Steph Lloyd » Luka Soaps

This Little Piggy Stayed Home

Steph — Fri, 01 May 2009 00:19:57 +0000

So I got rained out of the farmers’ market today. Sort of. It was raining HARD off and on all day. I figured that if it did rain, I could take advantage of the water and have a little demonstration to show how well my soap lathers and suds. Haha. Around 3:30 I decided that I definitely shouldn’t go because it was still overcast and looking like it could downpour at any moment. I should have known that I have no business predicting Oklahoma weather. An hour later it was sunny at 70 degrees. Perfect weather. Oh well.

I thought I’d put up this picture Matt took last week. I built those cute little shelves and think my table turned out good. The wind was crazy last week and kept throwing my signs on the ground. Matt had the genius idea to take them off the top of the shelves and tuck them under them on the bottom. It still looked good to me and worked much better.

In the coming weeks, I’ll walk around the market and get a bunch of pictures of the other vendors. The Pearl Farmers’ Market is such a fun one. They have a live band there that really makes things seem more festive. There was a wide variety of foods there last week, with more vendors expected as the growing season progresses. I love being there!

It’s a Bum Bag!

Steph — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:00:57 +0000

I bought a fanny pack today. It’s difficult to tell you this because they are so uncool but it’s true.

My history with fanny packs is good though. The last one I owned was hot pink. It was one of my most prized possessions as a kid. I loved that thing! But we all know that no matter how cool they were back in the day, they are terribly dorky today. I took a bit of harassment on Facebook today over my purchase but I’m not phased. I think my black, multi-pocketed beauty will serve me well at the Farmers’ Market. I like the idea of having the ciz-ash on me and wearing a fanny pack seems like the best option. There are a few cool ones out there too. I’ll definitely “upgrade” sooner or later as mine looks kind of like a policemen’s utility belt. Y-M-C-A-eh.

A British friend shared the term ‘bum bag’ with me, which, if you ask me, is a better term than ‘fanny pack’. Who even uses the word ‘fanny’ anymore?!? Unless someone is saying Ste-fanny. Ha ha. Never heard that one before. I do have a slight problem with bum bag too though. The next thing my mind thinks of is a calostomy bag. Thank God for whomever invented it and for helping all the people out there, but I don’t really want to be thinking about them.

So I’m still trying to decide what to call it, this new appendage of mine. Any ideas??

Celebrate Earth Day with Luka Organics

Steph — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:28:36 +0000

Shameless plug starts now:
Earth Day is right around the corner! Luka Organics would like to help you continue to make healthy choices for yourself and the environment this year. From now through April 30th, we will be offering 15% off all orders at www.shopluka.com. Simply enter ‘EARTHDAY’ when you check out to receive the discount.

For more information on Earth Day and any activities going on in your area, go to www.earthday.net.

I Love Seaweed

Steph — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 07:26:18 +0000

Eating it… emmmm. Smelling it… emmm. Sometimes I imagine myself swimming through a seaweed forest with my best friend, who is a seahorse. Hehe. Okay, I’m kidding about that one. I do love seaweed though… it’s definitely in my top five foods.

Growing up, we had several aquariums. I loved them. I found the underwater world to be so peaceful. The fish seemed to be a bit weird to me, but they were also cute too. We had so many different kinds but my favorites were the Kissing Gouramis. They weren’t real tough but they just swam around, stopping for an occasional smooch. I also loved staring at the gentle sway of the seaweed. I know it wasn’t the kind of seaweed we eat, but it was some kind of slimy underwater plant. Seaweed.

One of my roommates in college, Joy, used to make rice in our room, sprinkle seaweed flakes on it and eat. Oh man! I thought it smelled sooooo bad. It would literally make me gag sometimes because it reminded me of a dirty fish aquarium. Ew! BUT she was an awesome roommate and I loved her. I only wish I would have known how good her snack was, I could have joined in!

I’ll admit, I didn’t eat seaweed right off in Korea either. I still thought it stunk. It is incorporated into lots of dishes though, so I ended up slowing acquiring a taste for it. Before long, I was eating sheets of it all by itself. It’s like eating chips, I tell you, only better! My only tip is to check your teeth afterward!

These days, I don’t eat seaweed as often. I’ve found that when I buy it at the Korean market, I eat it all right away. I then go without for a month or two, start craving it like some crazy pregnant woman, and end up devouring the whole darn package. It’s a vicious cycle.

A couple of months ago I bought some bladderwrack essential oil. Bladderwrack is a type of seaweed. It smells pretty good, not the typical scent you’d think, but still seaweed-ey. I bought some kelp flakes and some kelp powder from Whole Foods tonight and made a batch of soap. Crazy? I’m not sure. We’ll see how it turns out. I know that tonight I was foaming at the mouth while I made it. Don’t eat the soap, Steph! Haha. It was a really nice shade of green when I poured it in the mold. Tomorrow I’ll find out what it’ll look like… I’m hoping it stayed green and didn’t turn to a sludgy blackish-brown. Bladderwrack is also known as Sea Oak, so that’s what I’m calling my soap. So, please, join me in willingly making yourself smell like an aquarium!

Luka Soaps

Steph — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:33:31 +0000

This is soap. It keeps us clean. You will go to heaven if you use Luka soaps. That’s right. Jesus told me so. You thought this whole soap thing was just a hobby… no siree… it’s my way of getting your stanky a$$ into heaven. Cuz I love you!

Do you like my packaging? I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I’m having a few issues with pictures, the soap and packaging actually looks much better in person. Operator error. We’re working on the website too, it should be up SOON. Also getting a lesson in e-commerce. Bleh.

I dropped off some of the newly labeled soaps at Shades of Brown today. It’ll be neat to see what effect on sales the packaging will have. If any…

I have a batch of Frankincense and Myrrh soap curing. Oh. My. Gosh. It’s delicious! Our home smells so wonderful and festive. It’s kind of like what I wish vanilla would smell like every time I go to take a whiff. Vanilla normally gives me a headache. Our Mexican Vanilla soap doesn’t though. It smells like the vanilla used for cooking, not like the synthetic nasty vanilla car freshener scent. Obviously all of our soap is amazing.

This year’s holiday soaps are as follows:
Pumpkin Spice
Apple Spice
Frankincense & Myrrh
Peppermint

I’m starting to get excited about the holidays. It’s always nice when they roll around!

Take Two

Steph — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 05:47:00 +0000

Got down on my belly, re-adjusted the lights, utilized Photoshop and got this. How ’bout them apples?

Jamaican Ginger

Steph — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:02:26 +0000

First shot. Not perfect. Working on getting the white whiter and the color of the soap closer to what it actually is. It’s pretty close though. Gonna work on it a bunch tomorrow.

Soap Pictures

Steph — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:33:30 +0000

Matt’s been working on our Luka website and we are at the point that we need to add pictures of our soap. I took a few shots on the coffee table the other day that looked like poo. It was obvious that I couldn’t use them on the site so I started looking for information on how to take product shots online. I found this site with instructions for making a little light box. We went and got the materials tonight and are going to put it together after dinner. So excited!

Soap and Stuff

Steph — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 05:52:13 +0000

I swapped shifts with a co-worker today and worked from 10 to 6. So nice! The only bad thing was I didn’t fall asleep until 3ish last night and ended up getting right around five hours sleep. Yuck. I don’t function too well when I’m tired. It was worth it to work during the day though. When I got home and realized I had several hours before I had to go to bed, I jumped for joy. I immediately started making a batch of Ginger soap, only to find out I was out of sodium hydroxide (more commonly known as lye… nasty stuff!). We drove to the hardware store to get some more, only to find all the tweakers had bought it for their meth. Next we drove to Home Depot, but all they had was products containing sodium hydroxide. Drove to another Ace and found a shelf full. Decided I had better stock up and bought half of it, all the while conscious of the fact that the cashier probably thought I had a lab back home. Even though I felt a strong urge to explain that I was making soap, I just smiled and left. We stopped at Sonic for some ice cream and came home.

I finished the batch of Ginger soap. I don’t know what I expected to smell but this stuff is funky. Matt doesn’t think it’s too bad, he says it reminds him of Ricola (ew!). I, on the other hand, had a huge headache by the time I was done. Pretty sure it’s not my favorite scent. Haha! Any ginger lovers out there? I’m curious to see what those who like ginger will think. I also cut a batch of Spearmint-Eucalyptus and a batch of Apple Spice. The Spearmint-Eucalyptus made me want to take a batch and the Apple Spice made me want to get some apple cider. It’s that time of year!

I’m heading to bed now. Between the lack of sleep and the rain outside, I should sleep well tonight. *yawn*

It’s Natural Enough to Eat

Steph — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:59:23 +0000

Although I wouldn’t recommend it!

Guess what came today… our essential and fragrance oils. Sweet! Tonight I made some Spearmint-Eucalyptus soap. I used chlorella powder to add some natural green color to it. I’ll be honest, I’m a little bit nervous about it. I couldn’t find any suggestions online for how much to add… so I guessed. I did err on the side of caution for the bulk of the soap but then added some on top that had more in it. I’ll uncover it tomorrow morning. Ahhhh!

I’ve been having fun “designing” my soap on paper. I’m itching to make it for real though. The holidays are coming and I’m pretty sure soap is an excellent gift for your ENTIRE family. Haha.