PURALI - Ambachtelijke zeep en meer...

Het heeft even geduurd, maar de webwinkel waar ik mijn zeep en andere producten verkoop is eindelijk alive & kicking! Kijk gauw voor lekkere zeep, badfizzers en badbubblers.

It has been a while, but my webshop is finaly alive & kicking! Check out the shop for great soaps, bath fizzers, bath bubblers etc.

I received my first ever blog award from Miranda of MirandArt. It is the Liebster Blog (Nicest Blog) award, which has been invented to give starting and relatively unknown blogs a spotlight.

She said she enjoys reading my blog and I think that is so sweet of her. I love sharing my soaping-life with others.

The rules for acception the award:

Say thank you to the giver and link back to their blog (just to be kind).
If you accept the award and want to pass it on, you make a message on your blog that includes the Liebster Blog picture and the instructions (which you are reading now).
Now give the award to 3-5 of your favourite blogs and in your message leave a link to each of their blogs.
Write a comment to the nominees that you have awarded the Liebster Blog award to them.

So for my nominees I have had a really difficult time as I love so many blogs. It was hard to decide who should be placed in the spotlight next.

So the award goes to:
Eenvoudig leven (a blog about how a family goes back to the basics of a simple life)
Jenora Soaps (a very nice soap blog from sunny Spain)
Lavarie (a very talented soaper from Germany)
Marina Soap (also a very nice soap blog from Germany)
Jabones: Alquimia de las plantas (such beautiful soaps)

Please visit these blogs, they are really lovely to read.

Naast zeep ben ik ook druk in de weer geweest met het maken van badbommen. Zelf ben ik gek op badbommen en met de baby ga ik bijna elke dag in bad. Daarom wil ik ook badbommen maken die wat toevoegen.

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Apart from soap I have also been busy making bath fizzies. I love them so much, especially as I have a bath almost every day with the baby. This is why I want the bath fizzies to have an added value.

These are the Lavender-Geranium bath fizzies. They have essential oils in for the fragrance and olive oil and coconut oil to moisturize. Very nice, but the flowers on top are not so nice. Even though they look very pretty on top, in the bath it looks as though an army of mice played there. In the next batch I will not pot them on top anymore.

These are my favourite fragrance of Green tea & Ginger. Hmmmmmm, so nice. I have added freshly ground green tea leaves, coconut oil and buttermilk. Very nice bath fizzer.

Finally the Monoi de Tahiti. I love this fresh, flowery fragrance. Unfortunately my soap turned brown, but the fizzers stay a crisp white. Of course I added oils for moisturizing your skin in the bath.

All of these can be found in the webshop as of this weekend.

Meer zeep van de laatste tijd. Ik krijg hier een echt lentegevoel van.

More soaps I have made lately. These give me such a great spring feeling.

The first is a luxury soap with shea and buttermilk. Very creamy and soft for the skin. The fragrance is a really lovely Black raspberry & Vanilla. To give a soft scrub I have added some seeds.

The second is also with shea and buttermilk, but this time in my favourite fragrance of the moment Green Tea & Ginger. It is a fresh scent, but with a real tea undertone. I like the way the colour came out as well, but I think I would like to add some green tea leaves (crushed) in the next batch.

Third is a remake of the always popular Honey, Oatmeal & Milk. Of cource I have added real honey, buttermilk and oatmeal.So this is a very nice buffing soap to get rid of your dead winter skin.

The next one I will call Scrub me all over. As I was making two soaps at the same time I accidentally put the oatmeal in this soap. Even though it was meaned to be a regular soap it turned out quite nice. The fragrance is light, fruity and airy.

The last soap is a german salt soap. This soap is completely smooth, very hard and smells very nice. This one is unisex, but I think most men will enjoy this scent a lot.

Het is al even geleden dat ik een bericht heb gepost, maar de tijd gaat soms zo hard dat het moeilijk bij te benen is.
Sinds een paar weken zit mijn zwangerschapsverlof erop en moest ik weer aan het werk. Aangezien ik ruim 6 maanden afwezig ben geweest is het weer even wennen, maar intussen is het alsof ik nooit ben weggeweest (hmm, is dat nou goed of niet? Ik weet het niet).
Gelukkig heb ik ook nog wat gezeept de laatste weken, want op eerste en tweede paasdag heb ik de eerste beurs van 2011 gepland.

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It has been quite a while since my last post, but time just seems to run away at times.
A couple of weeks ago my maternity leave ended and I had to start work again. As I had been absent for more than 6 months I had to get used to it again, but now it is already like I never left (don't know if this is good or bad...).
Luckily I have done some soaping these past weeks as I have my first craft show of 2011 coming up at easter.

Firstly I have done some 100% natural soaps.

The first is a real castille with 100% olive oil, no colour and no fragrance. Very good for babies and people with sensitive skin.


The second soap is also a real castille, but with Lavender essential oil and real lavender on top. I love the colour as most of the time the flowers seem to turn brown, but these as a really lovely blue-purple.


And last is my Camomille-calendula castille. Also made with 100% olive oil, and with honey, crushed camomille  and calendula flowers inside. No colour and no fragrance is added. This is a very nice and gentle scrub soap. Ideal for your face.

There were 166 people who entered the contest for the three door prizes.
I have put all the numbers in the random number picker and the following people have won:

1. 4 Chai Tea Bath Hearts :  Kim Dellow (#724)
2. Yuzu & Cranberrt soap : Rian (freubel-art.blogspot.com)
3. Sample pack soap :  Holly Days

I have send you all an email. If I do not get a reply within 3 days I will draw another name.

Goodgirl is offering a really nice give away or blogcandy. You can have a look here to see her beautiful products.
When the One World, One Heart event is over I will have a very special blogcandy as well to celebrate the opening of my shop.

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Goodgirl heeft een hele leuke blogcandy beschikbaar gesteld voor bloggers. Neem een kijkje hier om haar mooie producten te bekijken.
Als het One World, One Heart event is afgelopen zal ik ook een hele speciale blogcandy beschikbaar stellen om de opening van mijn nieuwe winkel te vieren.

Dear friend,


Welcome to my blog and the fifth (and final) One World One Heart event! My name is Sonja and I am a soapmaker from the Netherlands.
Being a working mum of three lovely kids of 15yr, 10yr and 4 months, I try to relax by making soaps and other bath and beauty products. I love using my creativity in the design, fragrance and ingredients I use to produce unique and high quality products.
1. A set of 4 Spicy Chai Tea Fizzy Bath Hearts.
They are so nice for these cold winter days. They are not only fragranced beautifully, but they also have buttermilk, coconut and olive oil in them to pamper your skin.

2. Yuzu & Cranberry Yoghurt Soap.
This soap has yoghurt and shea butter added to moisturize your skin. The fragrance is fresh and fruity.


EDIT: As I already passed the 50 replies I am adding a 3rd give away: A sample pack with 5 assorted 1/4 soaps.

To participate in this event is easy: just leave a comment. The winners will be pulled out of the hat on the 18th February. Comments can be posted until 17th 23:59. Just make sure you include the email address or blog you can be reached on.
If you like my blog just join me as a follower. I have regular blogcandy give aways as well.
There are many bloggers participating in this event. If you would like to see the list or find out more about the event just klik on the button below. This will take you to Lisa's site where you can find all the information.


Warm regards,
Sonja

Vandaag twee nieuwe karnemelkzepen gemaakt. De eerste is Green tea & Ginger. Ik ben benieuwd of de geur net zo heerlijk is als in de badhartjes van gisteren.
De tweede is Black raspberry & Vanilla. Dit is een scrubzeep en, net als de Green tea, met 10% sheaboter overvet.

Brown Sugar & Fig heb ik gisteren gesneden. Hij is niet helemaal zoals ik voor ogen had, maar hij ruikt heerlijk. Zacht romig, erg lekker en ik ben benieuwd hoe de geur zich verder ontwikkeld.

Na het succes van mijn creme en lotion in deze geur, nu maar eens verzeept. Hij werkt perfect geen versnelling, geen verkleuring.

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After the succes of my cream and my lotion in this fragrance I had to try it in a soap. It really works beautifully, no acceleration, no discolouration.

De nieuwe winkel is bijna af en dit weekend gaat hij echt live! Ik ben best een beetje trots, want hij is mooi. Zodra hij geopend wordt zal ik dit vieren met een mooie blogcandy, dus hou mijn blog in de gaten!

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The new shop is almost finished and will go live this weekend! I am so proud, as I think he looks great. As soon as he is officially opened I will celebrate with a nice bit of blogcandy, so keep your eye on this blog.

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For valentine day I made these bathfizzies in heartshape. They are made with buttermilk, coconut oil and olive oil, so they not only give you a relaxing bath, but it is also skin loving.

First ones are in Green tea & Ginger fragrance. I looooooove this one. It really smells like green tea with a bit of ginger and a hint of citrus, not sweet, not too green, but just right. My new favourite.

The second kind is Spicy Chai Tea with warm spices and a hint of vanilla. Really nice winter bath fragrance.

Christine van de blog "kunst und glass" geeft hele schattige kikkers weg. Ga naar haar blog om mee te doen of om al haar prachtige spullen te bekijken.

Het laatste pakketje van de kerstswap heb ik opgehaald. Het is gemaakt doos Corry aka Eucalypta.
Wat een leuke dingen zitten erin!

* A castille liquid handsoap which smells so nice. I have put it in the downstairs toilet, so all guests can try it.
* A christmas tree soap & bubble bath. The tree looks incredible with lots of glitter and very small soap stars. The bubble bath has such a nice smell that my husband joined me in the bath when I used it as he could not resist.
* Solid shampoo & conditioner. They look great, so I am looking forward to trying it very soon. At the moment I try to limit my hair washing as the baby is usually by my side in the bath.
* A lovely green winter soap. Looks great with pieces of transparent (not M&P) soap.

* A very, very nice scrub. Best one so far!
* A soywax candle. I have not tried it yet. Right now I am using the spicy one from Jane.

All in all a very nice package. Well worth the wait I think. Thanks Corry!

Now the snow is gone I really felt like making a summer soap. This goat milk soap has an uplifting citrus fragrance. Summer tangerines and sweet mandarines make this a happy mood soap.

The soap is made with lots of olive oil and has a superfatting with shea to leave skin lovely and soft.


The colours are so vibrant it brings an instant smile to my face. I can see myself sitting in the sun with my baby boy in a few months.

I wanted to make a soap that resembled the inside of a freshly bitten apple. Crisp & clean in colour to go with the lovely fresh apple fragrance. Not too sweet or too perfumy.
To make the challenge a bit more exciting I wanted this to be a goats milk soap. Well I think I managed to keep the colour very light, but still have all the benefits of the goats milk.

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Ik wilde een zeep maken dat eruit zag als de binnenkant van een vers gebeten appel. De kleur moest de heerlijke frisse appel geur. Niet te zoet en niet te parfumachtig.
Om het een wat grotere uitdaging te maken wilde ik een geitenmelkzeep maken. Volgens mij is het gelukt om de kleur light te houden en toch de voordelen van de geitenmelk te hebben.

Last week I made one of my old favourites. It is a very delicate fragrance of warm vanilla and some amber notes.

The first few weeks of the year I have tried to make time to soap. I find it relaxing to be busy with the whole creative process of thinking of the design, the fragrance and the soaping properties and eventually creating what I thought of.
Actually often the fragrance is the trigger for the rest. You see, I am a real fragrance addict. I have hunderds of fragrances and still get my kicks in finding (and buying) more. I even dream about picking out fragrances at times. I sometimes wonder if I am the only fragrance-junky. In a soap fragrance is my number one, then design, as I do appreciate eye appeal.
After fragrance and design it is the feel of the soap that gets me going. I like soaps that leave a lovely luxury feeling on your skin.

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De eerste weken van het jaar heb ik geprobeerd wat tijd vrij te maken om te zepen. Ik vind het hele proces van het bedenken van het ontwerp, de geur en de zeep kwaliteit en het creeren van de uitgedachte zeep erg ontspannend.
Vaak is voor mij de geur de trigger voor de rest. Ik ben namelijk een parfum verslaafde. Ik heb al honderden verschillende geuren, maar nog steeds heb ik de craving om te zoeken naar (en kopen van) meer heerlijke parfumolieën. Ik vraag me af of ik de enige geurstof-junk ben. In zeep is mijn nummer 1 de geur en daarna komt het design, want ik hou van mooie zepen. Als derde komt hoe de zeep voelt, want ik hou van zepen die een heerlijk luxe gevoel op je huid achterlaten.

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This soap has been made with dark stout (bockbier). Beer has a lot of good things in it and it makes the soap feel lovely. This is enhanced by the flower honey, which leaves skin feeling lovely and soft. The fragrance is milk chocolat and vanilla which is supported by the natural fragrance of the hops. To ensure it leaves your skin moisturised cocoa butter has been added as a superfatter.

The soap will be up for sale before valentines day, so some men will be spoiled with a soap for real men ;-)

The last few days it has been a bit less pleasant in our house. My boy of 10 came downstairs in the middle of the night to say he threw up on his bed. I think I am not the only one who hates changing dirty bed sheets in the middle of the night, but at least the mess got contained to the bed.
He was sick all night and still felt bad the next day, poor thing.
Thankfully he is much better today, but it did not much good for my soaping efforts.
Yesterday I was soaping for valentines day, but the recipe I had was not enough, so I decided to double it. However, lazy as I am, I did so out of the top of my head and therefore forgot to double my palm oil. The consequence was that my beautiful inlays were all lye heavy. Thankfully I found out in time and could rebatch them, but it was a really stupid mistake.

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De laatste dagen is het hier wat minder goed in huis. Mijn zoontje van 10 kwam naar beneden midden in de nacht omdat hij zijn bed had onder gespuugd. Ik denk niet dat ik de enige ben, maar ik haat het om midden in de nacht een bed te moeten verschonen, maar gelukkig bleef de troep beperkt tot het bed. Hij is de hele nacht ziek geweest en voelde zich nog steeds ziek de volgende dag. Arme ding!
Gelukkig is hij nu weer een stuk opgeknapt, maar mijn plannen om te zepen werden behoorlijk om zeep geholpen, hihihi.
Gisteren wilde in wat zeep voor valentijnsdag maken, maar mijn recept was niet groot genoeg. Ik heb dus het recept (uit mijn hoofd) verdubbeld en.... vergeten de palmolie te verdubbelen. Dat maakt geen prettige zeep kan ik je zeggen. Vandaag dus maar een rebatch gedaan, maar het was wel een stomme fout.

Back to the topic of this post. Firstly I forgot to include the lovely necklace Jane made for the swap. I really like it, as these are my favourite colours.

The swap package of Eucalypta is not in my possesion yet. I probably venture over to Hilversum with the baby tomorrow to pick it up.
Therefore I will showcase my own swap items. My theme was foodies.


* Brown sugar and fig body lotion. My daughter picked the fragrance and it is lovely.
* Caramel frappuccino soap. CP soap with a mild coffeescrub and a shea M&P topping. Great to get those garlic hands smelling nice again.
* Lemon biscuit sugar scrub. Made from scratch with creamsoap. I just hope the sugar holds up, as there is quite some liquid in the soap.
* Pink sugar scrub. Made with foaming bath butter and 30% oils. One of my fav fragrances.
* Breakfast bubble bar. Made with butter milk, honey and oatmeal. Very nice in the bath.
* Lollipop bubble bar. Fragranced with a very sweet lollipop fragrance. Great for the kids.
* Chai tea lipbalm with lots of butters.
* 2 fragranced candles (cinnamon & pecan pie) and a holder.

Het vierde pakje is van Lyanne (Pure Soap). Ze maakt prachtige zeep, dus ik was erg benieuwd naar wat ze voor ons heeft gemaakt. Ik kan zeggen dat ze me niet teleur heeft gesteld ;-)

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The 4th package is of Lyanne (Pure Soap). She makes wonderfull soaps, so I was very curious to what she made for us. I can say she did not dissapoint me :-)

Everything looks very professional, so compliments for the packaging.
* My favourite is the soy wax. It smells really great and uplifting. She even included a wax holder for us.
* The scrub with shea and cocoa butter leaves my skin soft and moisturized.
* The massage candle looks great in the little tree cup. I will have to try it on my husband.
* Pine fragranced Bath jelly looks lovely. I never tried a bath jelly, as the ones at Lush really make my skin crawl. I hate people pocking their fingers in my bath jelly, blehhh.
* A cupcake soap with life like whipped cream. Yummy!

A big thank you to Lyanne!

Jane heeft voor de kerstswap een heel lief mandje gestuurd met allemaal leuke dingetjes erin. Alles ziet er heel verzorgd uit en je kunt zien dat ze het met liefde heeft gemaakt.

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Jane has send us a sweet basket with all these pretty things in it. Everything looks cared for and you can see she made it all with love.

* Soy wax tarts in a really nice spicy xmas fragrance. I love the smell of it in my house.
* Body lotion with a subtle fragrance. Personally I like big smells, but this is perfect if you want to lotion up before going out, but not have it compete with your expensive perfume.
* Salt & sugar scrub with foaming bath butter. It is a nice and firm scrub and not very oily, which is good I think. The fragrance is very subtle as well.
* Bubble bar which my son stole straight away. He is using it tomorrow in his bath.
* A spicy soap cake with again a lovely fragrance.

Thanks Jane! I love the fresh colours you used as well. It just screams ice and snow (although there is none left unfortunately).

Patrick, van Kaars en zo, heeft voor de swap een prachtige collectie producten gemaakt. We hebben de swap van de pakketten gedaan in zijn mooie winkel in Hilversum waar hij prachtige kaarsen en lekkere zeep verkoopt.

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Patrick of Kaars en zo, has made a beautiful collection of products for the swap. We did the swapping of the packages in his nice shop in Hilversum where he sells gorgeous candles and soaps.

Patrick choose a fragrance as his theme. It is a mixture of geranium, bergamot and some other notes.
I love geranium, so this is really up my alley.
* A rose soap cupcake with a little rosebud on top.
* A shampoo that smells divine.
* A firm sugarscrub in the same fragrance.
* A small bag of bath salt for a relaxing footbath.
* A solid bubble bath bar with lots of glycerine, so very moisturising in the bath.
* A gel candle that looks like a glass of wine. Very classy.

Tomorrow I will show the package I received from Jane.

Op 27 december hebben we de mega kerstswap afgerond. Het doel was om het volgende te maken:
* Vloeibaar product (shampoo, zeep/detergent, badbubbels, badolie etc)
* Vast zeepproduct in de vorm van een gebakje / cupcake (naar eigen keuze, MP/ WP/HP etc)
* Scrub
* bruisend (opgerold) product voor in bad voorzien van SLSa (of vergelijkbaar ingredient),
* een sfeermaker voor bij een heerlijke kerstavond in de badkamer. Denk aan bijvoorbeeld iets met geur, licht, etc
* iets naar eigen keuze (handgemaakt!) 
Ik zal de komende dagen elke dag een pakketje uit de swap op mijn blog zetten.

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On 27th December I took part in a mega X-mas swap. The goal was to make:
* Liquid product
* Solid soap in cake shape
* Fizzing (rolled up) product with SLSa or similar
* Scrub
* something to create a nice atmosphere in the bathroom
* something of your own choice (handmade)

I will post pics of one package a day on my blog.


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Bonsoap
Marleen came to the swap with her gorgeous little girl. She made a beautiful bag with lots of goodies.

* A showergel that has just the right consistence. This has taken a lot of trial and error, but she really nailed it!
* A christmas soap which looks good enough to eat. The pink "cream" is really cool and makes it look just yummy.
* Her solid bubble bath cup smells very orangy (which I totally love). The great thing about this is that you can just hold it under running water until you have enough bubbles in your bath. The left over bubble bath can be dried up and be used for the next bath.
* The scrub is a very gentle wash off lotion bar type. Very nice for your face and absolutely not drying.
* The shower smoothy unfortunately did not survive the dutch postal services, but it smells like strawberry sweets. My daughter really digs this one, hahaha.
* I have hung the soap chain on my book cupboard and it looks very classy.

Thanks Marleen!

Tomorrow I will show you the beautiful gift we received from Patrick of Kaars enzo.