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Cleaning Beeswax

6/30/2014

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Cleaning Beeswax

PictureUncleaned wax in a 5 gallon bucke
This weekend was spent making more Sasi Bug Rub The lotion bug rub requires beeswax, and as luck would have it I was out of beeswax, so we needed to clean some wax.

The picture to the right is the wax before we cleaned the wax. There are also honeycombs and honey in the wax. When you feel the wax, it is crumbly, sticky and waxy. If you taste it you can taste honey in the wax. We started out with a 5 gallon bucket of beeswax that needed to be cleaned. We used less than half of the bucket and ended up with approximately 2lbs of wax and a quart of a honey byproduct that we are still searching for a use as we never like to throw things away.

PictureStraining the wax in a pantyhose
Cleaning the wax takes time and patience. There are multiple stages to the cleaning process:

Melting the wax - the wax is placed into an old kettle (that will forever become your wax melting kettle since it is very difficult to remove all of the wax from the kettle after it has been cleaned) in a double boiler and left to melt. It is best to let the wax melt without a lot of stirring.

Straining the wax - once the wax is melted, you need to strain the dirt, bees, and honey from the beeswax. This is done by pouring the wax through pantyhose or a stocking. The picture to the right, shows the debris that is left in the pantyhose once you've strained all of the melted wax. As you can see, some wax has already hardened. I find it best to warm all of the tools I'm using in this process, that will keep the wax from cooling and hardening.

Cooling the wax - The photo bottom left shows the wax as it is cooling. The wax is lighter than the honey that has made it through the straining process and will rise to the top as it cools

Preparing for the final melt - Once the wax is completely cool it will easily slide out of the bucket, you have to clean the remaining byproduct (something that resembles honey and molasses) from the wax. In my case we had to cut the bottom layer of wax off and scrub the sides of the wax before melting.

PictureWax starting to cool
All of the steps above are repeated until the resulting wax is clean and you are ready to pour it into the molds. We used plastic baskets from the dollar store to mold our wax. They worked great, the wax slid right out of the mold once it was cool.

The final picture shows two bars of our wax, along with a chunk of wax I purchased from a natural food store. I think our wax is so much more beautiful than the purchased wax, and it smells so good, you can smell the honey that was once stored inside that wax.


We were able to make a large batch of the lotion bug rub, so we have plenty in stock for the remainder of your summer.



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Finished product. The two larger bars of wax are our wax, the smaller chunk of wax is purchased, notice the color difference. Ours smells so much better than the purchased wax.
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Happy Father's Day

6/15/2014

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Happy Father's Day!

Today's blog is dedicated to the great fathers in my life. My dad, My husband Jack, and his dad. It is amazing all of the wonderful things they have taught me and my children over the years. Thank you so much for everything you have done.

There isn't much to say - just thanks for everything you do. Without you Sasi Soap would be a dream, not a reality. You've helped me turn a love into a career.



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Rain, Rain and more Rain

6/14/2014

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PictureSasi Bug Rub
Can you believe how rainy it has been this spring and summer.  I couldn't believe it, but because we live near a lake with Zebra mussels I had to count to see if we'd had 5 days in a row without rain. You see, if we put our boat in the zebra mussel inhabited lake, it needs to be dry for 5 days before it can go into a lake without zebra mussels.I was sure we'd had 5 days in a row without rain since memorial day, but to be safe, we went to the weather page and started counting. What we found is that we haven't had more than 3 days in a row without rain - can you believe it? It just keeps raining and raining and raining.

What does wet rainy weather bring  - yes you guessed it MONSTER MOSQUITOS. Once more I'm promoting the SASI Bug Rub - I don't think you can go outside for a minute without some sort of bug deterrent and I don't know about you, but I don't want to put on deet everyday. Which is why I LOVE my Sasi Bug Rub. It keeps the mosquitos at bay with natural products. This week we are having a RAINYDAY sale. Enter the coupon code RAINYDAY and receive 20 percent off your purchase.

Rain, rain go away, come back some other day!


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Bug Rub is a Success!

6/7/2014

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The Garden Party Gallery has been selling Sasi Bug Rub all weekend. It has been a huge success. I've had to re-stock twice. It is fantastic news. I have two types of Bug Rub: an oil based rub and a lotion bar rub. They've been selling equally. I love that there is only essential oils keeping the bugs from attacking.

This is going to be a year for bugs (mosquitos in particular) because we are having only two types of weather this summer: rain and hot and humid. Both make for a very buggy summer.

The choice is yours: lotion bar or oil spray, both work equally well, it is personal preference as to how you like to apply your bug rub.

The lotion bar is made with shea butter, cocoa butter, beeswax and coconut oil. Currently it is only available in the lotion tub, but in a week it will be available in a dispenser as well. This is a great product because it is really just applying a great lotion that keeps the bugs away.

The oil based bug rub is better for those who like to spray a small amount in their hands and spread it around. I personally like the lotion bar best, but I have a friend that swears by the oil based version because she doesn't like putting her hands into lotion. They both work equally well, so it is really  up to you.

Stop by the Garden Party Gallery tomorrow for a hot dog. I'll be grilling hot dogs before I go to graduation parties.

Have a great day, and I hope you enjoy Sasi's blog.




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Bug Rubs at Garden Party Gallery in Hopkins

6/4/2014

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The Garden Party Gallery in Hopkins will be open this Thursday - Sunday. I just dropped off some of my natural bug rub in a liquid and lotion formula. While I was there I decided to stay outside and help get ready for the weekend. They have some great finds. I can't wait to go shopping there this weekend.

Both Julie and Pamela were new to my bug rubs, so they had to try them out since they were working outside. Julie used the liquid oil based rub and Pamela the lotion rub. I didn't think I'd be staying long so I didn't bother to put anything on. Before I could think about it, the mosquitoes started attacking me; Julie and Pamela were just fine. Once I put some of the lotion on my face and hands the mosquitoes would fly around me. I even had a couple land on my hands and leave immediately.

The Garden Party Gallery has some great stuff, they have a corner  in the garden devoted to 4th of July items - great stuff for my party this year.

They also have an area devoted to old laundry items, great for decorating the laundry room. I put a couple of jars of my laundry soap on the shelf, it would make a great house warming gift.

Make sure to stop by the Garden Party Gallery in Hopkins this weekend to check out their great garden art and my soaps, bug rubs and laundry detergent. Let Julie and Pamela know that Maria from Sasi Soaps told you to stop by..

The address to the Garden Party Gallery is 1213 Main Street, Hopkins, MN 55343.





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Food Truck Party

6/1/2014

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To celebrate my son's Eagle Scout and High School Graduation we had a food truck come to our house. It was great fun. When John was little he ate anything with cheese. The woman that took care of my children would ask me if he ever ate anything besides cheese. So when we saw this food truck that served Gourmet Grilled Cheese, we went for it.

Actually - the grilled cheese food truck (O'CHEEZE ) was anything but planned. My husband and I were debating between a taco bar and cooking hamburgers as we were leaving Sam's Club one day. The same time we were leaving Sam's Club, The O'Cheeze food truck was leaving their parking spot and we both looked at each other and said, that's what we'll do. We chased them down, got their card and soon we had them booked for our party.

They served 75 people from a slant on my backyard driveway and it was a blast. They served everything from a true gourmet grilled cheese, to a Mac & Cheese Grilled cheese. I supplemented the party with snacks, desserts, fruit and salad. It probably wasn't necessary to supplement so much, but we did have guests with a gluten allergy, so I felt I needed to have food that was gluten free as well. Everyone thought their grilled cheese was the best. So obviously everything on the O'CHEEZE menu was fantastic. Here's a shout out to Haley and Fritz for making John' party such a success.

What does this have to do with Sasi Soaps - not much, but it is June and there isn't a lot going on with my soap business so I thought I'd blog about life instead. It has rained a lot today, so I think I might need to start making more bug stuff. Last year I made a fantastic oil based bug rub, this year I think I'm going to try a lotion bar bug rub. We live in the midst of a slough, so we are going to have a ton of mosquitos and we do live in Minnesota where the state bird is the mosquito.

Maria


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    Author

    My name is Maria Saulsbury and I'm the founder and creater of Sasi Soaps. I love the process of taking oils and lye and creating soaps. But lately, I've been using the oils used in soaps for creating bug deterrents. I love having these natural products available for avoiding bugs.

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