Larsdalen Lavender

And before you say to me: "But Colleen, the lavender ones are round, and the citrus are squares, so each citrus bar takes up more space."

And I would have to agree with you. Mostly because I buy the same size boxes to sell both kinds, and the boxes are full with citrus, and not full with lavender.

Maybe I shouldn't try to do math after 11pm.

For the balm, I used 6 cups of tallow, a cup of olive oil, 3 TBSP of essential oil, and a toothpick of dye. And I got this beautiful, soft pink.

For the shower steamers, I used 2 cups of citric acid, 4 cups of baking soda, 3 TBSP of oil, 1/3 cup witch hazel, and a toothpick of dye.

I gently rubbed the dye into the dry ingredients, and it looked pretty good. Then I added the essential oils and it looked fine. Then I added the witch hazel and suddenly we have neon pink shower steamers.

There's not enough dye in there to hurt a bathtub, but it's really bright compared to my other shower steamers.

One thing I freely share at markets is my process and materials. Because I understand that the average person isn't going to be buying their supplies in bulk to make it reasonable to make their own.

An 8 oz jar of citric acid in the canning aisle is like $12. I bought my 5 gallon bucket for $150. I bought 4 batches of silicone molds, and have used them so many times that they're essentially free per use.

And the time and effort required to render 40 lbs of tallow isn't a whole lot more than doing 8 oz. And I'm used to the smell.

Sometimes I pour soap, and loo at it in it's molds, and cross my fingers. Today I poured this, looked at it lovingly, and said, "Yes, this will do very nicely."

I made this batch of lavender tallow soap on 6/5/26, so it will be ready for market on the 19th.

Not much to add that's not already in the story.

Best sellers of my chaos tallows this week were Jasmine and French Lilac. The Citronella and Aloe will be needed more if we could get a couple of sunny weekends.

Peppermint lip balm continues to outsell lavender and citrus put together.

I did that thing again where I needed 3 tablespoons of witch hazel to finish off this batch. The bottle had 3 1/2 tablespoons in it.

"Eh, close enough" I said to myself, dumping in the rest of the bottle. I watched the fizzing start and realized my mistake instantly. But it was too late, so I made accommodations as I could. They still grew together.

Each steamer will still fizz in the shower, will still dissolve, and will still smell very nice and relaxing. Each bag will just be a bit larger with this batch.

$8 each or 3/$20.

This is the first thing people see when entering my booth, and contains some of my best sellers. (I'd already sold out of lavender simple syrup at this point.)

This time of year, my best selling tallows are lavender, citronella, and aloe.

Just a little piping for your viewing pleasure.

Who is learning video edits?! Colleen is learning video edits!