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!

Christmas Gifts

One of the downsides/benefits of being poor is that I got to/had to make all my gifts this year! So here we have...
A selection of bath bombs. The blue ones are scented with gardenia, so have a sort of talcumy smell, rather than something overtly floral, as they are for boys. Each boy will get two - one with a small star shaped soap in the middle, and one with a plastic fly for a nasty surprise! The green one and the white ones are also gardenia scented, but this time with glitter in, for my best friend's little girl. Green may seem an unlikely choice, but she assures me green is her favourite colour, and I aim to please! Finally the yellow ones are neroli scented and have calendula petals in there too:

 Next we have my version of Lush's Ceridrew's Cauldron. I love theirs because the moisturising mixture makes the bath water all milky and soft, and the oats and herbs left in the muslin bag can be used to srcub the skin. So my version is my usual bath bomb mix, plus goat's milk, cocoa butter and either 'rose garden' for girls or 'cookie dough' for boys.

 Then we have the one above packaged as a set of three on the left, then the package on the right was a special baby friendly mix I did for my best friend's baby. Baby has eczema, so I looked for advice on the net, and found that goat's milk and oats are meant to be good for this, so each of these sachets contain this moisturising mix, plus a couple of drops of lavendar essential oil to help her sleep:

 Then we've got an extra special one-off soap again for my best friend's little girl. This one is lavender scented, made with melt-and-pour soap and with some irridescent glitter for a bit of sparkle. The mould was something my dad saved for me, he can't remember where he got it from, which I was gutted about, as the one I've got has a little crack in it :(

 Then we have the bunny ones, plus a cupcake shape of the same mix. The blue ones are scented with eucalyptus and tea tree, and are meant for refreshing tired muscles. Then we've got the browny-coloured one on the right, which is scented with cinnamon and ginger, plus some ground ginger and cinnamon, and porridge oats, a lovely spicey smelling mix for warming achey muscles:

 Here we have two lavender scented hearts with cone flower petals, I put a bit too much die in these and they went too dark for my liking. And two cupcake shaped neroli-scented soaps, again with calendula petals. Plus some bath creamers - these were really tricky as they seemed too greasy but I just went with it and I think they turned out ok. Again scented with neroli and containing calendula petals, this is like the bath bom recipe but with cocoa butter, shea butter and cornflour.