Mixin' It Up

The silicon mould arrived and it's been used pretty much non stop for the past week or so. I recommend this type of mould to any soaper. There's no lining involved and the soap just slips out in one piece :-D

Here is my first batch made using the new mould. A simple avocado and shea:

Ingredients~

• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Avocado oil
• Shea butter
• Castor oil
• Water
• Lye

I didn't scent this one but it still smells of something, the avocado maybe. It still smells nice and natural.

 Next up was the Newcastle Brown Ale soap:

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Avocado oil
• Castor oil
• Shea butter
• Newcastle Brown Ale - flat
• Orris root powder
• Palmarosa E/O

Strange reddish brown bits of colour are scattered throughout which made me think that something went terribly wrong. Oh yeah and I added 5x the original amount of castor oil I had planned to put in. Dead soap I thought. A day later, after cutting I tested a piece and didn't get irritated, nope just an immense lather. This soap is a sure winner, probably my best so far *cheesy grin*

So then I figured I'd try and conjure up some more of the most talked about soaps I'd seen recently. These were coffee and salt bars (to the left)

Salt Bar 

This one set very quickly and was cut in just 3 hours. I just couldn't wait. Next time I'll use 50% salt instead of about %90. This soap is great if you're impatient and want to make, cut and try in a day. It's also smooth on your skin and not rough in the slightest.

Ingredients~

• Coconut oil
• Castor oil
• Grape seed oil
• Water
• Lye
• Sea salt (fine)
• Orris root powder
• Lavender E/O

Coffee Bar 

The award for most additives I've ever used in a batch goes to this soap. After cutting and testing a piece (my usual ritual), I couldn't smell much coffee. What I could smell was mostly the sweet orange E/O shining through. Maybe next time adding coffee to the lye solution may help carry the coffee scent a bit. I'm pleased with  the overall outcome of this soaping episode, the happy accidents and lessons learned. Soap will keep your slippers nice and warm when landing on top of them, be grateful you are wearing them etc.

Ingredients~

• Coconut oil
• Olive oil
• Grape seed oil
• Shea butter
• Castor oil
• Water
• Lye
• Ginger E/O
• Sweet Orange E/O
• Finely ground oatmeal
• Cocoa powder
• Finely ground coffee
• Confectioners sugar
• Orris root powder

A Productive Week

It's been a long productive week of soaping and learning  from happy accidents. A description of  each batch and lots of pics are to be posted at some point. But for now I'm going to rest my tired feet.

 So what's in the boxes? 

                       -Answers in a comment ;-)

I Want To Eat Them...

But I can't *sigh* I am quite happy with the way the bubble wrap effect turned out and the scent reminds me of a gourmet dessert. I shall call these slices of sweet goodness, 'Honey Bee Goode'. It's a fairly appropriate name I think and if you could smell them I'm sure you'd agree. Three months into soaping and it's becoming clear I've caught the soap bug. Now I must make some more soap to wash away this filthy addiction. 

~Ingredients~

• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Grapeseed oil
• Shea Butter
• Castor oil
• Cocoa Butter
• Beeswax
• Water
• Lye
• Orris root powder
• Honey
• Sweeet orange E/O 
• Palmarosa E/O