Saturday, May 3, 2008

In the beginning...

In 2000 or so I was browsing through a craft magazine and saw a picture of some interesting looking soaps. Now everyone knows what soap is... and where you get it- the grocery store right? But this soap in the magazine was kind of different looking from what I was used to, you know...that big old bar of Dial that made my skin feel kind of tight. The directions in the magazine were rather simple... take a mild bar of soap... grate it up ... add stuff to it and then put it in a mold. When it was solid, you had a bar of soap that was homemade. I thought that was kinda cool... but then I started wondering how hard it would be to make it from scratch. So off I went to the library... checked out a few old fashioned books ... the process sounded kind of scary to be honest, but the more I thought about it... the more I read ... I knew that making soap using oils and fats along with lye was what I really wanted to do.

The first batch of soap I made was a mess *smile* I made a castile type soap with a bit of coconut... and scented it with sweet grass FO. Tons of stuff went wrong while making that soap... but I learned a lot of stuff too. I was so afraid I had ruined the soap... but I poured it into my mold anyways... put the lid on it and wrapped it up and hoped for the best. Of course I peaked a few too many times... I took it out of the mold too soon... cut it too soon, and was disappointed with my kind of mushy soap. Not wanting to throw it away and having no idea what rebatching entailed... I put it on a high shelf and kind of forgot about it. I found it about 6 months later... and it was as hard as a brick and still smelled rather nice. If you look in the picture below you will see it on the left hand side... the second soap back.





It took a while but I finally got the hang of the soap thing... Over time I used several different mold types... cut my soaps into different sizes... made soap balls and just had a blast. I came out with combos I absolutely loved... and combos I tried to give away quickly because I couldn't stand the way they smelled. One of my least favorite combos had goats milk and comfrey and was scented with patchouli, geranium and rosewood and a few other things. Blech... but the funny thing is that the person I gave that entire batch too still asks for it today. She loves the stuff. Now I just have to find the dang recipe o.O


I was sure having fun... people got to the point that if they saw me coming with a bag in my hands they would run LOL... just kidding. Friends and family started suggesting that I sell my soaps and after a lot of thought I decided to go into business... I had a few favorite recipes... some favorite scent combos... and was starting to go for a more artistic look in my soap pictures. The soap above was scented with a rose FO and was an in the pot swirl soap using madder root. More like a marble really... but it was supposed to be a swirl *smiles*


Above is a huge batch of Patchouli/lavender soap... I incorporated both ground up and whole lavender flowers. A bit exfoliating... with an awesome scent.

One of my family's favorite soaps is a Teatree/lavender/rosemary eo scented soap... and for this one I was playing with ultramarines. I think it turned out rather pretty. I definitely need more practice with the whole layering thing... and because the soap was moving so fast in the end I couldnt incorporate the color as well as I wanted too... but I still am pleased with the way it turned out. It was just a small 2 pound batch... just an itty bitty batch for someone who was often making 4-6 pound batches at a time. It was also the last batch of soap I made before my "soaping break" if you will.

The soaping bug has hit me again... and I am very excited to get back at it.

~Regi

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