Summer Soap?

Yea, I know the "summer" part of summer is almost over. School starts next week. But "Summer" isn't really over until Sept. 20 or so. So, I've been thinking about making a "summer" soap. A break with my tradition of only making soap every 12 months, or so. But, I feel the need. The need for ....... soap making?

Look. I've done a great deal of the summer stuff, already. I've been out of state. I've been skinny dipping. I've built an outdoor shower. Used it. I've mowed the lawn at least once. I've yo-yo-ed it a couple of times. I've been biking riding. Hiking. Shipped the kids off to the parents for a week. Slept late. Watched movies. Stared at the stars--(is that "starsed?"). Fixed the roof, or at least part of it.

But, now, I feel like cooking. Of the stunt variety. It's too hot to brew brew. Too early to fry turkeys. I'm too busy to smoke a brisket (I mean, to do that right takes a REALLY long time). So, that pretty much leaves me with making soap. A summer, soap, in fact.

Breaking with tradition (of making my soaps all at the last minute before the Cherrywood Art Fair) will even allow me the flexibility to experiment without regard to time constraints. Risk failure. Change techniques. Use new scents. Make no sense. Whatever.

So what is the perfect summer, or Summer, scent for central Texas? It can't be floral. Cut grass maybe? Crepe myrtle? Huisache? Remember, a good summer scent has to go with yard work, skinny dipping, sun tan lotion, dry evenings and, quite possibly, stale beer. Suggestions?

Cherrywood Art Fair

And, here we go at the art fair!

Soap sales are on.

You'll notice the fine picture of Buff Daddy, (aren't all pictures of Buff Daddy fine?) taken, apparently, by Wendy Morgan. She was either being extra tall, or actually reaching her arm up to look down on me. Strange, isn't it, how tall folks notice this? It's not often we see the tops or our heads in other folks photos.

Speaking of the Cherrywood Art Fair, and I think I was when I started out, Day 1 of the Fair was a blast. Lots of soap sales. Lots of visiting with folks I hadn't seen in awhile. Lots of good art, good crafts, good food, and good music. If you were there, you know what I'm talking about. If you weren't there, well, what the heck were you thinking. Maybe "I'll go tomorrow?" If that's the case, you're in luck because there is ONE MORE DAY of the fine and dandy Cherrywood Art Fair to be had, experienced, shared and tucked away in your memory. And one more chance to get cool, hand made art and gifts to tuck under the appropriate holiday symbol of your choosing (Buff Daddy's family sticks all their presents under a spruce green, '94 Volvo station wagon--it's hypo allergenic, but you have to remember not to drive out for wrapping paper at the last minute without checking under the tires).

So, whatever you use your vehicle for, drive it on down to the Cherrywood Art Fair. Check out some soaps, and see a lot of great talent (some of it located conveniently VERY near by the Buff Daddy Soaps booth). Hope to see you there!

Buff Daddy's Soaps For 2009

Hey Folks,

It's been a long time since I lasted posted. Something like, oh well, maybe a year! That's what happens when you only make soaps every 12 months--you forget things, like tending all you loyal blog readers who have been checking everyday to see when I was going to post next.

Well, obviously, your long wait has ended. Now, you can read about me! Or, really, my soaps.

The big news is that all my favs are coming back, Lemongrass, Lavender, Well Healed, Sage Woman, Vanilla, Dreamsicle, Cinnabar, Peppermint, and Rosemary Mint. The bad news is that my Caffeine soap acted up during the last week or so and it won't be ready by the Cherrywood Art Fair-if ever! The Caffeine bar committed the soap equivalent of pushing the self destruct button. It is in NO SHAPE to foist on my loyal consumers. At least, not yet.

So, come on down to the Cherrywood Art Fair and visit some old soapy friends and have some good, clean fun.

2008 Bars

This season's selection will have many repeats of last year's favorites with some upgrades. I'll also be presenting a couple of new recipes. I'll post the complete list in a day or two. Please stop by the Cherrywood Art Fair to see and smell this year's goodness.

Here's a sneak peak of just a few bars.

Manifesto--Some Soaps Are Better Than Others

It’s true. And handmade soaps are toward the top of the list. You’d have to look pretty hard to find commercial soaps as good as your basic handmade stuff. Even then, the commercial stuff would be pretty expensive.

The reason? Saponification (making oil into soap) releases glycerin molecules into the soap. Commercial soapers squeeze out the glycerin and sell it as a separate product—leaving the soap unnecessarily harsh and drying. In handmade soaps that glycerin remains in the soap to care for and moisturize your skin. Even the most basic handmade soap will feel better, and treat your skin better, than the stuff you buy at the grocery store.

Glycerin is not the only thing good about handmade soaps. Most hand soapers take much greater pride in their product than do the commercial guys. We start with better, more expensive oils, more natural fragrances and additives (rather than petroleum derivatives), and we infuse all that with the care and attention that’s bred in the hours we spend over the stove stirring, and stirring and stirring, and, oh yeah, stirring. We don’t have time to waste making bad soap.

Each of the oils we choose has different properties, and if used alone will produce a substantially different soap. We choose the oils in each soap carefully, to balance their characteristics and produce soaps that are good, unique and have personality. Buff Daddy soaps may be better or worse than other handmade soaps, but all of ours will kick the heck out of the store bought stuff. The commercial guys can’t touch us.

Natural vs. Organic: a little white lye
We’d love to label all our Buff Daddy soaps as “organic,” but we just can’t do it. We’ve gone to great care to choose only high quality organic ingredients whenever possible. When we can’t get the appropriate organic ingredients, we choose only ingredients that are completely without additives, preservatives, colorants, etc. But no matter how hard we try, there’s just one thing we can’t do: lye.

Most soap, handmade or commercial, relies upon lye to “saponify” oil (those that don’t use lye use other, similar chemicals). Lye, on it’s own, is pretty nasty stuff. But if you add it to the right amount of oil it makes a wonderful soap. The problem is there isn’t an organic, sustainable way to make lye. The organic way involves leaching lye out of the ashes left behind by burning hard woods—not exactly a sustainable solution. The commercial process (the electrolysis of salt-water) is not so objectionable that clear cutting hardwood forests is really justified. So, we use non-organic, but sustainable, lye and make do by calling our soap “natural.”

Ugly but good
You might have noticed that Buff Daddy soaps are a little rough around the edges—kind of like us. Rather than have a slew of molds, Buff Daddy soaps are made in a single, large mold and then hand cut into individual bars (we have a really big knife). The bars are roughly the same size and shape, but none are perfect and none are exactly the same. You’ll find odd edges, angles and sides. They have personality. Every time we pick an odd one up we’re reminded of the hand made nature of the soap. We like it that way. We hope you do, too.

Distributed democracy: You, too, can make soap
Home soapers may be talented crafters, but they’re not brain surgeons. Making soap has been done for thousands of years and it really boils down (ahem) to determined cooking. All you have to do is add lye to some oil, stir for awhile, throw in your scents and colors, and pour the mess into a mold and let it sit for a few weeks. Now, with anything, the devil is in the details, but the details here are not that complicated. And we’d be remiss not to point out that working with lye is kind of dangerous. It should be done by grown-ups only with the most careful precautions, and not done by children at all. But don’t be discouraged by those disclaimers. The process is not hard. It’s fun. It’s exciting. And you can create your favorite soaps to your heart’s content. If you’re interested, there are a lot of good sites on the web you should check out.

Here are a few good places to start:

waltonfeed.com/old/soaphome.html
alcasoft.com/soapfact/history.html
colebrothers.com/soap/
teachsoap.com/

A great place to buy your stuff:

texasnaturalsupply.com/