd birthday!

The day finished off with the ceramics artist, Vidal, arriving with the original hand-crafted ceramic sign we had him make for the studio!!!  My husband and Vidal took hours putting it up… and I just couldn’t stop giggling as I was so pleased with how it turned out.  Better than planned… 

Vidal will be working with me to create some original soap dishes and shaving soap mugs as well. 

He included a unique mail-box as well!

 We are not a very materialistic family and don’t usually spend much money on gifts on birthdays or Christmas.  More about being together.   My husband’s birthday gift to me was a little kitten that he rescued from the golf course where he works and I baked cookies to take around to friends.  I found a mysterious bottle of Spanish red wine on my doorstep (still haven’t figured out who would have delivered it) and my dad sent me a book on making liquid soaps, which I have been wanting for some time…  My mum got me my wonderful new camera, which she had given me earlier, on her recent visit here.

Our new kitten - Micha.

Each step of this journey in turning my dream into reality has been amazing.  Seeing the sign up on Monday not only made me smile, & giggle but also brought sentimental tears to my eyes. I guess I will always remember just how low I had sunk professionally only a few short years ago… in a stressful job that almost broke me…  and feel so much gratitude now for where I am.  Making a living doing what I love most. 

Happy Soaping everyone!!

Xo

Jen

The Little Details

My husband is more detail-oriented than I am… I tend to be more big-picture.  This comes in very handy when there are little aesthetic decisions to make.  He helped with the logo when it was being designed, which now we both love.  He always seems to know right away… No, No Jen.  The logo can’t be round.  It has to be square…   And the frustrating thing is that he is usually right in the end!

  

 I really wasn’t convinced when he told me he was painting the doors in the studio green?  Green with white details?  How about white with green details?  No, No.  Just wait and see.  Well, now I kind of like it.

Then fonts… I have basically been using  two fonts for Naturalmente Mediterráneo.  The Logo and name font and then a different font for any other wording.  I have loved my “any other wording” font.  It is creative, unique and artisan.   My frustratingly practical husband, however, said right from the beginning that he wasn’t convinced, it’s not easy to read.  Well, I went ahead and have been using that font…. Until very recently.

Okay, beautiful and creative are nice, but isn’t purpose, performance and end-use the focus of my products?  So why am I focusing on the aesthetics rather than purpose in something as important as font?   Font is about getting my message across.  After more and more people mentioned they cannot read it easily, I recently switched.  Gives things a completely different look.  Less Artisan but VERY readable.  I think he was right again.

Hope you are all well and enjoying this marvelous life daily.  I really do believe that it is our choice.

Happy happy happy soaping!!

Xoxo

Jen

Soap Travel Arrived!

Look what I received the other day!!  The famous Soap Travel package which Julia from Cocobong http://cocobongsoaps.blogspot.com  initiated, with three wonderful soaps in it. 

I loved them all. Look at the packaging! The scents are lovely. 

 

http://byswanee.blogspot.com

http://seifenhaus.blogspot.com

http://seifenzwerg.blogspot.com

I ended up choosing the beautiful soap gnome from Seifenswerg!  Maybe because it was the most different to my own soaps, maybe because of the wonderful green, or maybe because of the fresh summer scent.... something applish.  I was not disappointed!  It is a lovely soap all around.

I am going to add my Goat Milk soap (my favourite) to the package and send it off!!

Thank you for the opportunity!  The next destination the Soap Travel Package is off to is to Karen Hill in Australia.

Happy Soaping everyone!

xo Jen

Briny Bar Soap & Hair Peace!

I am in love with Briny Bar's Hair Peace!!!  The product is devine in my hair, so easy to use and works perfectly with my favourite Honey Beer shampoo bar, which although it leaves my hair nice and soft, the initial brush-through isn't always ideal.  Hair Peace has solved the brush-through problem.  An all natural de-tangler?  It's more than that.  It feels wonderful in my hair and my scalp.  I have hidden it so that my daughter and husband don't discover it... I am not usually this greedy... I just don't want to share this time....  

I also adore the Briny Bar packaging.  There is something so fabulous about the ingredients being printed so simply and LARGE, so easy to read.  Whenever I see ingredients printed large, I feel like the company is proud of what goes into their product... instead of trying to hide it.  I wish I could print my ingredients out so large and simply but here we have to comply with INCI, which standardizes ingredient labels but also makes them more diffucult to understand for the averager shopper.

As for the soaps she sent me, I am currently using Black Magic Banana in the studio kitchen and I LOVE it.  Wonderful silky lather.  Large and hard bar.  Beautiful texture.  Sweet & spicy essential oil aroma.  All around awesome.

Thank you so much Dennise for the opportunity to try your awesome products!

xo

Jen

How NOT to Remove Soap from an Unlined Mould

Brute force?  Doesn’t work… it can actually destroy moulds…

Running a little hot water over the mould?  Works brilliantly…

Happy Experimenting!!

xo Jen

Lí Ban Ireland Soaps – International Friendship Soap Swap

elegant, pretty, decadent, feminine, mysterious, skin-softening, luring, addictive…

 These are the Lí Ban Ireland Soaps that sweet Rose sent me for the International Friendship Soap Swap!   http://libanireland.blogspot.com.es/2012/03/fantasia.html 

She sent me two soaps – Fantasia and Indulgence - as well as an un-scented lip balm which leaves my lips soft and moist for hours after putting it on! 

Both of the soaps are stunning.  I am in love with her stamp and I detect some glitter around the stamped area... just a touch which adds something fantastical and mysterious…  and the scents are so unique,  I think Rose is a bit of a master at blending essential oils.   The suds are quite different from my soaps as there appears to be no Olive Oil in them.   Differnet but LOVELY suds.  Big, bubbly, rich and creamy.  And my skin feels fresh, clean and soft after right after use.

I just love these gorgeous, luxurious soaps as well as the lip balm.

Thank you so much Rose!!