Two new Summertime Soaps

I got to thinking that I'm really tired of the cold and grey skies and needed something to make me look towards Summer, the sun shining, the smell of fresh cut grass and the sight of flowers blooming.  I wanted to make a soap that was fresh and zesty and that made me think of Summertime. 

So, in the last couple of days, I've managed to get some time in the kitchen (difficult these days in the middle of visitors and my Dad being in hospital [everything sorted now]) and make two new soaps, both of which define Summer for me.

The first is Pink Grapefruit - this is a divine fragrance, slightly sweet but definitely tangy & zesty, the sort of smell you'd get if you sprinkled a little brown sugar on a half a grapefruit and grilled it .. that juicy, sweet, tang? Know what I mean?

I used Sweet Almond Oil as my main oil because I am in love with this for soaping, added sustainably sourced Palm Oil, Coconut Oil, Cocoa Butter because it's simply divine and it helps with hardness and a tinch of Castor for bubbles.  I used Raspberry POP mica from the US to colour it - now this did turn a little on the peachy side but that's ok because I actually think it suits the Pink Grapefruit theme really well, it's held enough of it's pinkness whilst actually looking a tinch grapefruity too (if that makes sense?). 

The other additions were pure silk (as ever, I LOVE what this brings to the party), titanium dioxide to whiten the base, and a sprinkling of Diamond Dust mica on top because I love everything shiny and glittery and I'm a natural magpie at heart.

(favourite pic!)

You will see it did gel a little on the inside - now I prefer non-gelled soap because I adore the creamy look of them so I think I should have popped this one into the fridge for a few hours to avoid this but you live and learn I guess - it doesn't make a huge difference anyway, it certainly doesn't affect the performance of the soap.  The fragrance is incredible - this one has got to be smelt to be believed!

The second one I made was something I've wanted to do for a while now - I've been interested in using Aloe Juice as the water portion and got my husband to pic up some in the local health food store about 3 weeks ago.  I'd not managed to get space in the kitchen to soap until this week so decided to go ahead with the Aloe soap because I'd gotten my hands on a fabulous new Cucumber fragrance oil that is amazing. 

For this soap, I used the same recipe as above, with silk, titanium dioxide, two types of green mica plus a generous sprinkling of the Diamond Dust mica on top.  I don't know if it was the Aloe, the TD, the mica or the new FO but this was soap on a stick and, even though I managed to get it to submit to the mould, it began to seep oil at a rather alarming rate! I shoved it in the fridge (a small one given to me by my brother just for cosmetic making and soaping) and hoped that'd cool it's heels but, on checking it 10 minutes later, it was now seeping oil out of the mould and onto the floor of the fridge - NOT good! So, remembering my last adventure with overheating and the Deep Pomegranate soap, I decided to immediately HP it and hope for the best.  I really didn't want to lose the fragrance but I knew I'd lose my lovely green and white layers (to be honest, not so lovely really as it had set like a rock .. or so I thought).  In fact, when I scrapped it into the crockpot, it was very liquidy underneath.  So it was HP'd and this is how it turned out:

Really happy with the smoothness of these

(Favourite pic!)

I really love this one - it's held the fragrance really well (I added a touch more Aloe Vera juice to stop it from drying out and I made sure to not overcook it at all - but I did get my hubby to zap test ... love is a husband who'll let you burn his tongue!).  It's a lovely cool Summer's green and the fragrance actually makes me think of cucumber sandwiches at a picnic because I get a hint of fresh cut grass in the background somewhere. 

I hope you love these and they help you think that Summer really is only round the corner!