Two Ewes Bath & Body Blog

You can smell Fall's coming!

2010-09-05T20:24:00.000-07:00

It seems like summer was a lot of preparation, for school, fall, winter, summer is the time to relax, refuel and get ready to start all over again. It makes you wonder why New Year's is in January!

This year was no exception for us at Two Ewes. We got to play with some of our favorite summer scents - blueberry garden, and pineapple cilantro, and as fall rolls around and the leaves start to loosen, we prepare for a new season. School starting marks CranApple Cider, Peppermint, and all of our other favorite scents. This winter season will see us with Angel Wings, along with Cranberry Yuzu for a sweet wintry kick, Arctic Raspberry in select locations, as well as a few others, just in time for a great Christmas season.

Needless to say, the soap studio is already smelling great, and we can't wait to share our new scents with you!

Whew!

2010-07-04T12:01:00.001-07:00

It's been forever since we've updated, but that's just because so much is going on! We're in the final testing stages for shampoos and conditioners, as well as our essential oil based BUG OFF spray, and *finally* - after years of research we have released our mineral makeups to the marketplace!

So, let's talk about that, shall we? It all started when we started comparing foundation ingredients. And realized that we couldn't pronounce most of them. So after a lot of testing, we offer our own versions! I mean really? Who can't pronounce our My Lady Fair Foundation Ingredients: Titanium Dioxide, Corn Starch, Zinc Oxide, Mica, Iron Oxides, Ultramarines. Or our Peaches & Cream Foundation: Titanium Dioxide, Corn Starch, Zinc Oxide, Kaolin Clay, Mica, Iron Oxides. Every single ingredient is easy to understand, and the zinc oxide and titanium dioxide are considered to be great for sun protection, and who doesn't need some extra protection from the environment and free radicals in a makeup that's easy to apply and easy to understand.

To close, here's our application instructions, which are included with each foundation: To Apply: Using a short bristled dense brush, dip into foundation, swirl into side of baggie to tuck the foundation into the bristles, tap off excess inside bag, and apply to face in a circular motion. Coverage can be increased with additional layers of foundation.

We hope you love them as much as we do!

Spring is springing, birds are singing

2010-04-07T11:55:00.000-07:00

.. and crane season is here! What does that mean? Well, in the middle of Nebraska we get to experience something pretty neat - the sandhill crane migration. Every March/April marks thousands of these pretty (and big!) birds coming through and stopping to rest up while they munch on the leftover corn in the fields prior to planting.

In Alda, Nebraska they actually have a nature center where they conduct tours, and teach people about what they're looking for, what they're looking at, and a little bit more about this species that has survived for thousands of years. Needless to say, should you stop at the Crimson Crane gift shop, you'll also find Two Ewes Bath & Body products, made just for bird season - Platte River Sunrise and Nebraska Sunflowers are definite regional treats! Stop. Watch. Enjoy. We love to have visitors at this time of year who get to appreciate some of what makes Nebraska unique.

It's True Love

2010-01-25T12:11:00.001-08:00

This is my new favourite ever all time scent. Now don't get me wrong, typically I love everything I make, every scent has its own nuances and whiff-y goodness. But I swear I could slather this stuff on every day for a year and never get tired of it.

Sweet vanilla, delicate citrus and an amber base note just combine into this rich, sweet scent, and come on - Cleopatra herself swore by amber as a perfume to entice and seduce! Mix the lust of amber with the passion of ripe citrus fruits in the tropics and top it off with the sweetest dessert ever and you have True Love my friends!

You bet I've got a bottle of this lotion in my purse - it's to die for!

Pineapple Cilantro anyone?

2010-01-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

Now don't get me wrong, to make bath and body products you have to be willing to do math. You need to know percentages, and ounces, and work it all out so that everything fits neatly into little jars and bottles and looks pretty and works great.

But usually, I like to make lotion in big batches, pour it all into a big four gallon jug and pump them out as needed to scent and color. Well, today I figured I'd make lotion, and I have 18 bars of pineapple cilantro soap since I made a double batch to put out at several stores. And I figured, barring one lonely bottle of honeysuckle lotion, I'd make the entire batch into pineapple cilantro in my usual amount. And I stupidly didn't work out how many ounces my usual amount makes.

So.... 22 pineapple cilantro lotions are waiting to be labelled and wrapped, and I am shocked at how many bottles come out of one of my batches of lotion, because I had to keep going back to get more bottles out of my bulk container!

The good news? I LOVE that scent and at least now I won't have to make more pineapple cilantro lotion for awhile! :)

Felted Soap!

2009-11-19T21:48:00.001-08:00

So our latest project for fun was felted soaps! Basically you take pure wool, wrap it around some soap and rub it until the fibers loosen and attach to each other solidly, creating a felted soap! Yep, soap with its own washcloth that tightens as the soap gets used up, to eventually leave you with a cute little coin purse/pouch that is clean as a whistle!

Neat huh?

(P.S. It's Lemon Meringue.. totally not lemon meringue colors, but hey, it's felted so it's cool anyways!)

Behind behind behind!

2009-11-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

Flu, bronchitis, colds, we've had it all around here and we are DONE with that nonsense! Today, to celebrate our new love affair with orange juice and all things vitamin C related, we've got Cranberry Orange bath bombs curing! Pink and orange and totally delectable and perfect for winter, we will have pictures to come soon!

In other news, keep watching for our shampoos and conditioners to be sold on an ongoing basis - instead of just here and there as limited collections. The feedback has been great, and with our last wave of testing, we may be offering these things permanently!

Because we love our customers we will never offer you anything that's less than amazing, we promise! Soon and just in time for some sudsy winter fun!

Nebraska State Fair - go to GROW!

2009-08-27T21:19:00.001-07:00

Well, we are a go at the state fair in the GROW Nebraska store. How exciting is that? This week has been hard and difficult, with a conference on Wednesday, and a medical trip to Minneapolis on Sunday/Monday, but it truly did culminate tonight. While we're still just one little business amidst thousands in this state, it feels so darn satisfying to feel like we have a statewide presence.

We are blessed. And exhausted. *thwump*

Raspberry Pomegranate...

2009-08-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

Here's hoping! It always amazes me how much soap colours can morph when I put them in the oven. Yes, I make soap in the oven - it speeds up the lye reaction and creates a beautiful hard bar that is usable immediately (although I wouldn't advise it, you do need to give soap time to cure, no matter if it's hot or cold processed!), but sometimes... colour happens, especially when you're using a fragrance that you KNOW wants to morph all by itself anyways. Oyes, our pomegranate scent? It's one of *those*. So... here's the before picture, a little sneak peak at RP revamped! You'll notice it's not a straightforward ripple, and it's not meant to be, it's a wild and luscious blend, and it's meant to reflect that. :)

But what IS Raspberry Pomegranate and why did it need a revamp, and what exactly did we do differently? Well to start, it's got five colours in it. Our original bar made do with just three, as you can see in the last post... clearly we've done something differently this time - we've untamed it, you could say!

But really, the colours are nice, we get it, but it's the fragrance that makes the allure, isn't it? So what does Raspberry Pomegranate smell like? Well, it's a sexy dark fruity blend. Can you say a midnight stroll with raspberries scenting the air, and a dark tinge of deep pomegranate, just to turn your night into something a little more mysterious, a stranger that says hello, not scary, but intriguing, interesting, and just a little bit exciting.

How can you resist?

Soapin' the weekend away...

2009-08-14T21:10:00.000-07:00

So... this weekend will be busy soapin' and I have to figure out which particular scents this weekend will hold! Definitely more raspberry pomegranate but with a different colour scheme, but what else?? Wondering about making some gardenia or rose, maybe something more fun like ultraviolet or something soothing and watery like ocean breeze, but... hey, I'll figure that out tomorrow. I'm actually hoping to make a few different ones so that I am ready for the State Fair, a little bit of everything for everyone, because you know what, it makes everyone happy! In other news, I've got some new honeysuckle fragrance oil on the way!

Lookin' forward to it!

Twitter?

2009-08-12T08:49:00.000-07:00

So, we've been doing twitter for awhile now, and now it appears that we can add a twit this thingie to our blog! How cool is that?! I am all over it!

All you have to do to add any of our blog posts to your twitter is to click on the headline to open the blog commentary in its own section and click the button for some twitter points and to share what you love! What a win win situation!

2009-08-09T12:54:00.001-07:00

Balsamic Amber and Good Lookin' Cowboy are now curing.. and both are some seriously sexy smells! Good Lookin' Cowboy is stone washed denim with a pair of leather riding chaps, and Balsamic Amber is just this sultry amber scent, no musk, but clean and deep and dark.

Makes you want to take them both for a shower, no? :)

State Fair

2009-08-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

Our state fair is a great state fair... don't miss it don't even delaaaaaaay!

Yep, it's that time again - time to gear up for a great state fair, and Two Ewes Bath & Body will be there at the GROW Nebraska store!

Today's creations:
Body Butters in pink sugar, raw vanilla, honey baby and raspberry pomegranate
Soap in Cantaloupe and Cucumber

and MORE TO COME!

I gotta say - the entire building smells amazing today. :)

2009-04-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

So... bath bombs are ALMOST perfect. I say almost because they are stunningly gorgeous, they're the size of tennis balls and they smell fanfrickingtastic. The con? Those baseballs burn up too fast! Plus they need an infusion of skin loving ingredients (well yeah, they already had skin soothing grapeseed oil and deodorizing and freshening sodium bicarbonate, but dammit Jim! We need more skin love!)

The end goal? Some amazing bath bombs that not only amaze you in how they look and smell but send your bathtub experience into a whole other dimension! I have plans, and I suspect my end goal will be arrived at within the next 48 hours. Stay tuned! (And why yes, I do plan to do a giveaway!)

2009-04-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

This week has definitely been productive! New bath bomb sizes, two vanilla soaps, and a few new big orders! I love being busy, and I love it when other people are just as much fans of Two Ewes products as we are!

Okay, how's that for a zillion exclamation marks?

Soaps.. Lotions... Discolouring oh my!

2009-04-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

So.. I have to say I am very frustrated with discolouring today. Why is that? Well, because Lemon Meringue discolours like CRAZY! I'm using a vanilla stabilizer with the bar soap today and *gasp* It seems to be staying yellow!

Pink sugar, however, appears to be a lost cause. The good news? It'll still get topped with a luscious pink on top of it's evil brownness to make it both mod and fashionable. Since naturally, soap is supposed to be both.