A Handmade Soap Blog

(still not happy)

2012-01-17T07:18:00.004+08:00

so the spots are still there and the dish is still down.

i need to remake "siren" but i'm actually scared it will happen again until i figure out where i went wrong. i inspected the soap and i'm not sure if it's just my mind trying to find more issues with it, but i think the spots might be ever so slightly softer than the normal portions.

then when i held a thin slice against the light, i noticed that the dark spots are not actually dark but translucent, and so they appear darker because the light just goes through them.

so we've got randomly spaced, translucent, maybe slightly soft, non-caustic, non-oily spots.

and still no way to find out what they are...

it was bound to happen. help!

2012-01-16T09:29:00.005+08:00

i swear my heart physically hurts. i just cut up a batch up "siren" that i made last night. it behaved well, gelled through and so i just didn't see this coming. i've made "siren" five times now, with no issues whatsoever.

this morning, there are dark spots on almost every bar as i cut them. to me they feel exactly the same as the other normal portions of the soap, not soft or crumbly and no zap at all. i just have no idea why this happened and in my many years of soapmaking i have to say i've never seen anything like this before.

i'm truly gutted.

it's only happened in the pink portions and since the white part is unscented, i'm wondering if it might have something to do with the essential oils not being mixed in properly? other than that, i don't have any ideas on what it could be. if any of you soapers out there have seen or experienced this before, please, please comment. i need to prevent this from happening again because i may very well have to scrap this entire batch.

also, perfect timing for the dish forum to be down, isn't it?

(now i'm off to make a tent with my blanket and sulk in there)

the soap overfloweth

2012-01-13T20:07:00.006+08:00

i've reached that inevitable point in a (selling) soapmaker's life when the trimming box has reached its capacity and one needs to decide what to do with all that excess soap.

i say "the trimming box" but really it's more like three trimming boxes. all overflowing. i mean, soap is everywhere!

there are several soap balls in the stash but it's mostly just chunks of soap in various shapes and sizes. i decided to add a confetti style soap to the velvet line because the trimmings are going to keep coming. i've named it "laneways", inspired by the ones that melbourne is famous for. all kinds of different stuff coming together in a glorious fashion.

and then there's "poet", which is meant to look like ink swirls on parchment paper. i'm really pleased with how it came out, i just hope i can recreate the look in future batches.

the other day, i decided to take a video of myself cutting up a batch of "envy". i finished the entire batch, went back to stop the video and realised it ran out of space four minutes in, no warning flash or beep or anything. sigh, even the memory card overfloweth.

and, from watching those four minutes of footage i have confirmed my suspicion that hearing the sound of my own voice will drive me insane. needless to say, no new video has been attempted since then. hmm, what to do...

hope you're all having a good start to the year!

in it together

2011-12-29T04:59:00.003+08:00

hope you all had a very merry christmas. i spent mine with matt's family in hobart, eating seafood and cherries and enjoying the (occasional bit of) sun. it's funny that we complain about the temperature being less than 30 degrees celsius while singing along to "winter wonderland" and "white christmas". "chestnuts roasting on an open bushfire...". ah, got to love a good, hot aussie christmas!

since launching my website i've been learning about how search engines work and slowly monitoring my site's search performance. because it's in full flash, search engines don't read it easily, or it can take a little longer than regular html sites so they tend to skip right over it. having good links to the site really helps, and by good i mean sites with trustworthy, regularly updated and relevant content. it's almost like the referring site is telling search engines "yup, this is a good site about handmade soap" and when a website can't really do that on its own easily, it makes a big difference.

which brings me to this blog. i do believe that when search engines read it, they see a site with "handmade soap" in the domain, title and throughout the content. it links to and is linked from other sites with lots of soapy content and since 2007 it's been filled only with pictures of soap and ingredients, no cats, plants or food. as a result of all this, search engines may very well classify it as a site that is highly relevant to "handmade soap" (among others).

i should hope that when this blog links to other sites/blogs/stores it is actually suggesting to search engines that these are also very good, trustworthy sites. every link is like a recommendation and the more relevant a referring site is, the more likely it is to improve the referred site's search performance in relation to a search term, in this case "handmade soap".

so, if by linking to another site/blog/store we are promoting some other soaper's (and possible competitor's) business not just through the direct link, but potentially in their search engine relevance and performance, why do we do it? i think it comes down to this: for the most part, we small-scale soapers are all in it together. i don't think there is a whole lot of competition between us in the sense that it's unlikely that someone is going to only buy from one soaper and swear off all the rest. if this is the case it's usually related to geography and shipping costs more than anything else. we promote and support each other because ultimately we're all competing with the same big companies, especially the four letter L-word.

yes, there are some out there that are just happy to get to the top at the expense of others and never dream of putting up a small link or saying something nice about anyone else's products. to them i say: links and words of recommendation are easily deleted so maybe start playing nice like the rest of us. it doesn't just have to be a link on the sidebar;- even a small link embedded in your text like this or even a mention of a business name that can be searched shows you support other soapers.

now go to your site stats, pick one of your top referring sites and give back. or, thank someone for the inspiration or information they have given you, possibly without even being aware of it. my rant is over.

p.s. just a quick shout out to joanna and julia for all the support they give to others. xx

revealed

2011-12-21T18:26:00.007+08:00

a long overdue follow up on this post.

they were soap rocks which i used in a batch called "rockpool". i had the idea in my head for a while and it turned out great. when i decided to go ahead with the soap business, i had to include "rockpool" in my soap range.

first batch of rockpool, pre vice and velvet (vnv)

first batch of rockpool for vnv. it was too hard to pour the soap around the rocks so i decided to keep them "submerged" from now on to make things easier for myself. also i only make two different coloured rocks now instead of three.

second batch of rockpool for vnv. got rid of the t.d. since the soap doesn't really need it. was a little too light handed with the charcoal this time.

it takes about three days to finish a batch of rockpool because i have to make the rocks separately first. a lot of effort for one soap but people seem to love it so i guess it's worth it. i'm close to getting into my third batch.

starstruck

2011-12-14T13:40:00.002+08:00

i just sent off my first celebrity order. no, it wasn't from an actor, singer or politician, but from someone most of us probably think is cooler.

it was from (drum roll)...

patti flynn herself!

i can't tell you how excited i was when i saw the order. matt was there and he just didn't get it. i explained that she's a superstar in the soaping world, a true legend. and she knows who i am. and she's seen my website. and she's going to try my soap.

this is some interesting form of performance anxiety i've got going on here...

and we have lift-off

2011-12-05T06:13:00.004+08:00

my website/store has launched!! i designed the entire thing myself to save money and it took up so much time and got me so frustrated, i'm wondering if it was worth it.

still ironing out the kinks but i just wanted to update you. it's been the craziest month for me and i literally haven't stopped moving. even when i try to lie down for a quick nap, my brain tells me "go do this, go ring this person, go make this" so i end up on my feet again after 2 minutes. but in all honesty i've loved the rush and it hasn't felt like "work" at all.

hope you're all well. thanks so much for all the support you have given me, it has really made a huge difference during this hectic time. i'm going to try to slowly start blogging again, once i get into the rhythm of things. in the meantime here's the link: viceandvelvet.com.au

don't forget to use protection

2011-11-06T11:19:00.005+08:00

dear fellow aussie soapers,

i need some advice about insurance. i got a quote from cgu (through ebm brokers) and it's about $1050 (not covering usa/canada) and about $1230 (covering usa/canada if less than 10% of total turnover). does this sound about right to you or should i be talking to someone else?

thank you from the bottom of my heart. xx

green light

2011-11-05T14:12:00.003+08:00

after lots (and i mean lots) of research, i'm pleased to announce that i will be going ahead with the business. it's going to be hectic getting everything up and ready in time for christmas so i'm not sure how much time i'll have for blogging but i will try to keep you guys updated. thank you so much to everyone who left their comments and advice. hugs to you all!

in good spirits

2011-10-28T07:33:00.004+08:00

with all the business research that i have been busy with this past week, i enjoyed getting away from the computer and taking photos of my christmas soap.

"twelve days of crumble"

additives: aussie red clay and orange peel for decoration.
scent: buttery pumpkin, orange and spices.

i had to do red and white for christmas, of course. somehow i completely forgot that the pumpkin f.o. discolours and only realised this after adding it to the soap. so there was a mad dash to try mix in some t.d. at the last minute, which didn't work very well. there are tiny white specks throughout but i don't think it looks bad at all. quite festive actually!

one offer, many questions

2011-10-20T13:35:00.007+08:00

i don't write about my personal life very much. most of the time when i do, it'll be something related to soaping. today i wanted to share something about me with you lovely readers out there.

i graduated with a degree in health science last year and moved to melbourne to try to get into fashion styling. i've been interested in fashion for a long time but it was a very recent decision to move to a different city and start a career in something that i have no experience or qualifications in. since moving here nine months ago, i've struggled with breaking into the industry and have mostly been volunteering and collaborating with other aspiring photographers and designers. although my portfolio is slowly growing, i'm still very far away from being able to make a decent income (if any) from styling.

for a while i gave up and started looking for work in health, for no reason other than to put some money back into my bank account. even that wasn't successful and it seems that with the current state of the economy, finding a job in almost every industry is a huge challenge these days. i was lucky that a friend of mine helped me to secure a part-time fashion retail job about a month ago. i'm earning a little bit of pocket money until i can get back on my feet again and continue to pursue styling.

soaping is something that relaxes and engages me all at the same time. even if i'm not actually making anything, i love the process of planning the look of a soap or blending scents. i would say i enjoy it as much as styling, but the difference is that with soaping, the only person i have to impress is myself. There’s no need to prove my skills to anyone and i don't have to work to meet anyone else's criteria or limits. if i'm happy with the results, the soap goes to family and friends.

a few days ago, i was feeling particularly deflated with the whole fashion career situation. my boyfriend (matt) and i were discussing my options and i admit, i was being very negative and only pointing out the cons in each of his suggestions. at one point i whined "i wish i could just make soap while this styling thing sorts itself out!". he said "well, why don't you?".

i proceeded to give a long speech about how i was worried that if soaping was my job i would start to enjoy it less. more importantly, starting up a soap business is ridiculously expensive and one has to be making and selling a ton before they can actually make any money out of it ("trust me, i've looked this up a million times! even the postage is a rip off! you know, so many soapers have to work multiple jobs...bla bla bla!!"). (p.s. that's me griping away at matt).

then he said "why don’t you keep doing the fashion thing but make soap on the side. if you don't enjoy the soaping you can always take a break and focus on styling. if the money is what's stopping you from starting up a soap business, i'll help you out with that part. you get to make soap and the apartment doesn’t have to be flooded with it all the time. everyone wins".

i was taken aback by his answer and his offer. was it possible that i had let my negativity stop me from seeing the bigger picture? to be honest, if i had thought of things this way, i would have considered pursuing both fashion and soaping months ago especially since they both require a supplementary source of income, at least for the short term. yes, the start up costs were part of the reason i didn't think this was feasible, but mainly i just wasn’t confident that i have what it takes to turn one passion into a job, let alone two.

and so, with one offer comes a heap of questions. can i do this? is this what i want? what are the risks? will this make me happy? i'd love to hear from you soapers out there that sell or are thinking of selling. what scares you about it and what makes you keep going? i've got a lot of thinking to do...

deception

2011-10-15T14:19:00.002+08:00

rocks... or soap? watch this space :p

cedargood

2011-10-14T06:04:00.006+08:00

my boyfriend's mum's birthday is next month so i decided to make a soap for her. i finally found a way to use a decent amount of cedarwood oil in a blend. normally i don't go higher than 10-15% because i think it stinks and most other oils never seem to mask the stinkiness. i mixed it with some rose geranium oil, however, and its really nice. rose geranium is too sweet and floral on its own but with cedarwood, the cedar isn't too hamster cagey and the rose geranium isn't too pungent, if that makes sense.

i actually liked the blend in this soap so much that i've been using it in my oil burner. maybe i don't have to chuck that bottle of cedarwood out after all.

can you see the dinosaur head on the right?

"wendy"

additives: ground rice and calendula.
scent: rose granium, cedarwood, lavender, ginger and sandalwood.
technique: i used a fork to make the lines at the top. i do peaked tops most of the time so i just wanted something different for a change.

it will steal your senses

2011-10-11T13:57:00.008+08:00

i'm still totally digging purple soap so i made another batch with one of my favourite scent combinations this time.

"thief in the night"

additives: coconut milk, cocoa powder and aussie clays.
scent: delightful dark patchouli (lots of it), orange, black pepper, cocoa, vanilla and a couple other drops of this and that.

this is like sex in a soap. and not just any sex, but sexy epic-movie-love-scene sex.

excuse me while i go fondle my bars.

head start

2011-10-11T06:56:00.004+08:00

getting into christmas soaping mode...

spiced orange and buttered pumpkin? yes, please.

they come from a land downunder

2011-10-04T14:43:00.003+08:00

aussie swap goodies have arrived!

aren't they fantastic? something tells me i'm going to be doing a lot more swapping in the future. its been like christmas in september with my birthday essential oils, futureprim treats and now this.

bring on more goodies, i say!

gettin' tiggy wit it

2011-09-28T07:34:00.006+08:00

my futureprimitive package arrived yesterday (well done, royal mail and australia post)! i got two bars of soap and tiggy was lovely enough to include a free sample of her body whip. thank you so much, tiggy!

jealous, are we?

the black ferris: Coconut husks & Toffee Apples tumbled with Blackened Cardamom pods with just a dribble of dark, aged Vetiver oil. A well-rounded, nutty scent with a waft of long gone fairgrounds..

i can definitely smell a difference between the soap and the body whip. i think the soap is nuttier and more mellow, whereas the freshness of the apple comes through more in the whip. both are very coconutty and absolutely delicious!

shadow show: Blackened Pomegranate juice & Plum compote spiked with Pink Pepper, Clove & Cinnamon with base notes of Frankincense, Patchouli, Amber, Moss & caramelised sugar.

i really, really love this. its sweet and a bit tart, but not like any other fruit-based scents i've ever smelled (and you know i'm really not into fruity). i can't explain why i like this so much but i must get my hands on a bottle of the perfume oil before its gone. also that soap will need to be rationed...

this may sound strange but i wish i could get my soaps to ash like that. so pretty...

also on my wishlist: rook & raven (soap or perfume oil or both), lemonade lounger soap and niu kafa perfume oil. but most of all, i want my shadow show!

update: i've tried both soaps in the shower and they feel as fantastic as they smell :D

purple fury

2011-09-27T17:43:00.008+08:00

recently i've had the urge to make purple soap. i looked back at the colour of my soaps in the past and i'm surprised i never did purple!

i decided to soap a blend that i created using chocolate f.o. and some essential oils. the idea behind it was to mimic (as cheaply as i could) cocoa absolute the same way i do with vanilla. of course, chocolate soap needs dark chocolate. i added some to my oils knowing that both the chocolate and f.o. would darken the base to a brown colour, but hoping that the purple would still came through.

no matter how much t.d or coloured clays i added, all i got was brown. a beautiful, rich chocolate brown, but brown nonetheless. i made the call to abandon the batch and poured it into the mould unscented. at least i had a nice chocolate soap that i could use for embeds or something. it gelled overnight, sweated brown droplets and ended up a gorgeous shade of reddish purple (just what i wanted). well, isn't that just bloody fantastic...

so here is the second attempt at making my purple cocoa soap (i will not call it chocolate soap because it brings back unpleasant memories of wasted ingredients, time and effort). the blend needs a bit of tweaking but overall i kind of achieved the result i was after.

"the silent assasin"

(i like to think of it as the cousin of the smooth criminal)

additives: black, pink and red clays, orange peel and hibiscus petals for decoration.
scent: a secret, but predominantly cocoa with lavender, some citrus and a kick of spice.

the swirls look a bit green/blue but they're actually a very dark grey

patch = perfect match

2011-09-23T07:32:00.005+08:00

my package of essential oils arrived two days ago and i have been in a blending frenzy. my boyfriend bought everything on my wishlist (daww), which i wasn't expecting when i wrote them in order of desirablity/needability/musthaveability. i was beaming with delight as i opened and sniffed the dark bottles of sandalwood, clary sage, rose geranium, lemongrass, black pepper.... and of course, dark indonesian patchouli! i used my last bit of patch when i made smug so i was looking forward to getting a nice large bottle of this.

yea, baby, yea.

what is it about patchouli that is so darn amazing? its one of those scents that on its own makes me go "ugh, get that away from me", a bit like rosemary or cedarwood. it desperately needs to be blended before i can stomach it. the difference is that i wouldn't care if someone broke in and stole my rosemary and cedarwood, but i'd be devastated if my patchouli was gone.

adding a tiny bit of it to a blend seems to just bring everything together. also i swear it pretty much goes with everything;- the standouts, to me, are patch-orange, patch-lavender and patch-vanilla. its a case of "ugh" to "oooh". any citrus works amazingly actually. i love lush's karma, which is patch-orange with lemongrass and lavender. patch-vanilla with other spicy/earthy notes is also great. patch-vanilla-citrus-spice knocks my socks off!

anyway, enough patchouli raving for me. got to get back to blending and filling in gaps in older blends (some patch will probably do this). i have about half a dozen new blends i'm working on at the moment and they each have between five to seven components so getting the right balance is crucial.

peace out, people.

the future looks bright

2011-09-20T13:48:00.003+08:00

happy birthday to me!

i placed my futureprimitive order yesterday and this morning i was informed by my boyfriend that i have a bunch of essential oils coming in the mail. i'm a very happy birthday girl indeed!

swap-a-dee-doo-dah

2011-09-17T14:16:00.005+08:00

i posted out the downunder swap soaps yesterday. i wanted to wrap them in some lolly bags that i bought on ebay but they hadn't arrived and i couldn't wait any longer. it feels weird wrapping and labelling my soap, almost like a taste of what it would be like if i was selling. i was in such a rush to get them to the post office that i just used a4 printer paper and tape. oh well, its what's inside that counts, right?

"sundown"

coloured with good old aussie clays and annatto to resemble sunset over the outback. i almost always get mottling when i use t.d. and i still can't figure out why...

none shall be left behind

2011-09-09T10:56:00.000+08:00

so i was cleaning out my external hard drive and i came across my soap folder from 2007. in there was this one poor soap picture that i never posted before i stopped soaping/blogging.

i can't remember what was in it or what it was scented with (i vaguely recall it being a citrus blend). anyway, here it is, the soap which i shall never use or give away- because i probably already did four years ago :p

the forgotten soap...

quiet longings

2011-09-06T10:59:00.008+08:00

i turn 24 in exactly two weeks and i'm deciding what to treat myself to: new essential oils or some of these beauties?

shadow show by futureprimitive

the black ferris by futureprimitive

apothecary by haus of gloi

satyr by haus of gloi

i've always wanted to try soap made by these amazing people. tiggy, britton and matt, would you like to try my soaps?

coloured waves

2011-09-06T09:36:00.007+08:00

"tassology"

(or tassography: the art of tea leaf reading)

additives: australian black clay, pink clay and desiccated coconut.
scent: bb's black tea and green tea.

i think bb's black tea smells a bit too perfumey on its own so i combined it with their green tea and the result is a more crisp, clean scent. it doesn't smell exactly like real tea (compared to a teabag) but there are similar notes. i generally dislike feminine/powdery scents but there is something about this blend that makes me want to keep sniffing it.

i'd still love to find a true (and affordable) black tea fragrance that can be shipped to australia. also coconut. and honey.

dive straight into those pink and blue waves...

gridlines

2011-09-05T21:26:00.005+08:00

just some old pictures i forgot i had taken...

smooth criminal, slosh, sweet disposition

dream a little dream, i kissed a girl, walking on sunshine

backlog

2011-09-02T15:40:00.000+08:00

i may not have been posting, but that doesn't mean i haven't been soaping.

"envy"

additives: nettle powder, green clay and poppy seeds.
scent: may chang, rosemary, lavender and cedarwood blend. very clean, very green (with envy).

"smug"

additives: almond meal and chunks of soap coloured with clays.
scent: vanilla, patchouli and lavender blend.

watching, waiting

2011-09-02T14:56:00.003+08:00

the soap i made for the swap has been cut and is curing nicely. alas, only six people in total are taking part which means i have exactly five people to impress (or not let down).

why only five? sigh....

i'll show you mine if you show me yours

2011-06-29T13:37:00.003+08:00

have any of you aussie soapers out there expressed your interest in a "downunder soap swap" through the dish forum?

i have, and i'm super excited about it. join in the fun!

yogurt

2011-06-27T15:52:00.006+08:00

mmmm.... yogurt ice cubes!

"scrubtious"

additives: greek yogurt, pink clay, calendula petals and poppy seeds.
scent: essential oil blend of sweet orange, ylang ylang and other citruses.

smooth on top, scrubby on the bottom. winning!!

"merchant"

additives: greek yogurt and black clay.
scent: my own secret essential oil blend of clove, spices and florals.

got a bit of titanium dioxide mottling but otherwise i'm quite pleased with how this looks. the gorgeous orange colour comes from water soluble annatto.

green vs brown

2011-02-03T13:41:00.006+08:00

its my second week back in melbourne and i'm just about settled. today i bought 4 litres of olive oil and most of the equipment i'll need to start soaping again. the only thing missing is a new $16 stick blender (i didnt see the point in wasting suitcase space on it). target trip tomorrow!

here are some pictures of the last batch of soap i made before the big move.

"matcha"

additives: green tea (100% of liquid) and greybox honey.
scent: combination of bb's green tea and matcha tea, with a hint of lime.
technique: embedding little balls of leftover soap from previous batches.

i left this post on the dish after making this batch:

I used a green tea infusion in place of water yesterday (in CP). The lye+tea solution turned dark brown (which i expected). When I poured the lye+tea solution into the oils, it was still dark brown. As I started to blend, the coloured lightened to more of a greenish beige. I then added some titanium dioxide to brighten the colours and as I continued to blend, I noticed that the colour of the emulsion closest to the blender blades turned a nice pale moss green.

Every now and then I'd turn the blender off and hand stir the soap to get the emulsion even in colour and consistency. While stiring I observed that while the emulsion was predominantly moss green, as areas were swirled to the top of the pot, they turned brown/beige again. At first I thought maybe it was because the soap wasn't mixed evenly so I decided to stop stirring and watch what happens. As I expected, the entire surface of the soap exposed to air gradually turned brown/beige. I gave it a stir again and underneath the soap was still moss green. I just thought I was really interesting (and cool) to watch how quickly the colour oxidises from the green to brown, literally in a matter of seconds. I wonder if anyone else has been able to observe this.

if any of you soapers out there can successfully get a natural green from green tea alone, let me know. i'm fairly sure the only way to get a green tea soap to be as green as mine is with titanium dioxide and green oxide.

fizzle ma dizzle shizzle

2011-01-26T15:12:00.004+08:00

"slosh"

additives: honey beer, greybox honey and paprika.
scent: honey, patchouli, cedarwood and cinnamon.

at last, beer soap! i haven't started using this yet but making it was quite an experience. the smell of the beer+lye solution was more like over-roasted nuts instead of the dirty socks i was preparing myself for. the first week i did think the soap smelled a tad funky but it mellowed gradually after that and smells quite good now.

cheers to a new year

2011-01-12T21:51:00.004+08:00

happy new year everyone!

i'm in the middle of moving house (and city) (again) so probably no soaping for a while until i'm settled. pictures of my two most recent batches are due so i'll be putting those up shortly. for now, how pretty are these beer ice cubes?

well, now you know what type of soap is coming up... :p

sweet and sour

2010-12-12T16:36:00.006+08:00

i made a double batch of this soap to give to my work colleagues for Christmas. with the song title i choose, the most obvious aroma that comes to mind is that of 'cherry chapsticks', but i think that the sweet lemony scent of this soap is probably more likely to get one to pucker up.

"i kissed a girl"

additives: greybox honey.
scent: may chang and a tiny tiny bit of lavender.

i wanted to keep this soap as “natural” as possible so it’s scented purely with e.o.s and the colour comes from the honey and turmeric. at first it looked like i was successful at preventing gel (by soaping cool and not insulating), but about three hours in i suddenly began feeling the heat. the gelling became visible on the sides of the logs quite quickly and so i wrapped them up and hoped that they would gel out to the edges. alas, i still got a partial gel mark on most of the bars but i guess it doesn’t look too bad – one big circle among smaller, cuter circles.

strangely, both logs started gelling closer to one side of the mould so the partial gel marks are slightly off centre. here is a picture of the logs gelling up. it's amazing to watch the colour get so much darker and then gradually lighten up again as it cools. it would have been nice if the batch didn't gel but there are some things you just can't fight and there is no point in getting upset over them.

encore

2010-12-11T16:47:00.008+08:00

this is my attempt at salvaging the sweet disposition bars that were at risk of splitting. the base that i mixed the original soap chunks into was scented with a non-discolouring vanilla f.o. and spiked with titanium dioxide to keep it as white as possible. the f.o. actually smells more like almond than vanilla, which is fine by me since the original soap has almond meal in it. i guess it’s fitting that the bars look like almond nougat as well.

"sweet disposition (cover version)"

i kept four original bars as they were from the ends of the log and seemed to have less cocoa to worry about. the rest of the bars were split by hand, washed, cut into cubes and sprayed with water to soften them slightly before adding them to the raw soap base. i didn’t have any problems with cutting the log so i guess the chunks and new base were roughly the same hardness during cutting (yay). hopefully there aren’t going to be any more issues with this batch.

light

2010-11-24T19:47:00.010+08:00

unfortunately the scent of this soap is already starting to fade. i love the combination of lavender and citrus and i wish the bars could smell as vibrant as they look. what a shame.

"dream a little dream of me"

additives: just a few strands of calendula on the top.
scent: lavender and lime (but now predominantly lavender).

a close-up of the log before cutting. it reminds me of sunshine and clouds...

oh beer!

2010-11-17T18:55:00.003+08:00

looks like i have a lot to say today.

joanna from the soap bar is giving away a few brambleberry f.o.s, two of which are from the new "beer" range. when i saw them i thought why haven't i tried making beer soap yet?

i brought this up with my gorgeous man, who responded with "but why would you want to smell of beer?" he may be more of a bourbon and coke type of guy, but still, i was expecting a little more enthusiasm. i explained that it wouldn't actually end up smelling of beer, especially since i would be scenting it with something yummy like vanilla or orange (or brambleberry's honey ale). he seemed to be a bit more on the beer bandwagon after that.

so the next item on the experiment list is beer soap. it will have to wait until after i fix up my split bars and crank out a large batch of soap for my co-workers, but it will happen, eventually. and i'm sure when it does, le boyfriend will try his best to appreciate it. i was very amused during a msn conversation we had earlier today:

me: guess what i was thinking about on the bus
him: ?
him: soap?
me: haha. no
me: you
me: or more accurately, your body

no, he didn't quite get the right answer, but it was very cute. he deserves cuddles. and beer soap.

drawing the line

2010-11-17T17:12:00.002+08:00

how is everyone? i'm still looking out for comments from all you lovely soapers out there (hint).

its been just under four weeks since i made that bicep-toning batch and so i decided to take a bar into the shower with me. it felt good and smelled good, and i think it was the best lather i've been able to get, ever (thank you 10% castor oil). and then just as i was mentally applauding myself for getting back into soaping, it happened.

the bar split at one cocoa line... and then at the second cocoa line...

i must have used too much cocoa powder. damn it! i don't want to risk this happening with every bar, especially since i'm giving them away, so i think i'm going to have to find a way to fix them. not by rebatching though. i have nothing against rebatching but i can't be bothered having to get a new pot and grate the entire lot, especially since i already had to stir this particular batch for four hours. i think there is only so much bullying one can take from a naughty batch.

i'll probably break up the bars at the lines and wash all the cocoa away, and then cut them into little chunks. i'll whip up a small batch of fresh soap on the weekend, stir the moistened chunks through and hopefully i'll be able to save most of this soap without rebatching. fingers crossed.

it's dark in here

2010-11-16T17:49:00.010+08:00

now this soap seems promising. i’ve done a chocolate soap before but this one is much more grown up. continuing with my song title theme...

“smooth criminal”

additives: dark (80% cocoa) chocolate and coconut milk.
scent: chocolate, a tiny dash of patchouli and an ever tinier dash of cade.

i dipped the tip of a skewer into cade e.o. and swished it through the soap to give it a very subtle smokiness. cade is very very strong stuff so if you want to use it, i suggest going with this method. also, make sure you have your gloves on to prevent your hands smelling like campfire for days.

i had an interesting first experience with this soap. just as i was about to pour the lye into the oils, i noticed that a bit of it had solidified at the bottom of my jug (i always make it a habit to check before i pour). i’m not sure what would have caused this, but it is likely that i just didn’t stir the lye enough this time. i poured the fluid content of the jug into the oils, added a few splashes of cold water to the solidified mass and stirred patiently.

it didn’t take too long it was fully dissolved and i was able to mix the remainder with the rest of the oils/lye with no problems. i doubt that the two or three extra teaspoons of water i added at the end would make a huge difference to the curing since i do a decent water discount anyway. i'm patting myself on the back for not panicking.

i couldn't decide if i should try emulate the smoothness of chocolate or the flakiness, so i attempted both textures on the top of the soap. i'm fairly happy with the result.

let me stalk you

2010-11-14T12:47:00.002+08:00

i would really like to add some new links to other soap blogs, especially australian ones. if, like me, you make soap and blog about it, just leave me a comment and i may link to you. i moderate everything shown on this blog so i'll make sure none of your comments/messages are visible. your link may just magically appear one day. think of it as an opportunity for (private) shameless self promotion :D

done with fruits (at least for now)

2010-11-14T11:33:00.008+08:00

"in the summertime"

additives: green clay and coconut milk.
scent: peach, mango and geranium.
technique: layering and swirling.

named after the mungo jerry song that makes me think of eating fruit flavoured ice lollies while lying in the sun. to be honest, i’m not as enthusiastic about this soap as i am about sunbathing or frozen confectionary. i don’t really care for sweet fruity scents anymore (besides orange). this was as an opportunity to use up the fruity fragrances i have and let other people enjoy them. my housemate loves the scent of this soap so much that he left me a note next to the curing bars saying that they smell "divine".

visually, i think the pink is a bit too dark, the green clay created an uneven speckled effect and the swirls aren’t exactly what i was going for. it’s just as well i was fairly detached from the start that this didn’t bug me very much. i didn’t even fret when it started to ash at the top. perhaps it’s the mellowing with age or the acceptance that ash is unpredictable and unavoidable, but i just looked at it and thought meh, who cares?

i don’t love this soap but someone else will so it's all good. moving on…

turning up the heat

2010-11-10T21:02:00.012+08:00

i made this batch the day i bought my stick blender. on the upside i managed to turn four hours of hand stirring into four minutes of pressing a button. on the downside i could have pressed the button for half a minute less. it was a thicker trace than i would have liked and it was probably around 35°c, which isn’t exactly hot, but i should have aimed to be under 30°c since i was working with citrus and floral oils.

"walking on sunshine"

additives: calendula petals, greybox honey and coconut milk.
scent: bergamot and a hint of ylang ylang.
bergamot has always been my favourite of the citruses. i only wish it would love me as much as i have loved it, and not try to seize up on me all the time. it seems our relationship still needs a bit of work.

despite preparing myself to race against the clock, i still struggled to mix everything in evenly and had to scoop (instead of pour)most of the soap into the mould. it started to gel in under a minute and i had a feeling it wanted to overheat so i stuck it in the freezer. i prayed that i wouldn’t have to name this one “walking on fire” instead, but in the end it didn’t turn out too badly. crisis averted and lesson learnt.

and speaking of lessons, i have learned through a Dish poll that i am now part of a minority of soapers who add their scents at trace. apparently it is now standard practice to add them straight to your oils to reduce seizing, ricing, etc. now why didn’t i think of that sooner? this is a little something i posted on the Dish:

Isn't it amazing how soapmaking has changed through the years? I remember when I first started making soap in 2003 (I was 16 then). I saved up to buy a few soapmaking books (the oldies, but goodies) and I would follow the instructions to a T. Now with modern soapmaking, it is considered perfectly normal to discount water, not measure temperatures, not insulate, not wait for trace, etc. If this was 2003 I would think we were all going mad.

It makes me really excited to see what soapmaking books will say 5 years from now. Reading this thread reminds me of those times in the past when I came across what seemed like a crazy groundbreaking idea but ended up becoming the norm down the road.

Don't insulate? Don't gel? But that's crazy talk!!

first batch yay

2010-11-09T20:35:00.015+08:00

i just realised that having a full time job and making soap and trying to blog about it is pretty time consuming. nevertheless, here i am on a humid tuesday night, and with new pictures too.

for those of you who follow my soapmaking adventures, you know that one of the things i enjoy about making soap is getting to be creative in the naming process. the soaps i've made in the last couple of weeks are going to be dished out to family and friends over christmas and so i thought i would stick to a common theme with the names. and the theme i have chosen is (drum roll)... song titles!

why? i don't know. maybe because most people will be able to identify them easily. or maybe because i can't be bothered explaning why i look at a bar of pear scented soap and the name that comes to mind is "kermit". i'm not even going to do christmas song titles, which would make more sense. i've stopped trying to question the random workings of my brain, and just go with it.

"sweet disposition"

named after the song by ultra successful melbourne band, the temper trap.
additives: greybox honey, coconut milk and almond meal.
scent: caramel and vanilla.
technique: good old cocoa powder layers.

this is the first batch i made after the long break. i decided to use about 1.3kg of oils and see how well this recipe size fitted my new mould. it was a little too much and since then i have modified my recipe and reduced the size by a fifth. this new recipe is more than 50% olive oil (which is known to be slow to trace) and yet i thought to myself hey, why not stir by hand? and so i did. for four hours. f**k that. the next morning i marched myself into target and bought a stick blender.

getting straight into it

2010-10-30T10:18:00.003+08:00

i'm aiming to make four logs by next weekend so they will be nicely cured in time for christmas. here are the first two, taken with my phone (gotta love the new iphone).

i'm back

2010-10-29T16:04:00.007+08:00

it has been more than three years since i last posted. i took an unexpected and very long hiatus, but i find that the amazing thing about soapmaking is that it always manages to sneak its way back into my life. about a month ago the urge suddenly came back to me, out of nowhere, and i'm happy to say that for the last two days i have been making soap :D

i felt this was a great opportunity to thank everyone who has been reading and commenting over the last three years. i forgot about this blog but you didn't, and so i just wanted to say thank you and ...... i'm back!

mint condition

2007-10-06T17:33:00.005+08:00

yo yo yo! i'm back again after another random disappearing act. i forgot to mention i was going on holiday....oops,my bad! in the next 2 weeks i will be making my last few batches for the year. exams are coming up again and then i'll be away for 3 months which means no soaping till next year (gasp, how will i survive?!).

here's what i made about 3 weeks ago, before i left.

"johnny pepp":
.....as in peppermint. savvy?

personally, i'm not as big a fan of mint scented toiletries as i am of mr depp. my boyfriend, however loves anything minty, so this soap is for him. its scented with peppermint and lime e.o's, the ultimate "wake up" blend. when i was deciding how the soap should look, 2 words came to mind; "dirty ice"...looks about right...

infusions

2007-09-01T13:21:00.005+08:00

i'm not making soap this week. i've got 3 major assignments to do for biology, chemistry and statistics, all due next week and each worth 10% of my final results. to top that off, mummy dearest is visiting melbourne for a couple of days so i really need to have this work done and out of the way.

so this is my update for this week and next.

i did a batch of soap on the weekend using olive oil which i infused with some well known skin-loving ingredients; carrot, calendula and chamomile. you'll see that the soaps have a nice yellowish tinge. i dried my own carrots for this. to do this, slice your carrots as thin as you can and put them on a tray in a warm, dry place. i left mine close to my heater so they dried up within a day. they have to be completely dry before you put them in the oil or they will get mouldy.

this is how i infuse oils, but i guess everyone has they're own method. i put the oil and whatever i want to infuse into an airtight glass jar, and make sure its sealed properly. then i put the jar in my rice cooker and pour in some hot water so that the level of the water is slightly below the level of the oil. then i switch on the cooker and leave it on the "warm" setting. i let the jar sit there for a day or so, shaking it once in a while. the rice cooker works well because it keeps the water warm, but not boiling. the idea is to heat the oil very gently so that you don't fry whatever it is that you're infusing and kill its healing properties (as well as the healing properties of the oil). in terms of heat, less is more.

"nectar":

i made this for my mom since its her birthday this month. i added some of the infused calendula petals, as well as pureed peach and apple. also, more leftover soap, rolled into tear shaped embeds. i scented this with my last bit of orange blossom...... bye bye orange blossom, hello super gentle mummy-approved soap!

"clay's anatomy":

its pretty obvious where i got the inspiration for this soap's name, so i'm not going to go into that. this soap is made with green clay and, believe it or not, more leftover embeds! at last i managed to sucessfully scent this with my orange and bergamot e.os. i was right about the heat thing. letting the soap cool before adding the oils helped a lot. no oily mess ;o)

marrakesh

2007-08-23T21:06:00.009+08:00

"marrakesh":
a fantastic way of using up all the scraps of coloured soap that i made for embedding but never used. most people will tell you that they don't like having to sit down for half an hour just rolling out soap balls, but i personally enjoy it. then again, i've been told i'm a rather strange individual.

i scented this with my last bit of patchouli and pine. there's a bit of tangerine in there but it didn't come through. oh well, it smells earthy enough.

madeleine

2007-08-22T21:12:00.009+08:00

"les madeleine; confessions of a sugarholic":
here's the orange-vanilla soap i rebatched. coconut milk and desiccated coconut went into this for a bit of texture.

i made a bergamot scented soap on the weekend which separated and went oily like this one did originally. now that i think about it, i've been soaping at much higher temperatures recently since i'm trying to speed up tracing time for my castile recipe. so far only my citrus oils have caused separation, so i'm guessing the soap mixture may have been too warm when i added the oils. next time i'll let it cool a little.

for us gluttons

2007-08-14T21:22:00.003+08:00

made a big batch of this on the weekend. one bar for all the candy cravers i know. someone needs to put them out of their misery.

#9 gluttony:
my favourite sin :o).

scented it with caramel and coloured the bottom layer with lots of cocoa (the smell does come through). the photo makes it look black, but its actually a nice dark brown. yumm...

safari

2007-08-07T17:43:00.006+08:00

my orange-vanilla went oily again (but not as bad as before) and i'm still in the process of figuring out how to fix it. in the meantine i find myself, once again, with only one new soap to play around with, and have therefore decided to try out some fancy-shmancy photography with this one.

"safari"
a name to match its scent and appearance.
here it is in log form, with a bed of calendula and bay leaves.....wood, grass, earth....you get the picture.

again, this one has coconut milk and brown sugar (for extra bubbles). i also chucked in a black tea infusion. i scented it with clary sage and teeny bit of coconut and cinnamon. earthy and wild, the only thing its missing is a couple of zebras and giraffes.

just another fancy photograph, for the heck of it. after all, i did spend 3 hours stirring this soap (new 70% olive oil recipe.....its a long story).

the blues

2007-07-31T19:19:00.003+08:00

well, here it is; the soap that didn't stuff up. i call it "the bali blues" ...another asian inspired one, and made with my new all-veggie recipe too:

the white semi-circle was easy. i just rolled some white "soap dough" into a thick tube, sliced it in half and put it on the bottom of the mould. i scented this with coconut and a hint of jasmine and cananga (a.k.a ylang ylang). smells rather exotic. i added some brown sugar and coconut cream to the main batch of soap, but to this portion i also added some ground rice. for the first time ever, i can't be bothered to neaten up the edges and cracks. as a result, the soaps are covered with scratches and imperfections, which i think adds to the whole rustic look and i'm happy to leave them as they are.

the orange monster

2007-07-30T14:46:00.007+08:00

ok...when the soap fairies are out to get you, they are REALLY REALLY out to get you.

lets take a look at the orange-vanilla soap i made on the weekend:

tragic isn't it.... separation?........hah! more like divorce!!!!

check out the massive amount of oil that collected at the top. the photos don't show the actual colour of the soap:- in reality it is the most garish fluorescent orange ever!

i knew it would turn out bad when the soap "riced" as i mixed the fragrances in. strange. i have used this same orange e.o and vanilla f.o before with no problems... (although, i've never actually used them at the same time)....well, that's soapmaking for you! look at how the "soap" started to pull away from the sides of the mould as the oil seeped out of it....

and yes, there was A LOT of oil. that's probably why there is no discolouration from the vanilla;- the oil sealed out the oxygen.

originally i dyed the soap a pale yellowish orange since i knew the vanilla would make it darker. when i added the e.o and f.o to the coloured soap, it turned a neon reddish-orange. i did a test later on with some scraps i dug out from the pot.

yellow dye + vanilla = ok

yellow dye + orange = ok

orange dye + vanilla = ok

orange dye + orange = the orange monster was born!

the last picture shows what happened as i mixed in the first drop of orange e.o (2) and then the second drop (3). the original colour was a nice tangerine (1). keep in mind that these photos don't actually show how fluorescent (2) and (3) are.

sigh....this is going in the bin.

so now what? this is when, as a soapmaker, there are decisions to be made. i could try a different conbination of oils, or i could add them to the soap at a different time, or i could heat them up before adding them...

and then there's the orange-dye issue. i could try a different oil, or a different dye, or maybe no dye at all. i could (if i was really desperate to use both) make the batch with dye but without oil, and then rebatch it after it's cured and add the oil (or vice versa)....

anyway, i'm going to try make it again this weekend. maybe i'll colour it with turmeric or something. i'm pretty bummed, but luckily the other soap i made turned out fine so i'll do a post on that later.

sneak peek

2007-07-27T18:21:00.001+08:00

some of the ingredients for tomorrow's soapies....

bring on the coconut!

the disappearance

2007-07-25T19:46:00.001+08:00

i know, i know....where on earth have i been for the last month? where are the companies i promised to write about? where are the updates?...

all i can say is that i was having waaay too much fun on holiday and just never got around to it.....sorry, my bad ;o)!! anyway, i'm back after an extended stay in singapore and as depressed as i am to be stranded in melbourne again, at least i can look forward to the soapmaking....

some updates: i bought a proper soap cutter before i left which i planned to use when i came back, but due to the "lack of communication" between a sister in perth and my darling mother, my cutter has somehow landed in singapore and will only get to me the next time my mum visits. thanks guys, thanks a lot. guess i'll have to stick to the usual "ruler and knife" method for now....pffftttt!

i also bought a 4L tin of olive oil that was on sale at the time (about 19 bucks) which i'm going to use now in place of my usual piggy....not because i suddenly turned veggie, but because i realised that the most expensive raw oil i have been using all this time was actually the good old lard! ironic isn't it....i'll still be looking out for discounts on the piggy of course, so that i can use it every now and then. after all, it has found a place in my heart and i do enjoy soaping with it...

soaping on the weekend....yay, can't wait!!

fizzy discovery

2007-06-18T08:40:00.001+08:00

well hello! i have 3 exams left and i'm beyond stressed. i've been burning all sorts of essential oils in different combinations to help with the studying. yea, i'm a real sucker for aromatherapy, but i'm convinced that it works. some suggested blends i've tried were meant to enhance "clarity", "concentration" and "relaxation", among other things.

"concentration" being the key word here since i'm finding it very hard to focus....poor me!

anyway, i made a fascinating discovery about 5 minutes ago that i felt i had to announce. i love testing out new blends of oils, and to do this, i put a few bottle caps from different essential oils together, fan them with my hands, and have a good whiff. if i like the result i use my oil burner so i can figure out exactly how many parts of each oil works best.

i didn't particularly like the scent of ylang ylang until recently when i realised it reminds me of rootbeer. well this morning, i took a study break and was playing with ylang ylang to see what goes well with it. would you believe that the combination of ylang ylang and lime smells very much like sarsi (as in the soft drink) ? it also smells a lot like the coke/cola flavouring that is used in lolly pops, and the lime gives it sharpness and "fizz". amazing!!!!

i'm not craving cola scented soap at the moment, but i'm glad i made this discovery, just in case. then again, this may just be my nose acting weird and picking up imaginary scents. or maybe i'm just subconsciously dying for a can of coke....i suggest you try it for yourself....

withdrawal

2007-06-09T17:59:00.001+08:00

two "no soapmaking" weeks down, four more to go. i'm surviving but i'm not liking it. not liking it one bit...

i'm probably going to be doing more posts on soap companies in the next few weeks, so do look out for them. till then, this is your friendly neighbourhood soap blogger, depressed, signing out.

chagrin valley

2007-06-06T16:52:00.002+08:00

i've wanted to talk about this company for a while now. it amazes me.

it's called chagrin valley, and the first thing that came to my mind when i stumbled across the website was "wow, this woman must spend a fortune on ingredients". and then for about 10 minutes after, i was brainstorming ideas on "how to get rich quick so i can spend a fortune on ingredients too".

and yes, "marry handsome millionaire" and "win lottery" were included.

anyhow, back to the topic of chagrin valley (i appologise for the digression). as i was saying, this lady spares no expense when it comes to luxurious ingredients. she refuses to use any synthetics in her soaps, which is something that i admire a lot but am not physically, mentally, spiritually or financially strong enough to do. only pure essential oils, natural colours and "preservatives" are allowed in her soap pot. and then there's the special additives....

example of ingredients for just one bar of soap:

Saponified oils of olive, palm, coconut, safflower, palm kernel, apricot kernel, unrefined shea nut butter, rice bran, organic canola, and castor bean; organic whole milk yogurt; puréed cucumber, organic aloe vera; ; nori flakes; kelp; lemon peel; essential oils of lime, pink grapefruit, litsea, and lemon; parsley; spirulina; cornstarch; vitamin E oil; and rosemary oil extract.

omg.....omg omg omg.....

bear with me please, as i can't help but obsess over the whopping amount of fresh ingredients that make up those lovely chagrin valley soaps:

aloe, avocado, beer, calendula, carrot, chamomile, china clay, cocoa, coconut milk, coffee, comfrey, cucumber, dead sea mud, egg, green tea, goats milk, honey, hops, jojoba oil, kokum butter, lavender, lemon, lime

................... (deep breath).................

mango butter, marshmallow root, neem oil, nettle, oatmeal, pecan oil, primrose oil, rhassoul clay, rosemary, sea kelp, shea butter, tomato, vitamin e, walnut oil, yoghurt...

and i didn't even include everything because i got tired of typing. actually, i'm exhausted. there are too many ingredients to list and i need to get back to studying. i don't have time to talk about how the benefits of each ingredient are listed on their amazing website, along with tonnes of other useful information. i don't have time to talk about how it includes tips, tricks and recipes for better skin and hair. i don't even have time to talk about how i've never seen a site that has postage rates and options so clearly explained......i'm floored.

i think you need to check it out for yourself:

http://chagrinvalleysoapandcraft.com/

ida, i take my hat off to you.

fruits

2007-06-04T20:18:00.001+08:00

last weekend was the first of seven "no soap" weekends....it felt strange and somewhat uncomfortable. either i'm addicted to soapmaking or i just hate/despise/detest/loathe studying physics too much. i'm thinking its a bit of both.

one thing that didn't make me feel so miserable was finally getting to test out the "fruits" of my labour. saturday marked the 4 week curing point for my fruity soaps and i was anxious to lather up with the new-recipe babies. no soap-making, but at least there's soap-using!

the lather was...ok.... large and airy bubbles, which could have been creamier and thicker. the hardness was wonderful though. unlike with my previous recipe, the soaps weren't as "melty". in fact, they didn't seem to shrink very much when i used them, or maybe that's just me imagining things.....weird....

i'm loving the "tally man"....it smells banana-rific!!

peace out, peeps.

speak of the devil

2007-05-27T17:54:00.008+08:00

yay! i'm so so so happy with how this one turned out...

"cheeky devil"
alrighty then. i'm not sure how obvious i made it in my previous posts, but here it is:

my chocolate soap!!! or rather, my "spiced chocolate soap" to be more exact, since i spiked it with a tiny hint of cinnamon. its looks cheeky, but smells devilish.

i usually cut 4 bars per log, but this time i did 5 since the soap went all the way to the top of the mould, giving me much larger logs.
lets do the math: 2 logs x 5 bars = 10 bars
10 bars = more yummy soap to go around = everyone's happy :o)

i love this soap, it's definately a keeper. the white balls were made the day before with plain unscented soap (see, i told you this is a useful thing to have around). i added about 30g of plain cooking chocolate to the oils, then more cocoa powder at light trace to deepen the colour. i didn't go crazy with the cocoa since i knew that the vanilla would turn it a nice brown anyway.

since i was using cinnamon f.o, i took some extra precautions in case the soap decided to seize. i used more water than necessary and i mixed the oils and lye at a slightly higher temperature. i also stirred the balls into the soap BEFORE adding the scents, just in case it thickened up too much after. i used 3 parts "chocolate", 2 parts "vanilla" and 1/2 parts "cinnamon" oils. it smells like.....um....heaven?

after pouring the soap into the moulds, i studded the top with more balls. the soap actually swelled up a bit as it gelled, so the balls look more "sunken" than i hoped, but that's fine i guess. my friend commented that they look like marshmellows.

thank you to the lovely ladies at "aussie soapers" for their tips on using chocolate!

peek-a-boo

2007-05-26T21:30:00.002+08:00

soaped today. can you guess what i made yet? look in the pot....

still can't figure it out? ok, ok, i'll let you have a peek.... (but just this once)

mmmmm....smells yummy....i'll unmould them tomorrow and reveal their full identity ;o)

one for the road

2007-05-25T19:07:00.001+08:00

i've got something pretty special up my sleeves for tomorrow. i have exams in 3 weeks and then a 3 week holiday and i'm probably not going to be able to make any soaps till i get back. so i figured i'd make a big batch of something that would be ready by the time i leave, something that i would really enjoy using and giving away....

hint: its a foodie soap :o)

hehehehe....

cuppa

2007-05-21T19:12:00.007+08:00

more tea soaps...more boo boos. made a small batch this time and only split it two-ways.

"buckingham palace"
why did i have to attempt something so complexed.. two layered colours, cocoa lines AND chunks...i was stressed out the whole time. not good, not good at all.
but anyway, here's my lemon chamomile tea soap. it looks alright, though i may leave out the grey chunks next time. they didn't come out exactly how i wanted.
this went from yellow to orange (gel stage), and back to yellow again (phew). the specks are bits of chamomile tea. scented with a "lemon tea" fragrance. pure chamomile essential oil (rediculously expensive) would have made it truely "royal". perhaps in my next life....

"princess li meets earl grey"
ok, first the top layer turned out a yucky grey instead of black, and so it didnt match the embeds. to make matters worse, the jasmine tea started bleeding and the grey was too light to conceal the spots. and to top it off, the whole layer ashed.
yucky grey + mouldy looking = bad bad bad

i sliced off the entire top layer, rebatched it to make it the right colour, and poured it back over the pink. this is scented this with jasmine and bergamot, floral, fruity, and kind of "candy-ish". actually, it smells a lot like my grandma when she's eating orange flavoured lollies.....i'm being a bit vague aren't i? :o) the black tubes were quite hard to make, but i do love the effect. i had to soap at a very light trace to make sure the mixture was runny enough to completely fill the holes.

p.s. i got my "soap naturally" book today. yay, i have new bedtime reading material!

frugal fabulous

2007-05-18T15:02:00.002+08:00

here's the recipe for basic "el cheapo soap" (5% superfatting discount). this makes about 1.2 kilos of soap:

500g palm oil
300g coconut oil
195g lard
145g canola oil
164g sodium hydroxide
410ml distilled water
30 to 45ml fragrance/essential oil

it's pretty obvious how this recipe got it's name, yes? i admit, it doesn't give you the most luxurious, moisturising soap, but it makes a really hard bar with a good lather, and it doesn't leave me broke at the end of each week.

(cue sad music and unnecessary speech).......my dad has recently decided to give me 13 dollars a day for food including groceries and it's a known fact that a meal costs about 8 dollars typically. when i told him it wasn't enough, he said "that's the whole point of a budget. MAKE IT WORK".

(cue inspirational music) ....and so with the new budget enforced and even less to spend on soapmaking oils, this recipe has allowed me to continue to explore this wonderful craft, while still "making it work". go "el cheapo"!!

sorry, i'm being a bit of a drama queen today. i'm soaping again tomorrow and testing out more embedding ideas. stay tuned.

final words: GO "EL CHEAPO"!!

man oh man

2007-05-14T21:23:00.006+08:00

i've dissapeared for a while, i know. exams are coming up so i think i have another 3 weeks of soapmaking before i take a study break. other than that, i'm busy busy busy as per usual.

cranked out more soap on the weekend for a special boy who celebrates his birthday in july. i made them waaaay in advanced so that they have at least 8 weeks of proper curing before i give them away. the combination of my tweaked piggy recipe and long curing time should result in very hard, long lasting bars.....at least i hope so.

i'm trying to expand my photography skills, as you can see. i made 2 types of man-friendly soaps and a plain unscented log (very multifunctional):

"timber!"

ah, sandalwood and pine...classic (and very sexy) masculine scents. glad i had them in my stash. those embeds are supposed to look like tree trunks.

"dinosaur"

funny name, but these remind me of cartoon dinosaurs. can you tell that i rebatched them? i scented this with bergamot e.o. and a hint of peppermint (evil thing). as soon as i added the peppermint (horrible bugger), the whole thing seized up. anyway, i rebatched it, added the chunks and voila! i could have used a bit more cocoa to define the lines, but i'm just glad they turned out ok in the end. this has some lemongrass powder in it too :o)

plain, nameless soap. always useful to have around, i think. i haven't cut it yet but i'm rather pleased with the whiteness and texture. hmmmmm, i really should post the recipe at some point....

makeover

2007-05-10T09:24:00.001+08:00

as i'm sure you can see, hsb has been given a new look. its more personal, more "me". there's a new tagboard as well so do leave a note whenever you feel like it.

cheerio!

fruity

2007-05-07T20:35:00.003+08:00

here they are, folks!

i have to say i like the texture of this batch. the soaps have a firm, almost waxy feel which made them a joy to cut. i may end up sticking to piggy after all.

"come mister tally man"
so i guess there was vanilla in that banana f.o. after all! i figured there was a 50/50 chance that this would turn out brown instead of yellow, so i prepared myself for either. i would have loved yellow so that the calendula shows, but brown is still fine. used a mix of banana and cinnamon oils, cocoa powder to colour the top layer and added a sprinkle of coconut on top. smells like spiced banana cake.....mmmmmm...

"squeeze"
this is actually a lot brighter in real life. the yellow balls are made from scraps from the previous batch. scented this with sweet orange e.o. and had to force myself to abstain from adding any exfoliants (mum would prefer this). i cut off the part with the orange peel because it started to fall out and look yucky. it looks much neater this way.

"kermit"
i tried to scrape off as much of the ash on top as i could without destroying the swirly tops and bay leaves. when i designed this soap, i wanted it to be the most fabulous green ever. the ash was getting in the way so it had to go...

this is scented with pear of course, and speckled with pear pulp and poppy seeds. note to self: work on getting straighter layers.

ashes to ashes

2007-05-06T11:17:00.003+08:00

i awoke to a gorgeous, warm sunday morning. the birds were chirping, the bees were buzzing, and i was feeling incredibly cheerful......until i saw this:

i'm so not in the mood for cleaning up right now. this is the only part about soapmaking which i never look forward to, but unfortunately, it can't be avoided. of course, i'm allowed to put it off for an hour to blog, aren't i?

yesterday, i made three fruit soaps: banana, orange and pear. i spent the aftenoon pureeing chunks of pear and banana. by the way, i discovered that i have the noisiest stick blender on the planet. it's quite embarassing actually. i'm glad no one came knocking on my door to find out what the racket was. if any of you heard a loud buzzing noise coming from an unkown source yesterday (even if you live on the opposite side of the world), that was probably me, and i appologise.

with the pear, i had to squeeze out the excess juice so that the soap wouldn't come out too soft. banana is really easy to mash and it becomes very very slimy (resembles something i won't mention). if you're using fresh fruits or vegetables in soap, always strain it in a sieve to get the lumps/chunks out.

i substituted slightly less than half of the canola oil with lard. it traced in about 45 minutes, which is pretty good since i'm used to stirring for an hour or more. the oil mixture did smell a little funky though. it wasn't an unpleasant smell, just something i'm not used to.

i love watching the oil and lye mixture transform from a thin yellow liquid to a thick, cream coloured one. even though i have a stick blender, i still prefer to stir by hand, with my ipod plugged in of course. i find it very theraputic.

i made an extra large batch so that i would have enough for some plain, unscented blocks of soap to make embeds. i've never had ash forming before, but that's what's happening here. there is a first time for everything, as they say.

here are the soaps in their moulds.

from left: orange (with orange peel and tea leaves on top), pear (with bay leaves on top) and banana (with ground coconut on top). the orange and banana gelled, but the pear and plain soap didn't, which explains why they are the only ones with ash. thank goodness ash isn't harmful, or i would be so sad.

i wish i could explain why the soaps come out so differently when they're from the same main batch. i could say that the lard caused the ash, but then the orange and banana turned out fine. so instead i could blame it on the pear fragrance oil, but then the plain blocks were unscented. soapmaking is such a mystery. you always learn something new even though you may have done it a million times.

i should be taking the babies out of their moulds later today or sometime tomorrow. i'm deciding if i should stick to lard...

piggy piggy

2007-05-04T17:21:00.001+08:00

i'm going to make soap tomorrow, and i'm going to use lard for the first time. why? because when i asked myself "why haven't i tried using lard?", i couldn't come up with an answer. i'm not veggie and i have no ethical/ religious/ political issues with it, so really, there is no reason why i shouldn't give it a go, at least once.

lard is supposed to give you pretty much all the qualities you would want in a soap: hard, moisturising, creamy lather, long lasting, quick trace, etc. and it's cheap of course, which is a bonus. so as an experiment, i'm going to replace a portion of the canola oil in my basic recipe with lard, just to see the difference it makes to the trace time and to the overall texture of the soap.

this is going to be interesting....will keep you posted!

expensive naturally

2007-04-30T19:49:00.002+08:00

i was in the city today so i dropped by dymocks to see if i could get a copy of "soap naturally". i've been toying with the idea for ages since i heard good things about it. it costs about 40 dollars, not incredibly expensive, but not cheap either, especially on my rather tight budget. yet, i convinced myself that i would be able to skimp a little on other things to make up for it, and so, into the bookstore i went. unfortunately they were sold out and i had place an order for a new copy.

i hope i'm not getting ripped off. already i spend more than 100 dollars each on uni textbooks which i hardly use. i do find that with soapmaking books, i can go through them again and again and not get bored. i have both melinda coss's books and the norma coney one, and i've read them dozens of times, picking out bits of information i missed out on before. let's hope this new book is as useful, if not as entertaining. the order should arrive in a week. fingers crossed!

rebatch

2007-04-29T10:17:00.014+08:00

remember my chai soap with lots of holes? well, i decided to rebatch it yesterday since i finally bought my new soap pot. i thought it needed more spice since the cinnamon evaporated and it started to smell more like vanilla cake than chai tea. and of course, i wanted to get rid of those ugly holes.

the original and very holy "maharaja mumbai chai" soap. good, but could be better.

i like rebatching. or rather, i don't have a problem with it. some soapers avoid rebatching like the plague. for me, rebatching is how it all started, so i can practically do it with my eyes closed if i have to. i find that it's a a lot less hectic than cold process, no actual mesuring (i estimate amounts by eye), no need to be covered from head to toe in safety wear, and you don't have to worry too much about how fast/slow you stir or how hot/cool it gets, etc. the only thing i'm careful about is not stirring the melted soap too much that you get a potful of bubbly goop. in fact, i never stir, i just nudge it a bit, if you get what i mean.

i actually grated the soap a day before and left it to air a bit. i do this so that it can lose as much water as possible before i rebatch it. why? because i have to add extra liquids to it to make it melt down, and i don't want to end up with mushy bars that take forever to dry up. my liquid of choice was a few spoonfuls of skim milk, since that was all i had in the fridge. it worked well, no frothy bubbles formed, and the grated soap melted nicely. added some cinnamon till it smelled just right, and scooped it into its mould. i used a chopstick to get rid of air bubbles. i wasn't going to make the same mistake twice....!

and what did i top it off with? a nice sprinkle of my overstocked calendula petals!

it took less than half an hour for all that, including preparing the mould. easy peasy! i just put the lid on and popped in into my fridge for about 30 mins, and the soap was solid enough to remove from the mould. oven paper helps, by the way. make it stick to your mould with a bit of petroleum jelly.

here's the soap just before unmolding. notice how i let the edges of the oven paper hang out? i do this with cold process soaps as well. although i never actually have to use the paper to get the soap out, its just there in case i get a misbehaving batch.

out of the mould, peeling the oven paper off.

a little 4-bar log ready for cutting. a few holes, but it's too be expected with rebatching.

cutting the soap with the aid of a perfectly sized cardboard box.

nice and rustic looking bars. love the contrast of colours.

version 2: just "mumbai chai" soap.

smells spicier and yummier now. the bars are pretty hard already and they should have a nice creamy texture due to the milk. we shall see. i'm happy :o)

hoarder

2007-04-27T19:23:00.007+08:00

i've been told i have a tendency to hoard things. apparently, when i get really excited about something, i go out as buy as much of it as i can, and then i begin hoarding. very strange, i know, but that's what people have told me. i didn't realise how true this was until i went back home 3 weeks ago and checked my stash of fragrance and essential oils.

what you see is less than half of what i purchased for soapmaking 4 years ago. my mum brought these over today and i calculated that i have enough here for about 22 batches of soap, which is approximately 264 bars! for someone who isn't in the soap business, that's a lot of scented soap. and i have more bottles of oils back home!

someone please remind me not to buy anymore scents. ever.

i decided to get some calendula and rose petals online a few days ago. 50 grams of calendula? how much is that? a handful? two maybe? i decided to play it safe and order 100g of calendula and 50 grams of rose petals. i now have quite a bit more rose petals than i wanted, and A LOT of calendula. the bag is pressed right up to my face and it still covers my entire head! as you can see, i have "terrific" weight/size judging skills. to everyone who will receive my soaps in the next 10 years, i'm sorry for the accesive amounts of calendula in the soaps, but i overstocked as usual.....

i'm extremely pleased with this online supplier that i've been ordering from. they're based in NSW and they're products are very reasonably priced. postage isn't too expensive either. aussie soapers should definately check them out.

heirloom body care:
http://www.heirloombodycare.com.au/index.php

bubble shack

2007-04-22T19:04:00.002+08:00

end of the weekend already. i'm so not in the mood for school (sad).
luckily wednesday is anzac day, so no class (happy)!
but my physics assignment is due thursday so i'll be busy the whole of wednesday (sad again).
also, last night my electric kettle suddenly died so i can't make hot tea till next weekend when i buy a new one (sad, sad and sad).

ok, time to stop whinging now. must stay positive. must think cheerful thoughts. must go to the bubble shack website and look at soaps for an instant "happy boost".

ooooooo, so pretty.....so many colours.....and so....hawaiian!

i feel like a kid in an (online) candystore when i look at their soaps. caramel almond butter, cinnamon sugar masalada, epic nectar, guava banana sorbet, hibiscus martini, hot chocolate with marshmellow, rocky point rumble....the list goes on. too many delicious treats to choose from! i have to say, their "lilikoi shave ice" soap is incredibly original and it looks stunning.

they make their soaps with a host of natural ingredients including oatmeal, hibiscus and orchid flowers, coconut and coconut milk, rosemary, seaweed, guava leaves, chamomile, oranges and japanese adzuki beans. bubble shack isn't one bit apprehensive about using colours and they are obviously incredibly proud of their hawaiian heritage. i admire them. no, i applaud them!

bubble shack soaps are wholesome, funky and uniquely authentic. bravo!

http://www.bubbleshackhawaii.com/ CLICK!!!!

embeds in CP soaps

2007-04-20T14:40:00.001+08:00

its been a long week of readjusting into uni and dorm life, and i'm glad its the weekend. i might actually not have to wait to leave australia to make soap anymore since i bought an electric hotplate from singapore this last trip. its not as powerful as a flame stove, of course, but it says it can be used for simple cooking, and for soapmaking i only need to heat up the oils to about 35 degrees centigrade anyway. i will have to buy a whole new set of equipment including a stainless steel pot though. Will also have to get mum to bring over my scents and colourings from home. she may be visiting at the end of this months, but in the meantime, the prospect of making soap as and when i like is getting me quite excited!

now that i'm done with my little news announcement for the day (chuckle), it's time to talk embeds. i planning to experiment with these in my next few batches. i like embeds which are neat and simple, and preferably not taking over the whole bar like those that you find in m&p soaps. basic cubes, spheres or tubes is nice. keep in mind, this is just my personal preference.

there are two techniques i used to make embeds back in the day. you can just chop up chunks or strips of soap from an existing bar, or use the scraps that you get when trimming the edges of your bars. its a good way of using up those odds and ends from previous batches.

if you want to make specific shapes like spheres or hearts, etc, then what you can do is to grate up some soap and mix it with a bit of water. then knead the mixture by hand till you get a nice smooth dough. you can add more water or soap if necessary to get the right consistency. next you take your soap dough and add colourings or scents or exfoliants, and knead it with your fingers till everything is mixed in evenly. use this to make whatever shapes you want. imagine that you're in kindergarten again and let your dough-shaping creative juices flow! once you're done, set them aside to dry. by the way, if you want to make soap balls, make the soap dough this way and roll into fairly large spheres. nizzy's website has some nice pictures of cold-processed soap with embeds. this one shows some of his hand rolled soap shapes before embedding.

one concern with embedding is that if your embeds are too hard or much harder than the surrounding soap, you might have problems during cutting. imagine your knife getting stuck on a piece of hard soap and then dragging it through the softer soap as you continue cutting. or imagine cutting your soap to find that your embeds have cracked and come apart from the rest of the soap. i've never actually encountered this problems before, but here are some tips to avoid this happening:

if you're using large chunks or scraps, make sure the soap is relatively easy to cut. some people say you should soak your embeds in water to soften them before using. i've never tried this but i suggest not soaking it until it turns into a slimy mush. to be safe, just avoid using too large pieces.

if you're using hand-shaped embeds from soap dough, don't let it harden too much before using it. again, just check that your knife runs through it easily and smoothly.

it's possible that as your soap hardens and shrinks it may pull away from your embeds. the softer your embeds are, the more water they contain. so technically, as your soap shrinks and loses water, so will your embeds. ideally they will shrink at the roughly the same rate and not come apart. in a nutshell, try use softer embeds to prevent seperation :o) .

that's all for now. i won't put up any pics of soaps with embeds since they're everywhere and i'm sure you all know what they look like. however, do pop by nizzy's site and have a look at his pretty embedded soaps:

http://nizzymoulds.com/Page3.htm

i've applied to become a member of the latherings soap forum three times and have not been approved. so sad...i feel so rejected.....

new soaps

2007-04-16T17:50:00.003+08:00

i got back to melbourne at 1.20am this morning. i've travelled so much this last week and so have my new soaps. they've been curing for about 6 days now and i think that the dry aussie weather will do them good. this is a photo of them in individual mini-logs before cutting.

i forgot to mention that after i split the batch, i found it to be quite stressful having to keep an eye on all four bowls at the same time. i was rushing like mad, trying to mix all the frgrances and additives into each portion, knowing that the other three were either slowly solidifying or not thickening enough. next time, i won't split a batch into more than three portions. four is just too much to handle. if you're going to attempt this i suggest dividing the soap into portions at light trace and working quickly so that each portion is not left to sit for too long. if it thickens up too much it may seize up before you can pour it into your mould. on the other hand, if the trace is too light and you leave the soap for too long without stiring, it may seperate. tricky.....very tricky.....

a look at my new soaps:

yum cha:
i made this with lots of jasmine green tea and oolong tea, and a touch of ground ginger for warmth. it smells a lot like jasmine tea, leafy and floral. the leafy bit comes from the "rainforest"oil i added which smells like fresh grass. my mom and best friend have already booked a bar each, leaving me with only two.... :o(

coco siam cake:

this is the one that got quite stiff before i could pour it into the mould. i put in heaps of ground coconut for scrubbing since there's nothing i love more than scrubby soaps. it gave me the most trouble but it's my favourite of the four. smells and looks like coconut cake with cocoa layers.

maharaja mumbai chai:
i got a lot of air bubbles in this one but i'm not sure why. the colour came out just as i wanted though; a very dark brown. but what else would you expect when it's mostly scented with vanilla? its speckled with black tea leaves, chai spices, and some ground javanese coffee for scrubbiness.

he's been scrubbed:

ok, this soap isn't exactly asian influenced. i wanted to make something for the boyfriend so i figured i would play it safe and stick to something "manly" in case "oriental" doesn't appeal to him. it's got loads of poppy seeds, a bit of ground black pepper and a touch of tobacco. my own version of mechanics soap. i scented it with lime, patchouli, lavender and cinnamon.

looking good

2007-04-11T19:05:00.002+08:00

i'm sorry i haven't posted in ages. been tied up with uni and more recently, enjoying my "break". i just got back from my two day trip to malacca and i did make soap as planned (last night in fact). this morning they weren't completely set so i carried them with me on my five hour bus ride.

as you can see, i split my batch four ways because i realised that i didn't want 16 bars of the same soap. trust me, i would get very very bored. the funny thing is that even though they came from the same pot, same base recipe, etc, they all were a bit different in properties. it goes to show how fragrances and additives can affect your soap. 3 of them thickened into a nice light pudding consistency in the same time that the cream coloured one became sort of mashed-potato like. the culprit? either the desiccated coconut or the powdered coconut cream. anyway, i was racing against time trying to scoop out the stuff into the moulds. its quite bumpy on top, but it does resemble coconut cake, which isn't so bad to look at.

the grey coloured soap took about half an hour longer than the rest to heat up into the gel stage. i was beginning to worry. strangely enough, it's the only one with essential oils. i wonder if it was a coincidence or if essential oils actually delay gelling time.

so far i've taken the chai soap (dark brown) out of its mould. i love these moulds. they're just little plastic airtight containers with lids which make perfect 4-bar logs. they cost me about 2 singapore dollars each and were so convenient because i could just stack them up with the lids on and carry them around with me. i will get 16 perfect 100g bars from these moulds (4 each) as my recipe was exactly 1.6kg.......wonderful!!

i'll try to unmould the rest. goodbye for now.

cheers, LSF

2007-04-03T16:14:00.001+08:00

only a few more days till easter break and the evil people at uni have decided to dump loads of work on us. i have 6 major assignments/reports and quizzes to do within the next 2 weeks and i'm starting to wonder why they call it a "break" if they expect you to be working the whole time.

to all those people who assured me that uni was going to be a breeze.......you lied.

on an more cheerful note, i was checking out the london soap factory's blog and spotted a little something which made me smile.

LSF rocks and i'm sure their old-school lard soaps will too. pro-lard or not, please pop by their blog:

http://londonsoapfactory.wordpress.com/

All The Love

2007-03-30T16:48:00.002+08:00

i'm so impressed. check out this thai company which uses a lot (and i mean A LOT) of local ingredients in their soaps. yes, there are a few which are a bit out of place (apples and peaches don't grow in thailand i think, and neither do oats) but overall, very authentic. i can't believe how many of these i didn't think of!

they also make bars with more than one scent / ingredient by layering two different types or adding small chunks of one type into another. go to their website and see what i mean:

http://www.all-the-love.com/handmadenaturalsoap.html

planning

2007-03-28T17:56:00.001+08:00

my art teacher in highschool made us follow a strict system of looking, learning, thinking and planning for every assignment or project we had to do. it involved pouring through art books looking for information and inspiration from other artists and their work, and then incorporating this research into our own ideas. typically, we would spend 6 to 7 weeks on collecting visual data and inspiration, 2 weeks on planning and design, and 3 weeks on creating the final product.

i have become so used to this system of working that naturally, that is how i decided to approach soapmaking for the second time. now i have arrived at the planning stage.

so what makes a soap "asian-influenced"? i would say the main aspects would be choice of ingredients and scents. packaging is another one but i don't have to worry about that since i'm only going to make soap for my own personal use. i'm going to stick to my basic recipe of palm, coconut and sunflower oils, the exact same recipe i used 4 years ago which i was very happy with. i'd love a tad more luxury in my soaps, but realistically i'm not going to be able to afford olive and other pricier oils on my tight student budget.

basic recipe done. what about additives? i must must must have lots of natural additives in my soap because to me, that's what makes a soap really special. the good thing about making soap for myself is that i don't have to worry about the business side of things (profit-making, presentation, what is marketable, etc). i'm not going to buy special moulds or colourants or expensive scented oils. skimping on things like this means i have quite a bit extra to spend on natural ingredients, which is really great.

this is a list of easily available asian ingredients which i can use in my soaps:

tea (black , jasmine, green, oolong, chrysanthemum, hibiscus)
rice (black, red, white jasmine)
grains and beans (chickpeas, lentils, mung beans, coffee, etc)
fruit (coconut, bananas, limes, mandarins, any local malaysian fruit eg guava, mangosteens, starfruit, etc)
vegetables (cucumber, tomatoes, bamboo shoots, seaweed, etc)
herbs and spices (cinnamon, clove, ginger, turmeric, cardamom, lemongrass, basil, pandan, etc)

there are heaps of other ingredients but a lot are harder to find or are more costly (i'd love to use bamboo charcoal if i only knew where to find it). i should be able to get most of these ingredients in any old supermarket (with the exception of more exotic fruits).

unfortunately i'm not going to be able to afford special blends of fragrance or essential oils which may smell very authentically asian. i still have a bunch of leftover oils from my my old soapmaking days which may or may not be usable. we shall see. luckily i can get pretty good soap-safe fragrance oils and essential oil dilutions from craft stores in australia for less than 3 or 4 dollars. the range won't be as wide as those of speciality soapmaking suppliers, but its a good reason to start creating my own blends, so i will make do. ideally i should use scents as similar to my ingredients as possible, but i'll probably have to improvise quite a bit.

ok, enough thinking for one day. i hear the homework calling!

Orient Express

2007-03-26T15:27:00.015+08:00

its been a while since my last review. i've been so busy with uni its not funny....the good news is that i'm going home in about 2 weeks for easter break so i can finally get cracking and make some soap. at the moment i'm really into the idea of asian themed recipes, which is appropriate as i haven't been getting my fair share of asia these few weeks. how great would it be to add a touch of the east to my soaps to help me feel closer to home everytime i step into the shower? brilliant, i think!!

there are heaps of ideas out there, but here are just a few i've come across. all onboard the oriental express!

tea / spice soaps:

"chai tea" soap by natural soap shoppe:

A wonderful blend of ginger, cinnamon, clove & nutmeg essential oils combined with a touch of vanilla and special additives such as shea butter & honey make this one of our dreamiest bars ever!

"iced black keemun tea" soap by althaea soaps:

Finally, a true straight astringent black tea scent. Just a strong, pure tea scent. And what a tea! Keemun tea from the Anhui region of China is perhaps the most famous of Chinese teas, and prized for its rich chocolaty flavor, and sumptuous aroma.

"clean green" soap by luv4country soaps:

A clean and fresh scent blend comprised of Green Tea, White Tea, Ginger, and a whisper of Black Pepper. Full of lightly exfoliating Green Tea Leaves to leave the body smooth and refreshed.

"eastern honey butter cream" soap by maryam soap nook:

Exotic blend of honey, spices, lavender, chamomille, rose, geranium, ylang ylang, vanilla, amber and citrus. Made with fresh cream, pure honey, olive oil, shea butter, goatsmilk,...

floral / herbal soaps:

"bonsai" soap by the soap fairy:

Two shades of green and a very green fragrance, Bonsai will fill your house with a clean, green, peacefulness.

"lotus blossom" soap by youstinksoap:

Notes of jasmine, palma rosa, green lillies, fresh linen, melon, apple, peach, neroli, and bitter orange. Subtle, sweet fruit and floral - this scent is not overbearing.

"bamboo charcoal" soap by mi spa:

Bamboo Charcoal has been proven in Asian beauty products for its detoxifying power. Scented with Patchouly and Lemongrass Essential Oils to reduce your tensions and wash away everyday stress.

"china girl" soap by purple urchin:

Ylang ylang, orange, geranium, and lavender essential oils give this soap a sweet, soothing scent. A garnish of cloves adds a bit of spice.

rice / grain soaps:

"basmati" soap by arcadia aromatics:
This subtle yet unique and delightful fragrance is based on the wonderfully aromatic smell of cooked Basmati Rice. Delectable top notes of peach, strawberry and lemon, followed by beguiling rose, lily of the valley, and cedarwood at the heart. Wrapping up this luscious blend is a powder, spice and creamy vanilla base.

"shanghaied" soap by villainess:

Rice powder throughout, dusted with rose petals and jasmine green tea. A faint breath of perfume - jasmine, strawberry, peach, rose and lily of the valley swallowed up by a citrus frenzy of bergamot, lemon and tangerine. And then a backdrop of exotic woods, spices, and resins - bamboo, cedar, ginger, nutmeg, sandalwood, pine and coriander

"dezaia" soap by nahia creations:

an exfoliating blend of adzuki bean powder and rice bran.

fruity soaps:

"grapefruit lily" soap by soap fairy:

Bright yellow, Grapefruit Lily is a crisp, clean grapefruit with just a slight floral undertone to soften it a bit.

"asian plum" soap by youstinksoap:

A blend of plum, orchid, daffodil, jasmine, musk and vanilla. Fruity meets floral with a touch of sugary sweetness.

"yuzu" soap by mi spa:

Yuzu, a Japanese grapefruit (a hybrid of sour orange and citron), citru-sy and inspiring. It is now adopted into our RICE SOAPS™ collection, so you can truely enjoy this beloved scent anytime anywhere.

links to featured soaps:

natural soap shoppe: http://www.naturalsoapshoppe.com/index.php

althaea soaps: http://www.althaea.biz/index.php?page=home

luv4countrysoaps: http://www.luv4country.com/catalog/

maryan's soap nook: http://www.maryam-soap-nook.com/index.html

soap fairy: http://www.soapfairy.com/

youstinksoap: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=84348

mi spa: http://www.mi-spa.com/index.php

purple urchin: http://purpleurchin.myshopify.com/

arcadia aromatics: http://www.bathandbodycare.com/

villainess: http://villainess.net/

nahia creations: http://www.nahiacreations.com/

London Soap Factory

2007-03-15T18:27:00.002+09:00

i may come across as being very superficial in my choice of inspirational soapers. yes, i do like pretty soaps that smell nice and have cool names. and while i feel that presentation is terribly important in soapmaking, it definately isn't the most important aspect.

the london soap factory, believe it or not, isn't in london. it was actually founded just a few months ago (sept 2006) in "the big apple" and i think its a pretty awesome company. check out their gorgeous soaps!

gorgeous aren't they!!! what, did you think i was kidding? i am so totally serious. i'm sure they look much nicer than this in real life (blame the photographer). i'm also quite sure that the people at london soap factory are completely aware that their soaps are slightly lumpy looking. and you know what? i think they've realised that their soaps are so wonderful that they don't have to worry about making perfectly smooth, even shaped bars.

so, why do i think these soaps are so gorgeous even though they're not one bit "pretty"? well, its because i love how they're made. with lots of fresh, natural good stuff. bananas, goat milk, honey, aloe vera, cucumber, oats, and coffee, just to name a few of the ingredients used, and most of it is organic! their soaps are scented purely with essential oils and they use natural grapefruit seed extract to preserve their fresh ingredients.

really, who cares what these soaps look like.....they're so wholesome that if they were edible, my grandma would force me to eat them. "eat up your organic bananas and oats, dearie. they're good for you".

"life is dirty...make it clean again" by visiting the london soap factory website:

http://www.londonsoapfactory.com/index.html

Bliss

2007-03-15T16:24:00.001+09:00

generally i'm not too drawn towards transparent/translucent glycerin soaps because they remind me too much of that tacky melt and pour stuff. and anyone who appreciates the craft of making soap from scratch will tell you that melt and pour soaps are just a bunch of chemicals which lack the charm of "real" handmade cold/hot process soaps. besides their resemblance to m&p products, the glycerin soaps i've come across tend to look either very boring or very typically commercial. ok, i admit it, the only thing that bugs me about them is their general appearance.

did you know that many soapers actually make glycerin soaps from scratch and it is, in fact, a rather complicated process? personally, if i decided to make my own glycerin soaps, the greatest challenge, for me, would be to

1) ensure that my soaps are completely distinguishable from that m&p rubbish, and

2) ensure that they never look....boring.

in this case, creativity is definately the key, and it's not something this next company has to worry about.

enter bliss soaps.

i came across this seattle based company which produces glycerin soaps with a twist (actually, they remind me of a particular well-known handmade cosmetic company which has a similar packaging concept and presentation).

"when you place an order for our amazing soaps, your soaps will be freshly cut from the block and wrapped in deli wrap with the date and time your product was cut, that is as fresh as it gets!!! "

bliss soaps are awkwardly beautiful. a refreshing array of colours and textures, with a nice rustic feel. they don't look like those perfectly shaped m&p bars embedded with little ducks and glitter. some are completely transparent while others are opaque, and most sit nicely somewhere in between. in many of the soaps, you'll find bits of herbs, petals, botanicals, grains and more.
they claim to use lots of fresh ingredients in their soaps. a few ones that caught my eye; their "ripe papaya" which is supposed to be made with fresh fruit, their "coconut soap" made with the entire coconut (juice, milk, meat rind and oil) and their "chocolate brownie" which is loaded with real chocolate. their soaps are scented with essential and fragrance oils. and not only do they retain all the naturally occuring glycerin in their soaps, but they also top off each batch with an additional 10%.

now,that's inspirational! to see more creatively crafted glycerin beauties, check out bliss's site:

http://www.blisssoap.com/index.html

Villainess

2007-03-14T19:33:00.001+09:00

this is an ultra-chic, ultra-cool company based in nashville. it's so darn cool i just can't get over it. i love the concept of their entire product range and how their website just oozes....um...coolness....

i'm lost for words, as you can see.

villainess makes a whole bunch of body products but what caught my eye was their soaps, of course. the look: rustic and wholesome yet vibrant and funky. the inperfection of each bar makes them so appealing.

now, let's talk about their names, cos that's what makes these soaps really stand out:

blood, asphyxiate, friction, grundy, pimp, antihero.....fancy words for some pretty fancy soaps. again, cool! i'm so over regular "milk and honey" anyway.

each bar of soap is made using a blend of vegetable oils and butters. extra special ingredients include chocolate, silk, honey, clays, grains and more. the ingredients for each type is listed on their site so you know exactly what natural additives they've put into each soap. They use both essential oils and fragrance oils in rather complexed combinations, producing very unique scents, i would think.

Villainess soaps make me want to put on 4 inch platform heels, let my hair down and party all night...don't ask me why. here's their site:

http://villainess.net/

reignited passion

2007-03-14T15:21:00.002+09:00

about 4 years ago, i started doing what many candlemakers do. i experimented with making my own soap. i had been making candles since i was about 13. i'd look forward to trying out new things after school or on the weekends. i made a little money out of it, thanks to relatives and family friends who were obviously very amused by my little crafty adolescent self :0) i thought i would make candles for the rest of my life.

about a year and a half into this hobby i started "rebatching" store bought soap. i'd grate up the stuff and cook it with milk, teas, spices and fragrances. i'd then pour it into a mould, let it harden and cut it up. technically i wasn't making soap, i was just taking bad soap and "making it better". instead of the usual set of handmade candles that my parents or grandparents would receive for christmas and birthdays every year, they now got my special remilled soap. one thing i hated was the horrible overpowering scent of supermarket soap that i could never fully mask. yes, my soaps looked nice and felt relatively nice, but they always had that same synthetic-floral-detergentey smell under the cinnamon or orange or whatever i tried to scent it with.

i started doing research online on making soap from scratch. i was about 15 then. it all seemed way too complicated at the time. dealing with chemicals that could burn your skin, having to control temperatures, constantly looking out for "trace".....but i thought "i'll give it a go". finding ingredients and equipment in little malacca would be impossible. already i had to get all my candlemaking materials and fragrances from singapore or australia. spotlight, a massive craft store, was my regular haunt whenever i was on holiday. so on my next trip to perth i went and got myself a few jars of caustic soda, cooking thermometers, safety glasses, specialty oils, instruction books....the works!

i remember my very first batch clearly. i had spent quite a lot of money getting all the equipment. 2 large enamel pots and a heat resistant pyrex measuring jug included. even my own wooden spoon, because obviously i couldn't take anything from the kitchen without being caught by our cook who got suspicious everytime i stepped into her "domain". she probably deduced that i was doing something quite dangerous as well judging from my outfit (long sleeves and pants, covered shoes, rubber gloves and safety glasses.

it was a long process. i waited half an hour just for the lye solution to cool down enough so i could mix it with the oils. it only reached trace after 2 hours of stirring (100% hand stirring at that) but it did turn out to be a successful batch of lemon soap and there were many more successful batches to come. the more soap i made, the more i knew what to expect and i learned little tricks for making the process run a little smoother. then along with the soap came the lip balms, shampoo bars and lotions which i found to be just as fun and rewarding as soapmaking. i always made everything in small batches just enough for my own personal use and to share with family.

for some reason, a few months later, i gradually stopped making soap. in fact i stopped making anything. i found myself uninterested or just too busy. it was 4 years ago that i made my last batch of soap or lip balm and have since been buying it from shops. i guess my love for the craft was replace by what usually becomes the life of a teenage girl; school, friends, shopping, boys, and not to mention the fact that i moved to perth and left all my oils and beeswax and scents behind. life went on and i haven't looked back. until now.

all of a sudden, completely out of the blue, i have the urge to start making soap again. and not just any soap. soap with real character, with real fresh ingredients. to be honest, i really just want to make soap for myself that i will love using. one problem, there is no way i can begin soapmaking here. i'm 19 now and i'm in my 3rd week of university in melbourne. i live on campus in a little room with no window. the "kitchen" is about 50 metres away and is shared by about 30 other people. none of them would appreciate walking into the kitchen to find me standing there with gloves and safety glasses and a pitcher of skin-dissolving sodium hydroxide solution in my hands.....except maybe the die-hard chemistry students...

anyway, i am basically stuck. i have suddenly regained all my passion for soapmaking but i have nowhere to do it. the only time i can dabble in it a bit is when i'm back in malacca on holiday and i don't have a clue when that's happening next. so i am using this possibly long stretch of time to gather inspiration and develop ideas. i'm looking the the work of soapmakers all around the world as there is a lot to be learned from people who have a true understanding of this craft and have made it their life. i hope this interest won't die on me again a few months down the road.