Camamu Soap

Hello friends!

It’s that time…  robins in the yard, daffodils blooming, crimson peony nubs spearing up…  the list of seasonal awakenings goes on and on which is just to say that any day with sun finds many of us Portlanders out in our amazing city gardens, still harvesting wintry remains and definitely plotting up-coming planting plans.

We’re pretty sure you’re doing the same and to lend a gentle hand to your nascent gardening efforts we’ve put a few soaps on sale.  Get Dirty Gardening says it all…  dirt under fingernails, a few scratches from beloved roses, smears of slug slime…  so much fun!!  GDG is wonderful for post-gardening clean-up – organic cornmeal lends extra heft for deep cleaning, rich oils re-moisturize dry, chapped hands while tea tree oil provides gentle antiseptic care to surface scrapes and scratches.  Hand in hand (ahem) is our Atlas Scrubbed soap – the perfect choice to use after any job that involves heavy-lifting (yes, physical or emotional!).  Organic, ground oats provide gentle exfoliation/extra conditioning & cleansing power, castor oil provides deep moisturizing and an essential oil blend of clove, vetiver and sweet orange provide earthy grounding and centering.  Lastly, to bid goodbye to winter-weary skin, try our Milk and Honey soap.  Loaded with skin nourishing base oils, humectant, healing local honey and farm fresh goat’s milk,  our Milk and Honey soap soothes, gently exfoliates old skin layers and refreshes for sweet, spring skin.

Happy spring sale!!  Enjoy the bounty….

Okay.  So it’s not completely here…  yet!!  But, it’s definitely starting.  Bulbs are pushing up, leaves are unfurling at the base of the Japanese anemones and the light stays a little bit longer every day.

We’re enjoying it all from Camamu’s world headquarters where we keep making soap, keep dreaming up new lovelies to share with you all and keep our rubber boots at the ready for a walk in the woods and beyond.  Even though it’s just February, still, there’s beckonings of plantain to dry for salve and soap, nettles to stew and poplar buds to harvest from fallen branches…. even emerging from slumber the world’s a magic place for making more of the same.

And, speaking of magic, don’t let’s forget what’s tumbling around in Sarah’s amazing chakra soaps.  Months in the making, imbued with oak tree-full moon-crystal energy and lots of creative love and joy, they’re here in the studio, resplendent and waiting to come into your life too.  Available in a set of seven or individually, their intention is your goodness.

We’ll be the first to admit that what we do at Camamu is time-intensive.  From hand-stirring our pots of soap to meticulously gluing on the paper for our gift boxes, we are the antithesis of ‘mass’ anything.  So, a little Camamu story.  Sarah had an idea this spring to develop a new line of soap that involved infusing crystal essences in water and then using that water to make soap that would pair crystals, essential oils, color and intention with the seven chakras.  The crystals were placed in jars and on a full moon in March, placed around the base of the oak tree in her back yard.  There the crystals sat, under the moon, amidst acorns, last year’s leaves, rain and earth, watched over by Quan Yin, fairies, a robust gnome and three chickens.

Time passed, the crystals bringing their energy and light to their watery medium, until this fall when, working from the root up, we began to make the seven soaps.  Now, at long last, the full set is complete.  To briefly introduce our new friends -

Our Root Chakra soap is infused with black tourmaline and smoky quartz crystal essence encouraging you to connect to your source, plumb your own depths and descend into the magic that dwells deep within.  Frankincense, amyris sandalwood and black spruce essential oils provide support for your deep work.

Our Sacral Chakra soap is infused with carnelian and clear quartz crystal essence which speak to you loving who you are, opening yourself to love, pleasure and creativity.  Sweet orange, patchouli and vetiver essential oils are there to gently remind you that your essence is love.

Our Solar Plexis Chakra soap is infused with citrine and herkimer diamond crystal essence. These crystals reflect the abundance that is your life, supporting the truth that you are worth your weight in gold.  Sweet orange, juniper, clove, grapefruit and cardamom essential oils combine to make a rich, golden aroma.

Mid-point, our Heart Chakra soap is infused with rose quartz and rhodochrosite crystal essence, two crystals that are all about activating self-love, compassion for yourself and others, gently urging you to give your own heart the love it needs so more love can flow outwards.  What essential oils match?  Rose, of course, blended with with vanilla and geranium.  We love you!

Ever upwards, our Throat Chakra soap is infused with kyanite and aquamarine crystal essence, crystals that ask you to speak and live your truth.  Supportive of clearing out old blockages to make way for new pathways, lavender, sweet orange and vanilla essential oils assist in the opening.

Our Third Eye Chakra soap is infused with amethyst and clear quartz crystal essence, crystals that support your expansion into your inner wisdom, intuition and spirit.  With clary sage and lavender in the mix with their calming, soothing and elevating properties, it’s time to breathe deep and look inside.

At the top, our Crown Chakra soap is infused with quartz and herkimer diamond crystal essence which energize and support you connecting with your higher self.  Spearmint, frankincense and rose, energizing, grounding and mysterious, are there to support your journey.

From idea, to engaging the energies, to weighing, mixing, mulling, cutting and presenting, our set of chakra soaps are impregnated with the very best intentions that we hope will be passed on to you through their use.  Brought to you with love!

Delayed entries to our website are a testament to how happily and gratefully busy our days at Camamu have been!  So saying, it’s way past time to share with you all the new soaps and gifties that have are now available from our bustling studio direct to you.

We have three new soaps cured on the shelves, ready to nourish your skin and uplift potentially wintry frames of mind.  Please say hello to:  Cocoa Rose, made with lashings of richly nourishing cocoa butter and scented with rose, vanilla and amyris sandalwood; Spicy Chai, made with infusions of chai and black tea, sweetened with yummy Oregon honey and a brew of cardamom-y, cinnamon-y essential oils, and last but never least, Winter Elation with a friendly essential oil blend of mood-supporting essential oils – clary sage, lavender and geranium.  We’re in love with all three of them and are happy to offer them separately or available gift packaged for holiday giving.

Sarah and I are so grateful for all the support, love and care we get every day from our Camamu community.  It makes all the difference and means the world to us!

Having a small business, especially one with quite as much lifting and toting as soap-making requires, is hard work.  Part of what keeps us going is the help, in uncountable ways, we get from all of you.  The other part that helps us keep stirring, cutting and loving is knowing we’re making a difference in people’s lives.  Below is an email we got about our shampoo from a happy customer.  Thank you for your kind words, Barbara!

‘I have long curly hair to my waist. It’s thick and loves to tangle. For years I have been telling myself I should cut it short so I’m not a slave to toxic shampoos. I have used lots of different shampoos from the health store over the years and they always seem to leave my hair tangled. On a lark I bought shampoo. I was thinking, “Well even if it doesn’t really work for me like all the other here, there is minimal packaging and I’m not paying to have water (biggest part of most shampoos) shipped across the US.” Little did I know I just found my hair’s best friend. With all of the “eco” shampoos I have been using I had to condition my hair twice. Now I barely need any conditioner and almost no tangles. With my hair, that’s saying something.We also love that there isn’t any Sodium Lauryl Sulfate because we have a grey water system here at our home and the build up of sodium in the soil from natural detergents can poison the soil.’

Well, we don’t mean to be teases but….  the first two batches of our wonderful new Tomato Basil soap have already sold out.  Have no fear though – another batch was made yesterday and after a few weeks of curing, will be ready to head your way.  The soap is available to buy but if you do, you must promise to wait until the ‘use after’ date that will be affixed to the soap.

There are 2, 4 and 8 oz pots of our Healing Herbal Salve freshly made – the 8 oz go very quickly so act fast if you want a jumbo size of delicious summer healing on hand for those testy bites, scrapes and slight solar over-abundance.  We have customers who use this luscious salve for hair care and for general skin moisturizing as well as for the occasional ding.

We hope you’re all enjoying your summer and that it’s full of goodness and abundance.  Thank you so much!!

We’re still wondering if it really is summer here in Portland which has stayed cool and a little grey right up to mid-July.  Still, the tomatoes are growing and we’ve been busy in the studio making up some new soap and shampoo, that’s right, just for you.

To celebrate summer abundance and all things green and miraculous, new on the shelves is Tomato Basil soap.  Yum!  It’s like a caprese salad and a gin and tonic all rolled together.  Tomato powder provides lycopenes that are strong anti-oxidants for the skin as well as adding lustre to skin and hair.  Basil and juniper berry essential oils rebalance the skin, help dispel insects and help combat acne issues.  With a red layer on top of a green layer, it’s as lovely to the eye as to the skin.

What about a sweet, soft shampoo for wee ones?  Yes.  Camamu has concocted the cutest baby shampoo.  Infused with organic calendula, scented with mild lavender, geranium and sweet orange essential oils, it is pure and mild – perfect for babies or adults who need some special tender loving care.  To use for a baby, we recommend you just rub the bar between your hands and then rub your hands on the baby’s head – that way there are no liquid gloops that are difficult to rinse out.  Like all products, please keep out of your baby’s eyes or, if you’re using it, your own!

We’re just starting to infuse organic, extra-virgin olive oil with a range of herbs and tree material to make skin-healing salves.  Our Green Goddess salve has been available for a while; coming soon look for a walnut husk salve (great against eczema), cottonwood bud salve (great for general use and arthritis pain) and a heal’s all (prunella vulgaris) salve.  Can’t wait to share the goodness with you all.

Enjoy the abundance!!  Thank you all…..

We love to be loved!

What a treat to open up the Food Day section of The Oregonian and see our very own Coffee Kitchen soap featured under “What we are Loving”.  Read on for the full review…

What we’re loving: Coffee Kitchen Soap

Anyone who’s spent time chopping onions or mincing garlic in the kitchen knows that their hands can pick up cooking odors, which can sometimes linger on the skin after washing with regular hand soap. That’s not a problem if you use locally made Camamu’s Coffee Kitchen Soap, a 100 percent natural and vegan soap that’s made out of olive, coconut, palm and cocoa butter oils, then spiked with fresh coffee grounds and poppy seeds, which act as an abrasive agent to remove sticky bits. 

$5, available at Camamu’s store, 2021 S.E. Clinton St., and at various retailers, including Alberta Cooperative Grocery, Food Front, Powell’s Books for Cooks & Gardeners and New Seasons. 

– Grant Butler

http://www.oregonlive.com/foodday/

Oui.  A small snippet of Camamu has made its way to Paris for rest, repair and to visit the place with the best soap cachet in the world.  Le savon de Marseilles, great green blocks of olive oil derived soap that sit so plumply by the side of the sink.  But beyond that, how about just a brief Parisienne moment?  After all, it’s not just about soap, right?

This carousel sits not too far from the Montparnasse Cemetery, the resting place of many luminaries.  Walking there a little before six yesterday I became vaguely aware of a man following me, calling out “Madame, Madame”.  Too long in America and wondering why he was ringing a bell as he pursued me, I continued an errant path, only, belatedly, to realize that the cemetery was closing and he was in gentlemanly pursuit of all who wandered, tarried, amidst the stories that lie closed under marble and stone.  Self-chastised, walking now on an external street, I took this photograph of the bark of a plane tree.  This exquisite bark, colored the multi-hues of earthen, invites a leisurely inspection, a short pause to stand side by side, to be still and become arbored. Lastly, a bit farther down the road, I happened upon a small park and two lilacs, one white and one purple, in bloom; their fragrance, even within the swirl of car exhaust, reminding me of my grandmother, of the insistence of spring and of all that comes back that is good.  Does it sound trite to say, in the middle of this city that epitomizes the majesty of human achievement, that what amazes me the most, what is more monumental than the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre or Notre Dame or Sacre Coeur, is the perseverance of the natural world?  The ephemeral awakening that is happening around us all, now, every day.  Reminding me, and I hope reminding you, that there is a bigger wheel spinning than we can ever truly comprehend and that respect and honor of that wheel is required now more than ever.  From Camamu, merci et a tres bientot!

We’re afraid it’s true!  This company was founded by two women and Buzz, an adorable white lab with good ideas.  Ever since, we’ve been making amazing dog shampoos (at Buzz’s behest) that clean gently, soothe the itchy spots and help control fleas and ticks via an essential oil blend of citronella, eucalyptus, lemon eucalyptus, cedar and petitgrain.  Our dog shampoos come in a bar form which makes them so much easier to use than liquid soap – no more over-poured shampoo that takes forever to rinse out and so easy for belly and under-arm scrubbing.  But, more than all this…  have you been noticing how cancers are increasing in our beloved pets?  We can’t say that it’s this or that but it just makes sense to us that exposing our dedicated licking machines to the pesticides, chemicals and synthetic fragrances that are in commercial pet shampoos can’t be doing them any good.  And that’s to say nothing of the herbicides, fungicides and other nasty ‘cides’ that people are using on their lawns. Think about it…  doesn’t it just make sense to spare our loyal friends unnecessary exposure?

Camamu offers two dog shampoos, Dirty Dog and Pooch Extra.  Dirty Dog is made with seven different base oils and is great for all types of dogs; Pooch Extra is made with eleven (yes, eleven!) different base oils and provides deep moisturizing for dogs that tend to have drier skin and scratchy areas.

Added benefits?  One friend has reported that use of the shampoo (on her dog and her!) after hikes has saved her from repeated attacks of poison oak.  Another actually used it on his own hair and cured his dandruff.

Try it…   Buzz thinks your Buzz or Buzz-ette is going to love it !!

THANKS ONE AND ALL FOR SUPPORTING CAMAMU!