We Are Simplifying...

Enjoying working on our new soap!  The new website is www.absolutesoap.com

J + B

Lime In The Coconut AND Graham Cracker Crust

Wow... I made a soap batch today with my new expressed lime essential oil and graham cracker crust scent and it came out beautifully!

I am so excited to make this new fave of ours available for you in 4 weeks.  I leave you with a photo of the soap, just poured and will update this post when I have cut pictures.

I know it doesn't REALLY seem like this is a holiday-type soap, but beware, your mouth will water and your Fall energy shall co-exist with this soap.  It makes me happy....and hungry!

Packed with coconut milk, white clay and vanilla bean powder...and of course a little gold fairy dust for good measure.  Noms!

* update!:  Our new Lime Smash All Natural Handmade Soap is now available!

A Little Chef's Scrub

I have only found one thing that our Crush On You (or Chef's Scrub specifically), doesn't kill.  Scents and oily messes, that is.  I have taken off fish, garlic, onions, cray-paas, olive oil, glue, lard...you name it, our sugar scrub will remove it.

Except one thing.

Skunk.

You ask how I know this??  Well, I was at the dog park a few weeks ago and a giant mastiff got sprayed in the face and the owner asked me to smell his face and confirm that she was sprayed.  Well, the dog got excited when I put my face near hers and she lunged happily towards me.  My right hand stopped her from kissing my face, luckily, but my right hand had skunk oil on it for HOURS.

I tried Chef's Scrub Sugar Scrub and it worked better than I thought it would.  I've heard tomato juice, tomatoes, etc.... not coffee, lemon, sugar...my 1,2 punch for everything stinky.  That skunk just wreaked beyond Adam.

So perhaps a tomato basil blend is in store here at Product Body to deal with those pesky skunks.

What's your favorite Crush On You and what was the toughest thing it's helped you with (smell or texture-wise)?

Better Bars

When I started to make Magic Hands soaps, I used the original formula which included canola oil.  I recently switched it out to add more olive oil and add rice bran oil.  I also superfatted the soaps to create a more moisturizing soap that we all could use.

I reformulated the Sherpa Sherpa and even added goat's milk because it makes every bar a better more moisturizing soap, and as our inventory gets low, we will be offering Jackie's soaps with a new and better formula.  The Sherpa Sherpa will be ready on July 25th.

In addition to Magic Hands remakes, I decided to keep Thai Sticky Rice around, superfat it and add goat's milk.  So now we have a goat's milk, shea butter, cocoa butter bar that smells so scrumptious to me.  We still have some of the older formula, and these bars must cure.  The cure date for the new bars will also be July 25th.  MMMMM.

Newest batch of Thai Sticky Rice.

Just a side bar:  If you love Sherpa Sherpa and don't want to spend the money, I have imperfect soap listed in the Absolute Soap Etsy Shop for only $3 each.  The reasoning behind dropping canola oil was because I made a batch of 50 soaps and got tiny brown spots which are only cosmetically unappealing (but really, they are just minor....only 2 or three tiny spots per bar).  There is nothing wrong with the soap at all, I have some in my shower and am loving it.

As we move forward, we get better and hone in on excellence.  Thank you for your undying support and love.

xo Jo

Perfume Or No Perfume

We have been sitting with the idea of discontinuing our perfume oils because we are really focusing our energies on Soap and Crush On You whipped sugar scrubs. 

I know that Lair and Mazu have been our biggest sellers, but the others, not as much.

I believe we will be discontinuing the once stock is depleted but offering Lair (and maybe the others, depending on the response to this announcement) only on our Etsy Shop and not on our corporate site, Product Body.

Please leave a comment or email me directly at jo (at) productbody (dot) com if you can't live without or want to make your opinion known or if you want anything custom made for you.

Looking forward.  Looking in.  Looking out.

Thank you for your continued support everyone!

Orangewood

Orangewood will be in stock June 25th. 

Right now it is curing and we upped the yums in the batch.  We added charcoal soap to it for a visual pop and silk for an even slippier slip for shaving.  So, not only does it have bentonite clay and shea butter, but it also has newly added silk, for a sweet smoothness and luxuriousness you'll find in Orangewood.

Scented with essential oils of orange and sandalwood, this soap is desired by men and women.

courtesy of cocobong 

Cocobong Blog wrote some wonderful things about our soap, including Orangewood:

Whip up some Orangewood Shea Shave soap with either a sponge or a shaving brush and you'll not only get plenty of that lasting lather, but a nice, skating razor glide, great conditioning and the finest scent for both guys and girls. Tamed orange paired with far away sandalwood, more wood than sandal. Tea tree essential oil has been added for skin benefits, but I really couldn't pick out its distinct, pinching smell, not even a trace of it. The combination is clean, soft, sexy in a very mature way, present and perfectly balanced. If there were a scent I would never want to run out of for me it would be PB Orangewood. 

Orangewood Shea Shave soaps' quiet appearance, slightly greenish and ivory white in color, makes it one classy soap bar.

New photos to come......

Time To Smooth The Creases

As we grow, we've decided to hone in on what we believe is the best we can offer.  Soap is what we love to make and bring to you.  Specialty facial and basic bar soap.  We will continue to bring you Crush On You, as this product is a favorite among most of our customers.  We couldn't cut you off... no!

We have stopped offering Creme Fresh for many reasons.  The first being that there are a million companies offering cream/lotion and as much as you all may have loved it, we want to be focusing our energy on soap and making them the best bars available.

Many indie companies expand their offerings once they become established, but we are doing the opposite.  We are creating laser-like focus so we can make the best soap at a reasonable price, and do it efficiently.  We found that if we are creating more offerings, we are unable to spend the appropriate time to produce the soap at the rate we need to be. 

So over the next 10 days, we are officially accepting orders on our website, but not sending any packages out until the 15th of April.  We are putting Product Body | Absolute Soap back in place and further strengthening our core.

Be patient.  Continue to support of efforts and know that we are committed to bringing you the very best in quality.  We can do it no other way.

Love,
Us

labobo Boutique Has Joined Our Family

Our newest customer is local and lovely.  Missy Coffin is the owner of labobo, a boutique in the Historic Northwood Village just two miles from downtown West Palm Beach here in Florida.  She is currently the only shop carrying our Palm Beach Illustrated soap that we designed specifically for Palm Beach Illustrated magazine's 60th Anniversary.  It's an amazing soap and smells so fresh  and clean.

Welcome Missy and tell her I sent you.  To smell Detox, Sexy Laundry Day and Palm Beach Illustrated soaps, please go visit Missy at labobo at 508B Northwood Road and visit her site at www.shoplabobo.com.

Glad to have Missy a part of our growing company!!

Take A Peek

I've been very hard at work...creating very specialized soaps with awesome ingredients.  I am proud of all of these.  Not all of them are available yet, just thought I'd give you a peek into what I've been doing lately.

Happy gazing.....

DETOX

additives:  shea butter, adzuki bean, activated bamboo powder, bamboo extract, green tea extract and white kaolin clay.  Scent includes a blend of essential oils: Anise, lavender, grapefruit, tea tree, petitgrain, eucalyptus, and clove.  Bamboo charcoal is naturally detoxifying. 

Milken Oats

additives:  shea and cocoa butter, black walnut hulls, wild yam, stinging nettles and white clay with ground oats.  Scent:This is not your typical Oatmeal, Milk and Honey, however, this actually smells like oats and milk, ever so slightly sweetened with the smell of coconut and amber.  

 

THIS is what milk and oats smell like (milkn'oats=Milken Oats)  :)

Palm Beach Illustrated 60th

Palm Beach Illustrated Magazine approached us and asked us to create a soap for their 60th Anniversary...so we made a tropical treat that illustrates Palm Beach County, using locally collected ocean water and an abundance of tropical additives.  {My beach scene with shells}

additives: Atlantic Ocean water taken from Palm Beach, coconut milk, banana and mango fruit extract and topped with pink Himalayan Salt.

 

Scent:  Tropics at its finest.  Fresh cantaloupe and honeydew with notes of beach daisy, a dollup of coconut cream and beach-side trumpet lilies.

Orangewood

additives:  shea butter, bentonite clay, orange, sandalwood and tea tree essential oils.

love this

The Sea Bar

Contains natural elements from around the world. This soap is made with pure locally collected Atlantic Ocean water, Pacific Ocean sea salt, Dead Sea Mud from Israel, Irish Moss powder and Atlantic kelp. Dead Sea mud, Kelp and Irish Moss are packed with vitamins and minerals.  Between them, they deliver Vitamins A, B, C, and D, iodine, magnesium, calcium and sodium, which help encourage collagen production, restore moisture levels, firm, revitalize and detoxify.   The scent is a handmade blend of Balsam of Peru, Virginia cedarwood, sandalwood, orange and cocoa absolute in the center.

 

Very warm and woodsy, with citrus pushing through and the scent of cocoa absolute.  A very unique blend of essential oils  - One of my personal favorites.

Hope you enjoyed the peek.  The Sea Bar, Orangewood and Palm Beach Illustrated are all on the site, but before we could even offer you the Detox, we were sold out by one of our newest wholeslae customer, Lebobo in the Historic Northwood Village in West Palm Beach.  If you're local, and want to smell it in person, THAT is where the Detox went.  It's also the only retailer at the moment carrying Palm Beach Illustrated Coconut Milk Soap.

I will keep you posted!

Because You're No Angel

 Mae West would have worn Cathexis

Scent Description:  Fresh roses and melted chocolate muddled in a cedar cup with the blackest of teas.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, Cathexis is back, slightly tweaked and subtly improved from last year.  Perfect for the Mae West in any woman, Cathexis could have come right off the set of her film, "I'm No Angel," a story about "a gal who lost her reputation - and never missed it."

offered through February

___________________________________________________

Signature Mae West lines we like:


* Come up and see me sometime.
* Beulah, peel me a grape.
* When I'm good I'm very good. But when I'm bad I'm better. 

ALSO!!  Hawaiian Sandalwood Salt Soap is ready!

*

A Farewell To Creme Fresh + New Surprises On The Horizon

As our soap business continues to expand, we've had to make tough decisions about where to focus our energies.  So, in order to deliver the very best handmade products we can, we'll be dropping products that don't fit our future goals.

Unfortunately for fans of Creme Fresh, it is one of those products.

Manufacturing Creme Fresh poses a completely different set of hurdles than do the rest of our products, and splitting our attention isn't in the best interest of our customers or the business itself.

Soap.  Crush On You.  Perfume.

Focusing on this core group will enable us to continue to do what we do best: create and deliver unique and nourishing handmade products. No decisions have yet been reached on Mama Bomb and Bath Steeps (though it's likely Mama Bomb will remain in our line) and we are soliciting opinions on both - see our upcoming post on Bath Steeps to learn more. But it's a fond farewell to Creme Fresh as we start a new chapter in the Product Body + Absolute Soap story. 

To Creme Fresh fans:  we know some of you will miss Creme Fresh, but we're confident that the surprises that we've got planned for the coming year will help heal the pain.

To all customers, long-time and new:  thank you so much for your support as we have continued to mature and grow over the last eight years. You have, and continue to, put your faith in us to deliver the highest quality handmade products on the market.

We will not let you down.

Joanna and Brad
Co-owners and Co-founders

Amber Soap Name Chosen- New Contest!

Thank you for all of your input on name suggestions for our current Ambre de Nepal soap.  They names were very good, but Brad and I had too much fun re-naming this morning.

The new name is:

SHERPA SHERPA

amber vanilla shea butter soap

Now, because we didn't choose from the suggestions in the comment section of The Renaming, no one won a bar of soap, but we will give away a bar to the first person who guesses what the reference is to.  (Caution:  not a direct reference...more of an inspiration)

Ready, Set, Go!


UPDATE: we have a winner: Heather!!!  Sherpa Sherpa was inspired by Matt Stone and Trey Parker's movie Team America -  "Derka Derka!"

New Salt Soap Coming Soon

We have had such a huge response to our Hawaiian Sandalwood soap, so we decided to make it into a salt bar!  We decided no swirls, just a dusting of gold on the tops.

It will be available on February 1st.

 photo (painting) source: christyhayhoe

(we haven't decided on the Amber soap name yet...stay tuned)

Ambre de Nepal Shea Butter Soap

This is an amazing scent that I have fallen in love with along with many others.  Let's have a contest!

Help us RE-name this scent.  This is a Magic Hands Workshop replica (she passed down her recipes to me), but the name doen't roll off my tongue and it doesn't fit to me.

The scent is rich amber with faint notes of a number of fragrances like a touch of baby powder, a sliver of burnt sugar, black vanilla and cardamom which puts me right over the edge which its earthy, grounding and exotic aroma.

Help me re-name it...I have so far:

Amber Cream

Rapture

Amber Crunch 

(but "Crunch" leaves me thinking of peanut brittle and it doesn't smell like that!)

Give me some feedback!

Thanks.  If a winner is chosen, I will send a bar of the Amber soap along with any other bar of your choice!  Thanks in advance for sharing your ideas and tapping into your creative pools!!

Much love and respect,

Joanna

New Winner For The Bath Steep + Soap Giveaway

Sadly I never heard back from the winner of the give away, so I randomly picked a new winner and it is Celine of Soaperstar!

Congratulations, Celine!!

Contact me with your address in Ireland so I can ship your package on the 10th (when we get back to work).  :O)