Soaps on Tour - Two Part Blog Post - Part 1 Briny Bar Soap

Titch - Official Soapographer

On my recent holiday, I took two soaps with me "on tour".  One was a Chocolate Mint soap I won from Briny Bar Soaps recently and the other was Banquet, a soap cake slice from Platypus Dreams.  You might know that Dennise from Briny Bar took my Vanilla Anise soap on tour with her across the US and I shamelessly stole the idea from her! And Sharon, from Australia's Platypus Dreams, thought it was a great idea to take her soap slice to West Cork with me. 

My Honorary Daughter, Titch, turned official Soapographer for the holiday and a lot of the images are hers, but some are mine too.  I hope both Dennise and Sharon like the pictures!

Part 1 - Briny Bar Soaps on Tour in West Cork:

Dennise's soap travelled down with us and we took as many pictures as we could ... here they are

Briny Bar at Ahakista - fantastic spot which is actually in a memorial garden, pure calm

Briny Bar at Sheeps Head Pennisula - one of the furtherest points South West of Ireland

Briny Bar on the cottage windowsill looking out to our back garden

Briny Bar at Crookhaven (it was a stunning setting on a stunning day!)

Briny Bar at Crookhaven - against the Atlantic Ocean

Briny Bar looking out at the sea inlet at Crookhaven

Dennise - hope you liked the pictures; I can't wait to try out the soap itself now! Sharon - I'm uploading your images and will post them tomorrow.

Soap on the Road, I think this should be the start of a trend.  So who's going to do it next?!

I'm home!!! I think I want to be on holiday forever though!

I've been in West Cork for the last two weeks - it's our dream place, we simply adore it and I will admit I cried tears of mega sadness sitting there one last time this morning, staring out at the incredible view of the harbour, the sun glistening on the water and listening to the "putt, putt, putt" of the little fishing boat heading out to sea. 



Crookhaven, West Cork, 2009



Where we go, there's no access to the net or mobile phones unless you leave the village; this might scare some people to death (and it did scare me at the beginning) but, Oh My God, how good is it to have a complete break, away from everything.  I've decided I really could be on holidays all day every day! Sadly I didn't win the lottery when we were away so no chance of that .... yet!!! However, its part of hubs and mine long term plans that we do sell up and move to "our" village so it'll happen, in time. 

I've got a ton of pics I need to show you (if I don't bore you to death in the meantime) and pics of two soaps from Briny Bar Soaps and Platypus Dreams that we took with us ... there are a lot of pictures of them in scenic places! My honorary daughter, Miss Titch, was with us and she became official "soapographer" during the two weeks. 

I'm also dying to soap and received some fabulous fragrance oils before I went away that I'm DYING to soap with.. cannot wait!!!

So, keep an eye out for some new blog posts and images this week (the pic above was taken in 2009, just to give you a taste of the sort of pics to expect). 

Soapers are such Generous People AKA I got my Prize!!!

Ohhh I had a tough day today ... but yay! I got pressies! Well, a prize really .. my lovely prize came all the way from the US from the lovely Dennise Cupp at Briny Bar Soap.  She recently held a competition on her blog and I won! I figured it'd take some time to send the prize but it arrived much faster than I expected but, oh boy, the postage seemed very high (and then I felt guilty!).  Seems the postage costs from the US are far higher than here and I thought it was expensive here. 

Anyways, I was so happy with my prize that I took pics!

The whole kit and kaboodle! Dennise's delicious smelling Chocolate Mint cold process soap, Peppermint fragranced bath bomb which is really clever because it's embedded with soap for your bathtime, and a wonderfully creamy Butter Creme Lip Balm

Close up of her Peppermint Bath Shell - great idea to include a small soap for your bath time - this smells so divine and it rather huge (yay!)

Close up of the wonderful soap curls in the Chocolate Mint soap plus the Butter Cream Lip Balm (which is mega vanilla-y and so creamy, feels great on the lips too)

All my goodies in one go (should have moved the chair before I took the pic of course!)

Chocolate Mint soap plus the Butter Cream Lip Balm ... yummmmm!

The soap has a deep dark chocolately fragrance with a hint of mint - it smells like a really expensive mint choc chip ice cream.  The peppermint bath shell is so lovely .. soft fresh peppermint, such a clean fragrance.  I'm going to have such a relaxing bath with this! And, last but in no way least, the lip balm is creamy and delicious and it stays on the lips whilst softening them slowly but surely.  A definite winner!

Dennise, I just want to say a huge thank you - couldn't believe the price of the postage but I'm so happy with my prizes.  I've decided I'm going to take the Chocolate Mint on holidays with me (in early July) and it's going to go on it's own tour of Ireland .. specifically West Cork (which, in my humble opinion, is the most stunning part of Ireland and we love it so much, it's actually where we want to move to when we can afford to).  Thank you Dennise, you're a total doll!!!

Yet more Soapy Giveaways!

The soaping community seems to have gone giveaway crazy lately - maybe it's the first sight of summer or something.  I just saw another wonderful soaper who's announced her own soapy giveaway on her blog.  You might remember Dennise Cupp from her fabulous Briny Bar Soap blog and her trip with my Vanilla Anise soap on her US road trip. 

Check out her blog and enter her competition - you never know, you could get lucky! Plus her blog is a great read, she has a wonderful way of writing that just makes me laugh every time I read.  I always look forward to her new posts. 

Here's a pic of what you can win:

Chocolate Mint Soap, Peppermint Bath Shell, and a Butter Creme Lip Balm

Who says soap isn't good company?

I sent the wonderful Dennise Cupp from Briny Bar Soap a sample of the Vanilla Anise soap I made some months back and she promised to take it on a road trip.  I thought the idea was hilarious and wasn't 100% she was actually going to do it. But she did!

Vanilla Anise has been on a 1,000 mile road trip from Pittsburgh to Minnesota by way of Ohio, Illinois & Iowa to name but a few states! It's so funny... and crazy to think my soap has travelled further than me because I've never been to the US myself (we saved to go but you know how things go these days). 

If you'd like to read all of Dennise's post, here it is .. it's really funny and the pictures are just hilarious!