I let my trainer use it…and it disappeared into her trunk of cleaning products! :lol: I don’t think she’s giving it back, so I’ll just have to order my own now if she’s serious about keeping it. It got good marks in the barn for the nice smell, and another woman rubbed her fingers in/on it and then rubbed her fingers together and said she really liked the way it felt.
I just placed an order for vanilla/lavender :).
I’m anticipating loving this soap, so can I put in a request for a vanilla/citrus scent?
[QUOTE=Bensmom;6965906]
But a new product will make me more nervous, so I guess we will have to accelerate testing! If the new materials come by Friday, I will make a test batch on saturday and we’ll see! But, I’m thinking the consistency of soft or whipped butter – in fact, I wonder if whipping it would work? To the consistency of a whipped body butter?
Incidentally, the recipe I’m going to work with is also “good as a body balm” for people! So you could condition your hands, and your saddle! :lol: I want it to smell pleasant tho – so that will require some fiddling. :D[/QUOTE]
Bensmom, a local soapmaker that I’m a big fan of sells a whipped soap (for people) product that’s LOVELY - he just sells it in a tub (like the ones you get deli salads in), instead of a bar. I think that its the same soap base as his bar soaps, and that he uses a drill with a mixer attachment to whip it. It’s interesting because it’s fluffy, but still has body - very much like the consistency of whipped butter (but it doesn’t melt, of course!).
Also love the idea of having something that would work as a body balm, too - and if it works out, I have a couple of knitter friends who would probably love it!
Ok – for you international folks, I have added shipping to Canada and Australia as those are the ones that were requested! I am hoping that I’ve correctly calculated postage and set it up correctly! 
So excited to work on a balm this weekend!
I would like to try some, but it’s showing $19.00 to ship one container of soap to Ontario? That seems excessive…plus we might get dinged for taxes at Customs too. I guess I’ll have to live vicariously through everybody else. 
Ok, I may have gotten the shipping incorrect – perhaps I need some assistance. I ran the numbers to send it first class to Canada and that is the amount that USPS gave me. What I need to do is to have a volunteer to let me sell it direct and take the package to the post office and ship it in person and see what it will cost. PM me with your address and let’s try it and see if it really ends up being that expensive.
A Tale of the Confidence blend soap
I’m chiming in with my test soap results.
I asked Libby for the confidence blend tester.
Last August I broke my back, so I haven’t been able to ride. I expect to finally be cleared to get up again in a few weeks. The air conditioner broke, and all my tack turned exquisite shades of green- and I’m allergic to mold and mildew.
Since I couldn’t ride, I loaned my Trakhener mare, Wren, to a pony clubber who needed a project horse for getting her B rating. She has been working hard with her and formed a super partnership. While I’ve done a lot of training with Wren, she has never been shown. She is my alpha, and quite aware of everything going on around her.
The first show, last weekend, was a schooling dressage show. I was fretting that the atmosphere would brighten up Wren too much. I knew that once she took in the scene and understood it, she would be fine. Can we say I wasn’t confident?
I took my newly arrived confidence soap to the show and introduced it to Wren. She liked the smell, so I surreptitiously cleaned her bridle with it, and left quite a bit on the inside of her noseband. Then I did a little “cleaning” of the inside of the rider’s boots. I hit the halter as well. Finally, I inhaled as much as I could, since I was the nervous Nelly of the lot.
When we took Wren up to the warm-up and competition area, she was calmly taking it all in, analyzing the cattle near by, the concession stand and looking for grass. Perfect!
They were focused during the warm-up, in a cover-all arena. The temperature was dropping like a stone, the wind came up, and it started to rain. The competition ring was outdoors, near the young cattle, and all the hustle and bustle.
When they did their tests, they improved in each one. Wren was trying hard to please her Young Rider, and I think enjoyed showing off her skills. They placed 3rd in their first test, first in the 2nd one, and added pizazz to win the freestyle. As we were leaving the show, we stopped to thank the organizer. She told us we couldn’t leave quite yet, because Wren was Reserve Champion!:eek::D:lol:
While we could acknowledge all the hard work, training, excellent P.C. coaching, and a wonderful, caring, Young Rider, there was a key ingredient to the day’s success- CONFIDENCE.
Thank you for the confidence soap! those Higher Standards came through for us!
Ok, actually doing the shipping label through Etsy to Australia it is coming up as $13 shipping, rather than $20, so I’m guessing I calculated incorrectly!
Solarflare, I’m going to respond to your PM
Whicker – I’m so glad you had such a good experience! I’m thinking that perhaps the Confidence and Energy blends are something I need to do some work with!
Libby
Wheeee! We are now shipping internationally! I was able to figure that the shipping to Canada, when actually purchasing postage was much less expensive than the website had indicated, so there is a package leaving today for Australia and one for Canada. Yayyyyy!
Thank all of you so much for helping me figure all these details out!
:encouragement: Yippee! I’m excited to be the Canadian guinea pig!
I will report back when I receive the package about Customs/duty/taxes etc as well as a product review. I think we’ll be duty-free since the soap is made in the US, and hopefully Customs won’t decide to make me pay GST on it. I’ve had good luck recently with shipments zipping right through Customs with no issues, so fingers crossed.
I’ve been using the soap for about two weeks now, and I’m really, really pleased with t. After the first use I said I thought it would be a good daily cleaner and was hoping that the conditioning aspects would work well for my very sad Edgewood bridle. They have- after 2 weeks of use, the bridle is noticeably darker and feels better to the touch when flexed. Unlike other products with a conditioner it doesn’t leave my tack feeling sticky, so the bridle is no longer feeling like a dirt magnet.
As for my saddle, which started out by pretending it hated this soap, I’ve been happy with the job this soap has done. Again it’s done a nice job serving as a cleanser and light conditioner, and with repeated uses, it’s pulled off some of the boot blacking that tends to rub off on the saddle that Castile soap had never done a brilliant job with.
Renn, thank you for reporting back! It is really helpful to get reviews when folks have been using it for a while. It is one thing to convince people to give it a try when it is something new, but it has to be a quality product to get them to want to continue using it, so while I love the immediate reviews, the ones where it has been in use a while are super important too!
(and I’m thrilled that your saddle is no longer rejecting it! )
solarflare – I did decide not to include any candy in the packages going across the boarder – I didn’t want to do anything that might cause customs to be suspicious of the package!
Libby
I LOVE my soap! Got the rosemary mint! It has improved the look and feel of all my tack, bringing a soft, lustrous feel to even the older pieces. And I love how it cleans my hands as well while I’m cleaning tack! None of that dirt buildup around nail cuticles! I am a total skeptic when trying new things and I am impressed with this! Can’t wait for the conditioning balm!
First test batch of conditioning balm is out of the cookpot and setting up – I made only one tiny container, because I was unsure of the texture. I have to go out of town for tonight, so I’m going to leave it and see how it has set up by the time I return tomorrow night and then I’ll know if I need to mess with the recipe. I scented this with a little vanilla bean, and it smells good Also working on a recipe for an effervescent bit cleaner
This is such fun!
Libby
omg will definitely be purchasing some bit cleaner. Cleaning bits is probably my least favourite part of cleaning bridles, lol. I really need to just buy bit wipes. I hate cleaning them but I hate gross gunk on bits in my horses mouth even more.
I STILL love this stuff. I have been a tack cleaning maniac, something so unheard of for me. Plus, my boots, which I only wear for events or clinics, look like a million bucks. No polish needed, they are soft and gleaming! This stuff is my most favorite. Thanks, Libby. 
Bensmom very kindly sent me a container of her soap nearly two months ago and I still haven’t managed to clean any tack. Pathetic, I know. BUT I did use the soap to clean my leather sofa and it worked splendidly!!
I have a Great Dane that thinks the couch is his very own and he likes to rest there after eating. So one arm of the sofa gets covered with gooey drool - I swear there’s some kind of super gluish component in this dog’s drool. With my jar of Higher Standards soap and a damp rag in hand, I set to cleaning. Normally I use leather wipes and have to scrape and scrape at the dried drool to get it off. With this soap it came off MUCH easier and even better the leather feels and looks so much happier and better conditioned. Considering it’s a 10-year old sofa that has been home to several different dogs, it’s quite an achievement to restore it.
I’m somewhat inspired to clean some tack now! Most of mine is actually in pretty good shape, but I have a number of bridles that are dry moldy messes. I’ll be interested to see if they return to useful form. I’m betting they will.
How do I get some of this soap to try??? I sent one PM with shipping info, but never heard back. Bet OP is busy making soap!! Please…my tack needs some of this!!
I stabled next to Pegususmom this weekend, and she let me try her tub of soap on a halter. LOVED it, it both cleaned and conditioned at the same time and felt and smelled so pleasant. I was delighted to find that Bensmom was sponsoring The Heart of the Carolina’s Three Day Event and that a tub of soap was among the prizes my mare won. Thanks for supporting the long format with your sponsorship, and I’m very much looking forward to using the soap.
