We've always been the type to push ourselves a little further to see if we can get something just right. While we loved our liquid soap (it's been our signature products for the last 10 years!), we had this feeling we could work on the formula and improve it. So, about a year ago, we started the process.
We knew our goals:
Early in 2023 year we started working on it in earnest. We were determined to make it work. And we did! We finished partial batches and started using them at home and loved them. We scaled up. We tested, and tested, and tested.
The end result is a product that we hope you will love as much as we do. We added high oleic sunflower oil (which is fantastic for your skin!) as well as vitamin rich jojoba and avocado oils. The end result is a lovely soap that is a little thinner than our previous recipe, but is oh, so wonderfully moisturizing. We will begin shipping this new recipe in September 2023.
Ingredients (INCI): Water, Coconut (Cocos Nucifera) Oil*, Olive (Olea Europaea) Fruit Oil*, Potassium Hydroxide, Sunflower (Helianthus Annuus) Seed Oil*, Sodium Chloride, Jojoba (Simmondsia Chinensis) Seed Oil*, Avocado (Persea Gratissima) Oil*, Fragrance†, and Citric Acid // *certified organic †blend of essential oils
Ingredients (common names): Water, Coconut Oil*, Olive Oil*, Potassium Hydroxide, Sunflower Oil*, Salt, Jojoba Oil*, Avocado Oil*, Fragrance†, and Citric Acid // *certified organic †blend of essential oils
Note: our new recipe has a different density than our previous recipe, so we recommend that you do not mix them. Instead, clean your liquid soap dispenser before adding the new hand & body wash.
]]>First and foremost, it's important to be periodically wiping down the exterior of your hand soap pumps. Rinse off any excess soap with warm water and then take some all purpose cleaner or diluted white vinegar with a rag and wipe down the top of the pump well to remove any bacteria that accumulates from dirty hands using it. This applies equally to kitchens and bathrooms.
Moving on...the next time you notice your dispensers getting low, instead of automatically refilling them, let them get as low as possible. Then open them up and rinse them really well inside and out with warm water. When you've washed out most of the residual soap, add in some vinegar to get them extra clean. This includes running some of that vinegar through the pump top itself. Finally, rinse thoroughly with warm water and leave them to dry. The process shouldn't take long.
Once dry, refill with soap and you're all set!
]]>Sounds simple, right? Well, every country chooses to interpret the INCI a bit differently. As a business, if you are exporting to Europe, for example, you have to follow the European INCI guidelines.
In the United States, the FDA says ingredients should be listed by their common names but the INCI or names in alternate languages can be listed in parentheses after the common name. Since Whispering Willow sells within the US, we have always used common names, but have started to make a slight change.
Starting in July of 2023, you will begin to see our labels transitioning to include the INCI names along with the common names in our ingredient listings.
For example: "Olive Oil" will now become "Olive (Olea Europaea) Fruit Oil".
Continuing with labeling requirements, our boxes will list the INCI ingredients and end with the word "fragrance"; however, we continue to scent only with essential oils and a disclaimer on the box will explain it.
In short, our ingredient listings will look longer (and a bit different) because of the added words, but we promise they are still the same products you know and love. 😊
]]>One of our goals is always to be more eco-conscious. We aim to shift away from plastic whenever possible.
With Plastic Free July in mind, we have shifted our linen spray from plastic bottles to glass. They will arrive capped and boxed so they are fully protected during shipping. The box will also contain a misting top that you can switch out upon arrival.
Linen spray getting low? We have linen spray refills available when you are ready. 🙌
]]>For the first time this year, we started to question that commitment. Not asking whether we would continue to donate to charity, but asking if we could be doing more. We researched options, spent many hours discussing it, and in the end decided to make a change.
As of July 2023, Whispering Willow is a proud member of 1% for the Planet.
We will be donating 1% of annual sales to non profit partners addressing today's most pressing challenges including climate change, food and water scarcity, pollution, and wildlife preservation. This allows us to support the causes that mean the most to us and for our giving to change and to evolve over time.
We've always been environmentally conscious. In our younger years, our dream was to live in an Earth Ship. 😊 That dream has passed (although we still think they are fascinating and absolutely gorgeous!), but we do our best to live our lives with the environment in mind. We've carried those same principles into our business.
At Whispering Willow, we:
We hope you'll join us in this new (and exciting!) step forward in our journey.
Be Well,
Julia & Wayne
]]>Hydrate, Hydrate, Hydrate - If you're anything like us, there's a tendency to drink less water when traveling than you do at home. We're here to encourage you to do the opposite. This is extra important when you're spending time outdoors in the sun or if you are in areas with low humidity like the Southwestern U.S. When you're dehydrated, you'll suffer and your skin will suffer. Spending extra time in the sun or sweaty? Try a hydration booster like Liquid IV or LMNT.
Use Sunscreen Galore - Julia grew up putting sunscreen on at the beach but otherwise, not so much. It's a hard habit to change, but it's recommended to always wear sunscreen when you'll be exposed to the sun. PBS Newshour just ran a story about protecting your skin and suggested always storing sunscreen in a cool environment (think in the cooler if you're at the beach). Keep whatever sunscreen you'll use - mineral, chemical, stick, powder. Julia picked up some Colorescience Sunforgettable powdered sunscreen. It just brushes onto the face and can easily be carried in a purse for reapplication as needed.
Moisturize your skin (all of it!) - Although you should be moisturizing frequently, it's extra important after time in the sun. After showering and while your skin is still damp, apply a light layer of body oil. Of course, if you overdid it in the sun, aloe is always a good option. One area of the body that is all too often neglected are the heels. We've been taking many long walks, so Julia is now in the habit of applying a small amount of salve to her heels before putting her socks on before our walks. Small choices like that will help your heels be ready to shine in open backed shoes.
Rest - Traveling can be so exciting but it can also be exhausting. On more than one occasion we've returned from a vacation and thought, "We could sure use a break!". Schedule time for additional rest (a.k.a. power naps) to compensate for the stress of travel, increased activity level, change in time zones, etc. Try to keep your sleeping routine the same. Wayne uses an eye pillow to help get to sleep at home and it is the first thing to go in the suitcase when we travel.
We hope these few tips from our own experience help you have a more enjoyable and fulfilling vacation. We wish you safe travels and would love to hear about your own travel hacks.
Be Well,
Julia & Wayne
]]>We're sharing the little things that are making us happy this month. It's been a bit since we shared, but we hope you enjoy reading this list as much as we enjoy compiling it!
In honor of their dedication, in the US we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week the first full week of May. Join us in thanking the teachers. Give them a small gift, a card, a smile, or just take a moment to stop by a classroom and tell them what a difference they are making in your child's life. 🙏
If you'd like to purchase a small gift, we have a few suggestions:
Our Self-Care Gift Box has a bar of soap, lip balm, salve, and soap dish all boxed up and ready to go. It makes an adorable, easy gift and will hopefully remind teachers to take a few moments for self-care when they can.
We imagine that teachers understand the importance of handwashing better than most. 😊 Our hand soap comes in a frosted glass bottle, is made with organic oils and essential oils and is wonderfully moisturizing. Tuck it into a small gift bag & you have the perfect Teacher gift.
Last (but definitely not least), our Lavender Eye Pillows. These may be small, but they pack a powerful punch. You can warm them in the microwave or cool them in the freezer. They can be placed over the eyes, or to soothe muscles when needed.
Hopefully we've given you a few ideas of gifts for teachers. Regardless of what you choose, please do take a moment to thank the teachers in your lives during Teacher Appreciation Week (and every opportunity you have!).
]]>As a childless by choice couple, Mother's Day can be a bit strange when we're not celebrating with our families. Some years, Wayne will buy me a gift or card from the pup which is super cute and always makes me giggle. (Wayne here: the dog picks it out entirely on her own - I have little to do with it!).
For those who are celebrating with a mother figure, we wanted to share a few gift ideas with you.
Our Rest & Renew Gift Box contains a neck wrap, body oil, and bar soap. They arrive in a beautiful linen wrapped box ready for giving.
Our Lavender Neck Wrap is available in three different colors and arrives in a box with directions for heating and cooling to soothe sore muscles.
Finally, our Lavender Luxury Box contains all the lavender goodies! Mom, Aunt, or Grandma can enjoy a body oil, bath salt, linen spray, salve, and eye pillow all filled with that wonderfully relaxing lavender goodness.
Whether you are spending Mother's Day alone or with family, we hope it is a day full of love. ❤️
Be well,
Julia
We've found the best way for us to focus on the business and do some serious planning is to just get away. This year, we rented a house in Cheshire Village near Black Mountain, NC.
Our routine included sleeping in, walks with the pup, a couple hours of work in the afternoon, another walk, and then dinner. Honorable dining mentions include: Little Sprout Carry Out, Mac's Burgers & Cheesesteaks, and Sake Sushi.
We had a lot to accomplish and managed to get through most of it. Of course, getting through meant making plans for a lot of work in the coming months but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and we took those first steps on our little retreat.
The broad strokes of the changes that you will see upcoming include:
To be honest, it's a lot...but it's also pretty exciting. Being able to get away and focus on work without the interruptions of work and life was great. We returned home focused and well-rested and loving Black Mountain even more.
We will keep you posted as we near completion on some of these projects. Until then, be kind to yourself and those around you.
Be Well,
W
Daily Mom included our Hand Soap in their article on Selfcare Ideas To Benefit Your Body & Your Sanity.
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This plant-based dish soap comes in a ceramic container, and it's made from all-natural ingredients like coconut oil and essential oils so it smells great and gets your dishes clean with minimal effort. And best of all? When it's empty, you can refill the container with our solid dish soap refills. Not only are you saving the planet by choosing this product, but you're also saving money on buying new containers over and over again!
Pair it with a short handled or long handled dish brush and you'll be all set to tackle your dishes.
New to solid dish soap? The transition is easy! Our video below walks you through how to use it:
*Reference: EPA Facts & Figures
]]>And, as things go when you are running a small business, we found out that we then needed to learn about FDA and FTC rules (if nothing else we are rule followers). Thankfully, we are members of the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild and the Guild is lucky enough to have a guru when it comes to this stuff; her name is Marie Gale. So, we bought all her books and did lots of reading.
We thought we'd share a few common questions we get related to the messy business of soap making.
If you're a natural company, why do you use sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide?
Sodium hydroxide & potassium hydroxide are also known as lye. They are necessary to make soap. When lye, which is a base, is combined with the fatty acids in oils, a chemical reaction occurs called saponification. Saponification is what creates soap - liquid or bar depending on the lye that you choose. During this process, the lye is neutralized. Basically, if the soapmaker has done their job well, there is no lye remaining in the finished product.
If there's no lye left, why is it listed on your labels?
Great question! According to the FDA, soap can be soap (yep), or soap can be a cosmetic. It depends on how you talk about it. If you say that your soap does anything other than just clean, you have made it into a cosmetic which means per the rules & regs you need to include ALL the ingredients that went into the pot when you made that product. As we have already established we are rule followers, we list them all to err on the side of caution.
Why do other people's labels sometimes say "saponified oils of (xxx)"?
If soap makers choose to talk about their soap only as soap - saying only that it cleans, not that it moisturizers, etc - then, they can use the wording listed above. They did still use lye to make the product. They just chose to leave it off the label because, just like ours, the lye doesn't exist in the final product that folks will be using on their skin.
We hope this lesson helps shed some light on what can be a very confusing topic (even for us and we've been doing this for 12 years now!). Of course, if you have any questions, please reach out to us anytime.
Be well,
Julia
We're sharing the little things that are making us happy each month. We hope you enjoy reading this list as much as we enjoy compiling it!
Self-Care
We understand self-care to be a recognition that you need and deserve to pay attention to your well being in an acute and perhaps urgent manner. This can express itself in so many ways. It can be treating yourself to a nice dinner with that special someone, making time for a long soaking bath, or planning a weekend getaway to clear the mind and settle the spirit.
Sometimes self-care can be thought of as pampering and having a luxurious and perhaps out of reach vibe. But self-care can also mean hitting the easy button for dinner (think pizza...delivered), taking a minute for three deep breaths before a meeting, or choosing the long way home for a few extra minutes of "me time".
An acquaintance recently shared a self-care story. They frequently go on business trips that involve all day meetings and then group dinners (aka...business meetings with food). On particularly challenging days, they make a point go to their room before dinner where they turn out the lights, pull the curtains, and curl up in a ball under the covers for 20 minutes.
Know that this person loves their job. They simply recognize that an intense day (and evening) of analysis and decision making requires time to recharge and have found an effective way to accomplish that. Some may think of this as weakness, and they would be wrong. This is self-awareness, insight, and strength that makes this individual a highly successful and sought after professional.
Self-Keeping
We see self-keeping as day to day maintenance that helps you pace yourself over the long-term. This can be finding an exercise routine and maintaining it, committing to certain healthy diet choices, a good sleep routine, keeping a doctors appointment, or maintaining a medication regiment.
Honestly, it can be as simple as taking a shower. As a chronic illness fighter, Julia knows this battle first hand. MS in particular can cause intense bouts of fatigue when you are in a flare that makes something as simple as a shower feel overwhelming. It may be the only thing you accomplish that afternoon or that day, but it is a win to be celebrated all the same.
Prioritizing these basic tasks and accepting that some days you just get to do the basics is the heart of self-keeping.
Summary
In short, we understand self-keeping as the group of habits and routines that we weave throughout our lives to help us function in the ways that are important to us.
Self-care is what we do when these habits and routines are strained by external or internal forces and we need to make an extra investment in our wellbeing.
While we as a company focus and discuss self-care often, self-keeping is our foundation. They are complementary elements to living a balanced and healthy life.
Be Well,
J & W
]]>We decided we wanted to share the little things that are making us happy each month. We hope you enjoy reading this list as much as we enjoy compiling it!
As Whispering Willow has grown I've noticed the same challenge, it takes a lot of resources to make these products for our amazing customers. We've always used the familiar phrase Reduce, Reuse, Recycle as a blueprint for how to be more eco-friendly in our operations and while we have taken steps to reduce the use of plastic and we recycle all the cardboard and plastic we can, we know that in order to make progress we have to embrace that second principle: Reuse.
Enter closed loop manufacturing. A closed loop manufacturing process reuses materials from the creation and delivery of a product to make new or additional products. Our desire to embrace this philosophy was encouraged by many of the refilleries we've been working with who buy our hand soap and body wash in 2.5 gallon containers.
Want to learn more about refilleries? You can read about two of our refillery partners on our blog: Earth & Me and Amend Market.
Our refillery partners wanted to return their containers so we could reuse them and we were happy to oblige. However, we soon realized that the cost of shipping these large plastic bottles made this process unsustainable plus the containers were not made for that level of wear and tear. We needed a better solution.
One thing you may not know about Julia, my business partner and much better half, is that one of her super powers is researching any topic on the internet. It may not sound like the sexiest super power in the world but it sure comes in handy (and it is a little sexy). She was able to find a local supplier that makes collapsible containers for storing and shipping liquids.
With this last piece of the puzzle in place, we launched a new product and a new process. When a refillery orders our hand soap or body wash in a 2.5 gallon pouch we include a return shipping label in the box. Once the refillery has emptied the pouch they rinse it, tuck it back in the box, and return it to us. We then wash and sanitize the pouch, hang it to dry, and ready it for another batch of soapy goodness. And with that final step, we have closed the loop. Because of the collapsible nature of the container, the refillery can save up several pouches and return them all at once in single box, making this a more efficient, and cost-effective process.
While we are currently only offering this process with our 2.5 gallon size for our wholesale customers we hope to expand it to our 64oz refills including our hand soap and body wash. The more folks we can get closing the loop, the better it will be for everyone!
Be well,
W
]]>Many thanks to Kendall at Amend Market for taking the time to share with us! We hope this helps to demystify the refillery experience.
You can can find more details about Amend Market on their website or search Whispering Willow's stockist locator and choose "Refill Location" when you search to find a refillery close to you!
Be well,
Julia
Many thanks to Kayli at Earth & Me for taking the time to share with us! We hope this helps to demystify the refillery experience.
You can can find more details about Earth & Me on their website or search Whispering Willow's stockist locator and choose "Refill Location" when you search to find a refillery close to you!
Be well,
Julia
Our preference has long been to use distilled water in our products. Because we live in a fairly rural area, we don't have a water delivery service and we have relied on plastic containers of distilled water. We reused these containers as part of our processes for as long as we possibly could and then we would recycle them, but ultimately, we knew we wanted to move away from introducing plastic in the first place.
When we moved into our new space earlier this year, we had more room for the first time and the chance to make some big changes.
So, meet our new friend: Our very own water distiller!
While to many it may look like a very large piece of metal (which it definitely is!), it was on our wish list for many, many years and was such an exciting purchase! Now we can create our own distilled water for our liquid soap, bar soap, and linen spray!
We also changed our processes so we bottle directly from our equipment into the final glass pumps, 64oz containers, or 2.5 gallon containers, so we don't need any additional plastic.
As a result, our plastic usage in the studio has dropped dramatically. We re-use any bubble wrap we receive and are left with a few odds and ends (mostly received from our vendors) including the plastic that arrives wrapped around our pallets.
Are we perfect? Far from it, but this was a huge step we've looked forward to for a long time. And, as long as we continue re-evaluating and making incremental improvements, we can continue to be proud of our progress.
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Laurel Hill Farm and Preserve is a 240 acre property that is home to goats, bees, chickens, some amazing livestock guardian dogs, and a friendly (!) turkey. Amy & her family oversee the property and care for the animals with help from Kassi who also runs her flower business, Kindness Flowers.
To say the farm is picturesque is an understatement. Amy is the nicest human ever and she is surrounded by such a gorgeous space and animals that are clearly adored.
When we arrived to pick up our milk, she asked us if we wanted to meet the animals. Of course, we agreed!
We're not sure you can tell how much we are giggling in all these pictures, but our faces hurt from laughing so much.
We loved the goats, but the picture of the day was definitely this one:
When we set up the appointment to pick up goat milk, we never thought that holding a TURKEY was in our future!
We had a great time. We came home with lots of goat milk, some amazing goat cheese, gorgeous flowers, eggs, and a relationship with a wonderful new partner.
Now when you pick up a Goat Milk Lavender Bar to pair with any of our lavender goodies, you'll know the exact source of the goat milk and that the goats that share their milk with us are well loved and enjoying a good life.
Be well,
Julia & Wayne
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