Vintage Vortex Artisan Crafts

Ingredient Highlight – Olive Oil (Olea Europaea Fruit Oil)

Olive Oil is the hero behind some of the most gentle, skin-loving soaps. It creates a mild, conditioning soap bar with a creamy, low-cleansing lather. It contributes to hardness over time and helps to retain skin moisture.

Valued for its gentleness and simplicity, olive oil is ideal for sensitive skin formulations and traditional soaps like Castile. It offers a reliable, stable base and aligns well with natural product positioning.

For a soap that prioritises skin feel over bubbles, Olive Oil is the oil of choice.

Are you looking for ways to cut everyday costs?

Did you know that you can make your own dishwashing tablets for a fraction of what it costs to buy them at the supermarket?

I’ve already tried and tested the recipe I’m sharing, and it works like a treat! And, all you need, are some pantry stables and utensils.

Free from harsh chemicals found in many commercial tablets, and suitable for cleaning everyday food and grease. Uses natural, free from bleach, surfactants, and synthetic fragrances. Effective cleaning for breaking down grease, removing stains, softening water and reducing film. Safe for most dishwashers, gentle on machines, and reduces risk of residue build-up. Lower risk of chemical residues on dishes, and suitable for sensitive users.

Find the ingredients at your local supermarket. You're welcome!

Ingredient highlight - KOH (Potassium Hydroxide)

KOH is the ingredient that makes liquid soap possible. It reacts with oils during saponification, turning them into a smooth, soap-based cleanser with a pourable texture.

Soapmakers choose KOH when they want a liquid format, instead of a solid soap bar. It gives flexibility for hand washing, body washing, and other liquid cleansing products like household cleaner, while still creating a true soap.

NaOH makes hard bar soap, while KOH makes liquid soap.

Product Spotlight - Daringly Winter, Liquorice Vanilla

Bold, grounding, and deeply nourishing, Daringly Winter is crafted for those who love a richer, more indulgent cleanse. This bar combines activated charcoal with natural black colouring for a striking finish, while delivering a gentle detox without stripping the skin.

Formulated with a luxurious blend of olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, avocado oil, avocado butter, and castor oil, it creates a creamy, conditioning lather that leaves skin feeling soft and replenished. A coconut cream lye infusion enhanced its silky texture, making it especially suited for dry or winter-worn skin.

Scented with warm aniseed and smooth vanilla essential oils, this bar offers a subtle, comforting aroma that lingers lightly after use.

Minimum weight: 150g
Price: $16.00 (AUD)
Limited stock: Only 5 remaining

Handcrafted in small batches.

Ingredient Spotlight - NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide)

NaOH is the ingredient that makes cold process soap possible. It reacts with oils and butters in a process called saponification, transforming them into real soap and glycerin.

Soapmakers have been using NaOH for over 150 years in modern soapmaking, because it gives full control over the formula, allowing each oil to contribute its own qualities to the finished soap bar. It’s the essential base that turns a blend of ingredients into a true, hard, cleansing soap. Online lye calculators make it easier than ever to calculate the exact amount of NaOH, and good soap makers follow these recommendations to the gram.

NaOH - Cold process soap would not be possible without it!

When I want to get creative, I turn to the Luxe Natural range of soaps. Here I get to use the same base formula but experiment with fragrances, colours, and oil or lye infusions.

This soap formula emphasises gentle cleansing and high conditioning and moisturising properties with avocado oil added for a luxury pamper feel.

Each season features a new edition to the range.

For autumn, I made a Mocha Cinnamon blend, featuring chocolate and coffee as lye infusions, and cinnamon and coffee as fragrance oils, with the addition of clays.

For winter, I made a Liquorice and Vanilla blend, featuring activated charcoal powder and aniseed fragrance oil.

Sold as a 150-gram soap bar.
$16.00 (AUD) each or 2 for $30

Message for orders.

It's the shortest day of the year today! At least for those of us located down south of the equator. Colds and flus are common during this time of year and can impact breathing.

This Aroma Bliss shower steamer was designed to ease breathing. In this formula I emphasise strong menthol (5%) and eucalyptus essential oils (3%). Due to the strong menthol, this steamer is not meant to be submerged in bath water but is placed on the floor, to the side of the shower where it can be activated by water sprinkles, and the aroma fill the air from the ground up. When used in this way, it takes up to 10-minutes to melt completely. Adequate for shower time.

Packaged as a 70-gram compact disc, and wrapped in shrink paper.
$7.50 (AUD) - Message for Orders.
See the ingredients list attached.

Announcing Fur Baby Naturals. A small-batch, handmade shampoo soap bar for pets! Currently in a final test phase among our circle of family and friends before public release.

Fur Baby Naturals is intentionally designed for pet skin that may be prone to pH sensitivities.

The point of difference with our all-natural shampoo soap bar is the infusion of Comfrey in plant-based oils (olive and coconut oil), and the addition of shea and cocoa butters. The properties of Comfrey leaf are known for promoting wound-healing, reducing inflammation, and soothing irritated skin. The addition of shea and cocoa butters promotes conditioning properties as well as enhances product longevity across washes. We have added 1% Neem Oil as a deterrent for mites and pests; however, the extent to which the active ingredients in Neem Oil remain active after the saponification process of pure soap-making, cannot be determined without direct product testing. This is the case for all pure soap-making, regardless of manufacturer claims.

This shampoo soap bar for pets contains no essential oils or fragrances, in line with best practice as per veterinarian recommendations of no or less than 1% for sensitive pet skin. Hence, we chose to err on the side of caution and go without fragrance additives.

We have personally used this soap bar on the animals in our world (dog coat, chook bums) and find it leaves them feeling exceptionally soft, clean and conditioned, free from odour. For further information, please see the ingredients list attached.

We're looking forward to releasing this product for public use once the test phase is complete.