Soap Making Day at the Gaia Finca

How to make a soap the Gaia way

                   What is elegance? Soap and water!
-Cecil Beaton

Taking to the soap making area, putting on some nice music and producing a batch of soaps is always a pleasure at the Gaia Finca. There is no pleasure like that of mixing and blending and making…. then standing back and looking at what you have produced. I always say it is just like cooking …. except it doesn't make you put on weight!

You can make soap from pretty much any oil but use at least 1/3 of a highly saturated oil so that your soap lathers well. Once you have chosen your oils use a lye calculator to calculate the correct amount of sodium hydroxide *for your lye solution* and water to use to make your soap. www.brambleberry.com have a really useful one, even available as an Ap.
http://www.brambleberry.com/pages/Lye-Calculator.aspx
For small batches kitchen silicone moulds are really pretty, easy and useful to use as your soap moulds!
Please remember to always be safe, wear, protective gloves, goggles and an apron!

Assemble your moulds

Assemble your ingredients, here we are adding
salt and oats as gentle exfoliants and skin softeners

All the things you wish to add to your soap mix.
Like liquidized Aloe Vera and Calendula Petals

Essential Oils to scent your soap and VERY IMPORTANT
protective glasses and gloves

Melt down your solid fats, in this case
chocolate and coconut oil

Prepare your decorative final touches in this case
olive tree leaves

Last check is everything ready to start

Heating the oils, in this case coconut, olive & sunflower oil

Temperatures are VERY important! At Gaia we heat our
oils to 32 degrees

Heating the Lye solution to the same
temperature as the oils

Stir it all together and blend at first fast and then slowly
to incorporate all the the oils and lye solution
encouraging the temperature to rise slightly

In a separate vessel prepare the things you are going to add
to the soap mix. At Gaia we use flower
 petals, oats, essential oils
and salt

Blend evenly until you have custard like blend that shows a
trace in the stirred liquid!

Your soap mix is ready and you can now add it to the
 prepared essential oils and flowers and exfoliants

Pour it into the moulds 

…and decorate the soaps with your leaves. Leave it in a
warm place for 24 hours. Sometimes in the winter
when our soaps are slow to turn hard we put some hot water
bottles on them ! But cover them first or stack the moulds.

AFter 24 hours the soaps are turned out of the
moulds and are ready to cut

The soaps are cut to the required sizes 

….and to client specifications. These are for a client with
a Boutique Hotel in Menorca

* My two top tips to my soap making helper *
1. Whenever you think you have stirred enough stir it some more!
 2. Wear some really nice cloth to make soap! You will work more
carefully and this saves on the clearing up process later!

Easter in Gaia Bathtime

… celebrating the arrival of spring…and of course chocolate!

In Gaia we have a special Easter Egg Raffle …. one chocolate easter egg for 6 Euro… and each one carries a prize! There are soaps to win, body Polishers and 3 massages! 
Come by and treat yourself to one of these special eggs!  We made only 64 !
I have also made some pink coloured bath bombs that will pass as non fattening easter eggs and some bunny and butterfly shaped soaps!
Easter Market in Colonia Sant Jordi is this weekend also celebrating salt and spice! *Sal y Especias* Our Rosa will be down there for Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday!

http://ultimahora.es/mallorca/diviertete/ferias/feria-sal-especias-colonia-sant-jordi.html

Happy Easter to you all and very many chocolate eggs! 

                                                    Calle Corderia 28, Palma de Mallorca
                                                                       971 714983     

Very Special Rosemary scented soaps for Hotel Torral Benc Menorca

These last few days has seen a frenzy of activity to get the amenities ready for one of our good clients Hotel Torral Benc in Menorca

http://www.torralbenc.com/en/index.html

The soaps were made yesterday using finest virgin olive oil and coconut oil and the essential oils of Rosemary. Today we cut them and they will spend a few days in sun drying. We bring them in at sunset and out again the next morning!
In the meantime we are preparing a fine selection of Shampoo, Conditioner finest Body Lotion and Pillow Spray to be ready for when Torral Benc opens its doors for the season. 
Rosemary is what grows in abundance around the grounds of Torral Benc and is meant to help you to have clarity of mind and is of course good for your memory… helping you to remember the scents of Menorca and your holiday!

“Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.” 
― Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic

Our Gaia Finca in the Balearic Islands

Gaia Finca Production area

Cutting the soaps for Hotel Torral Benc

Carrying the soaps
to dry in the sun

Sun dried Rosemary soaps for Hotel Torral Benc Menorca
full of the scent of the Mediterranean

www.gaia-natural-mallorca.com

Artesanal Fairs in Mallorca

Andraitx Artesanal and Agricultural Spring Fair

I can truly say that this fair is one of the highlights of the Andraitx maybe even Mallorca calendar.
It seems to mostly fall into those first few wonderful warm days of spring and the towns people always make a special effort to show off. Not only the biggest cabbage, pumpkin etc but also price animals, competitions on who can cut cut the thinnest slice of wood from a trunk with a chain saw but also local crafts people and artists. There is amusing street theatre, lots of delicious local produced foods to try and an opportunity to say hello to all your friends and neighbours!
This is an annual fair that is traditionally held every first weekend of April!

I shall keep updating this post as the years goes on with pictures and dates for other similar fairs across our island!
A really good page on Facebook to follow to know what fairs are on when is Fires i Festes de Mallorca. 

Sa Sagrera on the Paseo in Palma has a Summer Nights Market every Thursday, Firday, Saturday 
and Sunday from 19-00 until after midnight throughout June, July, August, September and part 
of October.

The Fabulous Tina from Sa Taronja Cultural Centre in Andraitx
http://www.sataronja.net/sataronjamainpag.html

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                                                    Calle Corderia 28,  Palma de Mallorca
                                                         www.gaia-natural-mallorca.com

Anyone for Coffee?

“A morning coffee is my favorite way of starting the day, settling the nerves so that they don't later fray.”
Marcia Carrington

In Gaia we all know the importance of that first cup of coffee in the morning the one that sets you up for the day. Personally I like to make it not too strong, add a lot of warm milk and a spoonful of Honey! It is like rocket fuel and puts me into a very good mood and a perfect frame of mind to tackle the day.
I always make my coffee, sit gemutlich * a wonderful German word for cosy*, add my minimal touches of make up and look at my e mails! This reminds me … nobody has asked my to do a 'NO Make Up' Selfi yet to raise Cancer Awareness!
Coffee of course has other wonderful properties. I have heard it mentioned that it helps with the prevention of Altzheimers. 

http://www.coffeeandhealth.org/research-centre/neurodegenerativedisorders/coffee-and-alzheimer’s-disease/

In Gaia we use coffee in two of our products!
Our Cafe Body Polish is made with coffee grounds to exfoliate, coffee beans to massage the body and just a small amount of caffeine to give you a wake up boost in the mornings! It will help reduce cellulitis and bags and dark areas under your eyes. Of course you don t use it on your face just your body but the caffeine will travel through the skin into the blood stream and work its wonders.

Coffee Body Polish

We also use the coffee grinds and the beans in our soap which helps remove the cooking smells, like onion and garlic from your hands after cooking!

Coffee Soap

As always we wish you a happy Bathtime but today also a Happy Cafe Time!