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

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:

Family Effort

My first funnel swirl looks like this:

I managed to get my family interested in making soap. They helped me make this batch of sweet smelling coffee soap and now of course they want to make more. The funnel swirl itself was easy enough to do and instead of securing the funnel to the mould using canes and bag ties, one of my helpers held the funnel inside the mould. 

Main ingredients used:

• Olive oil
• Grape seed oil
• Shea Butter
• Castor oil
• Cocoa Butter
• Water
• Lye

I also added ginger, cinnamon and sweet orange essential oils, cocoa powder, finely ground coffee and orris root powder. Starting from this batch onwards I'm adding confectioners sugar which I've been told helps to boost the lather. 

Citrus 'C'

Citrusy indeed! By following an online recipe and doing a little bit of subtracting/substituting, I was able to achieve the following results:

Eight 4oz bars of soap slipped easily out of my new plastic un-photogenic mould. The darker areas are (I think) where it hasn't dried as much but if the other bars I've made are anything to go by then the colour will soon even out. No colourings were used and I don't intend to use them at-least not for a long time anyway.  I haven't quite yet decided whether I should stick with the new mould. While it makes cutting so simple and bars of equal measure, I like how the other mould creates unique bars with character. What would you prefer?

~Ingredients~ (in no order)

• Avocado oil
• Castor oil
• Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Shea butter
• Lye
• Flat Corona
• Orris root powder
• Lemongrass E/O
• Sweet orange E/O
• Palmarosa E/O

~Progress~

A few soap experiments later and I notice they seem to be getting better or at least more edible looking which can't be a bad thing. I'm saving the pics of all the sad soggy soap for a post in the future that will make you laugh *I promise*

                             And behold the latest:

                                                   ~Lavender Oatmeal and Tea Soap

Made by cold process, the bars were cut this time into thick, chunky slabs which weigh around 4.5 ounces. Maybe next time I'll strain the tea instead of adding a teaspoon full to the lye solution. On another note, it looks like something I'd eat for breakfast...

The ingredients for this batch were as follows:

• Coconut
• Olive
• Sunflower
• Macadamia Nut
• Castor
• Grape seed
• Apricot Kernel
• Lye
• Earl Grey Tea
• Lavender 
• Oatmeal