New Website

It's been some time since the last post on this blog, but we're still here. During the past months, we had a website built for K & A Soaps that is much easier for our customers to work with and order from. You can just add the kinds you like to the shopping basket and then pay online using PayPal. Visit us here to see the soaps we have available.

Winter Soap Sale

We're having a winter inventory reduction sale here at K & A Soaps. Buy any 4 bars of soap for $13 ($3.25 ea., regularly $4 ea.), plus shipping. PA residents please add PA 6% sales tax.

Some soap fragrances we have available right now are:

Cedar Woods ~ a sweet, woodsy fragranced soap with the aroma of patchouli and sandalwood, and more. It contains kelp powder for interest and shea butter.
Oatmeal, Milk, & Honey ~ unscented goat milk soap with honey and oatmeal, contains shea butter.
Citrus Cream ~ lightly scented with orange, litsea, and pink grapefruit essential oil, contains shea butter and calendula petals.
Cherries, Almonds, & Oats ~ contains oats and smells of cherries and almonds, contains shea butter.
Cranberry Orange ~ a delicate sweet orange and cranberry scent to this soap, it contains a fragrance oil and orange essential oil, and poppy seeds give it a pretty appearance.
Mysterious Forest ~ a complex fragrance of pine, peppermint, and fruit, contains dried parsley.
Lemongrass & Tea Tree ~ a blend of the essential oils in it's name, cornmeal gives it more exfoliating ability, and it also contains honey.
Fruitful Fields ~ a new soap for 2012, it contains shea butter, cocoa butter, jewelweed infusion, and peppermint and lavender essential oils.
Fresh Cucumber ~ this soap has a pleasant aroma of cucumbers and cucumber puree.

We also have a limited quantity of Ocean Breeze soap balls, fish, and butterflies. See our blog for pictures and prices. Plus we have peppermint and natural lip butters available at $1.75 ea.

We also have a variety of salt and sugar scrubs available for $3.50 ea., plus shipping. Contact us for availability. Scrubs ship for free with a purchase of 16 or more bars of soap.

Sale ends January 8th. Please email your orders to me or any questions you have. Feel free to order together with your friends to save on shipping costs.

Happy New Year!
Abigail

Something New

 Over the past several months I haven't posted much on here, but things have been happening at K & A Soaps. We have some new products (more on that later). But the biggest thing, and something I'm pretty excited about, is that we have changed how we label and package our soaps. Instead of simply shrink wrapping the bars, with is simple and efficient, we're now wrapping them in scrapbook paper for soaps that  appeal to the eye too. And though the outward appearance has changed (see the photos above and below), the soaps remain basically the same except now we add unrefined shea butter to most of our bars. They still feel great on your skin and smell good too. 

As I said, we have a few new products. We've made two shaped soaps and soap balls. The soap balls, fish, and butterflies all come in both the Ocean Breeze fragrance and Litsea which is scented with Litsea Cubeba essential oil and has a lovely lemon aroma. Now you can add a little fun to your soap dish, plus they make great gifts and favors.

Have a lovely fall and enjoy K & A Soaps!

New Soap Name

Would you like to help us name this new soap? This soap has a complex aroma, a blend of peppermint, pine, and fruit. It makes me think fall and winter. Let us know your ideas in the comment section and we'll pick which one goes with it the best! So send us your best names!

Olive Oil Soap Introductory Special!!

Announcing an introductory special on our new Unscented Olive Oil Soap! This soap is made using only four ingredients: olive oil, coconut oil, sodium hydroxide, and water. The oil ratios in this soap are approximately 84% olive oil to 16% coconut oil.

Olive oil makes a very mild soap while the coconut oil helps it have a nicer texture.  Our olive oil soap lathers well, but not quite as much as our goat milk soaps do. For a longer lasting bar with a creamier feel, don't let the bar lay in water for long periods of time.

Skin Benefits of Olive Oil:

- Moisturizer
- Anti-inflammatory
- Contains vitamins A and E
- Doesn't clog pores
- Softens your skin

Skin Benefits of Coconut Oil:

- Moisturizer
- Anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-bacterial
- Helpful in treating minor burns like sunburn
- Aids in healing and repairing
- Aids in removing dead skin cells

Unscented Olive Oil Soap for $3 a bar! (Plus shipping: 1-2 bars $3.20, 6 bars $5.35, 6-12 $10.70. PA residents please add 6% sales tax.) Bars weigh approximately 4 oz.

From one of our customers:

“I love K&A Soaps!  It is great having a trusted source for unscented soap.  Their new Castile soap works wonderfully and I love the texture.” ~ Christy

So try K & A Soaps and see what you think!
                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are also having a discontinued soap fragrance sale on Sweet Plumeria and Cranberry Orange Delight. 

Bars are only $3.25 ea. (plus shipping, PA residents add 6% sales tax). See our soap product page for more details on these fragrances.

While supplies last. Sales end at 11:59 ET on May 10th, 2012.

The Lititz Farmer's Market

On Saturday mornings, from the end of May until the beginning of October, you regularly found us at the farmer's market selling our soaps, lip butter, and sugar scrubs. Located in the historic town of Lititz, the market offers a variety of local products including fruits and vegetables (we help our brother Jonathan sell his naturally raised produce, etc.), meat, baked goods, prepared food, dog treats, flowers, soaps, etc. It's fun to talk to the regulars and meet new people! So if you haven't visited us yet, come along for a look at our table.

(Many thanks to our photographer brother Josiah for taking these excellent photos! Contact him for your photographic needs. I can tell you how.)

Our cute little niece came out to the market and pointed out what kind of soap you should use--handmade soaps all the way!
Welcome to our stand!
100% All Natural Lip Butter

Cocoa Mint, Cocoa, Peppermint, or Natural (unflavored)

The bargain basket filled with soap odds and ends.
Apples & Cinnamon, a personal favorite of mine. If you haven't tried it yet, you should!

And then there is Lavender, a staple when it comes to soaps.

I like sugar scrubs, and salt scrubs, but shh! that's something new for this year. Sugar scrubs are gentle on your skin, exfoliating, and the natural oils feel so nice on our skin!

A loftier look at our table at the farmer's market.

Soap and the exfoliating ability of a luffa sponge rolled up in one. Simple pleasure.

Until next time,

take care and use K & A Soaps!

Fall Sale!! Earn a FREE Bar of Soap!

It's time for our fall sale once again! Come check it out....

Get 1 Bar of Soap FREE

When You Purchase $30 or More of Products From Our Site!! *

Soaps

This year we have a wide variety of soaps available made with coconut oil, olive oil, lard, safflower oil, and goat milk from local dairy goats. We have soaps made with essential oils and fragrance oils, soaps with colors like pink, blue, lavender, and green, as well as uncolored bars. And for those of you who prefer a bar without colorants or fragrances, our Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey fits the bill.

Soaps Include:

Apples & Cinnamon (a great autumn choice)

Cranberry Orange Delight

Spearmint

Lavender

Coconut Lime Verbena

Patchouli

Ocean Breeze

Cherries, Almonds, & Oats

Lavender, Lemongrass, & Mint

And many more!

Mix and Match any 3 bars for $11.

Check out these two pages for a listing of all of our soaps!

Luffa Soaps

This is our first year to make luffa soaps. They give a nice twist to an ordinary soap bar by combining the exfoliating ability of a luffa sponge with the bar of soap. They come in a variety of scents.

$3 ea. or 3 for $7.50

Check out this page for a listing of our luffa soaps.

Lip Butters

This fall we have four types of lip butter available. They are made with pure and simple ingredients. If you want unflavored lip butter or one that tastes more like a peppermint patty, look up our lip butters page for a complete listing.

All our lip butters are $2 ea. or 2 for $3.50 OR for additional savings, buy 6 or more for $1.65 ea.

* For orders over $30, please send us your first and second choice soap for your free bar along with your order. Sale/offer ends at 11:59 P.M. on December 16th, 2011. PA residents: Add 6% sales tax.

Photo Shoot

Today I took a number of soap photos, of soaps that either needed a new picture or else were still waiting for one. Plus I took photos of a few other items. Here's a sampling of a few of today's shots....

One for fun....

Finally, Coconut Lime Verbena!

Lavender...a new look at an old favorite.

Soap on a String, that is soap in a luffa.

Sugar Scrubs are something Karen and I've had fun making over the past several months. And our customers at the farmers' market are enjoying them too.

New Products

Well, it has been a long time since our last post. But in spite of possible appearances, we have not been idle here at K & A Soaps. Throughout the winter, we continued making and passing soap on to our customers. Plus our soaps can now be found at an additional store, Treasure Nook.

Also over the winter, we tried our hand at something new--lip products! We made Natural (unflavored) and Peppermint from such natural and uncomplicated ingredients like coconut oil, safflower oil, beeswax, and Vitamin E, with peppermint oil being added to the latter. Taking care of your lips is important, especially when you are outdoors a lot. Personally, I am enjoying this treat for my lips. It feels so nice and smooth and helps to protect them against the elements. And with the handy little tubes they are in, they're perfect for carrying in my pocket when I'm working with produce in the field. But don't just listen to me. Try some out yourself and see what YOU think.

Last Saturday, May 21st, was the opening day at the Lititz Farmer's Market so we were very busy preparing for it. We are reworking our display for market and have employed one of our brothers to build shelves for our soaps. It can be hard to think of new ideas for how to make our table look different--and pretty!--but it's also a good opportunity to be creative. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful, sunny day which was especially welcomed after all the rain we have been receiving. It was great to see all the people that came out. What a fun morning! We had lots of soap out with some new kinds including Lavender, Lemongrass, & Mint, and Coconut Lime Verbena, and Lilac Mist which we gave a new look. (See below.) Our new Lavender, Lemongrass, and Mint made a big splash!

New Soaps:

Lavender, Lemongrass, and Mint (Pictured below.)

Coconut Lime Verbena (Picture to come.)

Something New....

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted! But during that time Karen and I have not been idle.... We've been making soap, selling it at a craft bazaar, introducing it to another store, etc.

From time to time, our customers suggest new fragrances to us, kinds they love and would like to see us selling. So this matter was brought before the board and we considered the possibilities. We decided to add the following two, Almonds and Oats and Patchouli. Plus we had to include some of the fragrances we love, Sweet Plumeria and Coconut Lime Verbena (the latter is yet to be released). Several years ago, a good friend gave us a bar of plumeria soap that she had made. It smelled wonderful! I still fondly remember that bar. Not only was it pretty and smelled delightful, but it filled the room with its perfume. So we are now offering the following three types of soap. We like them and we hope you will too!

Sweet Plumeria

Almonds and Oats

Patchouli

Introducing...

Cranberry Orange Delight!

A month or so ago, Karen and I tried our hand at mixing up a new soap fragrance. We wanted something that said fall, something that combines fragrances one thinks of at this time of year. So we blended orange essential oil with a touch of clove oil and then swirled it with a combination of cranberry yuzu and other berry fragrances. When the bars were cut and it was all said and done, this orange and mauve bar was the product. I love this fragrance combination! We introduced it to our local customers a few weeks ago, and it received positive feedback.

Giveaway on AmandaBeth Online!

Our good friend Amanda, of AmandaBeth Online, has sweetly organized a fun giveaway of two collections of our soaps on her blog. It's been a lot of fun to watch the progress of this event! And we're looking forward to seeing who the winners are. The entry deadline to enter the giveaway is midnight (EST) of October 9, 2010. Please go visit Amanda's blog for details. Thank you very much, Amanda, for all your work in putting together this exciting giveaway!

Enter to win this collection of Honey L'Occitane, Fresh Cucumber, and Apples & Cinnamon.

Or the one featured at the top of the post that includes Cookies 'N Cream, Lavender, and Orange Creamsicle.

Fall Fairs

Karen and I have been entering things in our local fairs for years--needlecraft, baked goods, flowers, etc. But 2010 became the first year for us to enter our handmade soap in the Ephrata fair. We entered Fresh Cucumber and Apples & Cinnamon, and they placed 1st and 2nd respectively. It was a lot of fun! :-)

New Fall Soap Fragrances!!

The air is beginning to chill and the leaves are just starting to turn colors and drop to the ground. Here at K & A Soaps we are prepared with just the right soap for this time of year. Our new fall fragrance--Apples & Cinnamon--is now available!! I must say, I love the scent of this soap. It is full of delicious apple aroma and topped with a nice sprinkle of real cinnamon. Even though fall is not my favorite season, this lovely soap makes it better. :-)


We also have another new fragrance that we are introducing to our customers and we want to know their opinions on it. It is...

Cookies 'N Cream!!

This bar has a wonderful chocolate aroma, with some deeper undertones of vanilla and coffee! I love this one too. But what can I say? It smells delightful! :-)

The Pictures are Up!

We had fun taking pictures of the soap with our brother Philip (thanks, Philip!) one evening, and now they are up on our products pages. Be sure to check them out!

In the coming weeks we should be adding fragrances like Apple, for a good fall fragrance, as well as Cookies and Creme and a few others.

Why Use Goat Milk Soap?

• It's Naturally Nourishing and Cleansing...
• It's Naturally Moisturizing and Softening...
• And It's Naturally Gentle and Rejuvenating to the Skin....

For centuries, people have been using milk as a skin care product. Goat milk soap is a powerhouse of benefits for the skin as it contains so many nutrients. It nourishes the skin with amino acids, zinc, vitamins A, C, D, E, K, a few of the B vitamins, enzymes, and proteins, as well as lactic acid, which is an alpha hydroxy acid that aids in the removal of dead skin cells. Glycerin, which moisturizes the skin, is often removed from commercially processed soaps and used for other things. But in handmade goat milk soap, the glycerin remains in the bars and thus the benefits remain. Also, the ph level in goat milk is very similar to our skin, thus permitting a better transfer of the milk's nutrients to us. And to top it off, there are no harsh additives that can be disturbing to think about, if not downright harmful!

Welcome to K & A Soaps!

Handmade Goat Milk Soap

Naturally Moisturizing and Nourishing Ingredients

Located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, K & A Soaps is a small soap making business operated by two sisters, Karen and Abigail. In 2009, a good friend of ours with a successful soap business in Virginia (now moved to Tennessee), took Karen and I, and a group of friends, under wing and taught us how to make soap. Later, Karen and I made a batch of soap by ourselves (with our friend on call :-)). Then we made another batch. And another. And with encouragement from our family, we were hooked. But there is so much to learn about this art. For truly soap making is a fine art. It has been a great experience to take the base ingredients like coconut oil, safflower oil, lard, milk, and fragrance oils, and fashion them into beautiful bars of soap. Sometimes we have so many ideas for colors (to color or not to color, to swirl or not to swirl and the list could go on) and fragrances, that we have to limit ourselves and focus on just a few.

It is our goal to produce quality soaps that are both a treat for your skin and delightful to smell. We use fresh milk from local dairy goats, coconut oil, safflower oil, and lard, as well as additives like real honey, oatmeal and cornmeal (which add to the appearance of the bar and it exfoliating abilities), fragrance oils, and essential oils. So whether you enjoy citrus, floral, vanilla and cotton candy, honey, or simply an unscented bar, we offer a variety of soaps that are sure to please.

Photos and descriptions of our soaps to follow. In the meantime email us if you would like a list of the types of soap we currently have available, prices, purchasing information, and if you have any questions.