The Struggle Is Real

[LilyJo]

Oh dont do this to me!

I have been trying so hard to resist buying anything from Nuture because of the postage but all of these descriptions are making me thing that just maybe I ought to do a sample order. Think if I keep the number of samples down as low as I can I can get away with postage of about $18....

So many I want to try and the notes about complex fragrances are just what I am looking for.

 

[dibbles]

I have fire tree and old Delhi station to try, so am anxious to hear how they behave. They are both so nice OOB.

 

[Arimara]

Oh dont do this to me!

I have been trying so hard to resist buying anything from Nuture because of the postage but all of these descriptions are making me thing that just maybe I ought to do a sample order. Think if I keep the number of samples down as low as I can I can get away with postage of about $18....

So many I want to try and the notes about complex fragrances are just what I am looking for.

If you do cave, Afternoon Tea is a must. It's amazing.

 

[WeaversPort]

If you do cave, Afternoon Tea is a must. It's amazing.

Oh, danger! Afternoon tea?

 

[WeaversPort]

Round Two complete.

Breath of God - blue vibrance
Hyacinth - purple vibrance
Potion - green vibrance
100 Kisses - natural

I'm anxious to hear how Breath of God turned out.. How does it compare to Butterfly?

 

[BrewerGeorge]

I'm anxious to hear how Breath of God turned out.. How does it compare to Butterfly?

Without having them in front of me....

They are nothing alike. Butterfly is strong, sweet and generically floral. It's very much a B&BW sort of scent, if you know what I mean. It's really, really good, but...simple. Almost certain to buy this one again, as both wife and daughter have expressed interest, but it's too feminine for me to pick for myself.

Breath of God smells like incense. It's much more subtle and layered. I'm still on the fence with it.

Part of the problem with doing them in batches like this is that they blend together - on their curing racks and in my mind. There's just too many at once, and they tend to form a pack. However, Butterfly stands apart from that pack in that I remember it clearly and separately. Breath not so much. (You can see that play out in the paragraphs above.)

 

[WeaversPort]

Without having them in front of me....

They are nothing alike. Butterfly is strong, sweet and generically floral. It's very much a B&BW sort of scent, if you know what I mean. It's really, really good, but...simple. Almost certain to buy this one again, as both wife and daughter have expressed interest, but it's too feminine for me to pick for myself.

Breath of God smells like incense. It's much more subtle and layered. I'm still on the fence with it.

Part of the problem with doing them in batches like this is that they blend together - on their curing racks and in my mind. There's just too many at once, and they tend to form a pack. However, Butterfly stands apart from that pack in that I remember it clearly and separately. Breath not so much. (You can see that play out in the paragraphs above.)

Hmm, interesting. I'm generally not a fan of B&BW because of their generic two dimensional scents. There are maybe two that I can wear without immediately needing to take a shower. I'm wondering what would happen if you did a mix of Butterfly and Breath of God? It might give the Butterfly an added complexity and the Breath of God an additional "something" to it.

(I say this out of complete ignorance, since I can't smell either of them )

 

[Soapmaker145]

Hmm, interesting. I'm generally not a fan of B&BW because of their generic two dimensional scents. There are maybe two that I can wear without immediately needing to take a shower. I'm wondering what would happen if you did a mix of Butterfly and Breath of God? It might give the Butterfly an added complexity and the Breath of God an additional "something" to it.

(I say this out of complete ignorance, since I can't smell either of them )

You'll never know until you try but from experience I can tell you that more often than not, you end up with something that is lesser than the originals or nothing at all. Sometimes strong FOs just cancel each other out and you can't smell either one. Once in a while, you get something unusual and worth having. It's not easy creating a scent that is harmonious and is liked by a lot of people.

I haven't smelled either of these FOs but I wouldn't mix a complex floral with Breath of God. I had FB's version of BoG and I ended up using it in a rebatch just to get rid of it. It didn't do much in CP. Hopefully, the NS version is nicer.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Well, that didn't go as well as I'd hoped...

Made the third batch of four scents tonight - Fire Tree, Oudh Heart, Old Delhi Station, and Smell of Freedom. All are supposed to be non-accelerating and I used all lard instead of the GV shortening, but they were still really fast. Freedom was already solidifying when I went to pour it.:-? So that had me frazzled enough, then I realized I'd forgotten to cut the dividers. So I half-assed them into the molds and prayed. This is going to be some ugly soap.

On the plus side, they all smell really good. My favorite is Fire, with Delhi my least favorite. All pretty good, though.

I'll show you some sorry pics after I cut them Sunday.

Still have Silky Underwear, Devious, Euphoria, and Winter Wonderland to go.

 

[Arimara]

Totally wishing I could smell them. Thanks for the descriptions

 

[BrewerGeorge]

I just remembered I'd promised you pics of the most recent, ugly bars...

Red is the Fire Tree, green (top) is Oudh Heart, orange is Old Dehli Station, and blue is Smell of Freedom.

I'd wanted to swirl them with about 1/3 unscented white to differentiate them in looks, but things moved so fast that was problematic. The blue, especially, was a rocket and only has a hint of lighter marbling. Red, orange and blue gelled, but green didn't - even though it was in the same mold as blue. If you look carefully, you can see that the white didn't gel, even when the bulk color it was mixed with did. And look at those stearic spots! Still, they're better looking than I feared they'd be. A plane across the top and a good rinse and they should have some rustic charm.

This process has taught me that I don't really have the requisite vocabulary to describe scents well, but I'll do my best. Fire is my favorite by far, with Oudh and Freedom tied at 2nd, followed by Dehli. I would say that in general these smell more like full-on perfumes than soaps (as they should, given they are Lush dupes.) They're all pretty sweet. I would say more oriental/spicy rather than fresh, herbal, or musky. Usage rate for all these was approx 5%, and I'm concerned that they will leave too much of their assertive scents behind after washing - the few slivers I've played with have done so. We'll see how they are in the shower.

 

[WeaversPort]

I think the green one is rather pretty!

Thank you for updating! I'm enjoying discovering fragrances with your updates.

 

[smengot0]

I just remembered I'd promised you pics of the most recent, ugly bars...

Red is the Fire Tree, green (top) is Oudh Heart, orange is Old Dehli Station, and blue is Smell of Freedom.



I'd wanted to swirl them with about 1/3 unscented white to differentiate them in looks, but things moved so fast that was problematic. The blue, especially, was a rocket and only has a hint of lighter marbling. Red, orange and blue gelled, but green didn't - even though it was in the same mold as blue. If you look carefully, you can see that the white didn't gel, even when the bulk color it was mixed with did. And look at those stearic spots! Still, they're better looking than I feared they'd be. A plane across the top and a good rinse and they should have some rustic charm.



This process has taught me that I don't really have the requisite vocabulary to describe scents well, but I'll do my best. Fire is my favorite by far, with Oudh and Freedom tied at 2nd, followed by Dehli. I would say that in general these smell more like full-on perfumes than soaps (as they should, given they are Lush dupes.) They're all pretty sweet. I would say more oriental/spicy rather than fresh, herbal, or musky. Usage rate for all these was approx 5%, and I'm concerned that they will leave too much of their assertive scents behind after washing - the few slivers I've played with have done so. We'll see how they are in the shower.

Yours are pretty compared to my ugly bars..... A dual lye Castile with Smell of Freedom. As ugly as it looks, it smells amazing. Wonderful fragrance...

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Alright, last pass (for a while) is in the molds.

This time went much better than last. I remembered the divider, and I paid a lot more attention to temps so I had plenty of time to work - except with Silky Underwear. I think I've solved my working time problem, but I think I'll put that into the other thread.

Devious
Nurture Soap's Silky Underwear Type
Nurture Soap's Euphoria Type
Winter Wonderland

As usual, pics at cutting.

 

[Soapprentice]

I have fire tree and old Delhi station to try, so am anxious to hear how they behave. They are both so nice OOB.

Really, they named a fragrance 'old Delhi station?' Do you mind describing the scent? Just curious.

 

[Millie]

This time went much better than last. I remembered the divider, and I paid a lot more attention to temps so I had plenty of Underwear.

Hehe, my computer screan cut off part of the sentence

 

[littlehands]

Round Two complete.

Breath of God - blue vibrance
Hyacinth - purple vibrance
Potion - green vibrance
100 Kisses - natural

Left the TiO2 out this time because Hyacinth and Potion are both accelerating, and didn't want to add additional accel from the TiO2. The Hyacinth is the single-most accelerating FO I've ever used. I was lucky to get it into the mold at all. I would never try using it for CP again.

My nose is blow out after cutting the first four and making these. I'll report on the scents after I get them separated.

Is this the first time you've worked with such a seizer?? Great fun, no? LOL The very first soap I made was with BB Carnation, which is a strong accelerator, but doesn't seize. Nice baptism by fire there. Heh.

My first straight seizer was a fabric softener type scent, and it was like that- pretty much soap on a stick, and I had to cram it into the mold.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Is this the first time you've worked with such a seizer?? Great fun, no? LOL The very first soap I made was with BB Carnation, which is a strong accelerator, but doesn't seize. Nice baptism by fire there. Heh.

My first straight seizer was a fabric softener type scent, and it was like that- pretty much soap on a stick, and I had to cram it into the mold.

It was the first, yes! And Silky Underwear a few days later was even worse!!

 

[dibbles]

Really, they named a fragrance 'old Delhi station?' Do you mind describing the scent? Just curious.

I'm not always the best at describing scents, but I'll give it a shot. Nurture describes it this way: It is a smoky blend of clove, ginger, pepper, patchouli, sandalwood, jasmine and cinnamon.

The notes I pick up are mostly the spice notes - clove, ginger, pepper and cinnamon - and a little jasmine and sandalwood. I'm not getting smoky or patchouli. The smoky descriptive is subjective though, and what I call smoky could very easily be different than others.

I think I like this more than BG does. To me it is deep and complex OOB. I haven't soaped with it yet. It is the type of spice scent that I am usually drawn to.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

I'm not always the best at describing scents, but I'll give it a shot. Nurture describes it this way: It is a smoky blend of clove, ginger, pepper, patchouli, sandalwood, jasmine and cinnamon.

The notes I pick up are mostly the spice notes - clove, ginger, pepper and cinnamon - and a little jasmine and sandalwood. I'm not getting smoky or patchouli. The smoky descriptive is subjective though, and what I call smoky could very easily be different than others.

I think I like this more than BG does. To me it is deep and complex OOB. I haven't soaped with it yet. It is the type of spice scent that I am usually drawn to.

I'm sorry I overlooked that question. I'm not great at scents, either, but I'll try now that dibbles has reminded me of my failure.

First, I don't dislike it, per se, it's just my least favorite among the four. It is very complex and well-named, and it's hard for me to pick out individual pieces. My overall impression is walking through the spice aisle at an Indian market. It's a "dry" scent compared to the other three, which are sweeter and "wetter/greener." Among the four, the difference is rather stark, and that difference alone could be contributing to me saying it's my least favorite - just because it's the outlier. I can get a bit of smokiness in that it reminds me of burning incense, with a touch of those sandalwood or jasmine sticks that were so popular in the 70's. But there is no assertive, phenolic "smoke" character like a smoked food would have.