New Hope Soap Blog

Shopping for bridesmaids gifts can be a special experience for a bride-to-be.  The bridesmaid favors allow the bride a very special opportunity to show how much she appreciates her girlfriends and how grateful she is to be sharing this special day with them!

A heartfelt, thoughtful gift can make all the difference in the world and a personalized gift shows you care all the more. Why not indulge your bridesmaids with personalized engraved scented soaps and candles from our extensive collection at New Hope Soap.

Sandalwood: It's common enough in our industry, but how much do you really know about it? Let's take a little time to explore sandalwood in greater depth.

Recently the benefits of tea has been all the rage in news articles, blogs, daytime talk shows and more. You can’t go a week without some self proclaimed health guru extolling the benefits of green tea extract, or black tea extract or white tea extract. Pills abound for these and other extracts like coffee and red wine, all proclaiming to be the cure for aging, or heart disease, or some other health problem.

What is the average person to think? Tea in general has been one of the world’s most popular beverages for centuries. Tea has become ingrained in cultures throughout the world in daily life, in ceremonies, and in popular culture.

When it comes to bridesmaid gifts, some of the most well received are personalized items like engraved jewelry, a personalized robe, beauty products, scented soaps, and candles. Adding that personal touch to your bridesmaids’ gifts shows then that the gifts come from your heart, and shows your girlfriends how much they mean to you and how much you love and appreciate them for being by your side on your wedding day! Here are some ideas for personalized gifts for your bridesmaids:

For the Love of Lavender

Lavender and other shades of purple are on the list of top wedding color trend predictions for 2014. With that in mind, you may want to surprise your bridesmaids with our 6.5 ounce signature bars of Lavender Mist soap and a matching jar candle.

The signature bars are triple milled, which means that they’ll provide a luxurious lather and last a long time. They’ll also smell amazing. The candle, on the other hand, is made with a white soy blend, cotton wick, lavender and bergamot scents. So you can count on it to burn evenly and retain its fragrance for a long time too.  

Recently while watching the Hallmark Movie Christmas in the Bayou (big thumbs up!), a particular scene caught my attention. One of the main characters, Lilly played by Markie Post was working in her backyard garden when her daughter Katherine played by Hilarie Burton approached her, reached down and ran her fingers through some plants and asked Lilly – “What are these? They smell amazing.” Her answer was, Lemon Verbena. She went on to explain that she dried the leaves and put them in small pouches and sold them at the town’s country store.

That got me thinking, besides smelling amazing when mixed with jasmine and soft musk in our 6.5oz signature scented soap bars, or in a potpourri, what else is it used for? As it turns out, quite a bit!

Sandalwood and Sandalwood oil have a deeply rich and warm woody scent that has been sought after and used for centuries for religious and spiritual ceremonies, as an aromatherapy treatment, in cosmetics, perfumes and medicines.

Sandalwood is one of the most sought after fragrant woods even today, perhaps due to the deepness of the aroma, but also due to the fact that sandalwood can retain its bright fragrance for decades!

Sandalwood comes from the fragrant woods of the Santalum genus that include Indian sandalwood, Australian sandalwood, quandong, and other sandalwood varieties.

The history of sandalwood is an intriguing one that goes back for many centuries and is steeped in religious and spiritual traditions, particularly in the Far East. To this day it is widely used in China, India and Japan.

Lavender is one of the most popular flowers in gardens around the world. I’m sure most of you had the pleasure at one time or another, of sitting in a garden reveling in the variety of colors, from subtle pink to vibrant purple of Lavender plants. Who hasn’t been caught off guard by their wonderful scent wafted about on a warm summer breeze? They are to me quite frankly – relaxation and joy!

Besides being great to look at in the garden, Lavender has quite a few uses I’m sure many of us are aware of. Their flower spikes are often used in flower arrangements. The Lavender’s fragrant flowers are used in potpourris. Lavender oil is used quite often in soaps and other bath products like our 6.5 oz signature bars that come in 8 wonderful fragrance combinations, including of course, Lavender Mist.