Thursday 26 July 2012

Custom Soap cutter!

Finally, I have saved my pennies and invested in a custom soap cutter ! Now all Bare Naked Body soap bars will be uniform in size...

I am officially in Love !

Here is as example of the stunning bars they cut -


Saturday 21 July 2012

Natural Soap Colourant - experiment Part 2


So I have been experimenting with some additional natural soap colourants – Madder Root and Alkanet Root Powder. See last months entry for Part 1 where I added Madder Root and Alkanet at trace to the soap.

Part 2 of the experiment was infusing the oils with madder root and alkanet and then using the infused oils to make soap. Here is a picture of the jug used to make the Alkanet root powder infused soap (yes, I know the jug is red – after lots of small batch soap making recently, it was all I had available, as I usually use white jugs!) I was so excited to see the lush purple hues come through - naturally!


I could not wait to unmold the infused oil soaps!

Here is the Alkanet root infused oil soap - 



It does look a little more mauve in real life, but not Purple and definately not as purple as what was in teh jug above. I think I might need to insultate a little more to ensure the soap goes through gel to bring the colour out. It is winter in Australia and rather cold! Still, I do love the Alkanet Root Powder soap and the depth of the colour, however, I wonder whether it will lather purple? I will let this soap cure for four weeks and them report back, as to the colour of the lather.


Here is the Madder Root infused oil soap - 

The Madder Root Powder infused soap is lovely, but again, for this kind of colour, I do prefer the warmth that I achieve with natural clays.

VERDICT – I will not be introducing Madder root powder into Bare Naked Body soaps, as I prefer the depth of colour and effect I achieve with Clays.

I will be doing further experiments with Alkanet Root Powder infused oils and soaps as I really want to achieve a natural purple colour! Stay tuned for further purple soap soon!


Lisa P



Thursday 19 July 2012

Loofah Love


I have been looking at a big box of supplies I ordered for over a month now and all the goodies in there temp me to get my soap mojo back and start creating again. I have had a steady range of luxury soaps for a few years now and really want to start  expanding and experimenting with some different product lines. 


These beautiful, natural loofahs have been staring me in the face for a while, but today – today we make them into Loofah soaps! 


I wanted to try two different techniques in the pvc pipe - one lined with baking paper and the other not lined.

I have used one of my favourite soaps - Green French Clay - and it not only looks calming, with the pale green contrasting the loofah, but is super nourishing with added sweet almond oil, rice bran oil and sunflower oil. 

Here is the soap hand cut with a very sharp knife. I love the patterns the loofah makes!


I cannot wait for this soap to cure four to six weeks, to give it a whirl in the shower and get rid of all that dead Winter skin!

Lisa P




Wednesday 11 July 2012

Natural Soap Colourant experiment - Part 1

Bare Naked Body only uses natural colourants and you may be surprised how many colours there are in nature - Cinnamon, cocoa powder, spirulana, paprika, annatto seeds, parsley etc. I am familiar with all these, but some more obscure natural colours I have been meaning to use for a while now are Madder Root and Alkanet Powder. Both are completely natural and not synthetically produced - which is very important to Bare Naked Body.

Madder root powder can produce a pink to coral colour in the soap and alkanet root powder can produce a blue, purple to blackish colour depending on the pH of the soap. There are two techniques to adding natural colourants to cold process soap and that is either adding the powder at trace or infusing the oils with the colourant and then filtering it before adding the lye.

Here is my first test - adding Madder Root and Alkanet Root Powder at trace

The alkanet root powder soap is the first photo and yes, the soap looks purple/blackish and with the large specks of alkanet root powder showing, the soap reminds me of road base! So, I will not be adding alkanet root powder again at trace and will soon experiment with infusing it instead.

The madder root powder soap looks a nice pastel pink and I do not mind the look of the small specks showing through. I do however, prefer the more solid colour I get with clays, like Pink Clay and Red Clay.

Well, either way, now I know that natural colourants added at trace does not produce the results that I want. Experiment 2 on the way - adding madder root and alkanet into the oils and infusing. I shall report back soon with pictures of the infused oil soaps.

Thursday 5 July 2012

Australian Pink Clay soap


This is a new addition to the Bare Naked Body range and we love it! The pastel pink colour comes from Australian Pink Clay, which has therapeutic qualities as it restores firmness to skin, smooths fine lines and soothes stressed skin. This soap is great for delicate or sensitive skin.
With highest quality essential oils, the scent is earthy and grounding, with Lavender and Palmarosa essential oils. Both Lavender and Palmarosa essential oils are excellent for soothing sensitive skin and moisturising dry and damaged skin.
This is my new favourite and with Rosehip Granules on top, who could resist a relaxing and soul nourishing shower with this one?
Oh - what's it called? Seduce...

Monday 2 July 2012

About Me and Bare Naked Body

I thought I would share a little bit about myself and Bare Naked Body with you.

Bare Naked Body is my passion project and my hobby has quickly morphed into a body products business. I started making luxurious, natural soaps and body products after suffering from adult onset eczema and finding that all the products I already owned flared my skin up and only natural solutions would soothe my skin. Friends and family soon wanted to buy my products and word spread - so I created Bare Naked Body and I am the Artistic Director, Creator, Visionary, Blogger, Soap Maker and Chief of Everything!

I am a twenty-something who loves my wonderful man, little dogs, sunshine, chocolate, baking, mangoes, sleep, summertime and sand between my toes.



Welcome to the home of Bare Naked Body – Western Australia. This is Busselton beach where we currently spend around a quarter of our time. With a beach like this, why wouldn’t you!
I gain my inspiration for bath and body products from nature and with the sand between my toes and the wind in my hair, I design and create luxurious, natural products.
Enjoy and welcome. Please feel free to comment. 
Lisa 

About Me

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Natural, luxurious, artisan Bath and Body products... because your skin wants to be Naked... Our products are handcrafted in Western Australia using sustainable and where possible, local ingredients.