HSCG Conference

Last week I attended my first Handcrafted Soap & Cosmetics Guild conference held at the fabulous Loews Ventana Canyon resort in Tucson. What a treat!!  

First up was a Soaping 101 class with our fabulous teacher Cathy McGinnis. If you follow soapmaking at all you I'll find Carhy's fabulous Soaping101 how to videos on YouTube.  Even though it was a beginners course I was more interested in her teaching methods and I wanted a refresher course for the test I would be taking later that day to become a "Certified" soap maker.  Which I did. Ta Da!!  

I also met a few new friends.

Sam and I got to hang out often and the great thing is that she lives close by in nearby Chandler. We both passed! 

There was a lot of great food, classes, fellow soapers, awesome teachers, and cool vendors who gave us lots of freebies, Thank you!  I can't wait to get started with some new products and techniques. 

The view at this resort is amazing with a little trail that leads to a waterfall.  I spied this awesome cardinal and his mate, plus the usual rabbits, quail and cactus wrens, and night swallows that look like bats.  We also were able to see the night sky through a telescope and saw Jupiter with its numerous moons. So cool.

There were some cool soaps on display. This one made me laugh. It was bacon soap that totally smelled like bacon. Eeewww.  I can't imagine actually washing with it. I think all the dogs in the neighborhood would be running to great (or eat) me! 

Did I mention all the vendors selling products?  I did order some pizza flavoring for lip balms. They totally nailed it!  Figure the younger peeps (boys and girls) would go for it. 

Some things I learned in a nut shell. From Dr Shukla; We need lots of Omega 3 (best) or Omega 9 in our diet or as body products. Our skin and brain will love you for it.  

Nerds (lye) and Cheerleaders (oil) need each other in order to make soap. This from Kevin Dunn the scientist who knows his soap inside and out and does numerous testing on it.  Quit stressing over ph levels. It's the alkali levels that matter and you need alkali in proper amounts for soap to be soap. Too low and you lose all cleansing properties. Too high and you will itch like crazy.  

Also from the Brits; Facebook is the number 1 social networking tool...use it!😊 

That's it for now. Later today I will be making a special Eucalyptus soap for my SIL Cathy Salazar aka #Feetsondaseats from Bakersfield. 👣👣👣