Don't Miss Out!

Sale ends tonight!!

You're not going to want to miss this! All soaps and candles on sale through MIDNIGHT only! Plus Free gift with purchases over $50 and free shipping over $75!

Head over to www.horsethiefsoapco.com for some awesome deals!!

Conserve water. Shower with a Friend.

Or Not. Your Call.

But if you're not going to share your shower-time, at least share your favorite shower-time goodies...

Face it. Nothing says "I Love You" like some awesome soap and candles. I mean, soap says "I'm thinking of you...and want you to be clean and nice-smelling". Candles, well, "I want your house to smell nice when I come over".


Alright, so that's not really what you're saying when you give handmade soap and candles (or at least I hope that's not what you're saying). Truth is, it's hard not to love receiving a quality hand-made gift. But probably the coolest parts about giving our soaps and candles, is how well they pair together and the myriad of options available to suit every taste!

Not to startle you, but Mother's Day is right around the corner

But it's ok. We've got you covered with some amazing soap + candle combos! While we aren't able to offer candles coordinated to every soap (some fragrances just don't smell all that great when burning), there are still some excellent pairings that are supremely gift-worthy.


Gift Ideas: For the flower-lover, how about a bar of sweet orange blossom "My Darlin' Clementine" soap with a matching candle? For those who prefer something more sultry, "The Infamous El Guapo"  soap and candle combo would make an excellent choice. And for those who prefer fresh, invigorating scents, how about  a bar and a jar of "The Mule".




My Darlin' Clementine Soap + Candle Combo

Even pairing two excellently-matched candles would be a beautiful choice.




Gift Suggestion: Try "April Showers" and "May Flowers", a clean rain scent complimented by a fresh hydrangea fragrance. Or a little "Sun Daze" and "Sunshine + Whiskey" for a pineapples and oranges paired with coconut, citrus and whiskey. No matter which way you go, you really can't go wrong.

Crunchy options for your crunchy pals

By crunchy I am not referring to the texture of the soap, of course. I'm referring to those soap gladiators who tolerate nothing less than the most natural of ingredients in their products. Horsethief Canyon's line of soaps includes an excellent (and soon expanding) selection of all-natural soaps scented exclusively with essential oils and colored with natural ingredients like clays, carrots, honey, turmeric and oxides (also natural). They range from uplifting peppermint to soothing lavender and palmarosa, and come in a range of beautiful colors.


Gift idea: A set of these gives their lucky recipient endless options to suite their mood and season. Present them in a simple muslin bag with a hand-written note. Crunchy folks love that stuff.




From top to bottom: "Misty Mountain Morning" (Peppemint & Lavender),
"Prairie Rose" (Lavender & Palmarosa),
"The Rabbit of Seville"  (Unscented, Carrot, Turmeric & Honey),
"No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems" (Citrus Lavender with Sea Clay & Spirulina)



Beer Soap for the Beer Lover



The Mule from Moscow

(Ginger Beer + Ginger, Spearmint & Lime!)

Because the only thing more awesome than some badass craft beer is getting to take a shower with it (and still be sober enough to go to work). The line of craft beer soaps are made exclusively from California beers and cover all the bases:

You're a stout kinda guy? We got that.

Belgian wheat bro? Yup.

IPA-lovin' babe? Ohhhhh yeahhhh.

Porters, Blonds and Saisons? Yessirrreee!

We even have some Ginger Beer!

The beer soap offerings are always expanding and always made with excellently crafted beers that you'll love showering with as much as you love drinking.



Beer soaps in a simple wood slide-top box

Gift suggestion: A "Flight" of beer soaps with a selection of beers to match (just shoot us an email if you're curious about what beers went into each bar)!

Man Soap

Squeakin' Clean Cowboy Soap with
Fresh Aftershave Scent and
Bentonite Clay for extra cleansing.

So at the beginning of my journey, not only did I fall in love with beer soap, but I was completely drawn to the more masculine fragrances. Everyone told me it was silly to focus on manly bars since "men don't buy soap". Yeah. Except for men ABSOLUTELY buy soap. They just don't want a girly bar of lavender, geranium, rose, pink sugar, sweet pea soap. They want TOBACCO soap. They want CHARCOAL soap. Turns out, for the right bar of soap, men get pretty darn excited.

The "Horse Thief" stout beer and tobacco bar.

Gift idea: A selection of man soaps (maybe including some of beer soaps) wrapped-up with a wood-handled, boar-bristled body brush. Just a basic brown bag and some bakers twine give this awesome gift an understated elegance for your favorite man! And if I may, Father's Day is coming soon!

 

The variations are endless...

Like I said, a myriad of options. For sweets-lovers: "Granny's Buttermilk Pie" and "Burnt Sugar". For florals, "Luscious Lilacs", "The Blossom Trail" and "My Darlin' Clementine". For clean scents, "Squeakin' Clean Cowboy", "Misty Mountain Morning", "The Mule" and "Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere". Just check the selection on www.horsethiefsoapco.com. You'll be glad you did.

Spring Market opens Thursday!! Stay tuned!!

 

"Bar etiquette"

"Dry Soap is Happy Soap"

If it's important enough to print it on every bar of soap, then it must be pretty darn important, right?


That's a 10-4 big papa.


Mucho importante.

You see, while soap should be your #1 water companion, you'd be wise to consider it more like the pool lifeguard: always ready to come to the rescue, but not lounging around in the water getting pruney all day.

"The Hubs" is a chronic misuser of soap. It's true. Lucky for him, he's married to a pretty prolific soapmaker. Truthfully, I hate to think what portion of the household budget went to soap before he started serving as "Soap Tester General" around here. No matter how many times I tell him, he never, ever, EVER puts the soap back up in the wire holder in the shower. Where does he leave it? On the little shelf, about 3 feet high, right under the shower stream. Every day. Needless to say, it's a really, really good thing there are always soap ends and trimmings that need testing around here.


But what if you're not married to a soap maker? It's ok. Read on. I'll make sure you get every ounce of soapy-goodness from your next bar of soap.

Let's talk shower rules

If you leave any bar of soap sitting under a stream of water or in a soupy, liquid-filled soap dish it will turn to the soap-equivalent of Stage 1 baby food. It will still smell like soap, but all structural integrity will have been lost in favor of a slick, slimy texture that no one (not even a baby) wants. So, it seems pretty simple: keep your soap high and dry!


If your shower is like ours, fitting more than one person in there requires some serious acrobatics (not to get too personal or anything). So, you get the picture. It's teeny. And since there's pretty-much no place that doesn't get hit by the shower stream, the best place I've found to keep the soap is in a little wire rack that hangs from the top of the glass wall. It meets the basic qualifications of "well-draining" and "away from running water" and when I'm in charge of soap-placement, our bars last a long time, drying out completely between uses.


So we've talked "shower placement", but what about shower usage? Sure, there's no wrong way to enjoy your favorite bar of soap. But who wouldn't like to use it longer? You can extend the use of your bar in a major way using an all-natural sea sponge. This folks, is what you call a two-fer. Not only will it extend the use of the bar, but the feel of the sea sponge and all of it's gentle exfoliating goodness is a major shower-time bonus. You see, lathering-up your sponge just once at the beginning of the shower (then putting your bar somewhere high and dry) will give you endless lather for the duration!

So obviously I am demonstrating this at the sink, but it really
makes a world of difference in the shower!

Oh yeah, and when the bar in question is a BIG 5-6oz Horsethief Canyon bar, cut it in half and use only one piece at a time! That way only half of the soap is being exposed the water, while the other half continues to age and get harder (and therefore longer lasting!).

I have a 'sink'ing suspicion...

...that your soap dish (like mine) is about as good at draining excess liquid the Hoover Dam. Most ceramic dishes are woefully bad at keeping your soap from languishing in a pool of icky, slimy water. Even those with raised ridges don't really keep bars all that dry. But alas, there is a solution (and it doesn't involve tossing out your favorite soap dish)!

Introducing...The Soap Lift!

One of my dear friends (and avid handmade soap-convert) tuned me into something called a "soap lift". It's a fabulous little recycled plastic "mesh" pad that you set in your soap dish. Water and "ick" can flow through it, and your bar stays "lifted" high and dry. Kinda like a bra for your soap. Just sayin...

Check-out this Horse Thief bar all high-n-dry on the soap lift!


So, that's it folks. A couple simple soap-saving steps (say that 3 times fast!) and you'll be on your way to soap-induced bath time bliss!

Stay tuned for a tutorial on getting the most bang for your soy-candle buck!

Happy Soaping!



In pursuit of the perfect bar (of soap)...

A study in bar formulation...

One of my favorite breweries on California's gorgeous Central Coast has a simple philosophy: achieving the perfect beer is impossible, hence the quest for such will be unending (to paraphrase a bit). I love it. They take their craft seriously and their loyal fans are to benefit from this commitment, getting to sample beer after awesome beer in the quest for unattainable perfection. Mmmm...delish.


At the risk of sounding way too serious about a silly little bar of soap, the truth is the real joy in this business is hearing customer feedback and using that to create an even better batch of soap on the next go-'round. Like our brewery friends, I know there's no such thing as the perfect soap. But seriously...who doesn't love a challenge?

So what's in Horsethief Canyon soaps?

The Oils

Almost every HTC soap starts with a simple base of olive and coconut oils. Occasionally I add in something a little different, but I subscribe to the wisdom that good doesn't have to mean complicated.


Like we discussed in the prior post, olive oil lends itself to gentle, moisturizing cleansing. Coconut oil, on the other hand, adds a big, luxurious lather and enough bar hardness to keep it in the shower longer than a minute and a half.


The combination: awesome.

The "Other Stuff"

Remember our soap formula from the last post? oil+lye (water)=soap. So, why would I add anything else? Simple. Because that's what makes you excited about the mundane task of getting clean. Well, that and the fact that no one wants to be smelly (at least I don't think anyone wants to be smelly).

You put BEER in your soap?

Short answer: You bet your sweet bippy! (Don't ask. It's something my mom has always said. I'm kinda embarrassed having just typed that.)




Long answer:
So, I attended many, many craft fairs last year. It was fun. And exhausting. And kinda funny. You see, I learned a lot about soap lovers. To start with, they belong to two groups: the Purists and the Adventurers.


The Purists are soap lovers from way-back. Very little compares to a classic bar of lavender or patchouli soap for these soap gladiators. They will NEVER pass-up a handmade soap booth and their faces light up as they begin to smell each bar. They are giddy when they start stacking-up the bars they want to take home with them. But, then they come across the BEER SOAPS. And they almost walk right by them with a bit of a wrinkled nose. You see, the Purists cannot image the appeal of a bar of soap containing beer. It seems a bit cavemanish (yes, I know that's not a real word) and worse...what if it actually smells like beer? I guess I can't blame them. When you think of the smell of beer it's hard not to go straight to beer-breath. And no one, I repeat NO ONE wants soap smelling like beer breath. Yet, with a little encouragement, they stop, hesitantly pick up a bar and gingerly take a sniff...then smile (at least most of them do).

Craft fair booth sign.

On the other hand, we have the Adventurers. They need no convincing to smell the beer soap...but sometimes they almost walk right by the booth. They aren't necessarily soap-lovers (yet). But, they see the sign: "Honey, there's BEER in my soap!" and they're hooked. They come to a screeching halt, shift into reverse and greedily smell every single beer bar. They are either beer lovers themselves or know someone who is and the idea of using a bar of soap that actually has beer in it is mind-blowing.

So why the beer? And more importantly, what kind of beer?

The why is easy: Because it's awesome. I know. Seems a bit oversimplified, but the truth is it's fun to find something as utilitarian as bar soap dressed-up with something so different! From a soap formulation standpoint, it also brings a whole new level of bubbliness to the lather. You see, the sugars in the beer lend themselves to increased lather. And since our bars already lather like a dream, the beer soaps produce an uber-rich, luxurious lather.


As for the kinds of beer I use, it has to meet one basic criteria: it must be something I would enjoy drinking (or at least trying) myself. I'm not knocking Miller Lite, but you won't find it in our soaps. Adding beer for the sake of adding beer isn't what it's all about. It's about incorporating a carefully-crafted local beer that is full of interest and amazing flavor.


So, to answer the question, "You put BEER in your soap?", Yes. Yes I do. Because it's awesome. Because it's totally fun. And because I really can't think of a good reason why not.

Clays, Herbs & Goodies...Oh My!

Beyond adding beer to the soaps, I get a real kick out of some of our other ingredients as well.


Let's start with clays. I love clays. They all do something a little-bit different, but what they all have in common is how silky they leave your skin feeling. They are said to be drawing of toxins and also lend themselves to a harder, longer-lasting bar of soap. They also add some fun and natural colors to the soap. So far, I've used bentonite, rhassoul, French green (aka sea clay), Brazilian purple, rose clay and yellow clay...and I love them all!


As for herbs, the list is long and varied. Elderflower for hair and skin health, calendula and chamomile for soothing and hops to go with the beer soaps of course. Technically, I'm not allowed to make health claims about any of these things, but I love them anyways for the visual interest they add to each bar (you can make your own assessments about the rest).

Elderflower-infused beer soap.

Last comes the other "goodies". Oh yes. This is the "anything goes" category. You want honey in your soap? You got it. Molasses? Yep there's one of those. Goat milk, buttermilk, condensed milk, evaporated milk and heavy cream? Uh huh. Caramel and vanilla bean? Yessirree Barberino. How about some activated charcoal, blue-green algae (aka spirulina), Japanese indigo or even some Himalayan pink salt? Yeah. Been there, done that. Add some micas, oxides and glitter for bold color and sparkle and you've got yourself some pretty darn fun bars of soap.

Last but not least...the smelly stuff.

A hard (but early) lesson learned was people don't like soap that doesn't smell! Purist, Adventurer or somewhere in between, the consensus seems to be nothing is more important than the scent! Don't worry. I heard ya'll loud and clear. I offer only a select few unscented/lightly scented bars (for those with sensitive skin & noses). Everything else is full of exciting and different scents! If you're looking for a basic bar of lavender soap, you're not going to find it here. But you will find blends of lavender with other classics like citrus, palmarosa, and peppermint. If you prefer more manly soaps...don't worry. I'd consider that the bread-and-butter of this funky little soap company. Whether it's clean & fresh man, woodsy man or sexy man, the choices are varied and abundant!

So what's with the soapbox? (you see what I did there?)

In case you haven't seen the soap labeling, I'm a big fan of storytelling. In this beautiful new world where "Makers" are leading innovation and authenticity matters, it's become essential to be able to relay the story behind what you do. This is a little sliver of the Horsethief Canyon story. I'm not sure I'll ever tire of the effort to find "the perfect bar" but I hope you'll join me on this silly, soapy ride.




Now it's your turn...what would you LOVE to see in our soaps soon? Leave a comment below!




Peace, Love & Soap,


Nat