28 February 2011

Brrr! Happy Monday!!

I know for those further east and north of us, the weather doesn't compare, but it's been pretty darn cold out here in California.  I thought I'd give a little cheer to brighten up your day, from my lovely friend Maki's blog, these beautiful flowers. 

26 February 2011

*New* Strawberry Scented Soaps

We received in a large shipment of beautiful teas yesterday, as well as the organic frankincense, fresh ginger, pink grapefruit, turkish rose and nutmeg absolutes I was waiting so long for.  I can't wait to dig into them!

Earlier in the week, I had time to pour a small batch of strawberry exfoliating soaps, which are now available for sale in my Etsy shop. 

Surprisingly, it's supposed to snow today (in San Jose?!).




24 February 2011

Alas...Keith Johnson Has My Dream Job

When I have time, I love watching episodes of the Sundance Channel's "Man Shops Globe," where host Keith Johnson is a globe trotter in search of interesting and unique goods as the buyer for  Anthropologie.  The series is so rich in inspirational material from artisans everywhere.  You can watch old episodes here.

Anna-Wili Highfield and her life-like animal sculpture made of torn paper

Keith Johnson travels to a syrian bazaar with designer Anna Sui in search of products

22 February 2011

Fragrant Teas

It was nice to enjoy a bit of a break for President's Day.  I hope everyone is back and refreshed!

I'm a big lover of fragrant teas and now am offering loose teas in 50g tin containers in my Etsy shop.  I believe my tea sipping has managed to stave off the flu (knock on wood) on more than a few occasions!

20 February 2011

Floral Bars

It rained on Saturday, so I spent the day pouring more jasmine, as well as gardenia soap bars.  Basic floral soaps are nice in lieu of using perfume.  I recently ordered some Turkish rose absolute and have wanted to create some floral solid perfumes, but will leave that for another day when the essences arrive and I can think of how to package them.







18 February 2011

Become A Vetiver + Rose Tester

I'm very excited to be rolling out our soap testing program.  What's great about it is that it's absolutely FREE to everyone who participates.  Each month you'll receive a soap sample, mailed to your address.  All you need to do is provide us with feedback (we'll provide you with a link back to our blog) and you'll receive another sample size soap again the following month.  Interested?  Contact vetiverandrose@gmail.com  with the subject header, "V&R Monthly Soap" and your mailing address.

Some Friday Inspiration

I ordered some amazing absolutes and essences that I hope arrive this weekend so I can experiment with them.  I'm expecting some good things, which of course, I'll be sharing with you here.

Mandy Aftel, Lyn Harris, Alexandra Balahoutis, Yosh Han and Andy Tauer were recently featured in Readymade magazine's artice, "Scents of Wonder," an excerpt of which can be found here.  It was a great article and very inspiring.  The photo below was taken from ReadyMade.



Since I'm both into soapmaking and parfumery, the image of Andy Tauer's soap opened the door to so many ideas and possibilities.  I just absolutely love the beauty and simplicity in its transparency.