A long-overdue return to soap-making

I know most of you that read this are more into the sewing, etc, but before I started blogging about that, I used to blog about soaps, so as I made soaps yesterday, it seems only right to share my new recipes.

Firstly, I made this one as an everyday soap to go in our blue bathroom:

I LOVE the smell of this one. It's a recipe called the 'Feel Good blend' from this book (which I highly recommend). I won't give the proportions, but the essential oils included are ylang ylang, patchouli, black pepper, palmarosa and rose geranium. It smells lovely, really uplifting, and I would compare the scent to walking through a rose garden.The soap itself was made in two parts. I made the blue part first, taking 100g of clear melt-and-pour soap, 2mls of the fragrance and a couple of drops of blue dye and pouring this into a tupperware, so get a large thin flat piece. I left that to set in the fridge, then rolled that up into an s-shape and put it in an old biscuit tube. I then melted another 200mls clear melt-and-pour soap, with 4mls of fragrance and a handful of cone flowers, then poured this in around the s-shape. I left this to set for about an hour, it was quite a mass by the time it was all together, so took a good while to cool completely. Then I slice it into 4. I love it!

Secondly, I made these:

These were made with 100g clear melt-and-pour-soap, a few drops of red/blue dye and some sequin hearts. I made these to go in the bottom of some clear cupcake-shaped soaps BUT when I went to make the clear part, I decided to use benzoin oil, as it has a lovely vanilla-y fragrance. A word of warning: this oil is a deep amber colour, so when you add it to stuff it dyes that an amber colour too! Hmm. So then I thought, ok, can't use this for the clear surround, so I will make these up as separate soaps. So I went with these:

This is 200mgs clear melt-and-pour soap, 2mls benzoin, 1ml sweet orange and a tiny drop of red/blue dye, to make this peach rather than and orangey colour. They smell *divine*. Benzoin is good for lots of things, but I chose it for it's relaxing and anti-depressant properties.

Finally, for my daddy, I made this shaving soap:

This is 100mg clear melt-and-pour soap, 1/2tsp bentonite clay (mixed into a paste with boiling water) and 2tsp of sandalwood oil. My dad says this is just as good as the stuff he usually gets from Crabtree and Evelyn, yay me!!

I am linking up with:

Shaving soap

Ooh, forgot to mention, I recently tried making my own solid shaving soap, at my dad's request. He always uses solid soap and a badger bristle brush, and since I started making my own soaps he's been wondering if I could make a workable alternative to the Crabtree and Evelyn one he usually buys. So I rootled (technical term!) around on the net for a recipe but wasn't grabbed by any of them, so made up my own! I used about 150g melt-and-pour soap, with about 2mls of sandalwood essential oil (could do with more next time), 1tsp of bentonite clay and 1 tbsp of goat's milk powder. Dad is really chuffed with it, he made me feel his freshly-shaved face and it was indeed silky smoth! I think next time maybe half a tsp more bentonite clay, and it really needs to be white soap, not clear, just for aesthetics. Plus I need to remember to make the two powdered ingredients into a paste with a drop or two of water before adding to the soap. No photies for this one, I'm afraid, as dad snaffled (another technical term) it as soon as it was made!