When you’ve invested your hard earned cash in a bar of luxurious handmade soap, you’re going to want to make sure that it lasts for as long as possible. A well-made and properly cured bar will generally last longer than a bottle of liquid soap (or a bar of commercially made soap), but by following these tips you can ensure that your bar lasts as long as possible.
1. Store it properly: Until you’re ready to use it, store your soap in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. Soap can fade or discolour when left in sunlight, and it might also begin to lose its fragrance. Our grandmothers knew how to store soap – in their underwear drawers! This had the added plus that clothes would become scented by the soap – win-win!
2. Keep it dry: Clearly, you need to get your soap wet while in use, but allowing it to dry properly afterwards, and keeping it dry between uses, will keep your bar of soap nice and hard right to the very end. It’s also important not allow your bar to sit in water for any length of time.
3. Use a soap dish: The best way to keep your bar dry between uses is to store it on a soap dish or stand. There’s a mulittude of different options out there – some dishes have holes to drain water away, or ridges to ensure the soap sits above any collected water – just make sure that it drains well to ensure that your soap isn’t sitting in a puddle of water, however small. You can find soap dishes for all budgets here
ConcreteCeramicOlive Wood
4. Position: Keep your soap dish / stand away from the shower where it might be exposed to excess moisture. Keeping your soap in the shower might be convenient, but it won’t help your soap to stay dry between uses if it’s being dripped or sprayed on. For the same reason don’t leave it by an open window if it’s raining outside.
5. Use a washcloth: Using a washcloth / facecloth / loofah or similar can help extend the life of your bar by creating abundant lather which means you can use less soap.
6. Reduce friction: Handmade soap is a pleasure to use but as tempting as it is to roll it over and over in your hands, try not to do so if you want your soap to last as long as possible. Less friction = longer lasting soap.
7. Reduce the temperature: The hotter the water, the faster your bar of soap will dissolve. Cooler water is the best option for handwashing IF you want your soap to last longer.
8. Use a Soap Saver: Finally, when your bars of soap have worn right down to a sliver, think about using a Soap Saver Bag. Made from sustainable natural materials, these bags create an exfoliating skin scrubber when filled with soap ends, thus ensuring that every last little scrap of your soap is used.
I’m not sure which planet I was visiting when I decided that committing to weekly blog posts was a good thing. It’s just not happening is it?! Sanity has returned and I’m back on planet Earth, realising that weekly posts may not be possible, but I CAN still find a middle ground and keep the blog relatively current without busting a gut every Sunday to find something to write about.
Today however I DO have something to share – brand new Pineapple soap.
Pineapple Handmade Soap
Pineapple Handmade Soap
I first made this bar as one of the 2021 Summer specials, and loved it so much that I brought it back again for Summer 2022:
Pineapple Handmade Soap Summer 2021
Pineapple Handmade Soap Summer 2022
Fast forward to January 2023 and Sugar Drops and Cucumber were both being discontinued. I was looking to add a new fragrance to the core range to replace them and Pineapple seemed like the perfect choice, and not just because I personally absolutely LOVE it. It’s a straight-up ripe pineapple fragrance, sweet and juicy, fresh and zingy – it LITERALLY makes my mouth water just thinking about it. Put that delicious fragrance together with my regular luxury soap recipe and you’ve got a year round winner that’s good for your skin, your pocket AND the environment.
Why not add one to your next order (find it here) and give it a whirl – I promise you won’t be disappointed.
I LOVE good smells. I’ve always been the one who has to sniff every variety of whatever’s on offer, and of course as a soapmaker, fragrance plays a huge part in my daily life. Not everybody feels the same though, and over the years I was often asked whether I offered a fragrance-free soap. It surprised me, actually, how regularly the subject came up. For a long time the only unscented soap I could offer those customers was Castile. Castile – pure olive oil soap – is a wonderfully gentle and mild bar but it doesn’t have the fluffy, abundant lather of my regular bars. Finally, last year, I decided to create a fragrance-free bar with that same fabulous lather.
That was was when Purity (Purdeb in Welsh) was born. I chose to make it uncoloured as well as fragrance free, and while I love my fragrances and colours, there is definitely something beautiful about a plain white bar in all it’s glory
Purity Handmade Soap
Purity proved to be a popular choice as soon as it was launched. It seemed to make sense to create a new category on the website for all the uncoloured/fragrance free options, and so the Purity range was created. If you’re not a fan of fragrance for whatever reason, you can now find fragrance-free soaps, solid shampoo, solid conditioner and a facial bar all in one place on the website.
Purity Handmade Soap
Castile Handmade Soap
Fragrance Free Shampoo Bar
Solid Conditioner
Thanks for reading, back tomorrow when I’ll be halfway through Blogtober! Hooray 😀
A quick and easy post today in the shape of the cut of Serenity made on Monday – 120 bars cut on my ancient single string soap cutter! It’s quite a so process and I’m getting very close to ordering a fancy-pants multi-string cutter – yey! (Maybe it’ll be here before the end of the month so I’ve got another easy blog post 😉 )
So anyway here they are, some quick snaps of Serenity taken today, literally seconds after they were cut from the loaf:
I love how there’s never, ever, two identical bars. These particular ones have now been put down for their 6 week nap, but there’s plenty available on the website – get yours here.
Thanks for reading, almost a quarter of the way there now! Back tomorrow with Day 8
There was I time, way back, when I wrote blog posts almost every week. I’ve no idea whether many people read them, but I generally enjoyed the process of putting things down in black and white. Writing them served as a good record of what I’d done, and was planning to do. Sadly, in my world, writing is the first thing to be dropped when life gets busy. And life DID get busy. Crazily busy. Or busily crazy. Or, let’s be honest, just crazy.
2020 was the year that the world stopped, they say. Well, nope, not here it didn’t. Having launched the website just before the first lockdown kicked in, I was busier than ever last year, and when homeschooling two primary school children was thrown into the mix, the result was pretty exhausting. “Learn a new skill” they said. “Catch up on your reading” they said. “Get fit” they said. Ha! Between 9-3pm my days were spent homeschooling while Dean worked. My evenings and weekend were spent, without fail, working. But I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t have a boss breathing down my neck, asking me to justify my output, or expecting me to work evenings and weekends because I wasn’t productive enough during the traditional working hours. I was at least able to set my own working hours, even though it meant I missed out on a lot of quality time with the family.
Still, we managed. The business thrived, the children eventually skipped gleefully back to school (we’ll gloss over whether that was down to them missing their friends or a comment on my teaching skills lol) and the new normal kicked in. But still I couldn’t find the time to write. Until now.
Two and a half weeks ago I received a phone call, asking whether I still needed and/or wanted the surgery that I’ve been waiting for for years. In fact, I first saw my GP about my sore, buniony feet about 15 years ago, and many non-invasive treatments were tried – shoe insert, physiotherapy etc. I took a break from the process while the children were small, but about 3.5 years ago I saw a Consultant and it was decided that surgery was the way forward. Of course, the pandemic put paid to all possibility of elective procedures and I just accepted that it wouldn’t happen for a while yet. And then, two and a half weeks ago, my phone rang.
“Hello! Do you still want your surgery?”
“Um, yes please”
“Oh good. Two weeks today then?”
“What?!!”
So. Here I am, four days after bilateral foot surgery, with time to write a blog post about summer soaps – hooray!!
This year’s summer specials were due to drop yesterday, on the 26th June, but once surgery was scheduled there was no way that was going to happen. I’ve closed the website temporarily, and am tentatively hoping to reopen on 1st July. Fingers crossed!
There are four limited edition bars in this summer’s collection:
Coconut and Pineapple need no explanation really. I had initially baulked at the thought of making two fruity specials, but the Pineapple smells so delicious, while the Coconut has been requested by so many people. I couldn’t really NOT make either.
The Traeth Tawel (Calm Beach in Welsh) is so called because it’s the same fragrance as the popular Traeth bar, but without the scrubby bits. Again, this had been requested often, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make one.
The Frangipani? Well, let’s just say that this one was a b**ch to work with lol. You can probably tell from it’s appearance that this wasn’t the most amenable of fragrance oils, but MY OH MY does it smell good!! Fragipani is the fragrance of Plumeria blossom – those exotic flowers that are used to make Hawaiian leis. It’s floral, sweet and just wonderful – if you’re partial to a floral.
That’s it for now folks. I’d love to promise more regular posts in the future, but I’m not going to. I’m just going to quietly try to write a ’round up’ every now and then, just for posterity. I know Future Me will be glad if do.
I posted in mid Jan with great intentions to get back on the writing horse, and then found myself paralysed with indecision about WHAT I should write. I felt that I should recap everything that I’ve been up to since the end of October, but that felt like too big a job. It would never be complete (and would probably not be 100% accurate either – I don’t have the best memory these days!) and I wouldn’t be satisfied with half hearted attempt. Anyway, THAT is only reason I haven’t written anything for the last month. Crazy really.
I’m jumping back onto it tonight, and from now on I’ll be doing my weekly roundups and any other stuff in between, just like before. I’m not going to try to backtrack, but if you have any specific questions about what’s been going on over the last few months, please just ask (my memory’s not that bad ;-D) but I may well naturally fill in the blanks as I go along anyway.
The run up to the Christmas period was amazing, business-wise. I was busier than I had anticipated, and for that reason I’m still playing catch-up as far as stock levels go. My current goal is to get to 1000 bars in stock over the whole range, and I every time I think I’m getting close, another big order comes in. Mind you, I’m DEFINITELY not complaining.
I’m making a minimum of 120 bars a week now, and if you follow me on Instagram (www.instagram.com/thesoapmine) you’ll know that Monday is my big ‘making’ day. I’ll make four double batches every Monday (that’s my 120 bar minimum) and occasionally try to fit in another session later on in the week.
I’ve retired a couple of fragrances that weren’t selling so well – Delicious (a dupe of DKNY Be Delicious) and Boho Baby (Patchouli & Orange essential oils) have both gone. I don’t have any plans to replace them with anything permanent just yet, but if I come across a fragrance that I just ‘have to have’, I have the capacity.
This was the result of last week’s Monday session:
Four Double Batches of Soap
From left to right are Serenity, Welsh Rose, Tutti Frutti and Blodau (Flowers), and here are a couple of them cut:
Serenity Handmade Soap
and
Welsh Rose Handmade Soap
I used slightly different colours for the Welsh Rose this time, and there’s a more subtle different between the pinks that I usually have (I’ve also just realised that this is such a fresh photo that I’ve not bevelled this one yet!) Anyway, I can’t decide whether I really like it, or I really don’t… Hmm… what do you think?
I’m going to leave things there for now, and not try to get too ahead of myself. I’ve already had some thoughts ping into my head for the next post, so I THINK I’m back on a roll. I’ll be doing my best anyway. I’ll be back next Sunday for a full weekly round up, if not before…
Last December, I wrote a post giving some hints and tips for giving a soapmaking talk / presentation, something I’ve been doing on a weekly basis for the last three years. I also get regular bookings to do soapmaking demonstrations, which, unsurprisingly, take a little more preparation. It’s safe to say that it’s been an interesting learning curve, and I thought it might be helpful to someone out there if I were to note down some of the things that I’ve learnt the hard way. Many may be no-brainers, but some of them might prove to be helpful. So no more waffle, here they are:
Consider your fee before you’re asked so that you’re not coming up with a figure out of thin air (yep, that was me, and it was ridiculously low!) It might be worth offering two options – one fee if there’s to be no selling involved and a slightly lower one if they’ll allow you to offer your products for sale after the demo. In my experience they’ll always go for the slightly lower fee and you can take full advantage of the sales opportunity.
If they’re happy for you to sell, make sure you take plenty of product, and some samples as well. If at all possible, make sure that you have plenty of the variety that you making on that occasion available for sale (ie if you’re making lavender soap in the demo, make sure you have plenty of fully cured lavender soap available to buy).
Consider offering a discount to the audience on the regular price of the bars – I usually take 50p off the price of each bar for demo audiences. It’s not a huge discount by any means, and it’s doesn’t make too much of a difference to me, but it is appreciated by the audience.
Take plenty of business cards. You have a captive audience and a great opportunity to sell not only your soap (or other products) but your demo packages too.
Be prepared. Create a list (beforehand!) of all the things you need to take, and tick them off as you pack them. There’s nothing worse than getting in front of an audience and realising that you’re missing a key piece of kit.
Make sure that you know exactly where you’re going. Google Street view has been my friend a few times when I wasn’t familiar with the venue.
Decide how much preparation you want to do beforehand. There are plenty of things you can do before even setting off for the venue. I like to soap at room temperature, and so I prepare the lye water at home and transport it in a well sealed container. I also prepare the oil/butter mix before I go, and depending on what facilities are available at the venue I may melt it down before leaving, or do it as soon as I arrive at the venue to give it time to cool (if you choose this option make sure that there is a microwave available to use)
Wrap/secure oils WELL to avoid spillage. Ask me how I know :-O The passenger foot-well of my car has never been quite the same since the Great Oil Spill of 2016 😀
Make sure you know how much space you’ll have. It’s also nice to have an idea of how many people are likely to be in the audience – is it likely to be 5, or 35? (That will also give you an idea of how much product you need to take to sell)
If you use a hand blender (or any kind of electrical equipment) remember to tell the organiser that you’ll need to be positioned near an electrical socket. If in doubt, take an extension lead.
Be aware of your timings. If it’s your first time you might unconsciously race through the process in record time, leaving the audience wondering just what happened there. Take your time and explain what you’re doing every step of the way.
Let the audience know that you welcome questions at any time (providing you do, of course). If you’re new to demos you might feel that having questions being fired at you could be offputting, but I’ve found that it’s a nice way to break the ice.
Take samples of the ingredients to hand around the audience during the demo, eg fragrances (essential oils or fragrance oils), colourants, oils / butters in their natural state.
Make sure you take plenty of towels and/or tablecloths to protect whatever surface you’ll be working on. I also have a roll of thin linoleum that I use to cover tables as I’d be mortified if spilt lye / raw soap and damaged somebody else’s property!
Also ensure that you have plenty of cloths and/or paper towels to mop up any spillages.
Don’t forget your safety gear. It might be obvious, but it’s easy to forget the gloves or the goggles. Make sure they’re added to your list (see point #4)
Don’t ever use a new recipe or fragrance for a demo – make something you’ve made many times before, and that you know works. Don’t rush – It’s easy to forget to add a fragrance or add the colourant at the wrong time if you’re feeling even a little pressured or anxious.
Take a big plastic tub specifically to take home all the washing up. I use big tubs to take everything to the venue and usually find that I can use just one of them to transport soapy pots and utensils home – you don’t want to be carrying them home in the same containers as all your non-soapy stuff.
If you can, take some previously made soap in the mould to show the audience the unmolding / cutting process. (And don’t forget your cutter!) It means that the audience can see full process from start to finish. I usually try to make a batch 2 days before I’m due to give a demo or talk, for this very reason.
Consider talking about the wrapping process and/or labelling rules & regulations.
It can help to have some ‘interesting facts’ at your fingertips (eg history of soapmaking) should something take longer than planned. If, for whatever reason, your soap doesn’t trace as quickly as usual, you don’t want to be standing there in silence with an audience staring at you!
Consider preparing a handout with a basic recipe and a list of resources should anyone want to try making soap themselves. Not everyone is comfortable doing this, but in my mind it shows a generous spirit to be willing to help others get started.
Know your audience language. Now this is a bit of a niche tip, I’ll admit, but I live in a bilingual area (English/Welsh) and while I’m comfortable giving a demo / talk in either language, I always make sure I know beforehand which language I’ll be using for that particular occasion.
Try to enjoy it! The audience will enjoy it much more if you’re having fun yourself. Smile a lot, crack a few jokes if appropriate, make it clear that you welcome questions and engage in conversation.
Hope they’re helpful to someone – if you can think of any more please comment below!
Thanks for sticking with me so far, nearly halfway there! Back tomorrow #blogtobersoapers
My hands-down-most-popular summer special last year was my Lemon Verbena Confetti, so obviously I had to make it again this year. It has a white base colour, is crammed with multi-coloured soap shavings and is fragranced with an amazing smelling Lemon Verbena fragrance oil. I LOVE lemon verbena – it’s fresh, crisp and citrussy with herbaceous notes, but sadly, this particular lemon verbena fragrance does NOT behave itself in cold process soap.
I knew from my experience using last year that it was a fast mover, so I thought I was well prepared this time. The soap shavings were ready to go, the oils and lye were at room temperature, I didn’t discount the water, and was prepared to work quickly. It wasn’t enough…
Soap shaving ready to be added…I added my titanium dioxide AND the Lemon Verbena FO to to my oils, added the lye water and KAPOW! it solidified immediately. I refused to be beaten. I splodged the stick blender in and loosened it up a bit before adding all the soap shavings. How much soap shavings you use is entirely up to you – I don’t measure it out, I just mix in more and more until it looks like enough <not helpful sorry>:
Soap shavings addedI mixed as far as I could with a spoon but in the end I had to plunge in my (gloved!!) hands to give it a thorough mix. It was the only way to get everything properly combined without breaking up all the soap shreds with the blender. I also used my hands to get the whole lot into the the moulds (one benefit of making confetti soap – two batches with added confetti makes enough soap to fill three moulds – yey!)
Moulds filled with confetti soapIt was only then that I realised that one of my gloves had split and I had the beginnings of a lye burn on the end of one of my fingers – ouch 🙁
Two days later I unmoulded and cut, and the result wasn’t too shabby:
Confetti soap, the cutIt has a few small air holes here and there, trapped during the mould filling, but it’s pretty good, considering!
Incidentally, the company from whom I bought this FO claim on their website that it causes no acceleration in CP soap, but when I asked in a FB group whether anyone else had had an issue with this particular FO, it seems to be fairly common. Ah well, forewarned is forearmed eh?!
I made the first batch of Castile soap back in mid January and, while convention dictates that it should cure for at least 6 months before use, the devil on my shoulder insisted that I try it out this week, a mere 10 weeks later.
I helped myself to the thickest of the end pieces, and snapped a quick photo:
Castile 10 weeks in…
It’s already a very hard bar, easily as hard as my regular bars after their full 6 week cure. This surprised me somewhat as I’d read that one of the reasons for curing for so long is because it needs longer to harden up.
Detractors of Castile soap often use the word ‘slimy’ to describe it, so I wasn’t expecting too much when I lathered up. I ran a little warm water and started turning the bar over and over in my hands. After a few initial biggish bubbles, the lather soon settled into a creamy lather with very small bubbles, an almost lotion type texture. I would definitely describe the feel of the bar as ‘silky’ rather than the ‘slimy’! I would have got a photo or a quick video but there were no spare hands around 😀 After rinsing and drying my hands felt soft and smooth, and I can see why Castile soap is recommended for dry or sensitive skin.
I’ve spoken to other soapmakers who say that they’re more than happy to use their Castile soap before the traditional 6 month cure is up. Others tell me that there’s a distinct difference in the texture of the lather if the soap is left for the full 6 months (or longer). I’m going to enroll an extra pair of hands to help and get a couple of photos or a video of the lather as it is now, and again in two and four months time. I should then have a better idea of the beneficial effect (or otherwise!) of the extended cure time.
If you have any thoughts about Castile soap, be they be for or against, please post below – I’d love to hear from you.
Last Saturday I had a stall at a local craft fair. Not any old craft fair mind you, this was important to me for two reasons. First off, it was right here, in my village – the first one we’ve ever had. Secondly, it was the first craft fair that I’ve organised myself. It was the culmination of a couple off months of planning, and, if I’m honest, a fair bit of anxiety. I needn’t have worried – it was a great success, so I thought I’d share with you here a few things to consider if you’d like to organise something similar yourself.
Do your research regarding other markets and craft fairs in the area and make sure your event doesn’t clash with another on the same day. As well as competing for visitors, you’ll also be competing for stallholders.
As soon as you’ve decided on a date, secure your venue. You don’t want to be inviting stallholders until you’ve confirmed your accommodation for the day.
Invite / organise crafters as far in advance as possible. Many crafters book themselves into markets and craft fairs many months ahead. It’s also worth considering asking for a deposit on the cost of the table – this decreases the risk of stallholders not turning up on the day.
Ensure that all your stallholders have public liability insurance.
Ensure you know how many tables you can fit into the available space. You don’t want to ask 20 crafters to attend and then find when you’re setting up that you can only fit 19 tables into the room! It’s definitely worth having a trial ‘set up’ before deciding how many crafters to invite.
Don’t double up on crafts unless it’s a BIG event. There’s nothing worse for a stallholder than setting up at a fair of, say, 12 stalls to find that there are two or three other stallholders there selling something very similar. It’s not fair on any of them.
Don’t try to charge too much per stall / table, especially if it’s the first time this event has taken place. You won’t have any idea what the footfall is going to be and won’t be able to make any claims as to likely number of visitors.
Advertising, advertising, advertising. You want as many people walking through the door of your venue as possible, so this is an instance where too much advertising is never enough. Get your event all over Facebook – on your personal feed (ask friends to share), on local selling pages, and on local community sites. Put a small ad in the local newspaper, a paragraph in the parish magazine, get it listed on’What’s Happening in Your Area’ type websites. Make sure there are posters put up in the area. Don’t forget your local tourist bureau and local hotels / guest houses if you live in a popular area for visitors – local crafts are just the thing that they’ll be interested in.
Have a spare cash float or two. It’s not unheard of for stallholders to arrive at a craft fair without their cash box. Not me of course, oh no… well, only that once a few months ago 😀 and I was both grateful and impressed that the organisers had thought to bring along a couple of ‘spare’ floats for just that eventuality.
Rope in as much help as possible. Setting up, decorating the venue and getting plenty of directional signage outside and in the immediate area can take longer than you anticipate. If you’re also planning on holding raffle / tombola / lucky dip / cake stall you’ll need yet more hands on deck.
A bonus tip – if you’re holding the craft fair or market to raise money for a local cause, consider also having a raffle / tombola / lucky dip / tea, coffee & cakes stall. Just make sure that you put out the call for donations well in advance
I have a brand new essential oil bar, and it needs a name… This bar is scented with lavender, lemon and lime EOs. Heavier on the lavender and lemon, lighter on the lime, but it’s definitely discernible.
Please give me a name 🙂
I’m offering a free bar to the person who comes up with the name that I eventually select, and you can either enter below in the comments field, or on the competition post on my FB page. It’s open to anyone, wherever you are in the world – I’ll cover postage costs too (last time I did this it the bar went over the pond to the US). So don’t be shy – I know you’re a creative lot!!
FYI The other essential oil bars in my range are called Serenity, Clarity, Peace, Boho Baby, Flowers and Luscious Lavender.
PS – the winning name will be chosen on Saturday 29th October, 9pm UK time.
It’s been a busy month on the wholesale front, and I’m so happy to introduce yet another new stockist of our luxury handmade soap – The Mermaid Spa in the extraordinary village of Portmerion.
The Mermaid Spa
For those not in the know, Portmeirion is an Italianate village designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975. It’s situated on a headland on the north Wales coast, and the spa itself overlooks the estuary. It’s a stunningly beautiful and relaxing place to have a spa – the perfect place to visit for a bit of R&R if you’re in the area.
View from the spa
Yesterday they took delivery of a great selection of our soap – as if you needed another reason to visit such a glorious place!
I am VERY excited to announce that we have a brand new stockist!
Luvit is a gorgeous gift shop on the High Street in Barmouth, in the south west corner of the Snowdonia National Park.
luvit-barmouth
Owena at Luvit is very supportive of local makers, and sells a wide range of lovely gifts, many of which have a retro / vintage twist. And now she now also stocks a selection of our luxury handmade soaps too – woohoo!! Please pop in and have a look if you’re in the area 😀
My apologies, this post has been much longer coming than I’d hoped (or planned!). Things got very busy preparing for the festive season, but I finally got it finished. Thank you for your patience 🙂
Six of the participants in this summer’s soap swap were from USA or Canada, and this last post will focus on the lovely soaps that came all the way over the Atlantic into my eager little hands.
Just as in the last post, the following are in no particular order… apart from this first one. Once the soap swap had been set up, and we had decided the date by which all soaps should be with me, all there was for me to do was sit back and wait for the soapy parcels to arrive. I can’t tell you how excited I was the first time the postman knocked on the door with a soap filled parcel. That parcel was from Pam Leis of By The Sea Soap.
Pam was extraordinarily generous and sent me not only the full sized bar that each participant received but also FOUR extra treats. You can see three of them in the picture below – a sample of her Newport Beach Sand soap, a flower shaped Sweetpea & Rhubarb soap, which has some natural sponge embedded in the bottom AND a ‘Black Bamboo – Detox bar, with some amazing white piping on the top.
They are all stunning, but my absolute favourite fragrance is that of the Newport Beach Sand soap. It’s called Sea Moss by BrambleBerry, and I NEED to find something similar in the UK. It’s described as ‘a unique blend of Bergamot, Orchid, Jasmine and Violet with supporting notes of Ozone (air), Sandalwood, Musk and of course, Moss. This fragrance could be described as fresh, green and almost a little kelp-y’. It’s reminiscent of something I’ve come across before, but I just can’t recall it. If anyone has any ideas – please let me know!
By The Sea Soaps
Pam also sent me some beautiful dried rosebuds, and I’ll be using them on something special soon!
Dried Rose Petals
Here is Pam’s swap soap, and a closeup of the sparkly top. It’s called ‘A Pink Philosophy’ and I’m afraid the photos don’t do justice to this beautiful bar, but I can assure you it’s lovely!
If you’re a fan of soapmaking videos, you’re probably familiar with Emily of Shieh Design Studio. She has her own You Tube channel, and I am only one of a great many people who enjoy watching her make soap. Emily makes her own soap boxes, and they’re a testament to her perfectionism:
Handmade soap box by Shieh Design Studio
It seemed a shame to have to break it open, but, I admit, I didn’t hesitate for long 🙂
The soap I received was called Mayan Gold, and it’s a beautiful riot of colour. The fragrance is a blend of oriental notes and chocolate / vanilla.
Next up was Louise of SoGa Artisan Soaperie in Canada. Louise’s bar was fragranced with the ever popular (and delicious!) Black Raspberry Vanilla fragrance, and featured berry colours and a hanger swirl design. Here it is packaged:
Black Raspberry Vanilla by SoGa Artisan Soaperie
And here it is in all its glory. I love the hanger swirls and the overall design really suits the fragrance I think.
Black Raspberry Vanilla by SoGa Artisan Soaperie
The top of the bar also features some lovely shimmery swirls. I tried and tried to take a good enough picture of this top which adequately showed the beauty of the top but this is the best I could do. I can assure you that it looks much better in real life:
Next up was Barbara of Moon Goddess Garden. She sent this lovely flower shaped bar. It came shrink wrapped which kept it in pristine condition during its travels, and all the company info was on a label on the back:
Moon Goddess Garden
Here it is unwrapped. The petals are decorated with mica and the centre is created from poppy seeds which give a nice bit of exfoliation. It’s called ‘Summertime Taffy’ and the fragrance really is summery – bright and a bit fruity and JUST what I need at this time of year as the rain lashes down outside!!
Moon Goddess Garden
Do have a look at Barbara’s Facebook to see more of her beautiful soaps.
Melinda, of Melinda’s Naturals, sent us each a bar of ‘Juliet’s Heart’:
Juliet’s Heart by Melinda’s Naturals
Here it is unwrapped and you can see the fine swirls that adorn the inside and the top of the bar:
Juliet’s Heart by Melinda’s Naturals
This soap was a special edition, created just for us, and is scented with a soft, warm floral essential oil blend. It features jojoba oil and illipe butter, and feels very luxurious to use.
Finally we have Zahida of Handmade in Florida. Zahida’s beautiful and hugely popular soaps invariably sell out within hours of their release, and she has a massive following on social media.
Allow me to deviate a little here because the box in which the soaps arrived was so exquisitely packaged I had to take a photograph of every step:
Handmade in Florida Packaging
Now, given how difficult it is to get your hands on a bar of Zahida’s soap, imagine my delight when I learnt that Zahida had sent me (by way of a thank you for hosting) not one but TWO bars of her soap to try – Amber and Sensual Oudh. Let me tell you, they both smell wonderful, but my favourite is the Sensual Oudh, described as ‘a deep and complex blending of oudh, sandalwood, cedarwood, leather, patchouli, vetiver, amber, tonka, and vanilla’ – amazing!
Amber & Sensual Oudh by Handmade in Florida
And unboxed:
Amber & Sensual Oudh by Handmade in Florida
How beautiful are those swirls? In case you don’t know, Zahida is the original creator of the oft imitated butterfly swirl – check out her creations on You Tube, Instagram, Facebook, Website and Blog
And THAT, my friends, brings to an end this year’s International Soap Swap. Of course, it’s not the end for those of us who participated, as we each have a rather large box of lovely soap to keep us going well into the New Year. Mind you, I have a funny feeling it may well happen again at some time in the future, so watch this space!
Yep, it really has been almost 2 months since my last post. The summer season has been incredibly busy, and it’s been as much as I can do to keep up with demand on the soaping front. Days have been spent keeping the children occupied during what seems to have been the wettest summer on record, and evenings have been spent making, wrapping and labelling soaps to supply the eleven local retailers that now stock The Soap Mine soaps. Since April I’ve also been doing twice monthly soapy talks for a local holiday company, and have done a couple of soapmaking demonstrations for the Women’s Institute – something I’d really like to do more of.
Needless to say there isn’t much innovation or new designs to share from the last couple of months, but I do have one new one to share. Now I do love my colours and swirls, but my mum has long expressed a preference for a plain, white, citrussy bar, and I finally got round to making one for her. The only colourant is a touch of titanium dioxide, and it’s fragranced with a smidgen of lemon & grapefruit essential oils. (The prototype was fragranced with lemon & lime, but I much prefer lemon & grapefruit combo).
I’ve named it ‘Peace’ and it’s proved a hit with customers as well as mum, so I’ve added it to the regular line-up.
Peace
There was one other exciting soap related event over the summer. I was honoured to be able to host an international soap swap between myself and 11 other amazing soapmakers from the US, Canada and Europe. I’ve got a couple of posts coming up soon just about the soap swap, but here, to whet your appetite, is a little teaser of my haul, If you’re a fan of handmade artisan soaps you may well recognise some of these brands…
I’m in full ‘Operation Christmas Fairs’ mode and have been for a good few weeks now. All my soapmaking has been restocks, and there is a LOT of time being spent packaging and labelling soap. Consequently there hasn’t been much opportunity for creativity so I’ve playing around with my soap tops and and trying out different styles and techniques. I mostly swirl the soap while it’s still fairly fluid, but I have tried letting the soap thicken up a bit and creating texture that way too.
I’ve tried mica in oil swirls:
Mica/Oil swirl
Swirling the still very fluid soap with a chopstick/skewer (or similar):
‘Chopstick’ swirl
Chopstick swirling at a slightly heavier trace:
Chopstick swirl
A more formal ‘mantra’ style chopstick swirl:
Mantra swirl
Using a spoon to add texture to the top:
‘Spoon’ textured top
Adding grated soap to create some detail on the top:
Grated soap detail
A simple ‘splatter’ technique. This one looks really effective on the cut bars:
‘Splatter’ Method
Here’s one I made a few years back – Chocolate Cake – chocolate chocolate chunk embeds set amid piped ‘cream’ topping:
Piping & Embeds
There seems to be an infinite number of techniques and methods, and I’m looking forward to doing some more experimenting in the quieter post-holiday months ahead.
A MASSIVE thank you to everyone who came up with suggestions for a name for my poor nameless orange & ylang ylang soap (as posted here) Facebook in particular turned out to be a particularly fertile creative arena and I do appreciate everyone who took the time to have a ponder and post something.
It wasn’t an easy decision – ‘Pheonix’ & ‘Desert Sands’ were serious contenders, but in the end I plumped for something a little more descriptive of the fragrance. And so, without further delay, I give you, ‘Orange Bliss’:
Orange Bliss was the suggestion of Candice Bond, who posted on our Facebook page here. Thank you and congratulations Candice – please message the FB page with your address and a bar will be winging its way to you!
This recent addition to the range will be ready for sale in a very short while but remains nameless. It’s vegan friendly, palm free, is coloured with micas, fragranced with a blend of Ylang Ylang and x5 fold Orange Essential Oils and is made using the Drop Swirl technique.
Orange & Ylang Ylang EOs
If you’d like to try a bar for free, simply suggest a great name for it, and I’ll post a bar out to the person who comes up with the name I decide to go with. (Oh and I’ll be really, really grateful too – totally mental block on this one :-D)
It’s open to anyone worldwide, so don’t be shy – get those ideas in (either here or on the Soap Mine FB page where I’ll post this as well) by 8pm GMT on Friday 8th August and I’ll announce the winner later on that evening.
Thanks – I’m excited to see what you creative lot come up with!
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