I am in total love with the color of this soap! I only wish it would stay. I did debate using vanilla stabilizer but decided I'd rather it just turn brown than add any unnecessary ingredients. I did make the animal soaps unscented so the color should stay nice and pretty on those. I added a smidge of tangerine pop to help the orange along and I used Pumpkin Pie FO from WSP. It also has a fair amount of pumpkin and cream mixed in. Fall is here!
The soap in the blue mold was an experiment. I'm not so sure about it!
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Monday, September 27, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Delightful Almond Cream
This was one of the most delightful batches to work with. It came together nicely, set up well, and cut well. This is essentially the same recipe as the Carrots & Cream soap. That soap has quickly become my very most favorite. It is so incredibly gentle. I now prefer cream for my milk choice in soap. (Shhh...in my coffee too but don't tell anybody.)
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Almond Cream
This is one of those wild hair soaps. I had no intentions of making soap today but then I got a wild hair. :) Actually, I was twiddling my thumbs trying to figure out what I could do. Amazing but true. Anyhoo...I'm waiting on my pumpkin fragrance oil so I decided to dig into the fragrance oil drawer and see what I could come up with. I used a plain almond fo from WSP that was hiding in my drawer. It smells so good! It's very much like the scent of Zum Bar's almond soap. That was the first soap I ever purchased in the whole handmade soap genre. It is also the reason I chose to figure out how to make soap because I couldn't in my right mind keep spending that kind of money on soap. :P Looking back...yeah, not a great plan. But I did find a hobby that I enjoy!
Anyway... this soap is a slight variation on a new recipe that I've stumbled upon that I truly love. It is heavy on the olive oil with some PKO, Avocado, and Castor. I varied it to finish up some AKO that I had. I think I'm out of most of my odd oils now. They were nearing their shelf live expiration so it was time to get them outta here.
I added some real cream and the fragrance oil and then saved some soap back for the topping. I added apricot kernal powder to the main body of the soap. Then I lighted the saved soap for the topping. I love the look of thin soap poured from a distance and how it falls into the soap. It will be so fun to see how it turns out.
Anyway... this soap is a slight variation on a new recipe that I've stumbled upon that I truly love. It is heavy on the olive oil with some PKO, Avocado, and Castor. I varied it to finish up some AKO that I had. I think I'm out of most of my odd oils now. They were nearing their shelf live expiration so it was time to get them outta here.
I added some real cream and the fragrance oil and then saved some soap back for the topping. I added apricot kernal powder to the main body of the soap. Then I lighted the saved soap for the topping. I love the look of thin soap poured from a distance and how it falls into the soap. It will be so fun to see how it turns out.
Quite Holiday-ish
This is the Bayberry soap. I didn't realize that Bayberry is such an intoxicating scent. It screams "holidays!" It is very pretty but even I am shocked to be working with something so holiday-ish. I need to get through Fall first. :)
I have decided that I really do prefer my loaf molds. It is so easy to over-do glitter (Can you imagine?!?!) with so much "top" on the slab mold soaps. I'm super duper excited to make up a pumpkin batch next. I've made pumpkin soap a couple of times before and it's fun to see how my vision of it changes each year. Look for it soon!
I have decided that I really do prefer my loaf molds. It is so easy to over-do glitter (Can you imagine?!?!) with so much "top" on the slab mold soaps. I'm super duper excited to make up a pumpkin batch next. I've made pumpkin soap a couple of times before and it's fun to see how my vision of it changes each year. Look for it soon!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Much Better
Yay! A successful batch. It really does a body good. :) I decided to try my slab mold again and I hope I end up liking it better this time. I am still using up some oils so this batch has Olive, Palm, Coconut, Castor, Apricot Kernal, Macadamia Nut, and Avocado oils. It is scented with bayberry which is such a wonderful scent. I added in some red and green jojoba beads and sprinkled the top with glitter. It seems I'm getting a head start on the holiday season! I am also trying to process out some of my fragrance oils and this was about the last of them that I hadn't tried yet.
I've been doing a lot of reminiscing about my early soapmaking days and those batches were mostly essential oil batches. I'm wanting to phase back into mostly naturally-scented soaps. I will continue to use some of my favorite fragrance oils but I'll hesitate to buy any new fragrance oils for now. However...I couldn't resist getting a pumpkin pie fragrance oil and that one is on the way. I can't wait! I have to do something as Fall is my absolutely favorite season.
I've been doing a lot of reminiscing about my early soapmaking days and those batches were mostly essential oil batches. I'm wanting to phase back into mostly naturally-scented soaps. I will continue to use some of my favorite fragrance oils but I'll hesitate to buy any new fragrance oils for now. However...I couldn't resist getting a pumpkin pie fragrance oil and that one is on the way. I can't wait! I have to do something as Fall is my absolutely favorite season.