Introducing: Philip, The Queen's Rogue

As has been said many times at the farmer's markets where we show our soap, we don't make "pretty" soap in the way of many other soapers. Instead we make soaps that are very purposeful.

Philip, The Queen's Rogue is a moisturizing hand/body bar that we find to be one of our most popular. We find it difficult to keep this one on hand as it tends to go quickly. But don't worry, if it's not around when you stop by there is sure to be a new batch curing and on it's way.

Now, being moisturizing is a good enough purpose for most soaps, as so many handmade soaps can be a little drying.  (Note: we tend to "superfat" our soaps to ensure they are moisturizing.) However, Philip has a more ancient purpose. Legend has it that during the times of a bubonic plague outbreak over five centuries ago a blend of essential oils were used to ward off the disease. The blend? Cinnamon, clove, lemon, eucalyptus, and rosemary.

 Now, we all know how "truthful" legends are, so we take the story with a grain of salt. However, all five essential oils have been reported to have medicinal properties, but honestly, we just love the combination of all the oils together. So, even if the legendary oil blend did not help save the thieves, at least we know they all met their end smelling wonderful. (And by "wonderful" we mean something reminiscent of a warm spice cake.)

Introducing: Get The Crud Out!

No, we're not telling you to go away. Rather, today starts the beginning of our Soap Introductions! Once or twice a week we will be talking about the soaps you can find at Pip & Lola's Everything Homemade. Today I have chosen our oily skin facial soap, Get the Crud Out!

We make this soap with tea tree and lavender essential oils, both of which are natural antibacterials.  This is paired with both oatmeal and two types of clay.

Apart from the obvious exfoliating quality of ground oatmeal, it has also been cited as being effective for relieving dryness and inflammation, including rashes and eczema, and for helping your skin maintain moisture.

Kaolin Clay and French Green Clay finish out the soap and add the ability to absorb the excess oils from the skin. The Kaolin clay is reported to help stimulate circulation and gently exfoliate, while the French Green Clay is absorbent and helps tighten cleansed pores.

One note: This is not a soap for those with very dry skin. For some people this will be a daily use soap. For others it may become part of an every-other day routine.

Cabinet for a Cause

At Pip & Lola's we have always made each of our soaps with a purpose in mind: to clean, to refresh, to moisturize or to heal. Now we are able to add another purpose: to give.

At our Freighthouse Square location we have established our "Cabinet for a Cause." Within this cabinet any of our vendors are able to place part of their merchandise with the sole intent of donating a portion of their profits to the charity of their choice.

For us we have chosen Relay for Life. At the behest of a dear friend we created a new soap, Gypsy Rose Lemon. That soap has been identified as our benefit bar. For each bar sold we are donating a percentage of the sale to charity. The scent of roses with overtones of lemon make this bar a pleasure to use and the blend of oils helps make the soap moisturizing to your hands.


Sami would love to donate to local theatres as well. If any local theatre would like to come suggest a soap scent blend that best personifies their theatre, we will do our best to create a bar just for them and be willing to donate a portion of the profits from each bar to their organization.

Please help us help someone else. Drop on by and check out our Cabinet for a Cause. New items are showing up all the time and you never know what you will find.

Pip & Lola's Everything Homemade - A Retail Saga

     Well, here it is July 2nd, 2012, and Pip & Lola's has finally created an actual brick and mortar retail store. In less than two short years we have gone from a hobby to a full scale business. At the beginning of last year we started our Etsy store (pipandlola.etsy.com) and began selling orders online. Then we joined the Tacoma Farmer's Market and began selling directly to the market public on a limited basis. When the Tacoma Food Co-Op opened we began to have a few of our soaps seen daily to the public. As of yesterday, we officially opened our doors to the public 7 days a week at the Freighthouse Square at 430 E 25th Street in Tacoma, WA.

     The theme of Pip & Lola's has always been handmade quality products. The retail location is no different, however we have been able to make many more handmade products available to our customers. With the help of a multitude of local artists/craftspeople we are able to offer pottery, fused glass art, jewelry, photos, cards, handmade clothing, hand-spun yarn, knitting, crocheting, barbecue rubs, shadow boxes, wearable art, photography, paintings and so much more. (My apologies to any artist whose product I may have missed. I blame sleep deprivation.) As much as possible we have focused on Tacoma area artisans, expanding out to cover four local counties. Our number of vendors is still growing and it looks like we will have plenty of varied items to cater to a wide variety of customers.

      We picked Freighthouse Square for a reason. It used to be a destination for Tacoma shoppers and it has been undergoing a phase of revitalization with the intent to make it a destination once again. There are multiple new stores that have opened or are opening up in the very near future. Each shop features its own unique selection of merchandise. With so many new stores coming in, Freighthouse Square will be a wonderful place to get all your gift shopping done. And, with its ample food court, it is a great place to come spend your lunch hour or grab a quick bite after work. When you've finished with your meal, you can simply step into the first shop to the east of the food court and come see us!

Pip & Lola's Everything Homemade is waiting for you. Come on by and make some memories with us!

Stinging Nettle Shampoo - A Testimony

At Pip & Lola's we love to have feedback from you!  One of our favorite people sent us a message about how the Stinging Nettle Shampoo Bar works for her.  We loved the story so much we wanted to share it with everyone else.

"I started using Pip & Lola’s Nettle shampoo about a year ago. I had been using other Pip &Lola soaps for about a year, and really wanted to try a bar shampoo. I have seborrheic dermatitis, which is sort of like dandruff on steroids. I had to use a coal tar shampoo (which smells like sheep dip) for about a year before I got control of the condition. Once I got the dermatitis under control, I was able to use some other shampoos most of the time, BUT about once every week or three, I had to break out the “sheep dip” to clear up my scalp.

I had been using the nettle shampoo for about 3 months when I realized that I had not needed the “sheep dip.” Since I started using Pip and Lola’s nettle shampoo, I have used sheep dip exactly once—in the fall, when the weather changed. Since weather and seasonal changes are the times I am most likely to have an outbreak, I expected to need the sheep dip when winter weather started, and again when we went south to sunny California. Nope. And thus far this spring, I have had not a single twinge of seborrheic dermatitis.

Added bonus: I also love the way the shampoo lathers up, the way it feels on my scalp, and the way it just smells neutral and fresh.

Another added bonus: my husband is a dandruff sufferer. Neither Head and Shoulders nor H & S copycat shampoos have been as effective for him as the nettle shampoo. I am sending a bar to my brother, who has seborrheic dermatitis in his eyebrows, since he has no hair on his head. We’ll see if it works as well for him!"

We cannot begin to explain how happy this makes us that our soap has made such a major change in someone's life! Thank you, Virginia, for sharing this!

If you have a Pip & Lola story, comment, or testimony you would like to share we would love to hear from you. Please feel free to send us a message on our Facebook page or to our e-mail address.

Have a great day!

Featuring: Pip & Lola's "Rose by a Nose"

http://www.heyhandmade.com/listing/rose-by-a-nose-soap/

So this spring we have an item being featured with www.heyhandmade.com, and e-catalog of handmade and vintage items.  Our featured item: Rose by a Nose.

We are proud of all of our soaps at Pip and Lola's, but this one is a perfect soap for the approach of spring!  Scented with natural essential oils of rosewood and geranium along with a healthy dose of rose petals, Rose by a Nose has the wonderful, warm scent of roses without the use of artificial fragrance oils.  Like most of our soaps, Rose by Nose is a vegan soap, using no animal products in its creation. Palm, palm kernel and coconut oils are used to create a creamy lather and a cleansing soap, while the rice bran oil adds its essential fatty acids, which are helpful for healthy skin. Because there are never any drying agents in our soaps, your skin is left feeling silky and smooth, rather than being dried out.

Pip & Lola's: Rose by a Nose

The winter holidays may be done, but Valentine's day is just around the bend. Wouldn't it be nice to surprise your loved ones with a rose or two?

You can always find us at:  pipandlola.etsy.com

Pip & Lola's is back on the blog!

Whew! This last year has been a busy one!  We celebrated our one year anniversary as a company this month!  Okay, well we technically didn't go live until March, but the preparations for our opening began one year ago.

In one year what have we accomplished? Well, we took our six years of experience making soap and started this wonderful company; we opened both an Etsy and a Hyenacart store; we operated a booth at the South Tacoma Farmer's Market; we had a booth at The Puyallup Fair AND the Tacoma Holiday Food and Gift Festival;we have some of our soaps being sold at the Tacoma Food Co-Op, and have attended numerous other fairs and craft festivals.  It HAS been busy.

It's been great being a local company at all the fairs, but it's also been great having our online stores as well.  We have been keeping track of where our soap travels to.  So far the winner for furthest distance traveled has been to Moscow, Russia!  Other places of interest include Nova Scotia, Italy, Canada, and England.  

Initially our intent was to create about ten different soaps.  That seemed like a good number to start with.  It was manageable, yet it offered a variety of types to choose from.  Needless to say, as with many hobbies, we got a little out of control. Ten led to ten more, and then ten more, and then ten more.... (You see where this is heading?)  Now, our meager little ten has grown to around sixty-five different types of soap. We don't make them all at the same time, but out of those, there are at least a good forty that are always in production.

It has been our goal during this whole year to produce a quality homemade soap that we can be proud of and people can be happy using.  All of our soaps are vegetarian, and most of them are actually vegan.  The only ingredients that come from animal products are goat's milk, honey, beeswax, and chocolate. (I know, chocolate doesn't come from an animal, but the milk within it does.)  You will notice that there is no animal fat in our soaps. In addition, you will never find artificial fragrance oils in our products.  We only use natural essential oils (i.e. lavender, peppermint, clove), plant materials (i.e. oats, seaweed, flower petals), and natural earth materials (i.e. bentonite clay, mica, sea salt).  

One thing people have always commented on is how lightly scented our soaps are. Everything is purposefully barely scented. We want to make our soaps both allergy and migraine friendly. Too many soaps are so heavily scented that many people will get instant headaches just from being in a room with them. We want to do the opposite of that. We scent our soaps lightly enough that you can smell them best when you are washing with them.  And some of them aren't scented at all, they are simply wonderfully moisturizing and delightful on your hands and body.

That's about it for now.  New things are happening this year. We will be in new locations and will be offering new soaps (because we have no self control).  Watch this spot for more news and pictures!

In the mean time... Keep clean!  

Pip and Lola say hello!