A Handmade Soap Blog
Notebook of a soapmaker.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
mint condition
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...
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...
Labels: handmade soap, masculine soap, soapmaking
Saturday, September 01, 2007
infusions
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.
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)
Labels: handmade soap, infused oil, infusing oil, soapmaking
Thursday, August 23, 2007
marrakesh
"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.
Labels: handmade soap, soap embeds, soapmaking
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
madeleine
"les madeleine; confessions of a sugarholic":here's the orange-vanilla soap i rebatched. it's more orange in real life than is shown in the pictures. coconut milk and desiccated coconut went into this for a bit 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.Labels: handmade soap, rebatching, separation, soapmaking
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
for us gluttons
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...
#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...
Labels: handmade soap, soapmaking
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
safari
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).
"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).Labels: handmade soap, soapmaking, tea soap
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
the blues
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 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.Labels: handmade soap, oriental soap, soapmaking