I'm still thinking about Summertime, I can't seem to stop focusing on it! The last week here has been really sunny but very cold but still, there's a definite hint in the air that Spring is on the way and the sunny weather just cheers the soul.
So,with my mind firmly set to Summer, I decided to make another soap - this one is Summer Honeysuckle. I tried a new range of allergen free fragrance oils from Fresholi and, having already sampled the Cucumber, I decided I wanted to try my hand at the Honeysuckle. As with all florals, I was aware that it might speed trace - oh boy was I right! But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
So I started off with my recipe which I wanted to keep to Olive Oil, sustainably sourced Palm Oil, Coconut Oil and Castor Oil for bubbles. I usually use some Cocoa Butter but I'm running low and haven't done an olive oil soap in a while so I thought, why not. I mixed my lye with water and my silk (always with the silk, I love that baby) and mixed really carefully, so as not to splash myself plus I wore my safety specs (I've seen the pics of eyes that were burnt with lye, NOT pretty - always wear your safety specs).
I weighed and melted my hard oils and weighed out my fluid oils - took a little of the fluid oil and mixed up my titanium dioxide with this (using one of those tiny latte whisks, best way ever of mixing TD to make sure it's lump free). I poured all this into the oils & butters and allowed them to cool. I weighed out my fragrance oil and poured this into the oils too - I find this the most useful way of managing it (and especially if you have a tendancy to forget your fragrances!). As I waited for the oils and lye to cool, I lined my mould.
So, the mixes came to 87 degrees F for the lye, and 88 degrees F for the oils/butters - pretty good, double checked that every thing that was to go in, went in. Oh and I mixed a little Lemon Drop POP mica with a tinch of the oil to add later. So I got everything ready, everything in the right place so that I could move fast if needed.
I poured the lye water into the oil/butter mix and began to stick blend - for about 10 seconds it looked good and then... uh oh... ricing! So I beat it and beat it, it was accelerating like a Forumla 1 driver! I thought "Oh hell, this is crazy", I felt the outside of the bowl and it was so hot! I decided that this was going to be a big problem soap if I didn't manage it and so turned around to get my crock pot out and heat turned on and, by the time I turned back, the most time was about 20 seconds, I had to rescue the stick blender out of the now bowl shaped soap!
I threw everything in the crockpot with a little extra water and went off to do something else (rant, rave, do the "why did I think I could CP florals" dance etc) until it melted down. I kept checking for zap and, as soon as it was gone, I took out a portion and mixed with my Lemon Drop mica mix and beat it with a spatula until it was all really well mixed and then put it in the mould. Hubs was helping me out at this stage (because the bowl in my crockpot is ceramic and it's really really really hot!) and he put some cling film on top to stop the top drying out before he took the crockpot back off the heat again - I took off the clingfilm and then poured (spooned really) the white portion on top and then banged the mould about ten times to get out any air bubbles. I smoothed the top quickly and tidied up the sides and then did a little sprinkling of sparkling gold mica on top.
It smelt divine - the fragrance is described as a gorgeous floral fragrance, which celebrates the sunshine aroma of honeysuckle. Delicate citrus top notes cascade to a fruity floral heart dominated by the sweet aroma of golden honeysuckle entwined with other florals of night scented jasmine, and ylang. To my nose, it smells like a field of flowers on a warm sunny summers day, plus there's a really lovely green grass base to it.
So .. I present to you my hot process
Summer Honeysuckle soap:
Glistening Golden Top
Face-on View
Lots of Soap Slices
A delicious soap stack
Deliciously fragranced Summer soaps
I'd love to hear your comments on this new soap! If you're interested in buying, remember these are available to buy by 15 March - just drop me an email to
info@soaperstar.com and we'll chat!
