New weekend soaps

I am working on a post on the new Soap Hutch mold I got recently to talk all about this amazing multi-purpose mold that Rich made for me.  He has been such a pleasure to work with and great at communicating on details of the mold.  I will get into the features of my great Christmas gift in the blog post I'm working on, but for now, just know it's awesome :)

So, since it has a 9-bar divider function, I wanted to utilize it and also play with a chopstick swirl.  One of the nice things about this mold is that it's 4" tall, so each of the 9 divided sections can hold up to 3 bars of soap, or 27 bars total in one mold!  This means that the bars that I swirled had additional layers of depth and design - I really enjoyed seeing how the middle bar of each 3" block turned out.

The blocks all looked so grey from the activated charcoal I used for one of the colors.

Check out how great the swirls inside look:

And the scent is heavenly (Black Raspberry Vanilla).  I did notice, though, that on the tops of some of the blocks, there was this strange yellow-ish color developing in the white portion.  I'm not sure what caused that, since the color didn't make it through the entire block - it was only on the top bit that was exposed to air.  I really struggled getting the soap blocks out of the mold, because the liner on the bottom of the mold was stuck to the plastic bottom of the mold - it took me forever to separate the liner from the mold.  The swirls turned out so beautifully, though, I will definitely use it again!

I also made a hot process lavender soap in my trusty old crock pot.  I have a lot of trouble getting the tops to look smooth with HP, so I poured it into BB's vertical mold to keep all the sides flat and even.  I colored it with alkanet root infused in olive oil (3 heaping teaspoons in 12 oz olive oil).  I was worried about the color, since it was red-looking when I infused the OO over heat, the color turned a pretty purple when I mixed the soap batter, and it became an ugly grey color when it was cooking in the crock pot.  I wish I had thought to take pictures of the colors.  I will make another batch soon and will take pictures to show off the weird color morphing.

The final color ended up pretty great, though - I apparently was having a purple weekend, which was fitting that the Prince station on Pandora was my soaping music :)  I love purple and the Purple One!

I love this color - you can see the change from when it was first cooked (in top left) over a few days curing.  Gorgeous, if I do say so myself!

I need to work on a few more blog posts on the Soap Hutch mold as well as a salt soap I could finally make with the divider mold.  Expect more soon!

Happy Monday - 

~Chrissy

My favorite soap!

I am so excited - I think I've found a soap recipe that is perfect for the dry, scratchy winters we get here in MN.  I still have to use lotion about half the time after showering (maybe because I like the showers HOT, since the weather and the house are usually freezing in the morning when I wake up).

I was playing around with some pistachio butter I picked up from Brambleberry when it was on sale as well as some sunflower oil that I had hanging around, and came up with this:  (cue angels singing...)

OK, ok, this is not the most awesome picture I have ever taken or posted.  Just imagine the best possible version of this soap, with beautiful colors and swirls, clean edges, and an awesomely (lightly) scented with BB's Cranberry Fig FO.  I really need to learn more about lighting and photoshop...

Oh soap, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways:

1. The lather lasts the perfect amount of time with my sponge.  I only have to load up my sponge once to get my whole body.
2. The scent is nice and refreshing, but not overpowering.
3. My skin feels so lovely and soft when I step out of the shower.
4. The charcoal and clay are exfoliating, but not in a scrubby way.  I can't use scrubby soaps in the winter - it gives me either really dry skin or rashiness.
5. The bar lasts a very long time, even with nearly daily use.
6. It was surprisingly inexpensive to make.
7. I could probably go on and on, but 7 seems like a perfect number to end this at :)

I am so excited about this recipe!  I am going to try it out with some different designs, colorants and fragrances now to see how it behaves in other situations.  I also received an order of babassu oil in the mail this week, so I will probably work that in here, since it's such a great non-greasy emollient.

Sorry for the pictures - I'll start working on better quality photos going forward, but happy soaping everyone!  Stay warm...

~Chrissy

Package in the Mail! Oil and Butter

I am so excited - late last week, I received the following soaps from Cee at Oil and Butter (blog here).  She held a contest a few weeks ago to name her Arctic Bathtime soap, and I came in second with my "Barely Clean" suggestion. Here's the photo from her website:

As a thank you, she sent me a wonderful package with the following soaps - clockwise from top left:  Arctic Bathtime, Christmas Candy, Cherry Blossom:  

Here's a better picture of the really cute tops of Christmas Candy and Cherry Blossom:

Some close-ups of each soap:

 The eyes fell off the poor polar bear when I was unwrapping.  Guess I was a little too excited to see what was in the wrapping!

I love how the Arctic Bathtime smells - a little sweet and flowery and clean.  I also love that it's a Hot Process layered soap.  I am struggling with my HP soaps (post on that to come).  The Cherry Blossom has such a beautiful swirl and embedded top.  I love the colors, and the scent is not too strong or sickeningly floral, which is something my nose is very sensitive to.  The Christmas Candy has beautiful colors and has a nice sweet candy scent, and while I normally don't choose glitter on my soaps, I love this glitter!  It's a perfect touch for this sparkly holiday soap.

Thanks, Cee - your soaps are amazing!

~Chrissy