Fig & Brown Sugar

As promised, I've managed to take photos of my four new batches... the sun hasn't been behaving itself at all lately but I think I managed to find a few minutes to go and take some photos. 

This first one is Fig & Brown Sugar and, as I described it in my last blog post, it is ...

"Sweet Almond and Golden Olive Oil with tons of Cocoa Butter, pure silk, Coconut Milk and lots of Manuka Honey are all blended to make my first seasonal soap; the soap is coloured with lots of glistening mica and, if you move it carefully in the light, you can see it shine! Fragranced with a blend of fresh ripe figs, coconut milk, vanilla orchid, jasmine, and drizzled with caramel, maple sugar & musk, it's a not too sweet, very grown up sexy fragrance and is a perfect alternative to the traditional Christmas scents (yes, I did say Christmas!)"

And here are the pictures... enjoy!!

This one will be fully cured on 16 September!

More Big Thanks to Jo from The Soap Bar

More huge thanks to Jo from The Soap Bar (and Product Body) for her awesome mention of my Cashmere handmade silk soap on her recent blog post, Eye Candy Soap Friday. 

This is the image she choose (excellent choice, in my humblest of opinions!) and I'm so happy because it's one of my favourite pcitures too!

Cashmere - handmade silk soap

The soap is made from a blend of Sweet Almond Oil, Olive Oil, Avocado Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil (from a sustainable source, of course) and some Castor Oil (for added bubbleification... what? That's a word, I'm sure of it!). As always, I've used pure Tussah (or Wild) Silk because I just love what it adds to the mix.

The fragrance is a stunner - one that lingers on the skin (my favourite type) and one that is sure to have people say "what is the fragrance you're wearing?" (it's happened to me!).  It's described as a blend of essences of Moroccan jasmine, lily of the valley and bergamot with warm undertones of sandalwood, amber and musk - it smells like a very top end perfume, not too floral with a warm basenote.  It is, possibly, one of my favourite fragrances to date.

If you are interested in purchasing a bar, this will be fully cured and on the site after 18 July (right after I get back from my holidays, yay!).

Thanks again Jo, I'm so chuffed to be mentioned and it's an honour to stand alongside the other incredible soapers' work.  

Lime Basil & Mandarin

Well I haven't been able to get access to the kitchen of late but managed to get up very early on Saturday morning, when everyone else was still asleep, and I had the whole kitchen to mess around in! Yahoooo!

I ran a little poll on Facebook during last week asking what would people like to see me make next and Lime Basil and Mandarin came in with the most votes! So, never one to disappoint, I duly went ahead and soaped it. 

The fragrance is described as a delightful combination of green citrus fresh limes and zesty mandarins leading to herbal notes of basil with warm accord of precious woods and amber - it is a wonderfully fresh, zesty scent and I personally think it's very unisex (my hubby ADORES it and wanted one for himself!). 

I made this with Golden Olive Oil because of it's excellent skin loving qualities, Pure Silk & Cocoa Butter - it is highly skin conditioning and will have lovely bubbles initially leading to a very creamy lather which will feel like lotion on your skin. 

I wanted to try out an In The Pot Swirl and used an orange and green mica swirled into a white base.  The swirl worked really well I think - I just love it!

So ... I duly present to you ... Lime Basil & Mandarin Silk Soap:

Glistening Tops

A stack of soap

Soap slice showing the lovely swirl

Soap tops with lovely swirls

Soap slices all lined up

Lots of lovely swirled glisteny soap!

I really hope you liked the pictures - if you are interested in purchasing, the soap will be fully cured by Monday 30 May and will be on the site then.

Lemon Cream - a re-do

I've sold out of one batch of my new cold process soaps - yay!! The Lemon Cream was really popular it seems (but I've found that with citrus, everyone always loves them so much).  For the previous Lemon Cream, I'd not added any "cream" element so I wanted to do it this time.  And, because I'm greedy and always want more, more, more, I didn't just use single cream but double cream for this soap - the thinking being, one is good but double has to be twice as good, right?? (I think it could be called heavy cream in the US? The single cream might be called pouring cream?). 

I used the same recipe I used for my Fresh Orange soap - Golden Olive Oil, Shea Butter, Cocoa Butter and lots of pure tussah silk.  I blended Lemon fragrance oil with May Chang (or Litsea Cubeba) essential oil to give a good, strong, sherberty lemon fragrance that sticks (as we all know that Lemon essential oil sadly tends to disappear in cold process soaps). 

I weighed the water portion out (subtracted my double cream amount) and added in my silk and then my lye.  It was only a small amount of water so it was a rather strong lye solution.  I allowed it to cool as I weighed out the oils and butters and allowed them to melt.  I mixed my titanium dioxide with a little oil and kept that close by me (so I didn't forget it, we all know what that feels like!).  And then I added some Lemon Mica to another container, mixed with a tinch of oil, ready for the traced soap. 

I added my fragrance to my oils/butter mix and then added the lye (after checking the temps of course) and stick blended.  I then added the titanium dioxide mix and stirred again.  I had put my double cream in the freezer whilst I was working on the soap and then mixed it in.  Hmmmm good idea or not? In hindsight, maybe not because my soap turned to soap in a bucket in seconds.  I don't know if it was because of the level of fats in the cream or the fact that the cream was so cold compared to the rest of the mix that this happened? I have made this before and it kept nicely fluid so I'm still not sure.  Any thoughts are very welcome!

So, I had to choose... keep it as a new look, soap in a bucket or hot process it.  Whilst soap in a bucket might be an interesting design, I can't see it catching on so I decided to HP it .. out came the crockpot.  I was a little annoyed, it wasn't what I wanted but I think it turned out really nicely.  It smells lovely, a nicely tangy lemon and it feels great on the skin (double cream may not be the best thing to eat but by God, it's a great addition to a soap!). 

So... here we go... Lemon Cream with fabulous oils and butters and real Irish dairy double cream in a zingy lemon fragrance ... ohhhh and I forget, it's all topped with my signature dusting of glitter:

Glittery tops

Rustic but beautiful

Top & Sides ... pretty!

A lovely wall of lemon soap

Side on view

More glistening tops

Lots of soap!

I really hope you've liked looking at this .. if you're interested in trying one out, they'll be available from 24 April on http://www.soaperstar.com/.



Fresh Orange ... Cut Pictues

I promised to show you pictures of the new Fresh Orange soap once it was cut.  This is the first time I've used my new cutter so I was a little nervous.  I didn't want to cut too soon (sticky soap) or too late (broken wires) but, like Goldilocks, I wanted it to be jusssssttt right.  I'll show you pictures of the cutter tomorrow, promise. 

So, here are the cut pictures of the soap:

You can see how the vibrancy of the orange mica has reduced a little, to a softer but still very orange-y orange

with a lovely glittery top

and lots of Tussah Silk

it's swirled with a paler creamy soap

and has Shea Butter...

and Cocoa Butter ....

and lots and lots of Golden Olive Oil

and did I mention the glitter?

This soap will cure for 6 weeks and will be ready on 22 May 2011 .. I cannot wait because I want one of these for myself.  Plus one has already been pre-ordered!!



ButterBee Silk - Cut Pics

I nervously cut the new ButterBee Silk soap today - I say nervously because I cut the last lot of soaps too early for my tastes which affected their surface (not the soap, I hasten to add, it just made them look a bit more rustic).  But the little change I made to the recipe obviously worked a treat because they are beautifully smooth. 

I used fresh whole Buttermilk, deep amber Turkish Honey and pure Tussah Silk - a combination that'll be hard for anyone with very sensitive skin to resist.  The soap doesn't have any added fragrance or colour - and, to be fair, it didn't need it because it's a beautifully creamy caramel colour all by itself plus it smells wonderfully of creamy rice pudding (due to the milk sugars and honey caramelising no doubt).  I could smell this all day - I hope it last through the cure so you can smell it too.

So, I present, ButterBee Silk - there are 10 lovely soaps and they'll be available from 1 March onwards.

Straight out of the mould

All cut - see how smooth they are?

Up close and personal

Close up of the tops - what a change in colour from when they were freshly poured

I am very happy with these and I predict they're going to be great sellers - I think I probably should make a second batch too!

If you're interested in thsese, they'll be available on http://www.soaperstar.com/ from 1 March onwards.

ButterBee Silk

I asked the question on Facebook the other if people liked the sound of a Buttermilk & Honey combo in a soap and the resounding answer was YES! So, always one to listen, I made one today!

The soap is made with lots of Sweet Almond Oil plus some very fragrant Cocoa Butter (it naturally smells really like chocolate).  I've used fresh Buttermilk as the liquid portion of the soap and added pure silk (if you're a regular reader, you'll know my love of silk in soaps) plus lashings of pure golden honey (actually Turkish honey that we brought back with us from our holidays there this summer).  The buttermilk contains lots of vitamins & minerals and is excellent for very sensitive skin and honey is a natural humectant (it draws moisture into your skin) plus has antibacterial properties and is extremely caring for all skin types. 

It has no added fragrance or colour - the current colour comes from the honey itself; it's designed to be extra caring for sensitive skin and will be perfect for those who prefer not to use a fragranced soap or who have dry skin issues. 

This should be ready to cut in a few days and it will be for sale 1 March. 

Orange Spice - more cold process experiments!

Yet another cold process soap experiment - this used possibly the simplest recipe yet but with fabulous skin loving oils such as a Sweet Almond Oil and Olive Oil.  It also has my favourite pure silk as this gives such a incredible feel to the final soap and it's sooooooo luxurious too! This could be one of my final "loving it" recipes!

I present ... Orange Spice! Ok, I will admit that this is how it was supposed to look.  I wanted soomething along the lines of Winter Wonderland.  Like any good soaper, I decided to do some research and asked what does Winter Wonderland to you... mostly I got the answer blue/silver/white or red/green/gold.  So I thought.. hey, lets mix it up and go with white and gold. 

Now, what fragrance would go with this? I took the suggestions of spice and warmth and made this with two blends - one of Sweet Orange and May Chang essential oils added to a second blend of Ginger and Cinnamon fragrance oils.  This have given me a sweet orangey warm spicy fragrance - totally perfect to match the wonderful golden shimmery orange colour. 

Ok, some pics .. I'll talk you through them.

Here is the soap in the mould still.  You can see the I gently swirled the top layer - then I dusted it with gold cosmetic glitter plus shimmer mica plus gold mica, this is a heavy metal soap baby!

Out of the mould but not yet cut - you can see that the base is a creamy white colour (actually slightly more yellow than the photo shows; this is because of the golden olive oil I used)

Some cuts slices - you can see the depth of colour in the topping, this comes from the mix of silver and gold mica with extra silver and gold plus gold glitter on top (if any of you saw my post on Facebook that I was covered in glitter, you'll understand it now!)  I love the sheen of this, I could look at this picture all day.

Ok two cut pics, face on - you can see the gentle swirl I tried.  I like this but I know I didn't colour enough soap in the golden colour to make a full swirl.  Next time, colour more! I love the smiley on the left hand soap - so cute!

On these two pictures, you can see the glittery, sheeny topping with the gentle swirl - I am loving this soap so much. 

I have to say that the soap smells so good - is it a Winter Wonderland? Nope, it definitely isn't but you know what, it's totally Awesome Autumn! I adore the pumpkiny colour and the sweet spicy citrus fragrance is just divine and totally matches the colours of the soap.

So, welcome to Autumn - next try will be Winter Wonderland! Please feel free to leave a comment. 

Vanilla Anise

Yet another adventure in cold process soapmaking.  This one is Vanilla Anise which is described as a blend of rare vanilla orchid blossom with the spicy accent of anise and the warmth of vetiver, amber and clove, creating an unexpected, modern vanilla story. To my nose, the aniseed comes out first and foremost, which is a very good thing as far as I'm concerned, as I love, love, LOVE it!

This soap is made with Sweet Almond Oil, Cocoa Butter and Shea Butter with added pure tussah silk.. a totally divine combination! It is coloured using titanium dioxide for the base to whiten it (for the vanilla aspect) and Blackstar Blue mica to give it a dark, midnight feel to match the aniseed fragrance. 

In the mould, full of lovely swirlies!

First cut - cut too early, not quite ready (but how beautiful is that top?!!)

 Lovely swirls but not cut on it's side so the dark colour is dragging through the white

  

This one has a tinch of titanium dioxide not quite fully mixed in

Ohhh this one is just beautiful - cut on the side and just lovely

A group shot!

Hope you liked these pictures, I really enjoyed making this - it should be cured by mid to late November and I cannot wait to try it out; really hoping the fragrance will have stayed because the whole curing room smells of it now and it's divine!!

Mintilla

Just showing you photos of my new, experimental, cold process soap - I say experimental because I'm trying out different recipes, fragrance combinations etc to see what one I like the best. 

Mintilla is a fantastic blend of Peppermint & Spearmint essential oils softened with a tinch of Vanilla - this helps sweeten the mints beautitfully.  I found this fragrance purely by tidying up - I had a peppermint foot scrub and vanilla body butter, just bits of each so I threw them all together and boy, it was fabulous! I've been meaning to make something that smells just like this for an age.

This soap has Cocoa Butter, Shea Butter and Sweet Almond Oil and, for extra luxury and cos I just love the idea of it, added pure silk (yep, real honest to God silk ... luxury I tells ya!).  It's coloured with a tinch of Apple Green POP mica (specially imported from the States - and I've put more on order) which I mixed with a little of the raw soap to give it that minty green, soft pastel colour. 

I decided to swirl in lines this time .. the plan is that, when I come to cut it, each slice will have its very own swirls.

I'll post up pics when this is cut - it'll be tomorrow or Monday at least - currently sitting in it's mould in the fridge!

Thanks for looking - please feel free to leave me a comment if you like it!

New cold process soap experiment

So, I had a day off and decided that I'd make a new cold process soap - I'm still experimenting to get a perfect recipe but used one I'd already tried out because I wanted to practise with some additions too.

I was sent some tussah silk and some titanium dioxide along with a gold mica, by a fabulous soaper friend of mine.  Silk adds a huge luxury factor and makes the soap feels so smooth and luxurious (check out some of the really high level brands of cosmetics, they often have some form of silk in them).  Titanium dioxide is a natural white powdered pigment that helps you achieve a white white white soap - it can create more heat though so it can be tricky to work with.  Finally the gold mica ... ahhhh, what can I say? I must have been a magpie in an earlier life because I do love the glistening shiny things!

I choose a recipe with Cocoa Butter and Apricot Kernel Oil - both fabulous for your skin and both light coloured oils to help keep the colour of the final base oil whiter too. 

I decided to use a Vanilla fragrance oil - vanilla based oils can be problematic as they often make the soap turn brown but I used a specifically designed non-discolouring version so my soap will stay as white as it is supposed to be.

Not the best picture in the world, I will admit that but you can see how creamy the colour on top is... why is this, I hear you say, when you wanted white soap? Well, here's the thing.... the gold mica was calling me and I thought why not do a lovely sprinkle on top of the final soap.  Great idea! Yes, good idea when it sprinkles but not when it clumps! So I decided to swirl it and colour the very very top layer of the soap - it created this delicious creamy looking top, I love it.  I'm hoping some of the glisten may show but I'm doubting it.  You can see from the blob on the bottom edge of the mould how white that base soap is.  Now, one of the problems with using Titanium Dioxide (or TD) is that it can produce a crackle effect - this can be due to overheating issues and TD can be the cause of that at times.  We'll see when it's cut!

Now, here's a problem ... a tiny crack.  I am showing a close up on this but it's not huge, if you were to cut the soap, it'd be the width of one bar.  The crack can be possibly caused by a little bit of overheating - the soap was kept in the fridge for a few hours to help keep the temperature down.  As I said, the TD may produce a crackle effect and the heat produced could mean that I won't have the perfect white soap either. 

Tune in for cut pics in the next few days.  I will say, it smells damn fine!!!