Temptress .... can I say divine?

Here is one of my latest soaps... Temptress.  The name came about because a soaping friend called me a Temptress for showing so many soaping images... I thought, that's a GREAT soap name!

So here she is ... my Temptress. This luxury handmade soap is made with Sweet Almond Oil, Golden Olive Oil, Cocoa Butter, Coconut Milk, Kaolin Clay, & Pure Silk and is fragranced with a blend of sensual sandalwood, warm amber, a light spicing of ginger with a dash of cinnamon, a drop of darkest patchouli, all drizzled with dark chocolate. Drooling yet?

Available on Pre-Order now and fully cured by 24 May ... check out http://www.iamhandmade.com/ourshop/prod_1991582-Temptress-PreOrder-Cure-Date-24-May-.html

Enjoy! 

You Tube Haul Review!

The ever lovely (and, I'm sure, ever fragrant due to his own soap making adventures) Mike from Mikemakessoap on You Tube and My Planet Earth Soap Company did a haul review video of the iamhandmade.com soaps!

It's kind of odd to see something that I made in my home in Ireland, in his home in Canada ... odd but VERY good indeed.  This made me so proud and me, Malky and Titch watched it all together and we were grinning from ear to ear.  Mike is so funny and so lovely and we gave him a big cheer at the end.

My style has changed somewhat since these and the labels have definitely changed since I got my new logo but the soaps are just as good (if not better!).

Oh and you'll see why the Castille soap, Fiore Rustico, is called Rustic ... it's very rustic looking in the video.  And, when you get to it, he means Water Lily... you'll see!

I thought you might like to see his video.





Make sure to check out his Facebook page and his You Tube channel too - he'll be opening his own store very soon and I'm dying to have a look see!!

Thank you so much Mike!! We love ya! xx

Paradise Found - Faux Funnel Video

I thought I'd show you my new video made today of the new soap I made using my new mould.

Paradise Found is a floral woody type fragrance and is described as a luscious fruity-wood fragrance with top notes of bergamot and rose. Sweet, rich blackberries, dry leaves, and an amber-cinnamon blend round out this gorgeous designer scent.  It's really lovely and very unisex I think.

I wanted to do a faux funnel swirl and was told this fragrance oil worked fine and gives enough time to play around so I thought I'd go with it.  I found it thickened up a bit but, hey ho, I can work with it.

Despite the soap being a little thick, I still managed to get the swirl ok .. at least on the bottom half of the soap anyway! I love the colours I choose, a nice bright blue with sparkle gold and white.  I can't wait to cut this!

Hope you enjoy the video .. Titch and I are chattering all the way through, just as ever.  I'll show a cutting video on Monday or so.

Enjoy!



If you cannot see the video (subscribed by email etc) then just click "I wanna see your movie" and you'll be taken straight to You Tube.  

Kismet

Another new soap ... Kismet is described as a blend of Patchouli, orange, lemongrass, lavendin, pine, gardenia, sandalwood and musk.  It's a really lovely fragrance with a citrus zing and a deep base of patchouli.. I just love it!

I coloured it in purple and orange but the orange wasn't as bright as I wanted it.  No matter, I still love it!  This set up really quickly on me so I had to work fast.. that's why there are a few air bubbles but c'est la vie ... lets just say they help the soap breathe!

Hope you enjoy Kismet ....

These will be cured in February and will be available from www.iamhandmade.com.

Pink Sugar

I thought you would like to see my Pink Sugar soap - you might have already seen the You Tube video that showed the browning of this from the time I made it to about 4 days into the process.  Here you'll see the soap with almost it's full browning ... this, as you may know, is due to the natural vanillin in the fragrance which turns the soap a very dark brown.  For this soap, to keep the pink, I didn't put fragrance in this portion - so I have a pink part with no fragrance, a dark brown with fragrance and the third part is the browny cream which does have fragrance but also has titanium dioxide to help whiten up the soap.

I can't tell you how GOOD this soap smells, I just adore it ... sweet yes (and I'm not overly fond of too sweet fragrances) but it's such a complex blend of fragrances.  It's described as having base notes of candy floss, caramel, toffee, and vanilla mingling with middle notes of fig, strawberry jam and violet musk. The fragrance is rounded off with top notes of lemon drops and sweet brown sugar... it is just simply divine!!!

The soap will be fully cured as of early February 2012 and will be available online at http://www.iamhandmade.com.

If you haven't seen the browning video, here's the You Tube link http://youtu.be/ZZ9Y9njpOS8.

And here's the final soap: