Monday, August 22, 2011

Not Too Shabby

If you read my previous post, you'd know that I wasn't too pleased with these soaps. But they aren't too shabby!

The cool water still smells like cool water...but it's not turning like the WSP version did.






The cashmere cream isn't overly spectacular. It's fresh laundry meets something currently undetermined.


As for the scent of the rice one, after getting a good whiff of the soap and the spices on top, I am thinking of changing my mind about whether I like it or not. I think a cinnamon blend would be lovely but on it's own, I'm not a fan. I doubt I'd soap it again, but for those of you that have it, a blend might be something you should consider.




So, they'll be okie dokie. They sure look pretty sitting on my soap shelf.

Next up will be some more Calendula Carrot Buttermilk soap. I have some calendula infusing and need to get it used.

Here are my sugar scrub cubes that I made with grated cold process soap. I scented this with fresh raspberry. They smell wonderful and I will have to remember that I can't eat them! I need to give one a try and then will let you know how they compare to the melt and pour version.


Saturday, August 20, 2011

New Batches

I got to work in the soap kitchen yesterday and made one big batch and split it between one loaf and two tester batches. I am not overly impressed with my work and kind of bummed that this is my introduction soap on my new blog. But oh well!

This is Creamy Spiced Rice - I used a toasted rice fragrance from BB. It's spot on and I only wish I liked it more. Some scents you just don't know about until you try them. So it's accurate and a great fragrance, my nose just isn't a big fan. The description says that it is a good blender and I believe it would be excellent as a blender.


The batch has cream in it, thus the creamy part, and it's topped with a mixture of spices, mica, and some gold glitter as well.


I decided to test the Cool Water fragrance from NG. I have used one from WSP and it did discolor a bit. I notice no difference in the two scents so I'm eager to see how this one works out. It's such a nice, masculine scent. It is swirled with blue, green, and uncolored soap. I ran out of batter for this batch so that cream-colored bar is swirled on the bottom and unscented on top.


I also tested Cashmere and Silk from NG. I am calling it Cashmere Cream because of the cream in the batch also. I did a blind swirl in this one. I did color the tan just a bit and if all goes well, it will darken even more. It's topped with a tad of gold glitter.



It's a dark and dreary day so I don't know if I'll bother cutting these today. I did attempt to make some cold process sugar scrubs. They are cooling as I write this. I do hope they turn out!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog! I've been wanting to make the switch for a long while. I've imported all of the content from Sparklebrook. Thanks for visiting!

The Wait Is Over

The vanilla finally did it's thang with the other two soaps from last week. I didn't clean these up right away and I'm regretting that now. It would have been much easier to work with them immediately instead of waiting. However, these little guys have one very powerful thing going for them...they smell AMAZING. I can't get over how good the scent is on these and especially so when you get a whiff of the two scents together. Oh yum!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Rainbow Soap!!!

I'm so excited about this soap! It's just so cool and pretty! It has some air bubbles but I can overlook those. I've never gotten too concerned about air bubbles myself. I needed my batter to be thick enough to do the layers so unless I decide to get real particular, I'll just be ok with it. While we're being realistic, more than likely I'm going to have some colored lather but hey, I can deal with that too. I just had to make this one again. It is scented in a berry/candy/perfume scent that is just spectacular.













Here are the other two soaps. The yellow bottoms on both will turn tan/brown, so I will wait to take better pictures of them once once the vanilla does it's thang.









Sunday, August 7, 2011

Been Makin' Soap!

Supplies arrived and an afternoon of opportunity presented itself and so today I made soap! It was so nice to spend a Sunday afternoon downstairs making soap. The process did start getting long and some litsea essential oils were stinging my hands so by the time I was done I was really ready to be done. Here are my accomplishments of the day!

The pink one on top is Raspberry Creme. The base is plain and will turn brown. Next is Frosted Lime Cupcake and the base is also plain and will go brown. On the bottom is my pride and joy. :) I remade Rainbow soap and the colors are brighter and the topping is nicer and I'm just all around happier with this one.


The base of the soap is rainbow layered with swirled dollops on top.



I have videos but I don't know that I'll get any uploaded tonight. Look for them tomorrow!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Sweet Orange Patchouli Soap

Presenting Sweet Orange Patchouli soap... I think this batch turned out quite well. I am pleased with the annatto coloring for as little as I used. It did leave speckles throughout the soap. It's a fairly rustic look so I works just fine. Next time, if I'm going for the color but not the speckles, I will try annatto seeds instead. The scent is so warm and inviting and will be wonderful paired with the bastille recipe for the dry winter. It's so hot here that I wish it were winter already!