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Soap by the Pound

Using a LOT of soap? If you use soap socks or like smashing a bunch of soapy bits together to make bigger bars (guilty as charged), this may be your thing. I use soap ends and pieces in mesh bags hung by the laundry sink and it is great for cleaning up messes after I make soap or candles. There are only so many lbs, so if you want some, now’s your chance!

New: Mask Sprays

With the pandemic still going on, masks are part of our daily lives now. I got tired of breathing my own spit and decided to make something to help freshen things up, so I created Bath Geek’s Scented Mask Sprays. Carry one around with you and spray on the inside of your mask to freshen it up a little whenever you feel like it. Bonus: these sprays contain 80% alcohol! (Don’t drink them, though. They won’t taste good. Trust me.)

Happy Independence Day!

Photo by Edgar Colomba from Pexels
Photo by Edgar Colomba from Pexels – https://www.pexels.com/photo/human-hands-and-us-flag-2240293/

In honor of Independence Day, I’ve put some pre-launch candles on the shop at a discount. They ship just like regular cold-pack items. Happy Independence Day!

Still no Essential Oils (Intentionally)

Essential Oils

I’ve had a couple of messages asking me why I don’t use more essential oils in my soap. As an allergy-conscious maker of bath and personal care products, I am always hyper-aware of the possibility of over-sensitization, which can happen to anyone who overuses essential oils (link goes to WebMD). I’ve written on this subject before, but it bears repeating: be very careful with essential oils as over-sensitization is a real problem.

‘Tis the Season (for Colds/Flu)

If you live in a temperate climate (like myself, in Denver CO), you are probably quite familiar with the cold/flu season and how miserable it can be in the winter. If you have kids, then despite your best efforts, they are going to bring something home, and the entire family is going to get sick.

I’ve been going through a few changes in my life lately, and at the moment I live with a partner who has a young child with a predilection for coughing and sneezing with her cute little mouth wide open in your face. I have had a cold/flu/something for close to 6 weeks, and I am on my second course of antibiotics. I’ve had raw skin under my nose from all the tissues, Costco has gotten rich off my Kleenex purchases, and I even switched to blowing my nose at the sink and washing with water instead to try and be a little gentler on my poor raw skin, but when you are blowing your nose almost every minute, even that’s going to take its toll.

I’m writing this blog post, because I have been trying to protect my skin and have been having problems. Lotion burns. Aloe vera burns. Even medicated lotions burn. But what didn’t burn was my lotion stick. I should have just grabbed that in the first place instead of trying everything else!

I’ve been rubbing my lotion stick on my face and it has soothed and moisturized the raw skin without any burning sensation. I’ve also been using it on the backs of my hands and even rubbing it all over my hands (all the handwashing dries them out). It helps a ton. Now it doesn’t hurt any more when I have to blow my nose.

Another awesome thing is how well the lotion stick has helped with dry cuticles. My partner keeps lotion all through his apartment because he has dry cuticles and he’s constantly massaging lotion into his fingers. I finally gave him a lotion stick and used some on him lately. He’s a believer now and he’s been using that instead of lotion because it moisturizes much more effectively and it lasts longer than lotion.

So if you are dealing with raw skin and trying to moisturize, I strongly recommend using my Cocoa and Shea Lotion Stick. You can rub it directly on your skin, or use your fingers to transfer the oils from the stick to your lips, skin under/around your nose, or wherever else it’s needed.

Bath Geek Candles are Coming

Candle Flame

By popular demand, I will be adding two lines of candles to the Bath Geek range!

Bath Geek candles will be well-scented and very lightly colored, and they will come in lovely jars with metal lids on them. The usual candle warnings apply–never leave unattended, etc. Some of my fragrances will make it into these candles and I hope you will enjoy them.

I am also introducing a specialty line of Bath Geek Body Art candles! Meant for wax play, these candles will be:

  • unscented (though I am open to adding fragrance by special request/special order)
  • brightly colored (some will be UV-reactive/flourescent!)
  • very low temperature (I am aiming for as close to 120F or less if possible)
  • Available both in all-soy and soy-free versions (no more worrying about playing with soy wax if you are allergic to soy!)
  • they will come both in wicked and wickless versions!

I look forward to posting these candles for sale. Which of my current fragrances do you most want to see in a candle? What are your favorite candle colors?

Bath Geek’s Coconut-Free Hair Regimen

Bubbles

I get a lot of questions on coconut-free shampoo. While I am not yet able to provide actual shampoo, yes, you can use coconut-free soap in a pinch. Because of that, I currently recommend the following regimen for hair care if you are allergic to coconut:

  1. Use dry shampoo as much as possible (there is a lot on the market that will suffice and quite a lot of it is coconut free). At least try to give yourself a day in between wet washes.
  2. When you have to wash your hair, use liquid coconut-free soap, or lather up with a bar of soap and use the lather. This is preferable to using the soap directly on your hair. I would not recommend doing this more than 2-3 times a week because alkaline soap (all soap is alkaline) is really drying to hair, and there is only so much I can do to lower the pH of soap before it stops being soap.
  3. After you wash your hair, use a leave-in conditioner of some kind (or rub some argan oil onto your hair) to repair and protect it.

I am still working on coconut-free shampoo, but finding a source of coconut-free detergent molecules is proving to be very difficult. (Boy, do I wish I had actually gone into materials science in college like I meant to.) In the meantime, I hope this helps!


[ Photo by Matthew Tkocz on Unsplash ]

Upcoming Price Changes

Photo by Kaboompics // Karolina from Pexels

There comes a point in time when the cost of ingredients and the general cost of doing business increases and you have to raise prices or start losing money.  I’ve been trying to keep prices low, but unfortunately, in 2019 I will be increasing some of my prices to keep up with inflation. 

I know this isn’t great news!  So for you, dear readers, here is a coupon to soften the blow.  Use “BYE2018” from now until January 31, 2019 to take 10% off all your purchases until then.  (PS: Now is a good time to stock up before the price increase!)

How to Use the Allergen Filter to Shop on Bath Geek

Dear Bath Geek customers,

I hope that you have noticed the shiny allergen filter that is labelled “Filter by Allergens”! If you haven’t yet, it is on the left side of the screen just under the Facebook and Twitter login links in the shop.  Here are a couple of hopefully-helpful usage notes from other customers who have used this feature:

  1. The allergen filter is not a persistent/”sticky” setting, unfortunately. What this means is, if you leave a shop/category page to look at product details, when you go back to the previous page or click on a new category/link, you will need to turn on the filter again.
  2. To make it easier to see what has been applied, the active filters will be listed at the top of the filter in bold. To turn off a filter, just uncheck the box!
  3. If you would like to make sure the filter stays “on”, when you want to go and look at a product’s details, instead of the usual left-click, use the right-click and then choose either “open in new tab” or “open in new window”.
    • Your filtered shop view will stay the way it was.
    • A new tab or window will open with the details of the product you want to look at.
    • When you are done looking at that page, just close the tab or window of the product.  You can then go back to your filtered shop view and keep shopping!

I am researching plugins in order to find a way to make this setting persistent. In the meantime, I thank you for your patience and understanding.  Please use the “notes” section in your order to ask me to review your order if you are not quite sure that you have it working.  Just tell me what allergens you need to avoid, and I will e-mail you ASAP to let you know whether or not you have ordered something you can’t use by mistake!

New Products!

Just in time for the holiday season:

Remember that Bath Geek does free gift-wrapping and mails across the USA for a flat rate.  Let me take some of your holiday work off your hands and get your Christmas presents all wrapped and ready for you (all you’ll need is to stick a name tag on them!)

Quick Update

Photo by Kaboompics // Karolina from Pexels

Hi folks!  It’s been a very long time since my last update.  I’ve re-scheduled some fairs (my October and November weekends are going to be crazy but please do come by and say hello if you are going to be near me!) and I’ve been very busy at my other job.  I just wanted to post a quick note to say that I am still alive, and a quick reminder that summer shipping charges (especially cold pack charges) will be going away starting Halloween (October 31).

For those of you who aren’t waiting for summer shipping to end, let me reassure you that this summer, hot as it was, I shipped a double-digit number of packages containing lotions etc wrapped in insulated bags with ice packs included, and they all survived the summer heat!  (At least, no one has written to let me know their lotion didn’t survive shipping…)

Q&A

A couple of questions I have fielded recently:

Q: You’re out of travel soap! Will there be any more? 

A: Yes, there will! ^_^ I am making some now and it will take a little while but I will have them back in stock ASAP.

Q: What’s the status of the coconut-free shampoo?

A: I was unable to source the ingredients I needed for a test (and frankly have just been kept busy flying around for my other job).  That said, I have not forgotten!  It is an ongoing project.

Q: Thank you for the free shower gloves! Where can I get more?

A: I’ve been including a gift in the shipping box for larger orders, and yes, I do sell the shower gloves if you are looking for more of them! I keep one pair in my shower and one pair in my travel bag right next to my lotion.

New Size for Coconut-free Lotions

Coconut-free lotions now come in a travel size as well as the regular large size, so you can bring your lotion with you while traveling.  I know for certain that the lotions make it through TSA in airline check-in bags safely, because I have one of these bottles in my travel toiletries bag and have been on and off planes twice a week for the last few months.

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