Handmade soap, anyone?

What a busy month it's been! Wash Day orders have been flying out the door and I've added a completely new product to the Wash Day line...handmade soap!

Protective gear from head to toe is a MUST! Not cute, but necessary.

I started with an almond-scented soap with sea kelp and yellow cornmeal. It might not be pretty, but it smells amazing and the kelp and cornmeal have nourishing and exfoliating properties! My second batch of soap is incredible. Dark chocolate-scented, this soap is a shea butter and coconut oil blend that contains raw cacao. It made my hands softer than any lotion or hand cream I've ever used.

Here I am mixing my oils, butters and lye!

This coming weekend, I'll be making a 100 percent coconut oil soap with bits of raw coconut mixed throughout. Later this month, I'll add a goat milk soap or two. Sadly, after the soaps are made, they take at least a month to cure so these beauties won't be on my sites for a while yet.

Preview of the chocolate soap. It's much darker now.

But while the soaps are curing, don't forget to stock up on Bounce Butter! Twist-out season, if it's not already here, is rapidly approaching, but your twist-out won't be the best it can be without Bounce Butter! And while you're at it, don't forget to grab a tub of Brownie Butter to help wake up your hair as it comes out of winter hibernation!

Shea Moisture Fail and Wash Day Update

At long, long last, Wash Day's web site is finally live! Attempted assistance from several sources, but nothing ever came through so I did it on my own. Still have some tweaking to do, but for now, here's my baby!

www.wash-day.com

Wash Day is comprised of shampoos, conditioner, hair butter and hair oil...all designed to help you develop your own low-manipulation natural hair regimen and without spending a fortune! While there is a plethora of natural hair care products on the market, after 40+ years, I couldn't find anything my hair would love for more than a few months until I learned how to make my own hair care products. And the rest, they say, is history!

Now, from time to time, I do try out non-Wash Day products and sometimes with decent results. Not this time, however. I know everyone raves about Shea Moisture products, but I'm not real keen on them...mainly because many of their products contain ingredients on the endangered species list. I did finally break down last weekend and bought a jar of Shea Moisture's Curl Enhancing Smoothie. I liked the ingredients, the price, the amount of product in the container and even the smell. But, I hate this product! Two coils down on this one!

With ladies literally killing themselves to take advantage of Shea Moisture's BOGO deals, I was excited to finally give this product a try. I knew something was wrong as soon as I put my finger in it. The consistency was way wrong for my hair texture and it lacked the oomph I hoped it would have. Additionally, I'm on Day Two of my twist out and will have to redo my hair tonight. Not only did Curl Enhancing Smoothie fail to add shine or bounce to my hair, it didn't even hold my curls!!!!!  I also find my curls to be too wild, frizzy and stiff. I'm not used to this. My hair is always shiny, bouncy and does not frizz when I separate my curls.

 Note: I am not being biased in any way, but Wash Day's Bounce Butter and Carol's Daughter's Healthy Hair Butter do a much better job of maintaining weeklong curls.

I don't know what all the fuss is about with Shea Moisture's Curl Enhancing Smoothie, but at least I know I'm not missing anything when I throw this in the trash!