Vetiver & Patchouli

I’ve had some Vetiver essential oil in my cupboard for a while now, I haven't used it before because I’ve always hated the fragrance straight out of the bottle, it's just way too strong for my liking, this is one essential oil that really packs a punch.  But I thought it was time to have a go and make some soap out of it, so I decided to calm that strong fragrance down a bit and mixed it with some Lavender and Patchouli and it smells so much better now, I'd still say it's not a fragrance for the faint heated, but for those of you who like the aroma of Patchouli, this is probably another  fragrance you just might really like. 

Just a bit of info about Vetiver essential oil, it’s known in some countries as the oil of tranquillity, it has a deep smoky, earthy aroma and is said to be good for depression and insomnia, also for acne and oily skin, cuts and wounds, sounds pretty good to me,  so here it is, my Lavender, Patchouli &Vetiver soap.

Week 4 - Leopard Spot Soap

Well, we've done it! congratulations everyone!  4 weeks of Amy's challenges and I think they've been getting harder as we've gone along:)  Sorry I'm late with this one, but we've been having a lovely holiday down the seaside, I think I really needed the rest to build up for this challenge:)

Talk about all time boo boo, this one didn't go to my plan at all, I wanted to have lots more spots, but the soap had other ideas about this.

I made the very silly decision to put the plastic bag over the container, add the soap to it and to save   time, stick blend the colour in the bag,  I know I can hear the giggles from here, but in my defence, I thought as long as I was careful to keep the blender away from the sides and bottom it'd be fine.

Anyhow I soon found out how wrong I was, when I picked up the bag to fasten the top, my soap started falling out the bottom.  So then it was a made dash to try and find another bag, which ended up being in a totally different room, scoop the soap out and put it into another bag.  You guessed it! by the time I'd done this, my soap was setting up:(  so not very happily I only managed to do a couple of spots, I wanted to have my spots small and look what I got, great big gigantic ones LOL. 

Anyway my choice of colours came from it being fragranced with Lavender and Aniseed essential oils, so I thought the purple and black would suit it best, just wish I had more spots!

Thanks so much Amy for putting this all together, I've really enjoyed participating and seeing all the other gorgeous handmade soaps.

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