Review of Our Chocolate Mint Soap

Winners of Coconut Cream Soap & Soy Cuticle Stick

I just want to give a big CONGRATS to the winners of this past giveaway!

1st Place: Courtney Tucker
2nd Place: Sml Footprints

Thank you everyone for entering and participating. I appreciate everyone's support! Please keep checking back for more goodies & giveaways.

Enter to win

Here is a brand new giveaway for you all! This time there will be 2 winners: First place will win a Coconut Cream Soap & Second place will win a Cuticle Oil Stick. Good Luck!

Great New Article About S.S. Soap & Body

Ruby Shabazz at examiner.com wrote an amazing article & review about S. S. Soap & Body Co! Please check it out!

Pretty Pale

I love show casing all of the amazing talent I get to surround myself with on etsy. There are some great gift ideas in this new treasury I created today.

Cupcake Bath Bombs in Action

Here's a quick video of my Cupcake Bath Bombs in action. It actually went on fizzing for MUCh longer but I shortened the video so it doesn't go on forever.

Perfect Pedicure

If you have ever had a pedicure you know how luxurious and relaxing it is. I want to show you how you can have the same thing at home. It takes a little time but it you are worth it! It is amazing how good you feel when your feet are properly cared for.

1. Soak feet for about 15-20 minutes in a warm bath with bath salts. Depending on how your feeling you can try my Eucalyptus Mint Bath Salts to refresh and help clear sinuses or my Lavender Bath Salts for a relaxing and soothing result.
2. Use a nail brush to really clean under each toenail.
3. Use a wet pumice stone or exfoliating scrub to gently rub dry rough skin off of soles and heels.
4. Trim toenails after soaking them You will get a cleaner cut this way. Cut the nails straight across to avoid ingrown toenails.
5. Now that you are done soaking feet. Use a good cuticle cream (my all time favorite is our Luxurious Cuticle Oil Stick) and massage into toenails and gently push back cuticles on each nail with cuticle stick.
6. Massage a rich moisturizing cream, like any of our Cracked Heel & Hand Balm, into each foot. Then wrap your feet in plastic wrap and elevate for 15-20 minutes. If this is an evening pedicure put on cotton socks and leave on all night.

Your feet and body will feel amazing. Besides before you know it summer will be here and is will be especially important to keep your feet looking and feeling great!

Golden Days

My latest nonteam treasury... great wedding ideas!

Gingerbread Caffeinated Soap Review

Great review of my soap! Thanks GlamourRock4!

Benefits Of Shea Butter

There are so many great benefits of using shea butter on your skin. It's extracted from the nuts of the African Shea Tree. It contains vitamins A, E & F along with other vitamins and minerals. It is anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial. It is easily absorbed into skin and does not clog pores. It has been shown to help with dry skin, sores, scars, dermatitis, psoriasis, eczema, dandruff, and stretch marks.

I use shea butter in soap, body butter, solid lotions and even some of our scrubs for it's skin softening properties and the ability to increase the creamy lather of soap. If your interested in a great natural body products that will help soften your skin and give you a beautiful healthy glow try our Solid or Whipped Body Lotions. 

Painted Wall Paper

I have to share this DIY story with you all. After being inspired by this post. I knew I had to try it on my bedroom wall behind my bed. Since buying our house in 2009 we still hadn't done much with the bedroom. I decided to go with a grey color for the walls. On the Nate Show he uses grey a lot and it always looks great and it matches everything. I decided to use the same grey that is in my office. It was painted this color when we moved in and the previous home owner left the can behind for us.  Win - win. I like painting but I do hate how it always tends to somehow end up being a bigger project than I intend it to.

So once the walls were all painted grey. I traced a template for the design and then painted this inside of the traced lines. I have to admit it took forever and by then end I was really sick of painting lines. lol. But it is so much cheaper than wall paper and I really love how it looks! It even brightens up the room a little. I almost bought a stencil online to do this but they were around $30-$35 and I was too impatient to wait for it to be shipped. This didn't cost me anything because I had all the materials laying around the house. It probably would have been a little easier but I still think it came out nice. It isn't perfect but what is? I don't have a picture of the entire wall all finished but I'll post it once I do. I'd love to hear any DIY projects you guys have and how it went.

Giveaway Winner

Sorry it took so long to announce. We are finally repairing our basement so it's been a little crazy. So here it is:

The Winner Is:

Kristina Stone

Thank you so much to everyone who entered. Please keep checking back we'll have more giveaway's soon!

I also wanted to let everyone know about the whipped body butter sample sizes I am now selling. If your interested in trying one but are nervous about the scent or texture now you can try a sample size. Try one or all!

The Look Store

So excited to announce not only are my items available at thelookstore.com but also celebrity personality and cosmetologist Jacqueline Laurita added our Oatmeal and Honey Milk Bath and our Strawberry Banana Whipped Body Butter to her Beauty Picks!

Also if you happen to check out the look store check out their Look Bag subscription. It is a really cool monthly subscription for luxury beauty product samples sent straight to your door every month. This past February featured my Gingerbread Caffeinated Soap in little heart shapes for Valentines Day. So if you subscribe you may get to try our products!




BeautyMakeUpandMore's You Tube Video shows what was in the february box and also shows how she liked the Gingerbread Sample.

Giveaway: Win A Full Size Candy Apple Soap & Cherry Lip Balm

                    


Enter below for a chance to win one of our Cherry Lip Balms and one of our Candy Apple Soaps!

Tutorial: Make A Light Box

I finally decided to try making my own light box and I am SO happy I did! It made such a huge improvement in my photos. So I decided I would try to share it with you! It's really easy and completely worth it.

What you need:
Cardboard box
Tape
White Tissue Paper
White Posterboard
Box Cutter
Scissors

1. Choose a cardboard box the size that you want your light box to be.

2. Make sure the bottom flaps are taped up well. I applied a second layer off tape here.

3. Lay the box on it's side. (The bottom of the box becomes the back of your light box.)

4. Cut off the front flaps.

5. Leaving about 1 inch around the perimeter carefully cut out a square on the 2 sides and the top.
6. Cut a piece of tissue paper to fit over each of the openings you cut and tape to the edges of each side.

7. Cut the poster board to fit inside your box. This will be your backdrop. I taped the top of the poster board to the back of the box so it stays put.

8. Add light. You can put lights wherever you like. Above, or on one or both sides to create the effect you want. Just make sure not to get the light too close to the tissue paper or it will burn!

You may want to have an extra white poster board just in case one of your pets decides to climb in like my kitty did. She made a good model though.

Let me know if you try this and tell me how it comes out. I'm in love with mine!

Natural New Year

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks again to all of my wonderful customers for making this past year a great one!



I wish you all a happy and healthy 2012!

Belly Balm

I'm really happy about my new Belly Balm! It's a special product just for all those mommy to be's out there. I really wanted to make something special for them. Since so may of the natural butters and oils that I use in my products are so great for skin and at moisturizing and nourishing skin. So this Grapefruit Pregnant Belly Balm is formulated with ingredients that are great for tight, stretching belly's and even at preventing stretch marks! I used Grapefruit Essential Oil because of it's effects on skin and uplifting aromatherapy properties. Grapefruit Essential Oil is one of the few essential oils that has been shown to be the safest and most universally used during pregnancy. So hear's to all of my future moms out there!

Icey

My Icey treasury won our TLF team treasury challenge! Take a look at all of these beautiful items!

Raking Up All The Leaves

Am I the only one who has waited this long to rake up all of my leaves?? Well technically it was still November when we did it... November 27th but still, November. LOL. We have about a half acre of land full of huge towering old oak, birch, and other majestic trees. But when the leaves start coming down... they really come down. In my defense, the leaves did come down a little later then usual this year and if we don't wait until they are all off the trees and onto the ground then it is pretty much wasted time. I remember bring young and LOVING raking with my mom and dad. Jumping in the leaves, making scare crows, now it's a HUGE pain! When you have children to enjoy watching play in them does it make it a little less awful?

So last Sunday we finally took on the task, and boy what a task it was. The backyard still isn't finished. I wish I had more before photos to show you so you could see the difference. Rich was able to borrow his dad's Cycline Rake so we were able to suck all the leaves up into that. It shreds the leaves up and then when it's full you dump them out. It is supposed to be attached to the back of a ride on lawn mower... but we don't have one. Too bad it would have been SO much faster. Instead we had to rake all the leaves up into the sucker hose or use the hose like a huge vacuum. Took a lot more time but still faster than if we had to bag them or drag them into the back on a tarp. Plus they take up so much less room shredded and they will break down faster making beautiful leaf mold for my garden for next spring! :) The pile of leaves in the picture doesn't look like much but in person it's massive. So nice to finally have that done! When did everyone else get their raking done? Do you live in an area that has a lot of leaves to rake?

Free Shipping Sale & New Items

My free shipping sale is almost over! Make sure you take some time to stop by and check out the shop before it's over. It's going to keep going until Sunday night so there is still time and we have some new items too!

Our Dead Sea Bath Salts are now being offered in these adorable plastic tubes which allow all the essential oils and scent to stay stronger longer. I also just listed a set of 3 Dead Sea Bath Salts, perfect as a gift or just for you to try each one!

Another new item is the Lavender Whipped Body Butter. Super relaxing and I wouldn't be surprised my whipped body butters end up being the most moisturizing cream you've ever used! Just check out the feedback I got recently: "As someone who is addicted to body butter and has tried too many to name, I can honestly say it doesn't come better than this. Just as rich as it looks, easy to spread, incredibly moisturizing, and the scent is exactly as advertised. I can't think of any skin type that wouldn't adore this stuff."