Come along to meet me at St Abbs Market - every Friday until 20 December.

I will be selling my natural plant wax candles every Friday at the St Abbs Market - up until 20 December. They are in lovely vintage cups that I have sourced myself from all over Scotland and Northumberland. They are upcycled! They are scented with pure essential oils. I also do refills or I can make candles in your favourite cups too. These are great gift ideas. Do contact me - 07909 113780 - St Abbs Market is on every Friday from 10 - 3 through Nov & Dec.

Plus - win a St Abbs Market Christmas Hamper - enter online - draw is on 20 December.The hamper is full of lovely goodies from the St Market traders.

I will be at St Abbs Market on 11 October

ST ABBS INDOOR MARKET

Some of my candle creations!

I will be at the St Abbs Market on Friday 23 August

I will be selling my lovely soy wax candles at the St Abbs Market on Friday 23 August. 10-4. I make my candles is lovely vintage cups from the 1930s to the 1960s. I also make contemporary candles in glass containers too. I use natural essential oils such as lavender and the ever popular lemongrass. If you have a favourite cup or container, I can make it into a candle for you too. This makes a lovely keepsake or gift idea.

I will be at the ECFM Craft Fair at Haddingon on Sat 3 Aug.

See you at the St Abbs Market on 21 June

I will be next be at  St Abbs Market on 21 June from 10-4. I will have an interesting selection of vintage and retro cups and glassware - all made into candles using  eco-friendly soy wax. See you there! (Remember, I can make candles in your own cups - so bring them along if interested - plus I offer a refill service.)

Beautiful vintage teacups!

Look what I found on my regular trawl of the charity shops in the south east of Scotland. These are so pretty - and without any cracks or flaws. They seem hardly used. I will transform them into eco-soy wax aromatherapy candles.

Little heart-shaped votive candles

I made these last night - I think they are pretty - best burnt inside a small glass to catch the wax. I made them with eco-soy pillar wax.

More creations coming soon!

St Abbs Market - 29 March 2013

I will be at the regular St Abbs Friday market - the next date is at Easter on Friday 29 March. I will have a good range of handmade soy wax candles for sale. Some in glass and other interesting containers as well as pretty vintage cups. Hope to see you there. We are also there on Sat 30 March as an Easter special!.
Venue - The Ebba Centre in St Abbs. More about the St Abbs Market and our location.
Time - 10-4. (Plus they is a great cafe too.)

Make a candle for you?

If you have a treasured cup or other container and you would like me to re-fill it - making it into a candle (and it's a great gift idea!)  - then do contact me to discuss.

You can contact me by email at johanna @ naturalbeautyscotland dot com !!

Great feedback from recent customers.

I wanted to say thank you for the wonderful candles - they were fantastic and went down very well with the family at Christmas time.  I kept one of the lavender ones for myself and have been burning it in the living room - it smells delicious! Thank you also for the fantastic tea light samples.  They have been a great success and have a very good burn time (6-8 hours).
Kate, Edinburgh

I bought a really lovely lemongrass candle from you last Saturday at St Abbs!. I had a girlie get together last night and had your candle burning and everyone LOVED it. I was  so impressed that your candles burn right down until nothing left!!
Pam, Berwickshire.

I really enjoyed visiting you at St Abbs this afternooon.

I would very much like to buy some more cup and saucer candles, if you still have any left for presents. I thought that they were lovely.

Kind regards, Marilyn

More soy candles ready for my customers

I have had a busy week making up two large orders of soy candles for customers - two pictured above.The cup and saucer is Susie Cooper bone china and the scent is green tea which is lovely. I plan to source more interesting ceramics in the New Year to make up interesting soy eco-candles.

Woolflowers and Eco Soy Candles

I am now having a lot of fun making candles from eco-soy wax. This is a renewable wax made from soy beans. These candles are clean burning and don't give off the noxious fumes that candles made from paraffin wax do (ugh). They burn for 8 - 10 hours at least. Most are scented (lavender, green tea, citrus and basil, ho wood and other fragrances tbd!) I am selling them at various craft fairs this winter.

I am also making pretty woolflower brooches that can brighten up a jacket, scarf of hat. Some are made with organic wool from the Isle of Mull, others with a scarce wool from the Bernat Klein studio. I am also decorating some of them with Swarovski Crystals!

I am excited to be taking a table at the Local Producers Market at the new Ebba Centre in St Abbs on Fridays through most of this November and December 2012. This super event features a wide range of stalls and is open from 10am-4pm. I will be selling my own handmade artisan soap and eco-soy candles plus I will have a wide range of lovely hand knitted garmets such as scarfs and children clothes as well as cushions. (knitted by me, my Mum and my friend Helen!) -  I am not selling online just now but plan to be early next year.

Ogston & Tennant - a 19th century Aberdeen-based soap maker.

I spotted this Herb box on my recent trip to Orkney. Colonel James Ogston was a 19th century soap manufacturer from Aberdeen - known as "Soapy Ogston". His factory made soap and candles and was in the Gallowgate area of Aberdeen.  It was founded in 1802 and sometime after 1892, the soap and candle works of Charles Tennant was merged with Ogstons to form Ogston and Tennant Ltd. The combined company later became part of the Lever Group.

Vinolia Otto - the cold cream bath soap of the Titanic!

Vinolia Otto Toilet Soap was provided for First Class passengers on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. It smells old-fashioned and it is made with ingredients I don't approve of such as Paraffinum Liquidum and Sodium Tallowate - but anyhow - it is an interesting piece of soap history.

My Mum gave me this small guest sized bar - but the soap isn't available in the UK as far as I am aware. Unilever make it now - in Cyprus - exported to the Middle East. I read that it was the only product that was advertised ahead of the Titanic's maiden voyage - other goods were to be advertised after its successful arrival in America! 

It's a soap "sign"!

The other week, my lovely husband put up a garden building so that I could have my own dedicated workroom for soap making. This is very exciting. While digging the foundations he discovered an old blue and white enamel advertising sign - like the ones you see in old photos of railway station platforms. The weird coincidence is this is what the sign was advertising...

The complete sign would have read " WATSON'S MATCHLESS CLEANSER IS THE BEST SOAP". Watson's Soap was made in Leeds and was a huge company in the late 19th century. Read the history of the company here  Interestingly, I discovered that the key ingredient of soap making, glycerine, was sold by them to make explosives. When my handmade soap is ready for sale - it will contain all its original glycerine (essential for moisturising your skin) !

A Scottish 18th century Perfumer

I came across this interesting grave in Old Calton Kirkyard in Edinburgh - I am intrigued by this - I wonder what sort of perfumes (or indeed soaps) William Raeburn made? I googled him and found an entry for a William Raeburn living in the east end of Glasgow in 1787 - and he is perfumer to His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales! He also had premises in North Bridge, Edinburgh. The Prince Regent (later William IV) was well-known as a enjoying the very best of things (to excess) and perfume would surely have been one of his essential luxuries. I will research further the types of perfumes William Raeburn might have made... soap would have been a luxury at this time - and washing was only slowly becoming acceptable!

Test batch of Scottish soap - quite pleased with this!

Here is a test batch of handmade soap - palm-oil free - friends and family are testing this ahead of it being sold to the public - exciting times....

I am now able to sell in the UK again!

Sorry to all my customers that I have been off-line for a few months - I have been changing my ecommerce system and it has taken a while. I can now recommence selling in the UK (overseas coming in a while!) - and all orders up to value of £20 cost you only £2 P&P - any orders over £20 are attract free P&P! I now take payments through PayPal - but you don't need a PayPal account! - it is a secure payment method with all the necessary SSL security you would expect.

My own skincare range coming soon.

I love selling skincare products made in Scotland - but I am often asked "do you make these yourself?" - and I don't - yet. But I have been studing - attended a skincare making course plus I have been making test soaps.. So I will be launching my own natural skincare range soon - featuring Scottish ingredients whem available!