Christmas in July

Makers’ Market in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada will be holding a “Christmas in July” event on Fridays throughout this month.  Every Friday I’m there, at Makers’ Market across the street from theFarmers’ Market, in the  Guild Hall.  This runs from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.  An exception to this rule will be on July 31, when the Makers’ Market will run until 4 p.m. because of “Canal Days” in Port Colborne, a great city-wide festival which celebrates our marine heritage.  I’ll write more on this later.

This Friday I’m going to get brave and wear my “Mrs. Santa Claus” outfit while selling my soaps. I hope you can come out to see my soaps and all the other great products that are for sale at Makers’ Market!  I hear that Karen, our organic bakery lady (“Gobsmacked”) will have gingerbread men this week.  I’m really looking forward to my snack run!

See you there!

New Soaps

I was really busy the last month, and now I have six (yes, count ‘em) new soaps ready to come off the curing shelves.  I’ll have them at Maker’s Market for the first time on July 12.

One is a complexion bar, “Baby Face”, made without coconut for those sensitive to that.  It has a lot of olive oil and rice bran oil, as well as shea butter, babassu oil.  It’s gentle and won’t strip the skin of natural oils.

“Castile” soap is 100% olive oil.  That’s it, just simple food-grade olive oil and mild enough for the most delicate skin.

“Olive & Oatmeal” soap is also 100% food-grade, straight-off-the-grocery-shelves olive oil with the addition of some ground-up oatmeal.  Doctors often recommend this type of soap for people suffering from eczema.  It’s a really mild soap and the oatmeal is soothing.

“Tucuma Castile” soap is mostly olive oil, with some tucuma butter from the Amazon, which my supplier assures me is ethically sourced.  The tucuma butter and a bit of castor oil help to make a bit more suds and cleaning power in this bar, while still leaving it mild.

As if these four lovely new bars weren’t enough to please, I’ve also designed two new shampoo bars!

“Shazaam!” is a very conditioning bar with babassu oil, olive oil, rice bran oil and loads of shea butter and some castor oil.  Rice bran oil is supposed to have some sun protection built into it.  The shea butter is a “fair trade” product, as well as a darn good moisturizer.  I think you’ll find this shampoo bar to be very mild with a very high conditioning factor, good for anyone but especially good for dry, damaged hair.

“The Toucan’s Shampoo” is really different!  It has lots of ucuuba butter in it, ethically sourced, which comes from the seeds of a nutmeg-family tree which grows wild in the Amazon.  I gave this name to my shampoo because the seeds are spread by the toucan bird.  This butter seems to coat the hair shafts with conditioner, and really holds my hair, encouraging the natural curl, yet I can also comb it out fairly smoothly.  In other words it gives me a lot of control over my hair.  If I bend over and comb it from scalp to roots the hair looks very full.  If I comb it down to my head it stays there.  There is an incredible amount of body in my hair.  I think people with curly ethnic hair will really like it too.  Besides the ucuuba butter, this shampoo has a huge amount of fair-trade shea butter.  Jojoba oil helps to condition as well.

Like all my other soaps and shampoos, these bars have no added perfumes or essential oils or other unnecessary additives.  They only contain vegetable-type oils, distilled water and lye (necessary to turn the oils into soap).

Wendy Standish Handmade Soaps: Hair Rinse

When using shampoo bars, rinsing with apple cider vinegar can leave hair extra shiny, soft and clean.  Here’s how to do it:

For short hair, use about 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to a cup of water.  For long hair, make that 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar to 2 cups of water.  There’s no need to be exact about this.

Use this rinse before shampooing to remove previous buildup, and to get the full conditioning value of my shampoo bars.  Or, if you wish, use this rinse after shampooing to remove excess conditioning, if you find my shampoos are too rich for your type of hair, or to add extra shine.

Massage well into hair and scalp, keeping eyes tightly shut.  (If you do get vinegar in your eyes, just rinse them well with clean water.)  Rinse thoroughly with water to remove all residues.  Once your hair is dry there should be no vinegar smell.

A cleaner world, one head at a time.

Wendy Standish Handmade Soap & Shampoo

A cleaner world, one body at a time!

My handmade soaps and shampoo bars are made by me using only vegetable oils, so they’re vegan-friendly.  They contain:

• no preservatives
• no animal fats
• no perfumes
• no essential oils
• no detergents
• no petroleum-based ingredients
• no added colours

Why use one of my shampoo bars?

• doesn’t strip hair
• you won’t need a conditioner
• good for permed, coloured or damaged hair
• leaves hair soft and improves scalp health
• convenient for travel
• good for environment (no bottles, biodegradable)
• great for camping or backpacking
• can be used for the whole body
• perfect as a shaving soap (loads of lather)

Where can you buy these soaps, you ask?

• At Makers’ Market, in the Guild Hall located at 72 Charlotte Street in Port Colborne, Ontario, across the street from the Farmer’s Market, on Fridays between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

For Makers’ Market:    http://www.karonm.com/makersmarket/

Try all my soaps:

• “Clean Hands” – an excellent general purpose soap bar
• “Oh Baby!” – a soap bar for delicate and sensitive skin
• “Bubbly Bath” – a bar with luxurious suds for hands or bath
• “Job Well Done!” – a gritty bar to remove dirt and odours, good for gardeners, mechanics and cooks
• “Do Care” shampoo & body bar – richly sudsing and conditioning, with wheat germ & jojoba oils & cocoa butter, great for dry, damaged, frizzy or flyaway hair
• “Crowning Glory” shampoo & body bar – thick suds, with shea butter, avocado & jojoba oils, fantastic for dry to normal hair
• “Woohoo!” shampoo & body bar – lots of suds, with jojoba oil, perfect for oily hair
• “Special Me” shampoo & body bar – luxuriously sudsy, with rich & exotic moisturizing oils including babassu, avocado and jojoba oils, cocoa and shea butters