Strawberry Dreaming

Dreaming of those luscious June berries!

 This new batch of Moonstruck has a "funnel pour" moon.

Really and truly, latest Moonstruck.

Not sure if I like it…I screwed up and made it a different fragrance from the first batch, which was apple. I must learn to refer to my notes on every detail, as my memory sometimes fails me. This one is tobacco bay leaf and lemongrass, the scent I generally use for men. Smells luscious.

Lavender Gift Pack

Lavender Gift Pack of 4

Here's the new packaging for the Cupcake Gift Packs. I think it looks really nice and it's recycled containers.

Rose Geranium Single Bath Fizzy

The singletons are packaged in 5.5 oz solo cups I ordered online. The lid is now the bottom.

 

Rosie is lonely no more

The Rose Body Butter now has two companions: Men's and Naked. The Naked has no color or scent for those with extra sensitive skin. I made the Men's as I have a couple of guys who love the Rose Body Butter, but preferred to smell masculine. I can't blame them!

This smells delightful

This is the first Dream Pillow, a prototype if you will, made from one of my favorite old pillowcases. It's stuffed with mugwort and lavender buds and scented with lavender. I'll try it out tonight and see if I can have some lucid dreams. At the very least, the lavender will make a lovely nocturnal buddy.

Easter is April 5th this year

If you've been watching me at bechardsbotanicals on you tube, you'll have seen me making these little buggers. I've complained about my egg obsession before, so won't bore you again. They are unique and beautiful and I have a few customers that insist.They really do fit nicely in the palm of your hand and are a great buy for $3.

Filtering Beeswax and Making Pet Soap

Local Beeswax

:Cappings"

I bought some beeswax and "cappings" from a local bee guy this week and set about to filter it.

Melting at low temp

I started with cheesecloth, but found a knee-high nylon stocking works better.

Two types of filter

It was messy business!

Honey oozing from wax ready to be rinsed

Before I do this the next time, I'm going to do more research, as I know there's an easier way than this.

Pure, clean beeswax

I am happy to have all this pure, unadulterated beeswax to put in my body care recipes. 

Goat's Milk Shampoo Bar

I made another shampoo bar, this one with goat's milk especially created for chemically treated and damaged hair. As soon as the PH tests neutral, we are going to test it. ***Contains only saponified oils of olive, coconut and castor, Shea Butter, cocoa butter, jojoba oil, essential oils and beeswax.

Moonstruck will be on website soon

I'm very happy with the design of Moonstruck, made with goat's milk.

 

Puppy Love Loaf

Puppy Love (dog shampoo bar) is on the curing rack, soon to be tested. I don't know how we can go wrong with these ingredients.

*** Saponified oils of coconut, olive, sweet almond, Neem seed and castor; goat's milk, oat milk, Bentonite clay and essential oils. 

Wild Cat

Wild Cat (cat shampoo bar) is also curing with these wonderful ingredient

***Saponified oils of coconut, olive, sweet almond, Neem seed and castor; goat's milk, oat milk, Bentonite clay, tea tree essential oil, beeswax and madder root.

Natural Pet Shampoo Bars

As soon as we receive the "A-ok," we'll make bigger batches and put our pet shampoo on bechardsbotanicals.com.

If you want to see the videos of us making these soaps, go to our You Tube channel.

Soapy Trials and Tribulations

First attempt at Bath Fizzy Cupcakes

This has been an exciting week in the soap kitchen. Or should I call it a laboratory. Two of these runs could be considered borderline failures. I refuse to view it that way, as I am on a steep learning curve.

Lavender Castile

 I had a false trace on 2lbs of olive oil soap and had to put the whole batch in the crock pot. That's okay, as the re-batch came out a perfect pale lavender color and since the lavender essential oil was added after the batter cooled, the scent will last a long time. That's the advantage of a hot process soap.

100% Olive Oil Castile

 Anyway, I re-made the Castile and this time beat the hell out of it. I also made the moon embeds for the forthcoming "Moonstruck" soap. I made 4lbs this second time, as the cure time is a minimum of four months and I imagine by then I'll be sold out of what's on hand.Note: Video of making this posted on my You Tube Channel.

Scrap Soap

I also made a 1lb hot process soap to which I added accumulated curls and trimming from a variety of soaps. I've never mixed new soap batter when hand milling cold process scraps and was happy with the results. I re-scented it with essential oils of lemongrass, cedarwood and patchouli. It smells terrific and is a pretty green.

Naked Bath Fizzies

 Next I made bath fizzy cupcakes, experimenting with colors and technique. I have made bath truffles before, but that is a totally different recipe. This recipe causes an all natural explosion of color and scent when you throw it in the tub.

 

The Purple is lavender essential oil; the others rose geranium

Many bath cupcakes use a sugar frosting like food, but I wanted a soap frosting, so researched until I found one on the internet. My cupcakes are very far from perfect; my friends and I will test their functionality.

 

Simple ingredients

 

I bought the wrong "coupler," so just stuck the tip in. It worked fine.

I have never, ever so much as touched a piping bag, so these little guys are a bit on the funky side. I don't know that I'll ever be good enough at cupcakes to sell them, but it's fun trying!

 

Valentines!

Last but not least, I made valentine soap.One mini FREE for anyone who orders by Valentine's Day; comes with a little gift tag. NOT pictured on bechardsbotanicals.com.

Soap Kitchen Escapades

Buttercup and Babycakes

 Well, the holidays are over and the fairy dust is settling. The soap kitchen has been bustling as in late November I made my first batch of Rose Body Butter. Today I made batch #4, as it has been the most popular single product I've made. I guess we're all dry and itchy this winter.

Melting Shea butter

Beginning to whip body butter

Ingredients: Sweet almond oil, beeswax, coconut oil, water, Shea butter, sodium borate, beet root, madder root and essential oil.

Yummy, Yummy

What I've learned about making body butter is that the recipe must be put together in a particular order for the final product to be smooth and creamy. This is a very heavy moisturizer that initially feels greasy but will penetrate the skin within about fifteen minutes. It will leave the most desiccated skin velvety soft.

Lots of fun inside

This is a photo of Bechard's Botanicals convenient "Browse and Sniff Box". It's stuffed full of soaps and skin care creations that I deliver to potential clients. They get to keep the free surprise gift inside and shop at home in their leisure time. It's been a big hit for local customers.

Aside from making out-of-stock soaps, the latest production for our little business is "Dream Pillows". Sweet husband and I have worked on this in fits and starts and have decided to set all else aside the next week and get some of these ready and on the website. Tomorrow is the day the first model will be ready for testing. Last summer I grew a lot of mugwort that I've dried, cleaned and bagged. I have some swatches of fabric cut and ready to sew. As luck would have it, my mother-in-law taught her son the fine art of sewing. I didn't fully appreciate his talents until a few years ago when he was making his own designed kites. Working with that slippery stuff would have made me barmy, but he completed several projects perfectly. He loves it when I tell him to go fly a kite!

Maybe by next week we can put the Dream Pillows on the website. Check out our soap making videos at bechardsbotanicals.com.

Herbs and New Stuff

Herbs Drying in Stairwell

 The herbs that have been hanging around drying are mostly taken care of. Some will be used for culinary purposes and some in bath products. I always have some that end up on the compost heap the following year.

Herbs for Tea

My philosophy is that it's better to have too much than to wish I had some!

Health in a Bottle

Bottling tinctures takes patience.

Fresh Salad

The last salad has been eaten and the cedar box emptied and awaiting February, when it will be replanted and set to grow in the front porch until it thaws outside. With the two boxes Sweet Husband made, we can have fresh lettuce at least seven months a year.

Wrapping and Labeling Bath Truffles

After much experimentation and friend-testing, I've added three new products to Bechard's Botanicals: bath truffles (two different fragrances), a therapeutic bath soak for troubled skin and my fav, body butter.

Dry Skin and Stress Releif

This is the best body butter I've ever used! I should call it, "Itch No More"!

Physalis peruviana

Aramanth with Cape Gooseberry (lower right)

I cannot find the words to express the joy and awe and wonder I feel when I explore the workings of Nature. Sometimes I still can feel the justifiable anger that so plagued my early explorations into herbal remedies; anger that beneficial information on healing plants has been so carefully and diabolically hidden. I rarely waste my time with that these days, because I deeply understand that no iniquity can be perpetrated against me without my consent. If I invite malevolence into my personal sphere of existence, can I then blame those who choose enter? In the Mill of Life, these shadowy entities could be perceived as the abrasive stone upon which the grain of my soul must be ground.  

My spiritual, physical and mental wellbeing is totally and irrevocably my responsibility. I am fortunate to have at my disposal the tools I need to educate myself: a relatively clear mind, a fantastic library and of course, the internet. While most other Baby Boomers are crediting themselves for reading Big Pharma's package inserts for the latest symptom management medications, I study plants. I don't just read, I contemplate as I plant them in my garden or find them in their natural habitat. I have what could be called, an intuitive conversation with the actual plant. It's amazing the number of "accidental plantings" that I have done, even before my herbalist explorations began in earnest.

I planted bloodroot (2002!) long before I understood its healing implications for skin cancer or that it is on the endangered species list. Time and again this strange phenomena has transpired in the Garden of Nemesis. Here's the latest:

I planted Cape Gooseberries because I wanted to grow more fruit for preserves. I picked the berries and froze them. That was no mean feat because they tasted sooo good I wanted to gobble the entire crop fresh. But then I did something entirely crazy. I harvested the leaves for later use. After partially drying them as per usual, I froze a bag and later retrieved them to make a tincture. I did this without really even thinking about it. Imagine my surprise this morning when I stumbled across a major research article about how the leaves of Physalis peruviana has been shown to destroy cancer cells!

In that moment of understanding, something big shifted in my psyche. It felt like the blast of a tsunami that picked me up and carried me, rather flung me, to a new and better place. A surge of joy also came with the wave. As best I can express this tremendous revelation in words might be this:

You mean we have everything we need here? Growing in the dirt? There is no lack? Is health just a matter of brewing a tea or swallowing a tincture or applying a poultice? Could it be this incredibly simple? Is it that all I have to do is listen to the still, small voice inside as it whispers the secrets of Nature? Can I lie in the grass and watch the clouds instead of having parts and pieces of my body removed and/or poisoned by doctors practicing on me? It can't be so! But it is. It is.

Drats, Winter AGAIN!

I only have a few jars left!

Is it just me, or has winter come early this year? I remember when I was a kid on an Iowa farm and it was always, always full and complete winter by Thanksgiving. Sometimes we’d have trouble driving the few miles to or from Gramma’s house. I think we Midwesterners have had it easy the past several decades. Anyway, the view of the garden from my window is already white and the wind is howling. I need to remind myself that Nature is simply renewing Itself.

Last round of Tincture making

The soap kitchen has been lately the scene of many frustrating experiments, mostly involving my attempt to make bath melts. Every night at bath time I am the recipient of my own cockamamie research. My desire to avoid synthetic ingredients such as polysorbates and their ilk as emulsifiers has caused repeated failures. Today I decided to allow one more morning’s worth of trials and have been rewarded with what I believe to be a passable product. Actually dropping the thing into my bath will tell the final tale. I’ll keep you updated and list the ingredients should it turn out fabulous.

Looks good, smells good, but horrible in the bath!

In between failures I’ve created a wonderful product I call “Goddess Bath Tea”. The ingredients are very simple and wholesome and friends who volunteered to test this have given it glowing reviews. Thus, it’s made and packaged and will be up on the website this next week.

Two of the six new Bath Teas

I also messed around with recipes for a super moisturizing body cream and I’m really excited that I seem to have succeeded. It could be a little smoother, so plan to whip the next batch. Here’s a photo. Now I just have to find willing participants to use it and give me reviews. Volunteers?

This will soften even the roughest skin

 Last but not least, I’ve spent many hours felting soap. This will also be up on bechardsbotanicals.com soon. Meanwhile, here are some pics.

Nice little Christmas gifts

 Felted soap delivers just about the most luxurious bath I’ve ever encountered. It’s pampering to the extreme.  

Catnip Jute Stocking for the discerning kitty

Little stocking stuffers!

 Now you know why I haven't had time to blog...