The Brilliance in a Bread-less BLT : Bacon Cups

OK, I love notmartha.com and I love bacon. Two get together and you've got sparks. I think she has some very interesting things to say, I enjoy her crafts and musings and her blog is a daily read for me. Today I think I read an ingenious cooking tutorial ever!

Bacon cups filled with salad, beautiful and brilliant! You will have to go to Not Martha if you haven't already.

Here are some pics from her most excellent ,wonderfully and only partially unhealthy salad creation she shared today:





Yummo!

Road Wash Give-Away

For my readers I'd like to have a bit of a give-away.... a lucky random commenter will receive a 3.5 ounce jar of Product Body Road Wash with accompanying bath pouf, just like the one in the picture. Road Wash is a portable travel cleanser in a jar, a soft solid body wash that creates the most amazing bubbles when dabbed with a pouf and a touch of water. Liquid body washes, watch out!

To have a chance to win, leave a comment from now until next Monday morning (8:00 AM Eastern). Tell us what you'd like to see more of in this blog; formulating experiences, work talk, personal musings, information on ingredients, dessert ramblings, etc. Anything you want to see more of. So leave a comment and let me know you've stopped by. Drawing will be held on Monday, March 3rd at 8:30 AM.

Thanks for stopping by and checking us out. Good luck!!

Bubble Rubble Experimenting

Sweet Vanilla Mango before curing when it turns BEIGE! The purple is the lavender.

Sparkling Champagne Bubble Rubble before curing.

Coconut Vanilla Clouds Bubble Rubble before curing.

I tried a completely different recipe to see if I could replace one item for another in the Bubble Rubble formulation and they came out pretty, but they are droopy and still "wet". That batch will go in the trash tomorrow. As you can see, I used my cake decorating skills on this (haha!), but the pretty puffs won't cooperate.

The place smells like a foggy perfumery with champagne, vanilla mango, lavender and coconut in the air. With all my experimenting, I must get pounds and pounds of cream of tartar (which is also great for making homemade play dough, fyi).

More on Bubbles and Bombs soon.

Shea Shea Shea

THE PLANT: Shea Tree Order: Ebenales
Family: Sapotaceae (Chicle, Gutta-Percha and Sapodilla)
Genus: Butyrospermum or Vitellaria
Species: Butyrospermum parkii or Vitellaria paradoxa

I read an case study called: " Research by the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) into the cultivation and processing of shea nuts as an alternative to cocoa products." along with some other interesting articles on the web an found out some things I didn't know about shea.

The Shea Tree is a wild tree, which are pollinated by bats and grows very slowly. It grows from 25 to 75 feet tall and bears fruit (seed) that contains four times more Vitamin C than an orange, but doesn't bear its fruit until it is between 15-30 years old.

Uses:

1. Despite the increased use of shea butter in cosmetics, statistics show that the shea butter from more then 90% of all marketed shea nuts is used to replace cocoa butter in the chocolate industry.

2. People have been cooking with shea for years and is the main edible oil for the people of northern Ghana, being the most important source of fatty acids and glycerol in their diet.

3. The healing properties of shea butter are believed to be partly attributable to the presence of allantoin, a substance known to stimulate the growth of healthy tissue in ulcerous wounds.

Whipped Shea Butter (Product Body)

If you'd like to learn more about the process of production of shea or the women of Africa and their role in shea nut production check some of these sites:

http://www.solutions-site.org/cat11_sol119.htm

http://www.africa-ata.org/mali_business.htm

http://www.batplants.co.uk/sheanuttext.htm

Wickedly Chic

Thank you, Wickedly Chic for a lovely review of our Cream and our newest addition, Coconut Milk Bath Soak. You can see the review at their website - Wickedly Chic is a website dedicated to sharing their indie finds - jewelry makers, tea makers, soap makers, candle makers ... lots of "makers". Their tag line is Independent Shopping For The Wickedly Fashionable.

Does that make me wickedly fashionable? I'll take it! :)

Coconut Milk Bath Soak Gets Attention

A BIG thank you to Carrie~Gigi of the Mud Puddle Girl blog for the shout out. Ms. Carrie ordered Mama Bomb Coconut Milk Bath Soak from my company, Product Body. I made cocoa butter sea salt bath melts for fun and included one in her package. She has been generous and kind to me and my daughter and I wanted to add a touch od sweetness to her order. What a cute picture she took! (I think she liked it :) )

Carrie~Gigi is a very talented soap maker. She created soap crumb cakes that smells absolutely heavenly... like maple syrup!!! I've blogged about her and her sweet bath goodies on my other blog, The Soap Bar here and here. Unfortunately, they are currently sold out, but she makes lovely soaps and bath treats, so go on over to Under The Willow Gifts and she if anything floats your boat.

Thanks again, Carrie~Gigi!!!!

Gene Simmons - Watch Out!

My son is wearing a Martha Stewart looking wig and straw hat, and pulls off a Gene Simmons look! Watch the video and you'll see where he gets his character. By the way, they did NOT practice the pose they made as they coasted by in the video. Total coincidence... from the same cloth.

Yes, the men in my life....

Cupcake Lips - Naughty But Nice

How can one go wrong when you can have lip gloss that looks like perfect little cupcakes? You know I have a thing for dessert, especially cupcakes, so as soon as these gorgeous lippies are available for purchase in the U.S., I'll be first in line. Box dimensions: 110mm x 70mm x 70mm. Price: £11.99 at Totally Funky (UK). Naughty But Nice Lip Gloss - 6 pack Designs are Raspberry Cream, Chocolate Cream Puff, Chocolate Sprinkle, Choc Chip, Strawberry Cream and Cream Tart.

Each cake is 1.6g for £1.95. Available at Cosmetics Fairy in the UK.

What do you think? My favorite looking one is the Wild Berry Tart. So cute!!

Ruby Red

My favorite smelling scent right now....

Ruby Red Grapefruit. It is tart, tangy, fresh and citrusy all at once. It is a strange smell, in a way. The tartness can take you by surprise... almost knock you down and make you wonder for a brief moment if it's good or just weird, and then the high notes swing in like Tarzan and lift you away to a vacation paradise spot.

I have found the scent I have been looking for. Ruby Red, juicy and tart with a touch of orchid breath. The new foot scrub (name to be released any day...:)) comes in two scents: "Ruby Red Grapefruit" and "Cookie". I just sent them off to a major magazine who will have the first pass at it. We are so excited about this one. It is truly wonderful. Your feet will never be the same.

Gorgeous Cupcake Heart Stoppers

mini chocolate mud cupcakes with chocolate fudge frosting

Every photo that o'holysweet takes is stunning. It is perfection: cake and vision. What more do I need at 10:30 p.m. at night?

Here are a few more, I can not resist the art of it all.

lemon yogurt cupcake

Yellow cake with vanilla mousse filling (Dad's Birthday cake)

whiteness

Free Downloadable Gift Tags

Paperseed.wordpress.com has the greatest gift tags. You can download them for free and use them for any gift. I used them on my bath bombs which you can see in these pictures. I printed them on card stock paper, cut them, punched a hole in them and attached with a ribbon. I think they came out very nicely. This is what I am using for Christmas tags next year for sure! They look so thoughtful, don't they?

The Bomb Making Continues

Yesterday I attempted the bomb making for the second time. I made three different batches.

The first batch was the Pink Cupcake. This time I tried using a natural color instead of the Wilton Gel Colors made for cake decorating. I used Ultramarine Pink Oxide, which is a powder. I incorporated it into the mix. Before I filled the molds with bomb, I used candy sprinkles to the mold to add to the cupcake theme (and scent).

The second batch was the Cocoa Bombs. The light brown color comes from unsweetened Giardelli cocoa powder I incorporated with the baking powder and citric acid. I used dark chocolate fragrance. Before I filled the molds with bomb powder, I used the same cocoa powder to sprinkle in the mold for a nice eye candy effect.

The last batch, I thought to make the simplest bombs of all. No color, no kaolin clay, no borax....just super basic with Champagne fragrance and a candy heart for decoration. These came out the best, with not ONE of them breaking, cracking or morphing in any way.

Who knew?

These are White Champagne, Pink Cupcake and Cocoa bombs.

None of these had any cracks. The White Champagne Bombs were the most basic of of all the recipes I tried.


Some of these cracked....frustrating.

Here are the Divine Citrus and Kumquat Bombs I made the other day, all wrapped up. I wish I were a more crafty person with more fabulous tags...

I will continue to try these bombs, but it is very frustrating that almost half of them crack in the center. I tried the squeeze differently, but maybe I should go with the more simpler of the bombs with color. Okay, until next time. I will keep you informed when I make the next batch. These will make excellent Valentine's Day gifts.
xoxo

We Need Help

Do you love our products? Would you like to become a more involved Product junkie? Well, there aren't enough of us to go around, and between formulating, design, marketing, public relations, and all the other things that go into trying to build our business, we are seriously short of help making sales.

We're looking for people that are outgoing, friendly, honest, driven, and (importantly) excited about our product lines. We need help with both Product Body and Mama Bomb lines, so our ideal candidate will be flexible and able to articulate the differences in the two lines (hint: one is completely all natural and aimed at pregnant women and mommies). You'll also need to be creative enough to identify new opportunities and ways to approach them.

But first, you should know this about us: we believe that personal approach works best, and that you can't sell something that doesn't work for the person who's buying it. We believe that making the highest quality products we can speaks for itself, and that customer service is of the utmost importance. We believe in responding to customer feedback and giving our retailers what they need so that they can do business better. If you believe what we believe, you may be just who we are looking for....

Right now we'll be paying commissions, but no base salary. We'll set those commissions based on your experience, enthusiasm and success. If things work out, we'll be looking to bring people on full-time as district reps, so there is very real potential to grow with us. You don't need to live near us - you just need to be willing to call potential retailers and talk about our tasty products.

If you love our products, think you'd be a good representative for us, and relish the opportunity to help build a quality indie business, then shoot an email to sell@productbody.com and let us know who you are and what you think.

More Bath Bombs Today

I plan on making more bath bombs today while the cracked ones torture my mind at every turn. I'll work very hard to NOT let that happen again. Those pink and peach ones were so soothing in color and the smell was dynamite! Sharon of Platypus Dreams took her cracked bombs and are selling them anyway at half price. Good idea. Why let those gems go to waste? The picture below is from her cracked stash.



Poor Sharon. She had made 300 of them for a customer and they all cracked! That must be heartbreaking. And here I am, being sad about a few.

Go check out Sharon's new blog! She has very interesting things to say.

Bath Bombs For Valentine's Day

The one in the center I made in a tall shot glass.

This was my first attempt at making bath bombs. I know, I know. I'm in the bath and body industry and I never made bath bombs before? Unheard of !! Yeah, It's really true. I think there was a part of me that was scared to try, just like I am scared to try cold process soap making without a teacher. I don't want to fail, so I played it safe. I never lacked gumption when trying new things in formulating, but those two things.... well... they got me! (shrug) You can call me a chicken, I understand, and quite deserve it as well.

Anyway, I tried making the bombs yesterday and loved it, although my fingers are achy from pressing so hard on the molds trying to create the hardest unbreakable bombs imaginable. I also stained my soapstone countertop pink. I use Wilton Gel colors, and put my teaspoon on the counter with no cover or plate or wax paper.... uh, not good. See below.


The purple ones I made in Kumquat fragrance and pressed a Valentine's sugar heart in them. They came out very holiday appropriate. The pink and peach ones are in Grapefruit Lemon made with two different colors with moon dust sprinkled in the mold. That didn't work out that well either because there is too much dust, I should have just sprinkled a tiny amount and not been so generous because, as you can see, the dust has sort of flaked off.

So this morning after a day of air drying, I visited my bombs and - agh! - Some of them are cracking right down the center. (see photo below)

Stupid Bombs.


No one can say I didn't push them hard enough together because I put all my might into those suckers and my muscle under my armpit is achy and sad. Know what I think? I think I packed them too hard before I mushed them together. Maybe I should try packing them lightly and then packing them mightily together. Yes, I'll try that. Luckily, I made 16 and only 5 or so are cracking. I guess that's not all bad.

So my first two batches aren't total failures, but they will be for my family and friends. I need to incorporate the color better, maybe try crazier colors, and press differently. They say try, try again. So I will.

I'll keep you posted with photos. Happy bubbling!

Pant-Shoes or Shoe-Pants? Hairy High Heels?

And what's going on over here....?

Photos all from the Virtual Shoe Museum. Please go take a look at their website. Fascinating woks of (shoe) art.

Latest Scrub Formula That I Love !

I am formulating a new foot scrub that I think is d-i-v-i-n-e! I've done my testing and testing and waiting for separation and degradation, but luckily it has maintained a beautiful emulsion with zero issues. I am very pleased with how it came out. It is a totally different formula than Crush On You, but works sort of the same way in that the scrub is emulsified (no drippy, oily scrub here), it foams ever so slightly, washes off cleanly and makes you feel unbelievably soft, exfoliated and clean.

Here are some pictures of the new scrub.










Made with the feet in mind... to scrub away old callouses and dirt, and it's moisturizing, too. And because it doesn't leave an oily residue, it is great for the feet. No slipping! I have some names playing around in my head, but suggestions are always welcome.

Scrub should be released soon.