Grant Park Summer Shade Festival

Before I begin my post, let me first plug in my friends at Grant Park's Urban Bistro. The Operating Partner is DeSol Horton. They are located at 753A Cherokee Ave. SE Atlanta, GA 30315. She has a myspace page with some more info. In the mood for some good food and you are in Atlanta, head over to Grant Park's Urban Bistro.

I took a break from studying on Saturday to go the Grant Park Summer Shade Festival in Atlanta. I have always missed the festival and took this opportunity to go check out the local "artistic" talent here in Georgia.


What enticed me more into going was because a soapmaker I know off of myspace.com was going to be a vendor at the festival. Katherine Wiranowski, the soapmaker behind Sudstress was who I came to see. I have been ohhing and ahhing at her soap creations every since I open up my myspace account and added her as a friend. Katherine sent out a myspace bulletin to all her friends that she was going to be selling her wares at Grant Park. Well I jumped at the chance. I talked to her briefly because:
1- It was 90 degrees on Saturday, talk about hot.
2- I had three demanding children in tow. All with a short attention span.
3- I was trying to meet up with a group of people and they were hunting me down by cell phone. She told me that sales were slow, in part to people being out of town, construction along Interstate 85 & 75 and of course the gas prices. But I did not let any of that stop me from supporting this young lady. Being that I brought citrus soaps we discussed that it is difficult to get citrus essential oils to stick in cold process soap. I purchase two soaps from her: " Sunshine & Sugared Lemon". I would have brought them all if I could. But I had to use restraint. :)


Upon leaving the festival, I ran into another soapmaker. Heather Swanepoel is the founder & formulator behind Rinse Bath & Body Co. Had I decided to go straight home, I would have missed talking to this lovely lady. We discussed how the humidity in Georgia has affected our ability to make certain products. For instance, I explained to her that I make whipped shea body butter. Like other Indie bath & body companies, she cannot even make the product because the moment you it with your hands, it melts away. Shipping the same product is also disaster because it melts during shipping. I personally do not ship any whipped shea body butter until late October when it is much cooler. She agreed. Other things like her bath bombs are developed outside of Georgia because the humidity distorts the product. I did pick up a bar of her soap and my hubby picked up two. :) We picked up Almond & Honey (still needs curing), Nectar & Dead Sea Mud Bar which seems to be my hubby's favorite.


It's that soapmakers are all over the world, but it is also great to support my local Indies right here in Georgia.

I will be doing product reviews on these soaps in the coming weeks. In the meantime take a gander at their sites, add them to your "soap porn" and purchase some soap so you can be clean "Naturally":

Sudstress & Blog - Katherine Wiranowski
Rinse Bath & Body Co. & Rinse Blog - Heather Swanepoel

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