(Using a bath caddy allows you to have all the items you will need in one place.)
I am a sucker for taking a bath, sitting in some nice hot water and relaxing is one of my favorite forms of self-care! Adding salts like Epsom salt and magnesium chloride in the water, along with spirulina, indigo, wildflowers, a few drops of essential oils, almond oil even kinds of vinegar can make the experience much more spa-like by adding a bit of glitz and glamor to your daily routine. Changing the color of the water is easy to do and can change our moods and even the amount of time we sit in the water. Turning off the lights and sitting in candlelight and drinking a glass of champagne or whiskey along with hot tea, and a large glass of flavored water with a fresh lime slice and ginger peeled and sliced always makes me happy. Silence is not always ideal for me and using this time to listen to my favorite album or catch up on my favorite podcasts helps me feel like I am maximizing my time to the fullest.
*Pro-tip- Stringing up fairy lights on the ceiling above the shower curtain can help light your shower up and make sure you have adequate lighting for your nighttime bath. Make sure to keep the electronic, and battery parts away from any water.
(loufa inside of soaps)
Exfoliating can help our skin to have a natural shine or glow to it, leaving nice new skin visible. Using salt and sugar scrubs can be a satisfying experience and keep your skin nice and soft. Working with exfoliating ingredients and adding them into soaps at different kinds of coarseness and grits can help give me control over how exfoliating my soaps are. I love using items like chia seeds, and poppy seeds for the reason they just gently buff the skin's surface and make for a great everyday item. Clays and muds are so gentle they can be used on the skin of children, and can lend a soothing effect on the skin, which makes for a beautiful bar of shaving soap or after being out in the sun all day at the beach. Adding sands and ground plants to create a much more abrasive scrub for skin that just needs an extra bit of attention like the hands and feet, and giving an actual feeling of buffing to the skin. Body brushing is another way that I exfoliate my skin and helps to improve blood flow at the same time.
*Pro-tip- placing an old towel on the ground and using your salt or sugar scrubs in a safe and secure spot will help prevent any extra oils from building up in the shower/tub. Safety first!
(pine sap salve)
(Annato seed Christal Clear Soaps)
Moisturizing with natural ingredients like plant oils helps my skin to stay nice and healthy. I like to use a glycerine spray after showering and apply liquid coconut oil from a spray bottle and mist my skin after to lock in the moisture. Showering on at a lower temperature is better for your skin but I love a nice hot shower myself. Using natural soaps that do not leave your skin stripped of natural oils is important, and many shower gels and soaps are detergents and are too harsh for your skin. Natural soaps create glycerine in the saponification process and can be formulated to have extra oils that the lye and water solution does not consume. I formulate my soaps to have extra oil so it is often a bit more moisturizing to your skin than most soaps you get at the local grocery store.
*Pro-tip- using a glycerine spray before you use any lotion or body oils will help to moisturize your skin and lock in all the moisture for supple skin all day long. Try using a nice thick natural butter like mango butter to seal in all the extra love you just added to your beautiful skin!
(flavored waters)
Adding flavors to water is one of the easiest ways to keep your water interesting. Slicing up citrus, fruits, and even some veggies or herbs can add a lot of flavor to your water. It is important to keep hydrated for many reasons, and essential for healthy skin. These days there are plenty of other liquids out there and water is sometimes last on our list of drinks. Water can easily be overlooked during the day. Keeping our skin happy and healthy is important because it is our largest organ. Making teas and infusions like vinegar and tinctures to add to my water and even to flavor my meals, and sometimes these creations make it into my soaps.
(Ginger lemon water) *pro tip- I love to freeze fruit juice, fresh fruit, herbs, and even flowers in filtered water to add to my drinks to give a little something special to my drinking water. Using a different shaped icecube tray can also make drinking water a bit more fun!
(clays and muds)
Mud masks and clays are fun to make and great for your skin. Sometimes I even use diatomaceous earth and things like liquid chlorophyll, oatmeal, chocolate, yogurt, honey, or fresh fruit to the mixes. Each item provides a different feeling on the skin and can help me tailor it to my needs that day. Using items with different colors can also help brighten up your mood. Drinking colored liquids and eating colorful food can help your state of mind, and I enjoy using color also in creating items of self-care like mud masks. Blue is one of my favorite colors, blue spirulina, butterfly pea tea, and indigo are probably some of my favorite items to add to the products that I make. Taking a bath in blue water, drinking a blue drink, and using blue body butter after is something that I do regularly, and is something that I look forward to doing just for myself. Using the same clays to wash your face with is another way to integrate these ingredients into your daily routine.
(mixing clay with non-metal utensils)
*Pro-tip- Use wooden, glass, or plastic utensils to mix your mud and clays. Metal can cause a reaction with many of the clays and reduce their detoxification properties.
(Items from the pantry can make all the difference)
Making my items allows me to control everything from color to texture, and even the feel of the product. Through the year my skin changes and I try to pay attention to what my body is needing at that moment. In Washington, we get long, cold, dry winters and spring and fall are super short, when summer arrives it seems to fade fast, back into winter before we even notice. Customizing my items has helped me learn about my skin and has given me the passion for helping others with common skin issues. Working with my friends and family to help make items that fit their personal needs and wants is something that brings a lot of joy to my life. Learning about ingredients and how they work together has been an interesting journey for me and would like to invite you all to join me in the fun. Next time you buy a beauty item, you can take the next step and make your own! You may have everything you need to start in your pantry.
*Pro-tip- Learning how to make your items at home can be beneficial for saving money, and learning what items work best for your skin, and helping you to read ingredients on store-bought items helping you make a more educated purchase on your beauty and skincare routine.
Christal Clear Soaps Ingredients: Coconut oil, Olive oil, Palm oil, Water, Lye
All Natural * Fragrance-Free, Custom orders available
*Check out my soaps on social media and read my weekly blog for self-care tips and tricks.
*Leaving reviews and liking my posts and items helps to grow my business, gives more people the ability to see my products. Each like, share, and review is greatly appreciated!
Posting photos of your soaps and tagging them with my hashtags below is a great way to help any and all small businesses grow naturally.
#christalclearsoaps #myfavoritesoap #etsyshop #fragrancefree #selfcare #sandsoaps #vacation #iusethis #oneofakindgift #uniqueguftideas #bestgiftever #smallbusiness #gifts
*Thank you to every one of you for supporting me and my dreams of being an artisan soap crafter. Every order is important to me! I appreciate each and everyone who has bought my soaps along the way, either from Etsy, local art shows, local vendor malls, flower shops, and from me.
* All soaps are made by my own two hands, cut, stamped, cured, packaged with hand stamped logos by myself.
* Each and every bar is a unique piece of functional art and may look just a bit different than the pictured photos. My soaps are all formulated to be used and are not just for display. Colors are all-natural and some get darker or lighter over time. Stamp imprints may be deeper or shallower due to the hardness of each individual bar.
Here is a list of my completed blogs! Learn a bit about Cold Process Soap and Christal Clear Soaps, and how I got started making all-natural fragrance-free soap.
1) *Welcome everyone https://christalsglass.wixsite.com/christalclearsoaps/post/welcome-everyone-to-my-soap-page
2) *True cold process soap https://christalsglass.wixsite.com/christalclearsoaps/post/what-is-true-cold-prcoess-soap
3) *10 random facts about me https://christalsglass.wixsite.com/christalclearsoaps/post/10randomfactsaboutmyself
4) Activated bamboo charcoal https://christalsglass.wixsite.com/christalclearsoaps/post/activated-bamboo-charcoal-christal-clear-soaps
5) Sand
6) Indigo
7 Rose & wildflower
8) holiday gifts
9) In the garden
10) What’s in my bag
11) Fall is here
12) Essential oils
13) Clays
14) Favorite self-care tips
15) Spices are not just for cooking
16) What I am thankful for
17) New in the shop/stocking up with Christal Clear Soaps
18) An accomplishment I am proud of
19) Houseguests
20) Selfcare during the holidays
https://christalsglass.wixsite.com/christalclearsoaps/post/self-care-during-the-holidays