I got two amazing shots of the new Miss Victoria's Lavender Goat MilkFacial Soap as the sun went down last night. Amazing, they capture how I feel about this batch. And I need to talk about it for a minute because this bar has been a journey for me. I love my work but it's more than that, I truly love what I do, I connect with it. Thank you for letting me share that with you all. I love and appreciate our talks. I can be candid with you ... so here is the story behind this beautiful new bar.
I've wanted to make this soap recipe for years now, but never would go through with it because the ingredients are rather expensive. And folks sometimes don't understand that, they don't understand being a maker is a different category when it comes to creating a product. We have raw ingredient cost before anything else and we have to consider this. Yes I adore this recipe but would customers feel that too? Would they feel it was worth it? Worth trying? Worth their hard earned money? Worth the soap maker using a unique oil for a bar of soap? One of the hardest parts of being an artisan maker is that we never know what the customer wants or will find value in. We go on a wing and a prayer.
It took me years to pull the trigger on getting this precious oil in order to try this recipe. What if I spilled it, what if I didn't like the end result, what if my customers don't feel as passionate about crazy oils like I do? As crazy sounding as it is, I was nervous and scared to do this. Fear has kept me from making this recipe, but WOW did it turn out beautifully, and guess what? I'm glad I did it!
I've created this recipe with local fresh goat milk, not something you go to the store to just grab anytime. But as long as Miss Victoria continues to love and care for her goats I'll continue to be her customer. I've never met anyone who loves their goats as she does, the best life, the best health care, daily love and silly time. The milk they produce is unmatched. Side by side whole milk I cannot tell the difference, it screams quality, beauty, freshness and purity. I proudly use it in my goat milk soaps, hers and hers alone.
By the time I'd figured out what I wanted this bar to be - nourishing, delicate, gentle - using this unique watermelon seed oil, fresh local goat milk, rich shea butter... I had to decide on a scent. Most of the Little Cabin Soaps facial bar line is left unscented, for the most sensitive skin. There is now a tea tree with charcoal, a triple butter with geranium but the rest are unscented. I wanted to add a third final scent to the collection and lavender called my name. I was gifted a large amount of local organic lavender stalks, beautiful purple flowers attached (and some with seeds!! I saved the seeds, we will see what happens) to the stems and so many flowers I can't possibly use them all. Yes I've separated the buds and you'll see them in future lavender body soaps. But the amount of beautiful pieces needed to have a very special use. I spent days and days separating and trimming and collecting. It was soothing, tranquil and extraordinary to simply sit outside and BE with my lavender. You'll see these lovely lovely pieces tied on to the front of your bar. Know that every aspect of this new facial bar has love poured into it. I can't express this enough.........so much love and care has been put into these raw ingredients, the creation, the packaging, thinking out what this bar should be....... People tell me I pour myself into my work. And after creating this batch I really see how true that is.
I hope you appreciate it as much as I do. I hope you see value in the ingredients as I do, knowing ingredients are chosen with care, they are quality, they have come from a real person with a real story. So many beautiful faces are within this single bar of soap. The fun is knowing what a beautiful face it will wash.
This is a heavy letter of love, love for soap, love for my customers, love for my ingredients and the folks behind them. A love letter for this new batch...so here is the funny part behind this, I hope you smile. I had to laugh, as I'm typing this I typed gato milk. Uhhhh not quite the same thing hahaha. But maybe............? Hmmm.
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