Ultra Violet - New Soap & New Style

I've had this Ultra Violet fragrance for a while and it was sort of in the back of my mind that I wanted to do a really funky, mega purple soap.  I thought it'd look really good against a really white soap, it'd help to accentuate the swirls and colours.  Of course, Ultra Violet couldn't be any other colour than purple really could it? Well, yes violet but that's purple!

Ultra Violet is made using our new Triple Milk formula of Buttermilk, Goatsmilk & Coconut Milk (regular readers will know how much I love to use milks in my soaps and why use one when you can use three?!) along with Aloe Vera, White Clay, Colloidal Oatmeal & my absolute favourite Wild Silk.

The fragrance is described as a rich and enticing, exotic floral accord where cool notes of summer orange and tingling lemon made slightly cooler by and hint of fresh ozone and dewy summer fruits. The heart of this fragrance is vibrant and floral with warm notes of lily, ginger and nutmeg, alongside geranium blooms and sweet summer rose. The base continues in this rich and complex theme with warming notes of vetivert, musks, amber and patchouli.  It smells divine and is very unisex, both my hubs and Titch love it! My hubs even said "it smells purple" LOL.  It's just really really lovely and I'm so happy how well it worked out.

This soap was made with what I'm laughingly calling The Celine Swirl.. as I explained in another post, I just thought it was really funny to call it this but I'm quite sure that it actually has another name or something, I can't imagine I just invented it by myself?!

Check out our Making Of video to check out how we made this and The Celine Swirl in action:





And here is our Cutting video which shows you the reveal of how the soap swirl worked out:




Here are the still photos for the soap, I really adore it! Photos are courtesy of Titch Holland of Taken By Titch (make sure to check out her Facebook page):

I really hope you like the videos and photos of this fantastic soap ... it really is a stunner.  Check out the website for details of this soap and all our other products.

Enjoy!!

Japanese Plum Pure Silk Soap

Last time I made this soap, it went sort of nuts on me but, in hindsight, I think I soaped way too hot as it definitely gelled, and gelled hard for me. Regular readers will know that I'm a non-gelling sort of girl so I wasn't totally pleased. However, the soap ran off the shelves and was really popular. I vowed never to soap the fragrance again though ... until now!

As it was so popular and it's hugely popular in our Double Whipped Body Butters and Sugar Cream Body Polish, I decided that I'd brave it and remake it and see how it went. And how'd it go? Really really well! It behaved like a dream, no heating, no gelling, all perfectly behaved. What a silly I was to avoid it!

When I made Japanese Plum, I made it using our favourite blend of skin loving oils such as Sweet Almond & Golden Olive oils with lashings of Cocoa Butter .. to this we added our new Triple Milk formula of Buttermilk, Goatsmilk & Coconut Milk (remember, all those vitamins, proteins, natural fats, natural AHA's ... too too good!) along with Aloe Vera, White Clay, Colloidal Oatmeal & our favourite Wild Silk.

The fragrance is just to die for - it's described as a warm spicy Oriental accord with top notes of fresh lemon and tangerine, leading to a spiced heart of clove, cinnamon, ripe plum and tuberose resting on a base of rich incense, patchouli, soft moss, amber, caramelised sugar and vanilla. It really is a divine fragrance! Warm and delicious and utterly sexy!

Here is our Making Of video which demonstrates the Hanger Swirl technique again:




And here is our cutting video where you can see the reveal of how the technique looked in the soap:




And here are the still photos, courtesy of Titch Holland of Taken By Titch:

I really hope you enoyed the videos and photos and please do make sure you check out our website for details on this and all our other soaps.

Enjoy!!

Cashmere Pure Silk Luxury!

Another restock, another top seller, another hanger swirl! Yep I'm really enjoying these restocks ... some soapers may find it dull to keep having to make and remake the same soaps but I am loving this.  I have to say that I'm having huge fun working with bright colours and stunning micas again, I miss those babies! And glitter, oh boy, did I miss glitter!!

Cashmere is a soap I've had in the range since the beginning, the second I smelt the fragrance I knew I had to have it and I love it as much now as I did then.  I got the idea for the colours from an image on Google images which was of a cashmere scarf and it looked so luxurious, so rich, so utterly lovely and almost decadent that I knew I had my colours decided!

The soap is one of our Pure Silk cold process soap range and is made with Sweet Almond & Olive Oils with lashings creamy Cocoa Butter.  I've also added Aloe Vera, and what I'm calling our new triple milk formula - Buttermilk, Goatsmilk & Coconut Milk along with White Kaolin Clay & Colloidal Oatmeal.

The benefits of milk for the skin has been known for centuries, they're a natural source of AHA's and protein along with natural fats that help to condition your skin to the highest degree.  Aloe Vera has also been used for centuries as a rich source of vitamins and antioxidants, amongst other things, as have clays and oatmeal.  Basically I take the best that nature provides and combine them in such a way that you have a luxurious, stunning, skin loving, beautifully perfumed piece of art that is not only a beauty to look at but a beauty to use.

Cashmere is fragranced with a blend of essences of Moroccan jasmine, lily of the valley and bergamot with warm undertones of sandalwood, amber and musk. It is one of my favourites, warm and sexy and simply divine.

So, here is the Making Of video - again, catch up with the How To of a Hanger Swirl:




And for the reveal of how the swirl worked out, check out the Cutting video:



And here are the still photos from the incredibly talented, Titch Holland whose other work you can view at http://www.facebook.com/takenbytitch (check out her page):

I really hope you enjoy this videos and images - the soap will be fully cured by 22 August and should be available as a pre-order, online at http://www.iamhandmade.com, just shortly before then.  Enjoy!!!

Kokomo Joe - Pure Essential Soap

Here is another of my Pure Essential Soap collection ... this is called Kokomo Joe and it's made with Coffee infused with Coconut overnight, then liquidised and strained. Then I added in a whole fresh Banana, and Coconut milk and liquidised again.

I added the organic White Chocolate to my oils - Sweet Almond and Olive oils with Cocoa Butter and allowed everything to melt together.  To the lye water, I added my Silk, as always.  I used White Clay & Colloidal Oatmeal also because they are just stunning in soap and to them I added my fragrance of Coffee & Bourbon Vanilla CO2 extracts with a spiced background of warm Nutmeg.

As you'll see from the cut pictures, the soaps are a lovely coffee colour with lots of speckles from the vanilla pod seeds ... plus we sprinkled it with dried Coconut, just cos we could!

The soap is available for pre-order now on http://www.iamhandmade.com/ourshop/prod_2032605-Kokomo-Joe-PreOrder-Cure-Date-25-June.html but order quickly cos there are only 7 left!

We made a video for the Making Of... and Cutting Of... this soap so I'm showing you those too!

Making of Kokomo Joe:

 Direct You Tube Link: http://youtu.be/Ies4xMeL404

Cutting of Kokomo Joe:

Direct You Tube Link: http://youtu.be/ZD9WA6LbxeQ

Cut Pictures (courtesy of Titch Holland at http://www.facebook.com/takenbytitch)