Stop and Smell the Blends!

I love creating the blends that go into my products. It's exhilarating and invigorating! Each new blend is like giving birth, but without the pain! The labor can be, at times, just as intense!

Over the many years of making my delicious, delightful items, I have read an ungodly amount of books on essential oils and aromatherapy. They have given me a basis of each of my creations. I get an idea in my head of what I would like to blend, whether its an essential oil or combining fragrance oils or a mixture of both.

I go into my workshop, turn on my music and let the magic happen! Over the playings of Starship Trooper from Yes, or Mystic Rhythms from Rush or even Lobotomy from The Ramones, the creative juices flow. What would seem like work for some is absolute pleasure for me!

I pick out the oils that I want to work with, grab a ton of pipettes and dram bottles, my notebook, pencil and Jewelle scale and the adventure begins.

As I start with my main oil, I write down the amount and work off that base. Once I've completed that version, I work on several others and mark each bottle with the batch I've created while writing each recipe down in my notebook. Some of my blends will have up to 8 or 9 of each version!

Now, for the intense labor!! The waiting. I let the bottles sit for awhile so that the oils can meld with each other and really intensify into the scent that they will be. After a week, I go back and do a sniff test and get friends and family to test them as well! I mark which ones were received favorably and then......wait again. I do this two or three times to make sure that the blend I create is the one that will be my next soap or bath product.

Does it sound time consuming? A little, but it's also so exciting and when it's the perfect blend? Oh, the delectable items I can create with it!! It's soooo worth the wait!!!

A Whole Lot of Creativity Going On!

It never ends at After The Rayne! I love to create and blend and boy have I been busy! What started out as a simple lotion request turned into two Organic soaps! They are Rayne's Delight, a delicious essential oil blend of Organic Pink Grapefruit, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Litsea Cubeba and one of my all time favorite essential oils, Yuzu! This is just such a light and refreshing scent, that you won't think about grapefruit for breakfast anymore! Another one of my newest organic soaps that is now fast becoming my favorite is called Orange U Rayne? Oh my goodness, it is sooo great! It is a fantastic blend of Wild Orange Essential Oil, Wildcrafted Patchouli, Organic Green Mandarin and Organic Spearmint to give it a little kick! Man, when you're in the shower with this, you just don't want to get out!

Now, for all of you that enjoy fragrance oils, I haven't forgotten you! I've been blending away to create this little jewel! This is one that when I brought out my little tester vial, everyone wanted to keep sniffing and sniffing! I blending my Mysore Sandalwood fragrance oil with my French Oak Vanilla and came up with a decadent, olfactory pleasing sensational blend that is just dreamy! It's very sulty and sexy and will make someone just want to cuddle and keep wondering what that fantastic scent is that your wearing! Our vanilla is not syrupy sweet like some of these you smell at those shops in the mall. It is deep and rich, the way true vanilla beans smell and mixed with our Sandalwood. To die for! That's why we've called this one Vanilla Rayne. You'll be wishing this could rain down around you in this scent!

On the horizon, we haven't forgotten our better halves. I've been working on a blend that in testing has shown to be very good! It's an outdoorsy essential oil blend of Cypress, Basil, Clary Sage added to it a little Coffee and Black Pepper! We're bringing camping indoors with this fresh scent. Look for it soon on our website. Right now it does not have a name. If someone out here can name this soap and we use it, they will get a free bar of it when we make it. It must have Rayne in the title. Post the name here and your email address. Keep looking on our website for it's premier and see if one of these names is it!