MakeScents Magazine

Yesterday, I went to Barnes & Noble in Redwood City to pass the time. I first went to the craft section of magazine rack to look what was new. I picked up a couple of green crafting magazines and then I saw a new magazine titled MakeScents. It is a wonderful magazine from the UK which is soley devoted to making handmade bath and beauty products.

In this issue (January 2011) it had 7 new product instructions on how to make deodorant, fizzy rockey bath melts, lip balm, and more. Also included were articles on blending oils, a beginner's guide to melt and pour soap and a recipe for making your own natural oven cleaner. What was really great to see was the article on Debbie Chiltas of SoapyLove fame about her book The Art of Soap which included the best stories and photos from her new soap making bible. What I found really funny was a review of a lip balm product from Creativity for Kids. On the cover of the magazine has a headline "Craft with Kids...Making natural lip balms with your little ones". But the author of the article mentions a strange smell when making the lip balms in this kit. She mentions the ingredients in the kit are paraffiinum liquidum, polybutene, ethylhexl pamitate, canddlillia cera, cera microscristallina, propylparaben, methylparaben, bht, and tocopheral acetate. And thought it these ingredients were not very appealing to putting the final on her/his lips. In the final verdict, the author had reservations about this product and how pure the ingredients used. Like hello? Anyone who knows that these ingredients are not pure and natural unless you used beeswax, shea butter, etc in your recipes.

I was really hestiant to purchase this magazine because of the price. A single issue costs $9.50 plus tax. One can get a subscription. For version in print it will cost 60 pounts for ROW and a digital vesion is 25 pounts. But I was really interested in alot of the articles, so it was worth it. What is great about this magazine that it covers a wide range of subjects on making your own homemade bath and body products. But you must realize that most of the advertisers in this magazine are from the UK. Now this magazine should not be confused with another magazine called MakingScents which is strictly devoted to aromatherapy.

For right now, I will be visiting Barnes and Noble each month to see what the magazine has to offer and then determine if I am going to buy it. Maybe in the future when I have discretionary income I will decide to get a full subsription. The next issue of MakeScents, the magaine will cover Dry Shampoo, cold base moisterizing recipe, bath salts, Valentine's soaps and the latest news, reviews and products. Now I will giving you fair warning on this magazine - since it is coming from the UK that it may be delayed in the stores. For example, the February 2011 was supposed to be out on January 27, 2011. It is now way past that so I would call prior to driving down to your location Barnes and Noble.

Overall, I am happy with this type of magazine because of the variety of topics covered. Plus there are not too many magazines devoted to this subjet. Sure there is Saponfier which is dedicated to soap, but that is all. I hope to be a future reader of this magazine and I hope you will find this magazine useful to you.

If you would like to subscribed, then I suggest going to the following link - http://www.uniquemagazines.co.uk/magazine-subscriptions-347298/Subscribe-to-Make-Scents.

Homemade Made Soap Article Appears in National Craft Magazine

Today I was browsing at Barnes and Noble in Redwood City. CA just browsing at some books.  Before I left I went to the magazine section to look at the craft magazines they carried. I happened to come across the Spring 2010 issue of Living Crafts.  I was suprised to see on the cover an article on handmade soapmaking. Too be honest I rarely see any craft magazines contains articles on the subject and it was very nice to see a national magazine covering the subject.  There are not too many craft magazines covering the subject of soapmaking.  Most of them cover scrapbooking, papercrafting and knitting.

The article titled "Handmade Soap...Using Nature's Cupboard" was written by Tracy Adams who has appeared on HGTV's "That's Clever:", teaching clasess at John C Campbell Folk School in North Carolina.  She is also makes soaps and is the owner of Nanty's Naturals.  The article which appears on page 30, is a very nice step by step directions (with nice color photographs) on how to make cold process soap, but the cover price of $6.99 I found very steep and I hope I can find a local library that might have a copy so I can check it out.

If your local bookstore carries this magazine, I would recommend taking a look at the article just for the pleasure of how Tracy makes her own soaps.