The same day that I made the Kaleidosoap, I also made a batch called Patchouli Rain. At first I didn't notice the patchouli, but the most delightful light scent of patchouli is coming through now. This is going to be one of my favorite scents. The name is sort of misleading as there is much more to this scent than patchouli. I'll probably need to rename it because I don't want to turn off the patchouli dislikers out there. ;-)
The scent is described at this: A fresh rain and earthy patchouli with notes of lily of the valley, cyclamen, fresh ozone, earthen moss, and hints of sweet citrus. It's a mellow scent. Mellow in my opinion is a scent that each note isn't overwhelming in anyway but that all the notes come together to make you go "hmm....mmmmm." :-)
I am so, so, SO excited about this batch of soap! I'm sure you all know by now that I love color. My most favorite soaps to make are 6 color/rainbow soaps. I've done several variations but I don't think I've ever made a simple rainbow swirl soap. Well, not simple, but you know... not layered. :-D The design is pretty much the same as I've been doing recently, which is an in-the-mold swirl.
I drizzled the top with the various colors.
I mixed my own scent for this one and it's beautiful. I am not great at describing scents all fancy-like. I just know it smells good. I mixed coconut, pear, raspberries, blackberries, cantaloupe, plum, lilac, lily, citrus, apricot nectar, amber, and vanilla. It is definitely complex.
I had a bit of batter leftover so made some small hearts. Some are solid colored and some are a splatter mix of colors. It worked out perfectly as I need to remake the Crushed soap. Now I have the hearts and they are mighty colorful! The scent will compliment the Crushed scent.
Thank you all for your orders. I have sold out of four kinds of soap already! I am happy to make more!
I thought it would be fun to show you all my new soap shelves and packaging area. I did this video after all my soaps were wrapped but before I started packing all the new orders. I have always enjoying seeing the work area of other soap makers. In so many videos, we usually just see the up close view. It would be great fun (for me at least, lol) if other soap makers would 'step back' and take a picture or video of the area they work and store their products. A 'TAG' perhaps? It doesn't matter how small or how large the operation, it is always fun to go behind the scenes.
These are snapshots from the video. Though tiny, you still get the idea...
My main soaping/packaging area. I usually soap on the white table and my shelf of supplies is out of view behind the white table.
The new shelves my husband built with wrapped soaps on top and curing soaps underneath. We will eventually paint them white to match the trim but I needed them ASAP.
This is my little packaging table (though I do spread out on the white table to work most of the time) with the new ribbon holder my husband made as well.
I hope you enjoyed the little peek around! I will admit that I've been devoid of inspiration for new soaps recently. I am running low on fragrances (will be making orders today I hope!) and that is never easy! :-D Last night I got an idea again (it usually happens when I least expect it) and I can't wait to get into my soaping zone and whip out some new soap!
Thank you for stopping by and for all of you that have placed orders with me...a big thank you! I appreciate it!
I am so pleased to announce that the store is open once again! It's been a long time coming! :-) I will be keeping it open much more regular now and will be adding new soaps every week. I do hope you'll stop by! (See the side bar for a link to the store.)
I made a few different soaps last week. I made Bubble Gum Soap, Coffee Shop Soap, and Nectarine & Honey soap.
Making Bubble Gum Soap - it smells just like Bazooka bubble gum! I'm a huge fan!
Making Coffee Shop Soap - I'm testing out a new coffee fragrance. Coffee fragrances tend to fade or take on a bitter scent that isn't always pleasant. I made just one loaf to test it out.
I do not have a video of the Nectarine & Honey soap because I actually ran out of design ideas! I just wanted to test the fragrance for this time so again, only one loaf of this one. I am quite taken back as this fragrance smells nothing of nectarines or honey. Go figure! It is a pleasant scent but I describe it more as citrus with a cereal note, similar to fruit loops type fragrances.
I spontaneously went out of town and wasn't able to cut the soaps until Thursday, when they were one week old. They cut quite nicely actually, though obviously harder than usual.
I love every last thing about the Bubble Gum soap!
We'll have to wait a while to see how dark the Coffee Shop soap gets. I fragranced the entire batch but did lighten a bit for a swirl.
This is the Nectarine & Honey soap. It is naturally the prettiest pale yellow color. It's basic but sometimes we all just need a classy, plain piece of soap ya know? I'm not sure what I'm going to call it, as the fragrance name just doesn't fit.
I combined a few different prior soap scents and designs to make this soap. The design is similar to Planet Fun but the scent is different. The scent is similar to Happily Ever After and Kiss of Sun but of course the design is different. I really like how this one turned out and it definitely reminds me of Sunshine and Rainbows! The scent is a tart and juicy blend of peaches, pears, acai berries, strawberries, and raspberries, rounded off with soft floral notes of lily and rose.
I also made a new batch of Sprinkles & Twinkles while I was at it. As always, Sprinkles & Twinkles is an unscented but fabulous soap. ;-)
I do not have a making video for Sunshine & Rainbows because I just didn't make a whole lot of sense as I was going along. HA! That happens every now and again. No video for the Sprinkles & Twinkles either as I have made it on video several times previously.
Happy New Year Everyone! I hope your holiday season has been lovely and fun!
I made a couple more soaps last week and I totally forgot to blog about them! Before I get to those soaps though, I had a one soap before that still to show you!
This is the Crema y Cacao - made with double doses of cream and cocoa butter. There is no fragrance added but there is a slight cocoa butter scent.
Unfortunately, I don't have an unmolding video for this soap. I could not get the soap to release from the mold and most of the bars are damaged. I would be pretty upset about this except that this soap is so luxurious and also solid colored and so it isn't that big of a deal. I will most likely offer them at a sale price though once listed. If anyone has a divider mold, I would love unmolding advice. I have used the dividers twice before and the soaps released wonderfully. This soap was especially hard already at less than 24 hrs so maybe that was the problem. I'm thinking I will use some mineral oil on the dividers before I use it next time.
So now to the purple soaps! I guess I was in a purple mood last week. I was even wearing a purple shirt! ;-)
I went back to my very first design for my Black Raspberry Vanilla soap. I just loved how it looked and the apricot kernel powder gave a lovely, light exfoliation.
I only have a cutting video for this soap as it was so cloudy that I decided to not do a making video that day.
This is what my very first Black Raspberry Vanilla soap looked like. I think it was also my 3rd cold process soap ever. I'd made CPHP soaps for a couple of years before I tried just CP. This was three years ago this month.
I've come a long way Baby!
I made a new batch of Confetti Blossom and went purple with it this time. It has confetti from my latest Rainbow soap batch. This soap is scented in a sweet spring floral blend of hydrangea, peonies, and tulips. The scent is not perfume-like but straight up floral. It's very nice!
I did go ahead with a video for this one so I'm not sure why I didn't just make one for the Black Raspberry Vanilla.
Well, that catches me up for last year! I'm trying to decide what I want to make today!
