Sunday Soaping!

Lemongrass Verbena

Jasmine & Green Tea

This does look grey and green but it's actually green and white! The lighting was really bad here, sorry! But still, fab photos too.

Kismet ... Redesign & Bright Colours

I have a thing for bright colours.. they always make me happy and joyful and put a smile on my face.  What more could you ask for? I'm a huge fan of pink (you just have to look at my range to see that) and I ADORE the combo of hot pink and orange together... I always thought they look so great.  So, when it came to my restock marathon, I knew I just had to make a hot pink and orange soap and I knew just the soap to make.

Kismet is another redesign of a big favourite of our customers - I decided to kick it up a notch though, from last time, so, this time round, this Pure Silk soap contains our ever loving blend of Sweet Almond & Golden Olive oil along with lashings of creamy Cocoa Butter .. then we added our new Triple Milks formula which is lots of Buttermilk, Goatsmilk & Coconut Milk ... natural sources of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and a natural source of AHA's plus all those milk fats are sooooooooo good for your skin.

Then I added White Kaolin Clay to give the soap more slip and glide plus it helps remove dirt and excess oils, Colloidal Oatmeal which gives a silky feel and helps to condition and soften your skin.  It's also said to be excellent for dry, itchy, sensitive skin.  I added, of course, our pure wild tussah silk for extra luxury and silkiness.. you can't have a Pure Silk soap without actual real silk in it.

The fragrance is a stunning blend of  Patchouli, Orange, Lemongrass, Lavendin, Pine, Gardenia, Sandalwood & Musk and oh boy, does it smell SO GOOD!! It's a VERY popular fragrance for us and I suspect that this soap will be running off the shelves once cured!

The technique that I used here is one I laughingly call "The Celine Swirl"... I'm sure there's another name for it and someone else has done it before (there's very little new under the sun after all) but I don't know what it's called so I just called it The Celine Swirl.  Funny thing now is other soapers are trying it out and calling it that - hilarious!

Here is the Making Of video and it shows you just how to do The Celine Swirl (I laugh everytime I write that you know!):




Here is the Cutting video so you can see just how the swirls worked out:




And here are our still photographs, taken, as always by the incredible Titch Holland from http://www.facebook.com/takenbytitch:

I really hope you like the soaps ... check out the website at http://www.iamhandmade.com if you are interested in purchasing one or seeing any of the other soaps we offer. 

Enjoy!

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! 

Pink Sugar & My Vanilla Movie

Hi everyone! I'm back soaping!

I was in a soap making frenzy these last few days and I made a fabulous Pink Sugar soap.  This fragrance is sweet and sexy at the same time, it's described as having base notes of candy floss, caramel, toffee, and vanilla that mingles 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's a stunning fragrance and I've so wanted to soap this for an age.  


Plus, making this soap gave me an opportunity to make a video that I've been thinking about for a while... some vanilla based soaps can naturally turn the soap brown (due to the natural vanillin in the fragrance) and I thought I'd make a video that showed this progression from just made soap to the dark brown colour. So here it is, hope you like it...



For those who subscribe by email, I know you can't see the video, so here is the direct link to You Tube http://youtu.be/ZZ9Y9njpOS8.