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6Dec/090

Almond Biscotti Cold Process Soap

Almond Biscotti Cold Process SoapI picked up some new fragrance from Brambleberry for the Holidays as my wife and I will be giving away some soap for the holidays. One of the fragrances I was most excited to try was Almond Biscotti, I thought it would be a great smell for the holidays and boy was I right! Almond Biscotti is fantastic smelling! We also decided to try some java brown mica for coloring in a swirl, I wanted it to resemble biscotti a bit. I think it turned out perfect, the yellow will turn less golden and more blonde with curing; I can't wait to try it out.

I would have never managed to get this soap completed without the amazing help of my hard working helpers below...

Super Helpful Friends

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12Sep/090

Homemade Liquid Soap

Making Homemade Liquid SoapI finally got around to trying my hand at making my own liquid soap. It's something that I was intrested in since Natalie and I started making cold process bar soap. Funny thing is we never realized that so many people (men and women) have moved away from bar soap in the shower in favor of the shower loofah! I actually prefer using bar soap, perhaps because I'm bias, but I never liked the old washcloth solution either, plain old bar soap! Anyhow, with the tred of using shower gel I decided I needed to learn how it was made. Homemade liquid soap was my first step, more for washing your hands than shower gel but I figured it I could master liquid soap, shower gel would be a no-brainer. I think given the time investment (~6 hours), I'll be making larger batches, but the first batch turned out perfect. Natalie thought I should break up the batch into three scents, so that's why there are three mason jars full. We did Island Coconut (yellow), Tea Tree Oil and Lavendar (green) and China Rain (purple). We picked up some soap despensers from Hobby Lobby (which Natalie hates). More pictures in the attached ZIP file.

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16Aug/090

Squeeky Clean In No Time…

Soap Making Session 1A few months ago, Natalie started playing around with making her own lotion bars. While she was researching, she came across numerous folks blogging about making them but also making soap. It's something we were both interested in since we started going to the farmer’s market downtown. The old-fashion soap was simple, far longer lasting and had no nasty chemicals in it, we loved the several bars we purchased. The problem is, it's quite expensive compared to the Irish Spring you can pick up at any China-Mart. We figured it had to be cheaper to make it ourselves and the knowledge of how to do so would be priceless. Becoming more self-sufficient is something we both feel can't hurt.

This week-end was our first attempt at soap making. We had purchased the lye online with some other essential oils and dyes here. We decided very early on we'd use the Cold Process method of making soap as it yielded a very hard soap that lasted longer and was just more similar to how my grandmother had made her lard-lye soap. Soap Making Session 2

As you can see, we made two batches of soap. One for me (the red bar) and one for Natalie (the brown and yellow) one. Mine was scented with a Karma knock-off (from lush) and Natalie decided on Oatmeal, Milk and Honey. They both smelled fantastic and turned out better than expected. We are going to attempt to make a cinnamon scented batch tomorrow to prepare for the gift-giving season ahead.... (and yes, I did make the wooden molds and wire cutting block). More pictures below of our first attempt...

 

Natalie's Oatmeal, Milk and Honey Soap

(Natalie's Oatmeal, Milk and Honey Soap)

 

Natalie's Oatmeal, Milk and Honey Soap

(Natalie's Oatmeal Soap showing yellow swirls from top)

 

Both Soap Batches

(Both our soaps waiting to be cut)

 

Jay's Karma Soap being cut

(Cutting my soap)

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