🌸 Bloom Before the Melt Is Ready

Fully cured. pH-tested. And crafted with reverence.

At Hugging Bubbles, we believe soapmaking is a blend of art and precision—and that every bar deserves the same care you’d give to a fine meal or a healing tea. That’s why we’re proud to share that our Bloom Before the Melt Shampoo Bar has now fully cured, been carefully tested, and is officially safe, stable, and ready to cradle your scalp in comfort.

After a six-week slow cure, its pH has settled to a skin-safe 7.5—a rare balance for cold-process shampoo bars. This result is not only gentle for your scalp and hair, but a testament to the formulation’s integrity: no shortcuts, no rushed saponification, and no loss of herbal power.

🧪 Why pH Matters

Many handmade soaps test between pH 8.5–10, which can be harsh on sensitive skin or hair. But 7.5 is a sweet spot—mild enough to avoid stripping your scalp's protective barrier, while still cleansing effectively. It reflects the calibrated craft behind each bar: from oil ratios to botanical infusions, we test with purpose—not guesswork.

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🌿 What Makes This Bar Exceptional?

🌰 Camellia (Tsubaki) Oil — The Beauty Secret of Japan

Used for centuries by Japanese geishas and samurai alike, Tsubaki oil is pressed from the seeds of the Camellia japonica flower. Lightweight, deeply penetrating, and naturally rich in oleic acid and antioxidants, it nourishes the scalp without heaviness and helps soften hair while promoting elasticity. It’s the rare oil that moisturizes and strengthens at once—ideal for a shampoo bar meant to bring balance.

🌿 Neem — The Sacred Tree of Ayurveda

I discovered neem along my Ayurvedic journey through yoga and healing, and it quickly became more than just an ingredient—it became a lifeline. Years ago, when my son was an infant, it was neem oil that helped soothe and clear his delicate skin when nothing else would. That quiet transformation, drawn from tradition and nature, rooted my respect for this ancient plant.

In Ayurveda, neem is considered “sarva roga nivarini”—the universal healer. Antifungal, antibacterial, and powerfully purifying, it’s been used for centuries to calm inflammation, clear impurities, and support the skin’s natural intelligence. In our shampoo bar, besides neem oil, we use whole neem leaves, hand-infused, to preserve its full range of phytonutrients and bitter green strength.

This isn’t a trendy extract. It’s plant medicine, drawn from lineage and lived experience—gentle enough for a child, and wise enough for your scalp.

🌿 Marshmallow Root — Silken Strength, Slowly Drawn

Our marshmallow root is never rushed.

For six full weeks, it’s steeped in cold-pressed camellia oil, tucked away from sunlight in a cool, shaded room—allowing every mucilage-rich thread of this ancient root to release its soothing power into the golden oil.

Used since antiquity—from Egyptian remedies to European apothecaries—Althaea officinalis is treasured for the gel-like mucilage it produces. This natural compound coats the hair shaft, offering a plant-based slip that rivals commercial conditioners. It detangles, softens, and seals the cuticle—reducing friction, minimizing breakage, and making the hair easier to comb without weight or residue.

But marshmallow root does more than smooth. It calms irritated scalps, helps retain moisture, and nourishes both the follicle and the strand with gentle, humectant care.

Blended into our camellia-neem base, it transforms this shampoo bar into a true herbal conditioner in solid form—the kind of softness you can feel in the first rinse, and see in your hair after just a few uses.

🧈 Murumuru Butter — Amazonian Luxury, Chosen with Intention

I still remember the first time I opened a jar of true murumuru butter. The scent was faintly nutty, the texture rich and waxy—almost like coconut oil, but somehow... silkier. And when I warmed it between my palms, it melted into a velvety balm that sank in without a trace. I knew instantly: this was different.

Harvested from the seeds of towering palms deep in the Amazon, murumuru is a rare and ethically sourced treasure, renowned for its ability to soften, protect, and restore without heaviness. It’s packed with lauric, myristic, and oleic acids—fatty acids that closely mimic those in human sebum—making it a deeply biocompatible moisturizer for both scalp and strands.

Unlike coconut oil, which can feel greasy or overly cleansing for some, murumuru offers a balanced richness. It creates a creamy lather without stripping, and seals in hydration without suffocating the hair shaft. And while coconut oil is ubiquitous and inexpensive, murumuru is anything but. It’s costlier to source, trickier to work with, and far more luxurious on the skin.

We choose it for all those reasons.

Because when you’re crafting a bar that truly cares for the scalp—especially without coconut oil—you need ingredients that go deeper, perform better, and honor the body with every use.

🌼 More Than Just Beautiful

The colors of Bloom Before the Melt aren’t just inspired by nature—they are nature, captured in its fleeting early-summer glory.

On an early summer hike, I found myself surrounded by a view that felt like a painting: soft purple lupine swaying along the trail, rosy-pink bitterroot blossoms blooming low against the sun-warmed rocks, and a hush over the valley, like the land holding its breath before the heat of summer. In the distance, snow still traced the ridgeline of the Rockies, glinting in contrast to the meadow’s bloom.

It was fleeting. Peaceful. Abundant.

And this bar is my tribute to that moment.

But translating that into soap was no small task...

This batch took 8separate batters—each one made by hand, each infused with its own blend of wild herbs, clays, and botanical colors. From soft green horsetail infusion to pale pink rose clay, from turmeric-rooted gold to nettle-streaked green—every layer was poured in sequence, each tone mixed gently, then swirled and sculpted before it could set.

It was slow, messy, physical work—a true labor of love, made all the harder by our commitment to cold-process and hand-blending. But the result? A bar that looks like the meadow I see each morning, and feels like care in your hands.

No two bars came out quite the same—because the earth doesn’t repeat herself, and neither do we.

✨ Now Available — But Not for Long

We just returned from the Whitefish Art Festival, where this batch of Bloom Before the Melt drew so much love — four bars sold, two already reserved, and only four remaining.

They’re fully cured, pH-balanced, and ready to nourish your scalp with softness, strength, and plant wisdom.

If you’ve been waiting—now is the moment. Visit us this weekend at the Hamilton Farmers Market, or claim yours online before they’re gone. This batch won’t be remade until next bloom season.

Because real things take time. And once they’re gone, they’re truly gone.

Bloom Before the Melt – Marshmallow Tsubaki Neem Bar for Itchy Scalp & Fine Hair

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