Sometimes a week goes completely differently to expectation. This last week the kids have been home from school for the half-term break (already! Yikes…) and I honestly thought it was going to be a toughie. I’m right in the middle of the pre-Christmas rush and I knew Dean was crazy busy with his work and not able to take any time off, so was resigned to night time working. I was able to arrange one reciprocal playdate with a friend who has similar aged children, so i had a houseful of children on Tuesday, and Thursday was to be my one and only ‘work’ day.
Still, on Monday and Tuesday I managed to escape over to the office at 4pm when Dean finished work to pack up a few orders. When I got back, I found out that he’d managed to take the following day off as a holiday so that I could work. He’s a good ‘un.
So of course on Wednesday I took full advantage of an unexpected work day and made a load of bathbombs, as well as making a serious dent in the orders that needed to be packed and dispatched.
Thursday was my kind of day. Once the kids had been safely delivered to their friends’ house, I made over 16kg of soap – the first time I’ve ever used all my moulds at once:
![Four double batches of wet soap](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171102_161800603_ios.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1)
I think I may need more moulds! Clockwise from top left these are Serenity (Patch, Ylang Ylang, Lemon & Sweet Orange EOs), Botanica (Lavender, Lemon & Lime EOs). Blodau (Lavender & Ylang Ylang EOs) and Luscious Lavender.
![Wet soap](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171104_210241616_ios.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&resize=300%2C300)
Later on Thursday Dean said he’d managed to get the Friday off too – result! I managed to get another few batches of bath bombs made, and then I indulged in a little experimentation I made another test batch of lip balm – this time in packaged in a tin:
![Lip balm test](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171103_150013183_ios.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&resize=300%2C300)
This one was made with beeswax, cocoa butter and rice bran oil, and turned out harder than the last test – this one would probably have been better in a tube rather than a tin. I didn’t flavour or fragrance, and I think I prefer it that way…
I also tried making whipped body butter – two separate batches, both made with unrefined shea butter and coconut oil, with a touch of evening primrose oil. I added lavender and rosemary essential oils to the first batch, and ylang ylang and benzoin essential oils PLUS 1tblsp of arrowroot powder to the second batch.
![Melting oil & butter](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171103_143201772_ios.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1)
![Whipping the oils and butters](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171103_155053790_ios.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1&resize=300%2C300)
Amazing how much final product came from a relatively small amount of oils – these are far from dainty containers (I popped a pound coin in the photo to give some idea of scale):
![Whipped Body Butter](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171105_222524999_ios-e1509921128544.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1)
I used unrefined shea butter, and I’m definitely not a fan of the fragrance – I’ll use refined next time, which is what I usually use in my soap. I also didn’t add enough fragrance, although it might be that the shea was overpowering the essential oils.
On first trying it I found the body butter to have quite a greasy texture. Being used to commercial body butters, this version does feel oily on the skin, but having used it for a few days now I find I’m liking it more and more – it sinks into my skin quite nicely. The arrowroot is supposed to reduce the greasiness of the body butter but I can’t discern much difference between the one with, and the one without.
On Saturday I took over family duties while Dean did some work on the house – the children and I visited the library and went swimming, then had fish and chips at the beach.
On Sunday Dean and the children went to visit friends for the afternoon while I went to the office and unmoulded, then cut, the soap from Thursday’s soaping session. I’m conscious that I often share photos of freshly poured soap and then forget to share the cut pictures, so I made a special effort to get a snap of the freshly cut soap – do bear in mind that they’re still soft here and haven’t been tidied up yet. Clockwise from top left – Luscious Lavender, Blodau, Botanica & Serenity:
![Freshly cut soap](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171105_192106254_ios.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1)
Finally, some exciting news on the home front. Since moving into this house over three years ago now we’ve lived with a really grotty bathroom while we upgraded other parts of the house and it’s meant that I haven’t been able to share the kind of in-use product photos I would have liked. This week work begins on our new bathroom – woop! I can’t wait to share pictures, just as soon as it’s done.
Thanks for reading, back soon!
Vicki
![Luscious Lavender in the mould](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171102_132927405_ios.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1)
![Blodau in the mould](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171102_140703011_ios.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1)
![Botanica in the mould](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171102_161013137_ios.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1)
![Serenity in the mould](https://eocxb96s8pv.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/20171102_150532577_ios.jpg?strip=all&lossy=1)