Fresholi Soap Swap

I just took part in a soap swap for the first time and sent a bar of Mint Monster to 5 different soap makers from the Fresholi forums


The 5 different soap makers sent their handmade stuff to everyone taking part. It felt like Christmas had came early when the following arrived:



The diversity was the best thing about it in my opinion. It was great to smell new scents and use soap made from ingredients I'm yet to incorporate into my own recipes. The feedback I received for the Mint Monster soap was all very positive and I was really chuffed to read it all :-D
I'll definitely be taking part in the next soap swap.

Lavender and Eucalyptus

Embedding stars in hot process worked out a whole lot better this time. Although they're not perfect, they weren't meant to be
:-P

Mint Bundle

Gift ideas come easily when you're a keen soap maker ;-)
Here's some bundles of 3 spearmint soaps. They all have different amounts and types of dried mint.

Rosemary HP

I decided to do a video of my latest soaping event. Gotta love time lapse.

Next time I'll do a longer one for sure. The soap is strongly scented with rosemary essential oil and the top has been decorated with safflower and calendula petals in moderation. Yellow dock root was infused with the olive oil to give a pink colour. Hopefully they'll pinken up in the next few days. Here are the 'just cut' pics:

Soap Drought

What do I blog about when soap supplies have run dry...the last soap I made perhaps? Well here it is:


A small amount of honey and some finely ground oats went into these and they smell very sweet. The scent is a combination of honey and sweet orange. Good enough to eat. I've been using the same recipes recently and I can safely say I'm sticking to them for good.

I've been making soy wax candles instead of soap while I wait for my oil to arrive. The glass jars were due to be put in the recycling bin but instead I decided to make candles in them. Here's what they look like:

Croap!

Every soaper makes crap soap at some point and a lot can be learned from it. Here is the first disaster I'm willing to post:


I now know not to spend so much time placing stars 'just so' into HP soap, especially when they're salt bars. Common sense really haaha.

Recent HP soapies:

After adding too much patchouli essential oil to this batch:

I decided to grate most of it up to use in the following castille batch. Olive oil and shea is all I have in my cupboard right now BUT it's all I really need at the minute since I'm mostly experimenting with scent and colour.
Another alkanet root colour experiment:

My New Home Made mould...

Is Awesome! I gave my grandad some mould building instructions and a week later I'm making perfect soap :-D

Found a new love

For the last 6 months I've been making cold process soap, reading books, forums, watching you tube vids and learning so much from every batch of soap I create. It's been fun to say the least and now it's time for another focus...

Yesterday I made these:



It was my first attempt at hot process soap which was a success. The colour was achieved by using an alkanet root infusion. I used a bit more alkanet than last time and I also added chopped up pieces of soap from a previous cold process batch. Because the Lavender and Eucalyptus essential oils were added after the soap was cooked, they will retain their healing properties or so I've been told. The smell is divine!

Ingredients used:

• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Avocado oil
• Castor oil
• Cocoa butter
• Coconut milk powder
• Water
• Sodium Hydroxide
• Lavender essential oil
• Eucalyptus essential oil
• Calendula petals

Natural Colourants

Infusing oil with various bits of plants is what I'm now dabbling in. I think synthetic colours look fabulous but at the end of the day, they're synthetic and something I'm not for one moment considering adding to my 100% natural soaps.

This natural pink was achieved by infusing yellow dock root powder to the olive oil and left to sit for a few days. I used a piece of cheese cloth to strain it otherwise I would have ended up with speckles.

Alkanet root provides the perfect purple although some may mistake it for grey. I think it's mega cool. The star anise pods were a last minute thing and they smell divine. Both of these soaps are unscented because it was colour I was experimenting with. I think the next time I use these colourants, I'll be scenting the purple one with anise or patchouli, maybe both. As for the pink, I'm yet to decide. Time to buy some more essential oils I think.

Alkanet root powder in olive oil (left) 

Spirulina I'm yet to use (right)