Butterfly Swirl Gallery

And something quite unexpected...instead of a butterfly I've got a Happy Feet :)

Few words about handmade soap

I started writing a post on my Facebook page that turned out to be long-ish, so I'll just write it down here and update it whenever I feel the need to add something.

Let's be honest: Soap is meant for cleaning, polishing and skin care.

It is not a "natural" product, as some soap makers claim. It is not a medicine either. Although using quality handmade soap can benefit your skin a lot. Why is that? Because our skin was exposed to commercial soaps, which are basically detergents that have dried out our skin over the years. Using a good handmade soap will recover our skin to it's natural state and that is why we say it benefits your skin. Also, commercial soap manufacturers remove the glycerin from the soap to make it cheaper and to use the glycerin in different creams and lotions that, after using a commercial soap, you will most definitely need. So basically you have to buy a soap and a lotion separately. That is not the case with handmade soap, where glycerin is still present.

Soap Adventures of last couple of months | Photo Gallery

Here are some pics of my latest soap adventures that I still haven't had time to write about. Coloring soaps using Alkanet root is definitely something worth writing about and I intend to explore this more. I've already experimented with different alkanet oil infusions and got some interesting results that vary among light green to dark purple, but more about it in some future post.

Using Alkanet root to color soap

This particular soap was named "Lavender Crocus" by my friend Carolyne because of some interesting swirls that resulted in something resembling Crocus flower in her opinion. It was colored with Alkanet root infused in Almond oil and TiO2. More about it later.

This soap was inspired by Lemon Poppy Seed soap by Soap Queen, except instead of using Lemon fragrance for this project, I've used Silk Melon Fragrance and Spearmint EO. My friends said it reminds them of Lemon Merengue and we ended up calling it Melon Merengue. The bottom half is colored with just a few drops of Carrot infused Olive oil and I added TiO2 to the upper half. The final touch were poppy seeds which I added for exfoliation as well as esthetic reasons. 

New Soaps and lots of New Ideas...

The swirl in this soap is made by taking some of the soap and
 adding Vanilla fragrance to it. The rest is colored with Titanium Dioxide

I'm back, with some new soaps and lots of new ideas. I hope I'll manage to give life to those ideas and share some of my enthusiasm for handmade soaps and soapmaking with you.

These are two new soaps I made couple of days ago. I've changed the dimensions of soap so it would fit better in hand. New dimensions range from 5cm x 2.5cm x 6cm to 6cm x2.5cm x 7cm, and they weigh 90-100 gramms each. These soaps need to cure for at least 4 weeks, but I was pleased that someone couldn't wait to get their hands on it, so I've already sold some of them.

Rose and Mastic Soap

Many months have passed since my friend Carolyne sent me a package of dried rose buds from London, allong with some beautiful hand-dyed silk crepe, and hinted that I might make some rose soap for her, but I was a bit anxious about this project and didn't really feel ready to give it a try until now.

Carolyne likes earthly, natural colors and fragrances, so I've been contemplating how to go about making a rose fragranced soap, how would I structure it, which colours should I use, which oils and butters, which essential oils etc.

Finally, I decided to use Rose Perfume Oil that contains some Rose essential Oil in it (because Rose E.O and Rose Absolute were way to expensive to use), Palmarosa E.O. and finally (after I tested the combination in my whipped body butter) Chios Mastic. 

Olive oil soap with Cinnamon and Cocoa

Olive oil soap with cinnamon and cocoa

Once you are 'hooked' on soap making you will always be in the process of planning your next recipe, thinking about different things you could use to give them fragrance or color. You will want to try all those exotic oils, butters or essential oils you've read about or seen while browsing your supplier's catalogue. Those ingredients don't come cheap however, so more often than not, when you feel the need to spend some creative fun time making soap, you will have to work with simple ingredients, those you can find in your kitchen any time. Sometimes simple is better, so take that Olive oil and whatever spices or dried herbs you have in your kitchen and have some fun.

Olive oil and lavender soap

Olive oil and lavender soap

Ever since I saw this crocheted soap pouch, the idea stuck with me and I wanted to make some lavender soap for my closet and dress it with crocheted doilies. I even took to learning how to crochet.