Just wanted to stop by and introduce myself! My name is Amanda and I have been soaping a hobbyist for the past few months. I had been buying hand made soap from Lush, then switched to au naturalle soap from Whole Foods, then found someone at the Farmers Market who was selling natural soaps for cheaper, when I realized "Hey, I can do this myself!". Since then I have been having fun in my kitchen whipping up batches, several of which I have begun using and I really like how moisturizing they are
I have shyed away from Palm Oil in food since I learned in 2009 about how harvesting it destroys the habitat of the Orangutan, but never thought to look for palm oil in beauty products until last year. Since then I have eliminated Palm Oil in all of my beauty products as well; I realize many of you use "sustainable Palm Oil", but I just don't feel comfortable using it, so all of my soaps are Palm Oil Free. I have had success with these recipes and my soaps seem to feel really nice and are lasting a long time, so I am happy with my POF decision thus far.
A little about me (random facts):
I am getting my PhD in chemistry (should be done in December or May of this year), and I am really into raw foods (vegetarian for 12 years, recently trying to eat more raw vegan). I am also a new Mom as of a year ago, and I love music, web development, saltwater reef aquaria, learning new languages (I have studied French, Spanish, and Japanese so far) and quilting (and soaping of course). I know, I am all over the map in terms of my hobbies!
So there you have it! I also have a personal blog which will be in my siggie, and I am working on a soaping blog which I will update soon!
I look forward to getting to know other like minded soapers here at Teach Soap