The first I made was Spanish Garden soap. It's a lovely and unique blend of dark leafy greens, cherries, peaches, pineapples, coconuts, jasmine, violets, vanilla, and musk. I have made this several times before, some with a six color swirl, and I called it Fruitylicious. Here's the thing though, I've noticed that all batches after the very first has had a bit of a yellow hue to it. Odd that the first batch did not but all the rest did. So as any soap maker will do, I adjusted my thought on it and put a Spanish spin on it. I think the colors turned out quite nicely.
This one is Coconut Rose. It is a blend a mixed myself of ripe coconut and wild Denali mountain rose. I am so impressed with the scent once soaped. It almost has a touch of cinnamon to it oddly enough. I colored this with some rose clay and a bit of pink mica to help it along.
Now this one didn't quite turn out as I planned. Can you tell? :-) It is called Wake Up! and has a very refreshing essential oil blend of orange, grapefruit, lime, may chang, peppermint, spearmint, fir needle, and anise. I'm really impressed with the scent. It's very uplifting! I thought to add a bit of espresso powder and it sorta back-fired on me. Those 'freckles' as I prefer to call them, are totally fine. It's just a halo from the coffee color bleeding around it. It retrospect, I think I have read that moistened and drained coffee grounds tend to work the best to avoid this effect. I doubt you can see it from the picture but I also attempted to use a bit of paprika to color a portion and that really didn't pay off either. So yeah...smells great...will do a different design next time.
This is my new Scrubby Soap. It's meant for gardeners and mechanics and all manner of general messes that need that extra scrub to take care of. I scented it in a wasabi-type scent and let me tell you...LOVE. Out of the bottle it smelled very much like that yummy ginger dipping sauce that you get at the Japanese steakhouse. But after I soaped it, it smells very much like tomato leaves. I may well have a new scent addiction with this one. I loved cleaning up these bars. There is something so satisfying to me about the gritty texture and sound when I run the bars across the planer and the veggie peeler along the sides to bevel. Yeah, I may be a bit odd, but I at least I love the process, ya know?
Coconut Pear is also another scent creation of mine. The design turned out very dessert-like and I love it! The scent is very sweet. To me, this smells like the shampoo I use which is Nexxus Therappe Luxurious Moisture Shampoo. It has a delightful tropical fruity scent and this soap smells just like it. To me, that is. Your experience may vary. ;-)
I love the cute soap shreds/curls on top. Those came from shredded a bit of a Chocolate Oatmeal Cream soap bar. I think it looks like toasted coconut.
This is a remake and I punched up the colors a bit from last time and I like it even more. This is a dupe of Victoria Secret's bombshell and I've had many requests to remake it.
Here we go with a HUGE customer favorite called Patchouli Rain. It is a unisex scent blend of fresh rain, earthy patchouli, lily of the valley, cyclamen, fresh ozone, and sweet citrus. I've said it before and will continue to say it, even if you do not like patchouli, don't turn your nose up at this scent. It is AMAZING! It is in my top five scents ever and it bumped something off to get up there. It's wonderful! The first time I made it, I made it with some darker colors and loved it though the lather was a bit blue-grey. The second time I made it, I thought to lighten the colors a bit. Well, the fragrance riced and the colors and mica lines didn't quite work out. It still sold out in less than a few days. I re-evaluated my recipe and jumped in their big and made a double batch. It turned out great!
Finally, we have my newest batch of Black Raspberry Vanilla. I stuck with my most favorite design for this scent but punched it up with the pink color as well. I like to incorporate a bit of apricot kernel powder into the base. It is lightly exfoliating and definitely my go-to choice for exfoliants.
So there you have it! I would say I am caught up, but I am not. I made three more batches last night! Only one was a remake and it had a different design so it barely counts! Today is my beyond wonderful husband's birthday. My creation of the day is a New York-Style cheesecake. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make some fresh strawberry sauce to go with it!
As always, you can find lots of videos at my YouTube channel. Don't forget to 'like' me on Facebook and follow me on Twitter. I will start listing these soaps in about four weeks. You can find a link to my stores over there to the right. :-)
