Maker Monday: Foaming Bath Frosting + Recipe + Give Away

Foaming Bath Frosting is a creamy, yummy smelling type of body wash that has a neat texture and gives you lots of bubbles! We wanted to create a product that was fun to make and easy to customize. As you can see in the pictures above, this product creates some nice bubbles and really creates a fluffy lather when used with a bath puff! Here's a look into how easy it is to create this product.

We started by scooping the base into our mixing bowl.

To the bath frosting base we add our fragrance oil. This particular batch uses a sweet floral scent we use for special projects around the shop!

I wanted to add a little bit of color to this batch. We're going for a nice light pink.

The pink is a little dark after a few seconds of blending, but after this product is done being whipped to a fluffy texture, the color will significantly lighten!

Here is the foaming bath frosting after all the scent and color is whipped in.

Look at that lovely texture! It's so light and fluffy and smells amazing.

Lee's Simple Steps for DIY Bath Frosting

Ready to make your own bath frosting? We're going to link you to Wholesale Supplies Plus for a one stop shop to get everything you'll need. Here's what you need to make one pound of bath frosting:

• Foaming Bath Whip base from Wholesale Supplies Plus
• fragrance oil or essential oil of choice
• pipettes
• kitchen scale
• mixing bowl
• spatula or spoon
• hand blender
• storage containers
• optional add-ins: 
• moisturizing oil like almond oil, coconut oil, shea butter, etc.
• color; a few drops of food coloring or a pre-mixed color from WSP

1. scoop out 16 ounces of room temperature Foaming Bath Whip base into your mixing bowl (unless you've purchased the 1lb single jar, then use the whole thing!)
2. add up to 16 mL of your fragrance or essential oil of choice, more or less based on preference
3. add 1-4 drops of color if you would like
4. if you will be using a moisturizing oil, add 1-3 teaspoons. Melt the oil if you are using one that is solid at room temperature
5. Start mixing! Use the mixing attachements in the off position to mix everything around a bit so you don't splash ingredients out of the bowl. Then start whipping everything on medium to high for 3-8 minutes until it's all blended! Half way through mixing, use a spatula or spoon to scrape the sides of your bowl.
6. Package your final product. We suggest a plastic jar to avoid slipping and breaking in the shower. You can use jars from WSP, a plastic tub you have at home or even a zip lock bag with the end clipped like a piping bag.

There are additional instructions and recipes at Wholesale Supplies Plus for using the Foaming Bath Whip.

Wholesale Supplies Plus is a great place to order ingredients for small projects like this. They offer small quantities of ingredients and free shipping on orders over $40. Usually they are a one-stop-shop for weekend projects!
 

We'll be sending samples of our Foaming Bath Frosting with online orders over $25 starting March 14th, 2016 until we run out. Click here to get some awesome Halo products and your sample of Foaming Bath Frosting.

Did you receive a sample of the Foaming Bath Frosting from Halo Soap? Let us know how you liked it in the comments!

Feature Friday: Honey + Bonus Recipe

Honey is a delicious natural sweetener and we love using it for it's moisturizing properties in skin care products!

A customer favorite that uses honey in the recipe is our Honey Bee Lip Balm. It's a creamy, emollient lip balm that takes advantage of the sweetness of the honey to give the lip balm a nice "flavor". Formulating a lip balm with honey is a little tricky (honey doesn't like to dissolve in oil!) but we've done a pretty good job at working out all the kinks and making this a great treat for your lips!

Honey Face Mask Recipes
There are TONS of different ways to combine honey with a few other ingredients you may have in your kitchen to create a lovely face mask. Here are some of our favorites:

Honey Mask for Acne Skin
1 tablespoon of honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
half a lemon
mix the honey, cinnamon and juice from the lemon half in a small bowl. Apply the mixture to clean face and neck. Let it sit there about 10 minutes or so. Rinse.

Honey Mask Dry Skin
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon avocado
1 tablespoon plain yogurt
1 egg yolk
Mix the ingredients together and apply to face and neck. Leave on for up to 30 minutes. Rinse.

Of course, we also like to use honey has a sweetener in our favorite lemon water recipe. We've posted this one before but it's too delicious not to share again!

Lee's Lemon Water

• 2 cups of hot water
• 1-2 tablespoon of honey
• 1 large lemon
• 2 pint glasses 
• ice
• strainer

1. Fill a Pyrex with 2 cups of hot water. Not boiling! The goal is to have the water warm enough to dissolve the honey. Add your honey to the hot water and mix, mix, mix until it's all dissolved!
2. Take your lemon and roll it across the counter a few times to help release the juices. Cut the lemon in half. Over a strainer, squeeze one lemon half into each pint glass. Make sure you get all that good lemon juice out!
3. Fill each pint glass to the top with lots of ice.
4. Now add 1 cup of your warm (NOT HOT! Hot water could fracture your pint glasses.) to each pint glass.
5. Mix and enjoy!

Do you have a favorite way to use honey? Let us know in the comments!

Tea To Your Health!

At the shop, we go crazy for our daily dose of tea. We use a variety of teas from Rishi Tea to create some of our products like our popular Chai Tea bar soap and Green Tea Antioxidant Body Scrub along with other tea themed products. 

You can't have just one cup of tea. I can't, anyways! What do I like to use to make a larger amount of loose leaf tea? Well, when I'm at home I don't mine using my various tea tools - my Tea-Rex loose leaf infuser, my cast iron tea pot - but when I'm at the shop I don't have time to mess around with my daily tea ritual. I use a coffee maker!

I know certain teas should be brewed at specific temperatures and steeped for various amounts of time, but so far every tea I have tested has been quite tasty!

Here's my basic cup of tea:

• 32 ounces or 4 cups of water + 4 tablespoon of tea (my favorite is Organic White Rose Melange)
• Run the coffee pot
• For sweetened tea, I add 1 teaspoon local honey to a mug and top it off with the freshly brewed tea
• For an added boost, I add a drop or two of one of my favorite EO "drink" blends!

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are lots of articles online listing the pros and cons of using essential oils in water for ingesting. There are a lot more articles from some of the leaders in essential oil education. The general consensus among these professions is that essential oils in water is not a good form of consumption, specifically because oil does not dissolve in water. That being said, I do it anyway. I do it very seldom. And I do it when it's for a purpose.

What are some of your favorite types of tea to drink?

Feature Friday: Lemons + Bonus Recipe

We LOVE using lemons at Halo Soap! They are featured in our Lemon Cuticle Butter which takes advantage of the acidity in the lemons to help break up the dry skin around your cuticles. This product has been a best seller since we started making it about 4 years ago. It's loaded with rich butters and a little goes a long way. When used just as a cuticle butter, this product can last close to a year!

Lemon Cuticle Butter is

• made with lemon juice and lemon infused water
• over 50% rich butters and oils like shea butter, cocoa butter, avocado, jojoba and wheatgerm oils
• is dual purpose for dry, rough skin and can be used on elbows and heels as well!

That isn't all we love lemons for! My favorite way to drink a refreshing glass of ice water? With lemon and honey! Honey that we get from a local beekeeper, btw :)

Here's my recipe for this delicious concoction:

• 2 cups of hot water
• 1-2 tablespoon of honey
• 1 large lemon
• 2 pint glasses 
• ice
• strainer

1. Fill a Pyrex with 2 cups of hot water. Not boiling! The goal is to have the water warm enough to dissolve the honey. Add your honey to the hot water and mix, mix, mix until it's all dissolved!
2. Take your lemon and roll it across the counter a few times to help release the juices. Cut the lemon in half. Over a strainer, squeeze one lemon half into each pint glass. Make sure you get all that good lemon juice out!
3. Fill each pint glass to the top with lots of ice.
4. Now add 1 cup of your warm (NOT HOT! Hot water could fracture your pint glasses.) to each pint glass.
5. Mix and enjoy!

Do you have a favorite way to use lemons? Let us know in the comments!

Tear-Free Shampoo and Body Wash

We finally have a new batch of our Tear-Free Shampoo and Body Wash in stock! We've been back and forth with the development of this product because the batches always slightly separate. While we are looking for a solution and developing a better recipe, we've had tons of people looking for the product! The general consensus was always that the customer didn't mind having to shake a bit before use. We've decided to bring another batch of this product back into production for all those people who love it so much!

This product takes advantage of naturally derived surfactants that have had their pH altered to a neutral 7. 

You can purchase this product here.

Peptide Eye Gel

 

We're always working on changing and expanding our skin care product lines to bring you a variety of natural, effective products. Some of the most requested products are those to "make my skin look 30 years younger!" or to "remove all these wrinkles!"

While dry, wrinkled skin is a natural progression of aging, there are things you can do to help decrease the visible signs. Moisturizing your skin and taking care of your body and drinking lots of water are big helpers in keeping skin looking younger. You should also start moisturizing and caring for your skin when you are young, not just when you start to notice a change.

There isn't one magical fix for making skin instantly look younger, but using a proper skin care regimen can help bring life back to your skin over time. Many of our products are based on natural botanicals and precious oils to moisturize and vitalize the skin. While the natural way is one approach to skin care (our personal favorites are the natural skin care approaches!) there is still a want for products based on more of the cosmetic actives for results.

 

We're working on a fancy new eye gel with various peptides and proteins to help with bags, dark circles and expression wrinkles. We like to think of these as hybrid products - they contain cosmetic actives in a natural base. Instead of using propylene glycol, formaldehyde and paraben based preservatives or carbomer thickeners we utilize floral waters, paraben-free preservatives and xanthan gum in our formulations.

Stay tuned for more information as we test and develop this new line of skin care products!

Cold Sore Stopper

Our newest favorite product at the shop is the Cold Sore Stopper. This little bottle is packed full with herbs and botanicals said to help reduce the effects of cold sores as well as help keep them from breaking through in the first place!

This magical little bottle is filled with an organic sunflower infusion of lemon balm (sweet melissa) + various essential oils including chamomile, tea tree, lavender and geranium.

When you feel a cold sore brewing, just a drop or two of this 100% natural herbal blend can help stop that cold sore from even popping up.

We've had quite a few people test this product before offering it at our shop and so far the feedback has been amazing! If you've used this product, please leave a review in the comments below.

If you'd like to try this product, you can find it in our Etsy shop here.