Week 3 of Amy's Soap Challenge - Mica Swirled Tops

Well it's now week 3 of Amy's Soap Challenge, this week we have Mica Swirled Tops,I love all these lovely new techniques Amy has found for us.  

This is another new technique for me and I really love the look the Mica gives on top of the soap, it's just so pretty.

I fragranced this soap with Sandalwood and Lavender essential oils, so I wanted it to look rich and luxurious.

For my colors I used New Gold Mica, I'm really happy with how it turned out on top of the soap, but not so happy with the color it gave in the centre, it looks like a pale yellow and I was really hoping the gold would show up more.

The darker color is Umber Mica and this came out really well, it doesn't show so much here, but you can see a bit of sparkle in this darker soap layer.  OK ladies, I can't wait to see all the beautiful goodies you have made this week:)  Thank you Amy for another great challenge.

Week 2 of Amy's Soap Challenge

Well here we are for the 2^nd week of Amy’s Soap Challenge, I've been really enjoying the challenge so far, I've found lots of new blogs and looking at all the beautiful soaps have been great, we have so many talented soap makers out there, with lots of amazing soaps.    This week it’s the Elemental Swirl.  While I’ve done quite a few in-the-pot swirls before, this is the 1^st time I’ve done 2 different Elemental Swirls on top of each other and boy did this one have me hopping lol.

Amy was sure right when she said make sure we have plenty of mixing bowls handy lol, you should have been my work bench, I had  8 different cups, plus the bowl I mixed my soap in.   I wish I had have time the time for photos, but it all went very quickly with my soap starting to set up quicker than I  wanted, so there was no spare time for the photos. 

My hubby walked in and wanted to know what the heck I was doing, now really it was quite obvious:) he’s seen me make soap plenty of times before, but just not with this much mess everywhere lol.

I fragranced this soap with Eucalyptus and Mint essential oils, a really fresh and clean aroma  I love, I thought green would be the way to go to suit this fragrance best, I planned to do  dark green on the bottom and  light green on the top.

But..... when I was trying to work out the other 6 colors to add to these 2 very different green parts and trying to keep both of the halves looking different, I decided to have ½ green and the other ½ yellow as it was a bit easier selecting the colors for them. 

I divided my soap batch into 2 separate halves and worked on the bottom half first, the colors I used for this part were:

1. White
2. Bright yellow
3. Orange Mica
4. Yellow Oxide, which gave a more subdued or dirty colour yellow.

Over the top of this I sprinkled Cocoa powder.  Then I worked on the 2^nd half, by this time my soap was starting to set up and I really had to work fast,  the colours I used for this half were:

1. White
2. Green Oxide
3. Blue
4. Green again, but this time I used Green Clay which I decided looked totally horrible after I mixed it, so I ended up adding a bit of bright yellow and blue to the green clay to make it what I though was a nicer looking green.

OK, that's my Elemental Swirl soap, I hope you like it:)  Now, I'm wondering what Amy has up her sleeve  for us next week...... 

Tiger Stripe Soap Challenge

It's been quite a while since I last posted and I'm really sorry, it wasn't because I didn't want to, it's because Blogger just wouldn't let me, no matter what I tried it just wouldn't allow me to upload any photos, has anyone else had this problem?  Anyhow, I thought I'd give it one last try and hoo ray! it's finally working again.

It's come out a great time, because Amy from Great Cakes Soapworks is having another of her wonderful soap challenges and I just couldn't resist joining all the other lovely soapers this year.   The 1st challenge Amy has set for us is the Tiger Stripe technique, I haven't tried this particular one before, it's a little like the funnel or column technique, just slightly different, it's a really great technique to try.



I decided to use May Chang and Frankincense essential oils for this soap, I love pink and orange together so I thought I'd use these colours.  I was a bit worried it would turn out, it seemed to take forever to start to trace and I got a bit impatient waiting and poured earlier than I normally would, so I'm quite happy and very relieved with the result.  Thank you Amy for doing your challenge for another year:)

Desert Flower

I love the smell of this one, Desert Flower is fragranced with sweet orange, grapefruit, jasmine and geranium essential oils, it's a very soft and feminine aroma.  I don't normally use sparkles on my soaps, but I thought I'd try something new, I wanted the yellow a bit brighter, but sadly it faded a bit during the curing, I think I'll have another go at this one, but add a bit more yellow next time, but I'm liking the sparkles, what do you think?  sparkles or no sparkles?

French Lavender

Hi everyone, it's been quite a while since I last posted, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas:)  We had a lovely Christmas spent with family and a brand new puppy addition to our household.

This is French Lavender and it's fragranced with french lavender and rich, sensual patchouli essential oils to help calm and relax.  Made from Olive, Coconut and Rice Bran oils and Shea Butter.
Pure Handmade Soaps

Moroccan Sunset

I think I must have had romance on my mind when I made this one!  Wishful thinking maybe lol.

Soap Swap all the way from France!

As a lot of you lovely ladies would know, Amy from Great Cakes Soapworks organised a soap swap from soap makers all around the world.   I was very lucky to be paired with
Séverine from Les Folies Du Savon. who lives in France, how cool is that?

Well my parcel has just arrived so I've quickly taken a pic to show you my goodies.  I've very excited to try them, because both are made from Donkey Milk, wow! that is certainly a first for me, the cake shaped one has organic banana and chocolate and vanilla essential oil and sounds just lovely and the lovely big block has Macadamia Nut oil, Shea Butter and Honey added, so sounds great for my little hands:)

Thank you so much Amy for your fantastic job in organising everything and a big thanks to Séverine for swapping with me and for my goodies.  OK, I'm off to wash my hands with french soap Oh là là!