Soap (name still unknown) Unmolded

This was my first time using Dead Sea Salt in my soap making process. Dead Sea Salt is known to be great for the skin but it is a killer of bubbles when it comes to making bar soap. So, I chose to use Coconut Oil as the first of my oil ingredients because of it's bubble making properties. Unfortunately, it can also be drying when used in higher quantities. To offset that, I superfatted by 10% and added Lanolin & Goat's Milk to the recipe. The salt caused the bars to get hard really fast so I was able to unmold within a few hours of pouring. Which was a really good thing for me since I'm so impatient.  At any rate, I have dry skin and eczema, so I'll be my own guinea pig this time. My family can take a break, lol. If my skin can handle it, then: Mission Accomplished!

I have no idea what to call this soap...

I actually combined two different fragrances to create this soap. I had a little sample of Celestial Waters from Brambleberry and left over Bermuda Sands from Sweetcakes. They're both aquatic, spa like fragrances that are very fresh with a bit of sweetness. So, I figured why not combine them?

The two really compliment each other well but now I'm stuck with the dilemma of figuring out a name. I'm really stumped on this one. I'm trying very hard to channel some of Patrice's (the Soap Seduction) creative energy to come up with the perfect name. She has a real knack for that sort of thing. Nope. Still nothing. Well, at least I have about 3 more weeks of curing time to figure something out. Wish me luck :0)

Practice Making Bath Bombs

My first attempt at making bath bombs was a fizzing disaster. I gave up a year ago and never looked back. Last week, I found a fantastic tutorial on the Soap Queen blog and just kept watching it over and over again. She makes the process look so easy that I felt brave enough to pull out my ingredients and give it another go. I actually ordered the mold to make the jumbo mondo bath bombs, but it won't arrive here until next week along with the kaolin clay. I'm not exactly known for my patience, so I used ingredients that I already had on hand to start a few fizzies.

These are my ingredients:
2 part baking soda
1 part citric acid
10 sprays of sweet almond oil
5 sprays of liquid silk
3-5 sprays of water mist
iron oxides and ultra marines
fragrance oil

Here are my results

Starting with the one at the top with the little lavender buds and going clockwise: Lavender & Chamomile, Salty Mariner, Lime Margarita, Japanese Cherry Blossom, Clean Cotton, Night Blooming Jasmine, Tahitian Vanilla and Coconut Lemongrass in the center.

This is what happened when I sprayed too much water into the mix (I need to get some witch hazel). After that, I held the bowl 6-8 inches from the spray bottle and sort of caught the mist in the bowl. Worked like a charm :0)

Lime Margarita with Dead Sea Salt

Japanese Cherry Blossom

These have the whole room smelling soooo good!

So now to see if they will actually fizz.

That piece fizzed for about 3 minutes.

Now I'm all out of citric acid and need to order more. Which means next week I'll finally have my mold but not all the ingredients, sigh.

Creamy Citrus Mint Soap Unmolded

Citrus Mint Soap

This soap combines Orange 10x, Peppermint Essential Oils with just a hint of Patchouli to hopefully "anchor" the citrus in. It's hard to describe the scent but I'll try. It's not sugary sweet, nor is it super minty. The Patchouli lends a slightly earthy scent to the mix. Actually that sums it up pretty good. It's an earthy combination of citrus and mint. 

The overall scent is medium to strong yet none of the fragrances overpower the rest. It's actually quite pleasant I'll post the unmolded pics later today or tomorrow.

Bella Soap Attempts 1 & 2

I came across the "Bella" fragrance oil while shopping on the Magestic Mountain website for shrink wrap. It was my first time trying any of their fragrance oils. The scent is of course Lavender & Freesia rounded with notes of rose, iris, violet, and soft musk. Very feminine. This is actually my second attempt with this particular fragrance.

The first attempt turned out too soft even though I discounted the water. I think I've finally figured out what went wrong. Too much fragrance oil (I think).  The Sage doesn't really require that you use that much.  I tested my theory with the second batch (above) and it turned perfect. Those bars are already pretty hard even though they still have about two weeks of curing to go.

Pomegranate & Black Currant Unmolded

Here are the pictures of the unmolded Pomegranate & Black Currant Soap. I'm very happy with the way they turned out. They smell great too :0)

You may not be able to tell from the picture but they have a bit of sparkle to them from the crimson mica.

I've always wanted a slab soap mold with dividers for two reasons:

1. So that I could do these really cool swirls

2. So that I could drag the colors down the sides with the dividers.

Kind of silly, I know. But, I'm really giddy over these drag lines! Lol.