Camamu Soap

Buzz in the after glow of a bath with Dirty Dog shampoo

Meet Buzz.  He sits at the hub of this great big soapy wheel called Camamu.  It’s been a long and beautiful journey filled with new friendships, soap experiments, world traveling and many doggie misadventures (a few of them leading to the creation of our Dirty Dog pet shampoo).  Buzz has been part of Camamu since it’s inception and is somewhat of a living legend (he’ll be 15 in June!).

Loving him as we do, how could we not put his health and welfare at the top of the list and formulate a safe, non-toxic shampoo to shine up his thick coat and keep him smelling as sweet as he is?

Made from nourishing and conditioning base oils, completely free of pesticides and chemicals, infused with rosemary and neem leaf powder and scented with a flea and tick repelling essential oil blend, our Dirty Dog shampoo is as gentle as it is effective.

If you’ve got a furry friend that means the world to you, both of you are sure to love this fabulous product.  We even make a deluxe formula for dogs with special needs in the skin and coat department.  Check out our Pooch Extra dog shampoo for added benefits.

I’ve been having a bit of a love affair with horsetail (Equisetum arvense) lately. If you look it up online you’ll find it both as ‘horsetail herb’ and ‘horsetail weed’; indeed, it grows in great abundance along the waterways and in the forests here in Oregon. Horsetail has been around for a long time, let’s settle on approximately 350 million years give or take a millenium or two, and is the most abundant source of silica in the plant kingdom. Because of its high concentration of silica, horsetail has remarkable properties for hair care as the silica helps to strengthen the hair shaft leaving it smooth and shiny. Horsetail is also high in potassium, manganese and selenium, minerals which can help to encourage hair (re)growth.

I wildcraft the horsetail we use in our products, taking time out of a busy city life to wander in the countryside, plucking big bouquets of this frothy, ferny plant. To make our new Hair and Beard Oil, we infused horsetail with either rosemary or chamomile in extra-virgin, organic coconut oil for many days. After straining, we added rosemary essential oil to the rosemary-infused oil and geranium essential oil to the chamomile-infused oil. And here it is, in sweet pots, ready to use either left in for an hour or so before shampooing for a deep conditioning or else to use after shampooing, applied lightly as a conditioner.

Men with beards, take note! This oil will put a healthy shine on facial hair too….

p.s. The oil is solid at ‘room temperature’ but will liquify at 85 degrees Farenheit and above. It works just fine either way but will be a bit soupy on warm summer days!

Thank you Jamie Mulhern for the lovely picture!

It’s true. You are and we couldn’t be more grateful to you. It’s been a rocking and rolling few months which is why our website postings have been so few and far between. Part of the busyness has been business as usual but part has been designing even more amazing Camamu treats for you to enjoy. Here, without further ado, are some new friends to share with you all.

Say hello to our new Thalassa Sea Salt Soap. Made from coconut, castor and olive oil, scented with juniper berry and cypress essential oils and loaded with buckets of sea salt, this soap is a tribute to Thalassa, a primordial Greek sea goddess. Sea salt detoxifies, purifies and softens the skin… you’d think it would be drying but it’s not. I use it on my face and love how silky smooth my skin feels afterwards. The aroma is amazing… for those of you who have spent any time in Greece, you’ll feel returned to the resinous breezes that come down from the hills and cross the water as the evening approaches. Stin yasou! To your health!!

You’ll have noticed that our sea salt soap doesn’t contain any palm oil… which is also true of our next new soap, Orang-U-Glad. But before I tell you about this new beauty, a very brief word about palm oil. We use palm oil in our soaps because of the characteristics it brings to soap… it makes the bars harder, last longer and lather more. Our palm oil is produced by RSPO-certified growers… ‘RSPO’ being the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, growers who have pledged to not be a part of the destruction of the rain forest in developing new palm tree plantations. Which makes us happy. Because primate habitat destruction is so rampant, we will be donating a large portion of the proceeds of this soap to an organization we love, PASA, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, which does amazing work supporting primate conservation and care. Orang-U-Glad you can be a part of their work by buying a lovely bar of soap? This sparkling orange bar, brightly scented with sweet orange, peru balsam and patchouli essential oils will say a big ‘Many Thanks’ to you at bath time!

Our last new soap was requested by one our buyers who had customers asking for a soap for delicate areas.  Feminine Soft Soap is our most highly super-fatted soap which means it is very gentle and very moisturizing. Infused with anti-yeast organic calendula, with soothing chamomile and with humectant marshmallow, lightly scented with palmarosa, peru balsam and sweet orange essential oils, this soap might become a girl’s best friend!

We know there’s doom, gloom, disaster and people behaving badly. The news, social media and word on the street are often heavy, bleak and hopeless and we feel the wear and tear of it all. But still, in our studio, we focus on making our own small but valiant stab in the direction of something else – light and laughter and love. And so, we make heart soaps… our way to, with hand on hip and shaking our soap-making spoons in its general direction, say we’re not buying the darkness that’s being sold. So, here they are, a few new heart soaps to lighten your load, brighten your day and let you know that Camamu’s all about spreading the love. Be-still My Heart, Choco-Love… brought to you with happiness and laughter.

We got an amazing email from a customer yesterday about our Rosemary Nettle shampoo which we’re sharing here, with her permission. In a follow-up email, our customer added that she leaves the shampoo on her hair for about 3 minutes before rinsing it out. Instead of using a conditioner after shampooing she uses Bragg’s apple cider vinegar which she leaves in for about a minute before rinsing out. All we can say is a big ‘thank you’ to her for her email – this is why we keep stirring the pot day after day!!

I just wanted to say I’ve been using your rosemary/nettle shampoo and it has helped me regrow hair I’ve lost due to PCOS. I also take nettle internally to help block DHT, and after the shower I put aloe vera/lavender on my scalp for its estrogenic effects. All together the whole regimen has helped a lot, and the new hair is nearly an inch long now after a month! I am re-growing in my bald spot, the crown,and also along the front hairline. I’ve shared on soulcysters.com that your shampoo has helped out and so hopefully other women will be able to follow the same regimen and get their hair back.

At long last! I’m not even going to tell you how long I’ve been wanting to import Turkish pestemal towels. Let’s just say it’s been a bit of a while. But, no matter, because here they finally are – handwoven, traditional Turkish hamam towels made from 100% Turkish cotton.

What I love about these towels is that, once washed, they are soft, absorbent, allow for a non-bulky after-bath wrap and are also light enough to ‘turban’ just-washed hair without being heavy and tumbling off like regular towels. They’re also eco-friendly to wash and dry taking up far less room in the washer and drying much faster either on the line or in the dryer. More? They dry out quickly enough between use that they don’t get mildewy and smelly like bulkier towels do.

Available in a number of sparkly colors, our pestemals can do double-duty as beach towels, picnic blankets, furniture covers and table cloths. Ummmm… aren’t you just dreaming of sitting on one on a beach somewhere?? We know we are!!

Colors: pink, lime green, orange, red, turquoise, olive green, purple. grey, fuschia & grass green. Size: 100cm x 180cm (you do the math!). Content: 100% cotton.

One of my favorite Camamu soaps has always been Lovely la Louli. This past summer, in a poorly advised moment of adding to and subtracting from our line, we decided to discontinue it to make way for our amazing Sea Buckthorn Oil soap. Ah, but the tender memory of the ever lovely Lovely lingered and, happily, has become available again. No longer a 4 oz bar, there’s now more of the goodness available in a nearly 7 oz chunk tangily scented with lavender, sweet orange and patchouli essential oils.

Not content with just one new soap and to celebrate the now noticeable movement towards the vernal equinox, we made another chunk soap called, not surprisingly, Spring, to honor the oncoming season. Scented with geranium, sweet orange, rose and cassia essential oils, its lilting fragrance is a reminder of the blossoms and their fragrant aromas just around the corner and fast approaching!! Snow drops and hellebores are opening here in Portland…. what about in your garden?

What we love about our business is getting to be creative. Last week, feeling experimental, we concocted four new soaps. Cut into hefty chunks and hand stamped, these soaps are limited editions available only online or in the studio. What are they?

How does a olive + olive castile soap sound? Made with a higher percentage of olive oil and infused with skin-healing organic olive leaf powder, this moisturizing powerhouse is scented with mood-elevating and skin-rebalancing clary sage, geranium and sweet orange essential oils. Astringent and antiseptic, olive leaf powder can be useful against skin blemishes – high in anti-oxidants, it supports skin healing.

Next up, a soap incorporating organic lemon peel powder. Citrus = shine! Lemon peel powder helps to lighten and brighten the skin, gently removing the top layer of dead skin cells and stimulating new growth. Scented with neroli, sweet orange and clary sage essential oils, this citrusy chunk softens and brings a glow to your skin. A great soap to pair with Wild Carrot’s Luminous Lemon Eye Cream!

Peace + Love. Timeless! So many of you have asked for a straight patchouli soap and we don’t know why it took so long to make you one. This soap, enriched with vitamin-rich avocado oil, is scented only with patchouli essential oil, evoking the simplest of messages, love one another!

Saving the best for last? Perhaps. Wintry comfort can be found in the depths of this exquisite soap. Colored with skin-detoxifying activated charcoal and swirled with spice powders, this soap is scented with a contemplation-inducing essential oil combination of rose, vetiver, vanilla and balsam peru essential oils.

We don’t want to tease you but these amazing soaps were made last week and won’t be for sale for another week or so. Look for them soon but remember, quantities are very limited!

COME ON BY!!

We’re so enjoying our new space at 1229 SE Nehalem, inside the red barn that sits behind Grand Central Bakery and Tea Chai Te (in the red caboose) in the Sellwood neighborhood. It’s been a lot of work getting settled in but it’s feeling like home, sweet Camamu home. Stop by for our lovely soaps, bar shampoos and shaving soaps, for gift sets, for cobalt blue bottles of luscious oils and for other locally made bath, body and home treats.

We can’t wait to see you!

We wanted to share a testimonial about our Chakra-lign soaps with you. Thank you for taking the time and for  your kind words, Alena!

Dear Camamu,

I want to thank you for the beautiful soaps you have created. I have been using them for years and they’re divine. I recently acquired the chakra series. There is something very special, dare I even say magical, about your new line of soaps. I have actually been feeling more grounded, creative, alive, intuitive and alert since I started using them. I know it sounds crazy but they really have been opening and getting me more in touch with my chakras, literally. I know that you created them with love and intention because I can feel it in the soap; much in the same way you can taste the difference in food when it has been prepared with healthful ingredients and made with love.

Thank you.