Handcrafted Dark Patchouli Soap swirled with clays and charcoal!

Available starting January 28, and as promised, before Valentines Day: Dark Patchouli Soap!   I make this limited edition of soap every year for patchouli lovers.   Only 29 bars are available each year.

I photographed my soap on a tie-dyed scarf made by fellow H-burg Farmers Market vendor Krista of Cosmic Earth.  Krista specializes in tie-dye clothing and all things very cool.   I’ve bought several to cheer up my heavy winter coats and bring back a little of the sixties.   Of course I was very young child in the sixties, but I do remember tie-dyed shirts, patchouli and the Beatles.  Surf was up and life was cool.  Peace signs and back to nature.   Indeed life was good!

My Dark Patchouli Soap is made with olive oil, sustainable palm oil, distilled water, food grade sodium hydroxide, babassu oil,  castor oil, kukui nut oil, mango butter, aged dark patchouli essential oil and swirled with sea clay, southwest clay and activated charcoal.  It was originally  designed to be coconut free for a co-worker who is allergic to coconut oil.   Coconut is used in soap for bubbles, but babassu oil is a very fine substitute.   This is a quality bar made in small quantities for people that appreciate great ingredients, earthy scent and clay swirls.

What a great gift!  Wrap up a few bars in a tie-dyed scarf and gift to your favorite flower child or hippy patchouli lover!

Krista of Cosmic Earth will not be vending in Febuary, but you may reach her at:  kristashine@hotmail.com

Make Valentines Day be an Adventure and Discovery in Fine Soap!

Mojito Soap ~ a lime & spearmint handcrafted soap from Magellan’s Gift!

Last chance for the year for  purchasing Magellan’s Gift™ Soap.   I’ll be at the Harrisonburg, VA Farmers Market on Christmas Eve from 9AM to Noon.   Sales this season have been strong and many of my soaps are now sold out.  I’ve made sure to have three batches of soap to come off a four week cure just for Christmas Eve.  So you can still have the pick of the nicest bars if you come early.

Image via Wikipedia

From the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/garden/replicating-the-slightly-plantable-gifts-of-the-magi-in-the-garden.html?_r=1&ref=style

This is a great Christmas read for those of us that love scent,  plants and the people  that grow them.  I’ve been growing scented rose geraniums for distillation and wintering them over under lights in my basement.  I might just have to try my hand at growing frankincense just to see if I can.

With Adventure,  Discovery and Holiday Joy in my Heart ~ Lori Curry ~ Magellan’s Gift™

Stamped boxes for my handcrafted soap

Magellan’s Gift™ Micro Soap Company strives to make eco-green choices and avoids excess packaging.  One exception will be for gift giving when you want to do something special for your recipient.   Pick out a bar of soap and then pick out your packaging during this holiday season at Harrisonburg Farmers Market located in Virginia.   The boxes are priced separately, so you do not have to pay for packaging unless you want to!

Lori Curry ~ Magellan’s Gift ~ Adventure & Discovery in Fine Soap!

A new swirled soap scented with lavender, ylang ylang and a tiny amount of patchouli

Magellan‘s crew worried about going over the edge, literally, after all, the world is flat.  The short captain from Portugal, who insisted the world was round, might be right, for they had been at sea for awhile. But even so, everyone knows about the #!&@*!  sea creatures and the sirens.  Today, they thought they did hear music, so the talk turned to just what sirens are and what to expect.  Sirens can be half-fish and half-women, but they say that the most dangerous are the three bird-women. They like to lure nearby sailors with their enchanting songs to shipwreck on the coast of their rocky island.  The Sirens’ home with its sharp rocky shore has large meadow of flowers not too far inland. The  song of these creatures are  indeed luring, but the scent they carry from the meadow is incredible.  You never hear much about their scent, but it is true.

The next morning one of the crew spotted a rocky island on the horizon.  As they came closer, not only did they hear music and song, but there was a floral scent on the air, mixed with the scent of the sea.   Magellan woke late that morning to realize his men were under an enchantment.   Magellan had read that a Captain named Odysseus had saved his ship by stuffing the ears of his sea man with beeswax.  Unfortunately Magellan had no beeswax, so he quickly started stuffing his crew’s ears with the morning’s stale porridge, it worked and the men came to their senses only to have to tie down poor Magellan, for the last of the porridge was gone.   The ship and crew made it out of the sirens’ range and continued their voyage, but the dear Captain still dreams of their scent and song.

And so, I can’t bring you the music of the Sirens’,  but I think the Sirens’ Song Soap could also  haunt your memory, just remember not to founder on the rocks and sail straight and true.

Lori Curry ~Magellan’s Gift™~ Adventure & Discovery in Fine Soap!

Peppermint Swirl Soap

Here is a quick picture of a batch of peppermint essential oil scented soap.   This photo was taken right after the bars were unmolded almost four weeks ago and ready to be moved to the curing room.   This weekend they will be polished up,  the rough edges beveled off and be ready for this Saturday at the Harrisonburg Farmers Market in Virginia!   They look and smell like peppermint ribbon candy!

Dashing towards the Holidays with the spirit of adventure and discovery ~ Magellan’s Gift™

Magellan's Gift Soap curing on racks

Just a quick sneak peek at what is curing in my soap room!   Starting from the left top corner - Grapefruit Patchouli,  Spearmint and  Spike & Gilly.  Next row down - Lavender, Tangerman and Here Comes the Sun. Third row down – Star, Orange Patchouli and The Trinidad. Bottom row of soap - The Seafarer, Celestial Smiles and Winter Spice.  I’m working on filling the next rack now.   I hope to get  individual pictures of the soaps with descriptions soon.

Gift packaging for Magellan's Gift Soaps!

I’ve been working on options for packaging my soap for gift giving.  These are available as add ons to your purchase, so you can still buy soap for yourself and not pay for the packaging.   The holidays are coming,  so, for a limited time you have options:

A stamped plain brown bag is still free.

A stamped cotton bag is one dollar.

A high end box with a metallic sticker is two dollars.

The smile on your recipient’s face:  priceless!

Exceptional Soap for Life’s Adventures ~  Magellan’s Gift™

Alembic copper still for hyrodistillation

I can be such a green eyed monster!   I love a good demo and I like to see how things are made or happen.   Last year at my local farmers market, where the bulk of my soaps are sold, a new vendor that sells honey, soaps and other related products brought an encased beehive so you could see the bees at work.   Things like that make our local market very special.   So, after much pondering what I could demo,  I  decided I wanted a small still to demonstrate how some varieties of essential oils and hydrosols are made.

This is my second summer doing distillation demos and I’ve had so much fun with my still.  It sits up high at the market and attracts many people who are curious about it and a lot who can tell you moonshine stories, too.   Here in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia  there is a lot moonshine history.

My still is for distillation of plants for hydrosols (think “floral water” like orange and rose or even witch hazel). It also produces tiny amounts of  essential oil.   Essential oils are what gives my soap their scent.  I purchase my essential oils,  since I don’t have acres of land, equipment, strong men  and a nice mediterranean climate.   Not totally necessary, but it sure helps!

There are lots of different types of stills and mine is for water or hydrodistillation.  This means that the plant material sits in the water versus dry distillation where the water is below the plant material and steams up through the dry or fresh product.  Copper sweetens the distillate by binding the sulfur and yeast.   Copper also reduces bacterial contamination.  In non-copper stills you have to age it to lose what is called the “still” note.

I’m currently distilling rose geranium for facial toner and I will be distilling off and on this fall both at home and at the Harrisonburg, VA Farmers Market.    I’ll try to post soon on just what is a hydrosol and when I will have some for sale.   In the meanwhile, you can learn more about distillation history from Elise V. Pearlstine, a natural perfumer, aromatherapist, soap maker, wildlife ecologist and blogger.

For a history of distillation:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw355

For Elise’s blog:

http://bellyflowers.blogspot.com

If only I had half her talent!

Lori Curry ~ Adventure & Discovery ~ Summer Distillation 2011

A soap loaded with shea butter and scented with lime & ginger essential oil

I’ve pictured four bars from the latest batch of Seafarer Soap. 

The story remains the same, the recipe has endured as a favorite both with customer and my crew of soap testers. 

Some bars of soap just have a story to tell……

The Seafarer 

He has the blue green of the sea in his eyes,  the sparkle from the sun in his hair. He sails with the wind at his back. He smells of the ocean and the limes from the ship’s cargo.                          

    He walks inland now drawn to his ladylove, a fortune-teller.    She with her ginger tea, warm house and stories.                       

  The seagulls call his name;  the starfish talk to their cousins in the sky. They call on the tides and dreams to pull him back to the sea.

                        Adventure & Discovery in Fine Soap!

                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~                           

Tangerman Soap!

 I most likely drive my loyal customers nuts at times.   I’m renaming Tango with a Little Mango because this batch of soap just  begged me to.   I’m a wimp when the soap begs.   So I bless this soap with another new name:  Tangerman Soap!   The latest name is well, different.  I like different.   I suspect with time I will have a story about Mr. Tangerman.

This soap has my basic favorite oils–olive, organic palm, coconut, castor, and to make it really special, I’ve made it richer with mango butter and evening primrose.  The  scent of Tangerman soap is of five-fold tangerine and lavender essential oil.  It smells like better days to come: a calming moment, and then a surprise,  you’re serene and  peaceful, but ready to dance for joy.   The soap just begged for a special name.

The color of this soap starts with bright  yellow-orange caused by the five-fold tangerine essential oil.     I used rose clay on the heavy side for brick color swirls and lavender fields ultramarine for the lavender color.  Both colors are very skin safe.   As you use the bar new swirls will unfold.   It is a happy bar of soap!    So why the Tangerman?  Perhaps for the tangerine and mango?  You will have to ask the soap!

As always Adventure & Discovery in Fine Soap!

Lori Curry

My scum & germ busters

Soap scum is from the minerals in water reacting with soap.  This is (sadly) one of the reasons detergents became so popular.  My skin prefers real soap;   my lack of time for cleaning admires detergents.    I think I’ve found the solution and I been testing this for over a month now and I’m pretty pleased.  I work very long days and nights and  keeping up with the housework is a major challenge for me.

My shower is a 1970′s plastic job with swan embossed glass doors and a nasty track that produces grunge that someday may grow a life saving  new drug, but mostly likely not!  When I bought the house I swore it would the be the first of many remodeling  jobs.  It still greets me every morning! 

My 1970 Swan Shower Door

First, a disclaimer;  I have only tried this on my shower bath made of cheap plastic.  You will need to research whether this is a good idea for your type of stall.  Ask your manufacturer or someone more  knowledgable then me. 

 So you need to start with a clean surface!  I bought two pretty  spray bottles from my local Lowes.  Peroxide does best in a solid or dark colored bottle .   Fill one with the cheapest white vinegar you can buy.  Fill the other with 3% peroxide  (which you can buy at the grocery store.)  Do not pre-mix! 

  After I shower, I mist the stall with one after the other,  it doesn’t matter the order.  That is it.  Somehow it works as a preventative.  It also kills all sorts of bacteria.   You will need to clean again, but you will go much longer between cleanings.   It also works great on the toilet.  Once a day when the toilet is flushed before it fills back up, lift the seat and mist all around, including the seat and hope no one sits on it before it dries.  Wiping the seat would be polite, but it works without doing that either too. 

Go to the link below, this is what inspired me to try this in the bath.  I’ve been using it for years in the kitchen. 

The latest of my five sandalwood soap!

 http://www.michaelandjudystouffer.com/judy/articles/vinegar.htm

So even I can make cleaning an adventure with discovery too!

Lori Curry ~ Magellan’s Gift™ ~  Adventure & Discovery in Fine Soap!

Swirls of May

Swirls of April

It has been a busy spring and not much time to blog.  I thought that this month I’d show off some pictures of the recent swirls.  

I love color, most likely because in my “pay the bills job” there is so little.

A cheerful bar of soap in the shower really helps me start the day with a smile.

The colors in my soap are made with skin safe ultramarines, oxides and clays.  

 My next blog topic will be how to prevent soap scum in your shower!  I have an almost no work way to keep your shower clean without using harsh chemicals!

With lots of  blogs swirling around in my head just waiting to come out ~  Lori Curry ~ Magellan’s Gift™

Image by Mavroudis Kostas via Flickr

It was the soap makers fault. 

He was a pencil-pushing, stiff-white-collar kind of guy with a  six figure salary, working sixty hours a week, good looking, but seriously dull. 

 His power lunch with the company’s CEO was cancelled, so he wandered down to the nearby farmers market to eat.  He noticed an old world globe on a table featuring swirled and unusual soaps of many colors.

A plain bar caught his eye;  he lifted it to smell.  He inhaled Persian lime, Bulgarian lavender, Egyptian geranium all mingled in with Mediterranean salt.  His thoughts shifted from number crunching to the lure of sea and surf.

And that was it!    He quit his job, sold his condo and is currently giving wind surfing lessons on the Mediterranean Sea.

Magellan’s Gift ™ soap is not responsible for sudden brain shifts to adventure and discovery.    Please smell and use with caution!

  Mediterranean Sea Salt Soap

Lori Curry ~ Magellan’s Gift ~ Adventure & Discovery in Fine Soap!