Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Fragrance

Where should I apply perfume?
The pulse points on the body are the perfect activators for perfume, which include the base of the throat, inside the wrists, inside the elbows, below the ear lobes (not behind), at the base of the throat and behind the knees. The heat from your skin helps to diffuse and magnify the aroma. Pick a warm spot with good circulation where you can feel a heartbeat and remember to always spot test a new fragrance on the back of your hand. When testing new perfumes, avoid trying more than three in a row. Your nose will have trouble differentiating the aromas if you happen to overload.

What is the best way to spray on perfume?
Spray about 8 inches away from your skin. An even spray over a wider area will help your fragrance last longer than a generous amount in a small area. If you have the habit of rubbing your wrists against each other after spraying a scent, nix the habit immediately. Typically, perfumes are complex combination of top notes, heart notes, and base notes. The top notes are more delicate and fade quickly, while the base notes are long lasting. The friction caused by rubbing your wrists increases the interaction of the fragrance with your skin’s natural oils, which can dull the development of the fragrance notes. If you are using an oil based perfume, try tapping it into your skin instead of rubbing!

Why doesn’t fragrance last on me?
Unfortunately for some people, your body chemistry causes perfumes to evaporate more quickly from your skin. Everything from your diet to your stress levels to the medications you take will affect your body chemistry. High acidity is a likely culprit and can cause your skin to throw off the fragrance. The solution is to put an emollient layer between your skin and your perfume. Use an unscented cream if you don’t have one that matches your fragrance, however, layering fragrance will help extend it’s life. This creation of an emollient foundation will slow down the rate of evaporation and increase the life of your perfume.

Can I tell if I like a fragrance by sniffing the opened bottle?
Yes and no… When you cold sniff an open bottle, you get only the volatile top notes. A fragrance needs to be applied to your skin to come alive. Because each of us has a unique scent print that influences the development of a perfume, a fragrance is going to change, sometimes drastically, between the bottle and your skin.

Fragrance Etiquette!
Use restraint when applying perfume, a small spritz goes a long way. Follow the old adage of less is more and refrain from re-applying more than once a day. Remember that while you may become used to the scent of your own perfume, it can be very obvious to others. An overwhelming amount of fragrance can be distracting to those around you and may lead to headaches and nausea. Fragrance is designed to be alluring, not to shout from the next room.




Calendula Infused Oil

Calendula Infused Oil

infusing castor oil with calendula bloomsHi folks.
I want to share with you about some awesome products made with calendula infused oil.

Take a look at the picture of the herbs soaking in that beautiful warm oil! The herb calendula is a magical skin healer. It has been used since ancient civilizations to heal the epidermis. There are even calendula blooms in the hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt.

I cook calendula blooms in castor oil to infuse the oil with the healing properties of the herb. After the herbs are strained from the oil, we have a very useful healing ingredient to add to our products. Our Healing Ointment has been very helpful to many of our customers. Casey makes it using the calendula oil and five additional ingredients to help heal irritated and itchy skin conditions. Our customers use it for eczema, rashes, abrasions, or other skin products with calendula infused oilailments.

We also make a Keister Kreme for the bicyclists. It has the calendula oil and other natural ingredients to help heal the chaffing and sore bottoms of the busy cyclist.

Kendra, the soap maker, adds the oil-soaked calendula buds to our Chillax soap. It is a delight to the skin, and scented with lavender and lemongrass essential oils.

Homegrown Skin Care

Homegrown Skin Care

Peppers & LuffaWe use the best ingredients we can find for our handmade products. Sometimes that means creating those ingredients from the ground up. Here’s luffa and triple XXX-strength pain relief salve in progress.

Turmeric Masks

Turmeric Masks

we test our products for your convenience & safetyWelcome to Soap Stop and Body Shop, where we make all of our own soap and body products and then test them on ourselves for your convenience and safety. Recipes are tweaked and perfected to ensure the best product makes it to the shelf, but occasionally an item simply never makes it to the shelf. Like an ingenious idea I had just last week:

Turmeric Masks.

Turmeric has a host of skin-loving properties; it is an anti-inflammatory, it is a skin tightener and toner, and is used in Asian cultures to inhibit facial hair growth. It performs beautifully in soap, so I figured that it would be ten times better as a mask.

I was mildly interested in the suggestions from other soapers that turmeric masks should be mixed with honey or milk, but since I live in a house with 2 teenage boys, milk is a rare commodity, and I sure as hell was not wasting the honey deftly procured from my hive on a facial mask. Milk and honey deficient, I just whipped it up with a little water and Moroccan clay and smeared it all over my face, then hopped into a eucalyptus tea-infused bath.

After soaking awhile and feeling convinced that I could feel the facial hair follicles shriveling and dying under the power of my new mask, I rinsed my face in the tub and frowned at my hands. They were quite yellow. Still clueless, I had a brief concern about what must be causing sudden jaundice, and I resolved to drink less Crown and Pepsi and more water in order to give my liver and kidneys a break. Satisfied with this pact with myself, I smugly relaxed back into the water.

Half an hour later, thoroughly relaxed and prunified, I crawled out of the water to the mirror to examine the miraculous effects of the Turmeric Wonder Mask.

I actually screamed like a girl, causing Kim to holler from the other room, “What was THAT all about?!”

“Umm…nothing! Everything is fine, nothing to see here!”

But I was, in fact, staring into the mirror at someone who looked alarmingly like Marge Simpson.

My face was yellow…and I don’t mean just a little yellow. I mean my face was banana yellow. And my palms were still yellow. Neck, arms, legs all still pleasantly pink, and as I looked at my hands and face, it dawned on me that this was not a Crown and Coke-induced liver inadequacy…this was TURMERIC!!

Fortunately, I was not the only person who had this ingenious plan, so on Dumbasses Anonymous (aka Google), I discovered two things: first, sugar and water would cure my case of “jaundice” 🙄, and second, the reason turmeric should be mixed with milk or honey is to avoid staining your skin!

In retrospect, this makes sense, but the turmeric mask still did not make the cut; the soap is a much better option. We do, however, have several clay and activated charcoal masks that are so wonderful they made me forget the turmeric mask experience…

Almost.