Beer Soap for Father's Day

When I first made beer soap last year, it was a big hit.  Maybe not right away, but once the holidays started rolling around, everyone wanted beer soap.  By that time, all the soap I had made just for Father's Day was sold out.

This year, I wanted to have beer soap ready in time for Father's Day, but I've decided to start keeping beer soap in stock all the time!  What we're going to do here is keep cycling through various combinations of beer/fragrance until we start finding ones that people go crazy over or come back looking for.

Currently, we have the following beer soaps available:

• Black Cherry Beer Soap - made with Farmhouse Ale Lazy Mutt
• Clean Cotton Beer Soap - made with Milwaukee's Brewing Co. Louie's Demise Ale
• Hazelnut Beer Soap - made with New Glarus Coffee Stout
• Mauna Loa Beer Soap - made with Monkey Wheat Ale

Stop in and let me know which is your favorite one!

Chocolate Decadence Body Butter

What was a little mix up in the kitchen turned into these delicious body butter fragrances!

When I make body butter, I usually use deodorized cocoa butter but I made a batch using regular cocoa butter thinking the scent wouldn't come through too strongly.  WRONG!

But we now have some yummy body butter scents at the shop:

• Chai Tea
• Chocolate
• Chocolate Mint
• Hazelnut
• Tahitian Vanilla

We currently have them in the small 4 ounce body butter size while we gauge how well they sell.  And they are the same price as our regular body butter recipe.  Bonus!

Pineapple and Coconut Lip Balm with SPF 15

We've got some new lip balm  at Halo Soap and it's just in time for summer!  Our website still isn't publishing new products (technical error we'll hopefully have fixed soon!) so you can purchase these on the Etsy shop for the time being!

Choose from:
Pineapple - this lip balm is made with skin safe chemical sunscreens
Coconut - this lip balm is made with natural mineral sunblock

If you click on the links, you'll be taken to the Etsy page for each lip balm where you can read even more about the individual product.

Mineral Sunblock

 
We have a new product at Halo Soap: Mineral Sunblock!   You can purchase this item through Etsy.

Our Mineral Sunblock comes in an easy to apply tube. There are no parabens, no chemicals, no dyes, and no fragrances. We use micronized titanium dioxide which means the particle size is so small that it doesn't create a visible layer of white on your skin. We've formulated this product so that is isn't greasy feeling. This product can be used by everyone and is especially great for kids and adults with sensitive skin.

Our ingredients are simple: micronized titanium dioxide (10%), fractionated coconut oil, candelilla wax, almond oil, cocoa butter and vitamin e.

None of these statements are verified by the FDA, but if you compare this product to the active ingredient (titanium dioxide) in other mineral sunblock sticks, you'll find that our product is just as effective and all natural. It's even half to a third the price of similar products that are out there!


After doing lots of research, there are a few things you should know about products made for sun exposure -

Sunblock vs. Sunsceen
Sunscreens - are chemical ingredients that protect your skin and prevent sunburn by absorbing harmful UVA and UVB rays so that these rays are not absorbed by your skin. A mixture of various chemical sunscreens allow for the widest range of protection. Sunscreens can irritate sensitive skin. Sunscreen degrades faster than sunblock. Sunscreens are more cosmetically friendly because they are transparent upon application.
Sunblocks - are physical sun blocks, deflecting and dispersing the sun's rays it they hit your skin. They also block UVA and UVB rays. Sunblocks are better for sensitive skin since they are minerals, thus natural ingredients. The sun doesn't break down sunblock the way it breaks down sunscreen. Sunblocks aren't always the best ingredients cosmetically because they can appear slightly opaque on the skin if the particle size is not small enough.

Sun Protection Factor (SPF)
You may think that if you double the SPF, you double the sun protection. This is not true, however. SPF 15 blocks 92% of UV rays while SPF 30 blocks 97% of UV rays. A higher SPF just means you don't have to reapply it as often.

Apply your sunblock/sunscreen at least 15 minutes before initial sun exposure and reapply sunblock/sunscreen every 2 hours.

And here's a little tidbit about the difference between UVA and UVB rays:
~ UVB rays affect the top layers of the skin and are responsible for Burning
~ UVA rays affect the lower layers of the skin and are responsible for Aging

Ok, so that's my spiel on our newest sunblock product.  Keep an eye out for our dark tanning spray, a sunblock lotion and a daily face moisturizer with SPF!

Hemp Oil Lip Balm

Just as I had promised, we have Hemp Oil Lip Balm in stock at Halo Soap!  No info on our website yet, but you can purchase them and read more on Etsy!

Choosing Handmade Soap: Why You Should Grab From The Front

Everyone does it. They grab from the back, dig through to reach the bottom of the pile, all because they want the freshest, newest product on the shelves.

Not cool when it comes to handmade soap.

Soap that isn't commercially created retains a lot of its natural moisture from the soap making process.  Soap crafters often let their sudsy creations site for weeks to months before wrapping the goods for their shelves.  This is mostly because letting the bar "cure" gives you a milder product.  Another reason is to make sure the bar is nice a hard before the consumer starts using it.

Many people tend to want the newly created bars.  At Halo Soap and Products, all customers who want to purchase these specific bars are told that they should wait to use the bar after they get home.  The longer a handmade bar of soap sits, the harder and drier it gets, meaning it will last longer for you as you begin to use it.  When you try to grab the newer bars, they may not last as long when you take them home to start using them.  Longer lasting bars make happier customers!

All bar soap should be left to dry well between uses.  Sitting in standing water will make the bar mushy at your next attempt at use and you will not get to use the bar to its full extent.  People also tent to throw away bar slivers as they become too thin to wash with.  Instead, just wet the next bar you will be using and mash the already used, wet sliver of soap on to the new bar.  After a few times of using these bars together, the suds will make them stick and you'll be able to use every last bit of that handmade soapy goodness.

Hemp Seed Oil Products

We have a new line of hemp oil based products at the shop!

Currently, we carry 4 scents of hemp butter and a hemp mud mask.  Coming soon, we will have three flavors of hemp oil lip balm including: Sweet Patchouli, Blood Orange and Chai Tea.  Yum!

Hemp Butter

 Hemp oil contains high amounts of essential fatty acids.  It is healing, balances dry skin and fights skin inflammation.  Hemp oil is non-greasy, emollient and moisturizing with excellent anti-aging and moisture balancing properties.  But hemp isn't the only awesome ingredient in this butter!  There is also a massive helping of shea butter and cocoa butter, along with avocado oil which helps to naturally increase collagen production.

Hinoki Wood - warm essences of blondewood, cedar and patchouly are enhanced with vanilla musk, cinnamon, clove and uplifted with notes of fresh eucalyptus, lavender, orange blossom, jasmine and rose.
Hippie - a beautifully complex Asian-inspired fragrance with notes of orange flower, Japanese lily, ylang-ylang and amber
Nag Champa - a sweetened version of Nag Champa incense, this is a great scent that both men and women love. It has a sweet, slightly woodsy smell that many people describe as calming, warming, and moist. For some, the smell is reminiscent of jasmine or magnolia flowers, the forest, or even tea.
Patchouli - the ever popular, typical 'dirty hippie' scent.  This one is scented with essential oil which is made directly from the plant so you know there won't be any sweet notes like you usually find in patchouli fragrance oils.

You can purchase any of these four hemp butters or one of our hemp clay masks at the shop, through the website or on Etsy!