Lemon and basil soap with white clay

Hi there, it's been a while since my last post, I've been away from home for more than a month, then I rediscovered crochetting and got a bit addicted to it, but we eventually ran out of my homemade soaps so I ordered some lovely oils and decided to make a couple of batches before it got really hot here in Greece.

I've found some lemon essential oil and white (kaolin) clay in a new local store and wanted to add some grounded dry herbs into it so I came up with basil, since I think lemon and basil are a true love match. 

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.

Raspberry Tea Soap

RaspberryTea Soap all wrapped up

Hello everyone, it's been a busy month and I haven't had much time to write about my favorite pastime - soap making. Today I'm going to describe one of my favorite projects - Raspberry Tea Soap. It was my third project and it turned out quite nice.
Once you decide which oils and/or butters you are going to use, calculate your water/lye weight here or using some other lye calculator.

Olive oil & Aloe Vera soap

There's been a lot of talk on soap making forums about using Aloe in CP soaps and after reading some advice from people who experimented with it I decided to give it a try, cause it was a cheap adventure this time having all of the ingredients in my kitchen and garden. 

Aloe Vera from my garden

As I mentioned before, we have our own olive oil and I have one Aloe Vera plant in my garden. So it was to be a 100% olive oil soap with aloe...

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. 

All wrapped up

Easy & cheap way to wrap your soaps

Now that your soap has cured and ready for use (could you resist checking on it every other day?), here is an idea on how to wrap it up without spending much money on it. 

You'll need:
- baking paper (perchment paper)
- a smal pot
- food color (alternatively you can use coffee or cacao)
- scissors
- some raffia, ribbon or a string

Start making soap!

Some of the soaps I made since the beginning of my soap making adventure

It's been a couple of days since I posted about what to do Before you start making soap and now I owe you the rest of the story. I hope that the previous post hasn't put you off the whole idea, it's really not that complicated, it's just that you really, really have to take safety measures when making soap and make sure to have your basic supplies and utencils at hand. You really don't want to lose time searching for something when you're making soap, because in Cold Process soap making procedure it's really all about timing and precise measurment of your ingredients. 

Before you start making soap

Research, research, research

I've decided to start my soap making adventure by learning how to make a cold process soap. Along the way, some friends have asked me for a tutorial and although I don't think of myself as someone who is ready to write tutorials just yet, I started this blog as a diary where I describe my soap making experience in plain words and hopefully - some might find it useful. In this first post, I will try and point out a couple of things you need to do and buy before you start making your own soaps.

If you're like me, you have probably done lots and lots of reading on the subject of soap making before deciding you want to give it a try. When I say a lot, I mean months and months of searching the internet, watching video tutorials for everything from soap making basics to soap wrapping ideas. Finally, my husband told me: When will you start making it already?

That got me going. Now I just had to: