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The Week in Soap: 24th June ’18

Last night I had the niggling feeling that I should be doing something.  I wouldn’t come to me though, so we spent the evening binge watching Better Call Saul (have you seen it yet?  I LOVED Breaking Bad, but didn’t think much to the idea of a spin off so avoided it despite Netflix’s best attempts at drawing me in. Given that it has the same writers, producers and directors I really should have known better, but there we go – Netflix 1, Me 0  Mind you, it has tried to foist some real doozies on me recently – the new Lost in Space remake for one – arrghhh!  Anyhow, within three seconds of waking up this morning I remembered just what it was I should have been doing last night – writing this…  Guess I’m not quite as firmly back in the saddle as I thought I might be ;-D  Now, clearly I realise that  nobody is out there desperately refreshing their screen in the hope that a new post from me will pop up, I’d like to maintain some form of regularity, so I apologise!

Well then, what’s been happening in my soapy world over the last week? On Monday I sent out orders that had come in over the weekend, and Tuesday was spent wrapping and labelling. Again.  I don’t think I realised when I decided to turn my hobby into a business that, while I would get to make a lot of soap, I would also have to wrap and label a lot more soap too.  Ah well, at least I’m not sweeping chimneys!

On Wednesday I had my first big soaping session in about three weeks.  I stocked up on Serenity (patchouli, ylang ylang, lemon & sweet orange essential oils) and Bewitched (a dupe of the ‘Love Spell’ designer perfume), 120 bars in total:

8 loaves / 120 bars of handmade soap
8 loaves / 120 bars of handmade soap

Thursday was another day of non-stop wrapping and labelling, oh, and a little bit of photography.  I’m still trying to get good shots for my website, and I quite like this one of Traeth Craig Du (Black Rock Sands):

Traeth Craig Du (Black Rock Sands)
Traeth Craig Du (Black Rock Sands)

On Friday I cut the batches that I’d made on Wednesday.  I took a very quick snap of them just cut, so forgive their rather tatty appearance.  I also got a touch of partial gel in the Serenity, which hasn’t happened before – I’m trusting they’ll look fine once they’ve been tidied up and bevelled:

Serenity & Bewitched, freshly cut
Serenity & Bewitched, freshly cut

In the afternoon I donned my science coat (not really) and made a few more batches of emulsified sugar scrub. It’s one of the things I’ve been working on whenever I have a spare half day, and I have to say I absolutely love this stuff. I’ve whittled my recipe down to three options, and I’m hoping I can finalise the recipe soon.  I have so many things I want to launch this year, but at the very least there’ll be cold process shampoo bars and these sugar scrubs (fragranced with mandarin essential oil in this case) :

Emulsified Sugar Scrub - tester
Emulsified Sugar Scrub – tester
Emulsified Sugar Scrub - testers
Emulsified Sugar Scrub – testers

So that was it – my work week in soap.  This coming week is going to see more soap being made, including shampoo bars, and more work on the sugar scrubs. I’m hoping to be able to send off for my scrub assessments sooner rather than later (as they can take a good few weeks to get done) and in the meantime I’ll have to think about labelling.

Have a great week everyone, and if you’re in the UK, what about this weather eh?  Absolutely glorious, although it does mean watering my hanging baskets a lot more often than I’m used to!

Hanging Baskets, June 2018
Hanging Baskets, June 2018

Thanks for reading – back soon!

10 thoughts on “The Week in Soap: 24th June ’18

  1. We have disappeared into ‘world cup’ telly. Unfortunately due to the time zone thingie this means missing out on a bit of sleep – late nights.
    Haha – welcome to our world with the pot plant watering! They look lovely – so colourful!
    I think the partial gel just disappears into the pattern – or it does on the photo – wish I could smell them!
    Well done on getting the blog post out : )
    Sarah

  2. eerrrmmm – it could also be me watching the soccer in our house…
    : )

  3. Huzzah! I love seeing your dropped soap technique blog again! I’ve made three more batches in the slabs, and I have to say, I’m getting better used to them and the tall and skinny (#6) and I d recommend them. They are much easier now I’ve played.

    Anywho. I’m glad to see you back! Those hanging baskets are lovely and oh so colourful!

    1. I have the tall and skinny,.. don’t use it as much as is should!

      1. I’m liking it without the liner!

  4. I ALWAYS look forward to your blog popping up. You are amazing. Doing all that while caring for wee ones. Soap on Sista!

  5. So nice to have another of your Blogs to read – I always enjoy them.
    I “pre-write” my blogs in Pages (Word for PC’s), where I can write thoughts as they come and edit, edit, edit; then copy & paste to my blog page. I try to start right after each soap I make, while it is fresh in my mind, adding photos as I take them. And sometimes, when I know I will be out of town, I set it up to auto post on Monday morning.
    Don’t know if any of those techniques interest you, but thought that might be helpful to remember/write. (And I set a reminder on my Calendar to post the blog every week.)
    Good luck!
    Sly

    1. Great tips, thanks! I did use the schedule option last October when I was trying to post every day, I should take advantage of that feature more I think. I think I will try to start earlier in the week too, for the weekly updates I mean. They always feel a bit rushed because I’m doing it last minute and not giving myself to step back and edit later…

  6. Gorgeous soaps as always. And wrapping & labelling are my least favorite parts too. But I just keep reminding my self that it’s better than my day job. LOL 🙂 For you, it’s better than sweeping chimneys — love that! 🙂

    1. Thanks Lisa! I really can’t complain can I ;-D

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