What soapy thing have you done today?

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I made an oasis swirl soap tonight. Only did two colors to get a feel for it. Kept confusing myself with the swirl though. I practiced in the air with a chopstick for two days. “Wingardum leviosa” is what i felt like like. We shall see
It's not leviosaaaaa, it's levi-oh-sa.
 
I made my first batch of Jewelweed soap today. I'm very excited to see how it turned out! I also got nineteen varieties of glitter in the mail from the Good Glitter. Including the holo I've been dreaming of! It was all I could do to not try it out on my Jewelweed bars, but I'm afraid my male target audience wouldn't have appreciated that. 😝
 
I'm infusing some olive oil with matcha powder getting ready to make a green tea with coconut milk soap. I have made matcha soap before, so I know it will probably be more brownish than green, and that's ok. I'm splitting the batter and putting the matcha infused olive oil in one half, and the coconut milk powder in the other (or maybe I'll do 2/3 and 1/3? I'm not sure yet,) then I'll probably do a hanger swirl. I'm adding green sea clay and maybe a little spirulina for green to the matcha part. Scented with lemongrass, clary sage, vetiver and black pepper essential oils.
 
The oasis actual swirl is different than a mantra or infinity swirl, but it is similar. Some of the YouTube videos might show the differences.
I see what you mean; the swirl motion is a chain of wide hearts done once, then rotate the mold 180 degrees and swirl the chain of hearts in the opposite direction. (As opposed to a chain of figure 8's for the infinity/mantra swirl). And all three sections look like gradients
 
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Made a larger than planned purchase on Etsy. Refrained from buying a $274.xx hotel-sized soap cutter. I had never seen one for sale before, so that was pretty interesting. I think someone here bought from this seller in Croatia before and has high praise for his workmanship, but I don't really need this cutter.

The main purpose of the purchase was to get a vintage travel-size soap holder for my husband (the size that I use when I travel, perfect for travel-soap or hotel-size soaps.) I found one from a hotel in Rome, Italy that I thought would be perfect for him to start carrying travel size soaps in his ditty bag. I think he is really going to like this part of his birthday gift this year, since we had such a wonderful time in Italy and want to move there. I will, of course provide the travel-sized soaps which I already make to size in spite of not having a 'hotel soap multi-bar cutter.'
 
I was so excited to be getting a new soap toy, I mean necessity, today only to find they sent the wrong one. I’ve emailed them but being as it’s the end of the day, I probably won’t hear anything until tomorrow. Poo happens, I know. I can’t help but still be disappointed that I won’t be making the soap I planned tomorrow and will have to wait again.
 
I opened the package containing the hotel soap in it's original plastic carrier case (travel or hotel size soap) from a hotel in Rome, that I am giving along with other items to my husband for his birthday. It is about the size of the travel container I use in my ditty bag; just what I wanted. The original (I assume) soap is unused and still in the container, so it gives me a cutting size goal. I'll cut up some soaps in the next few days & package them to include in the gift. Perfect timing as he is away this week and won't see the gift-in-progress. This is no much fun!
 
I made soap today! It's a layered thang so it was 2 separate soaping sessions. I used masterbatches so that saved time. Scented with fir needle, rosemary, and peppermint essential oils. Mainly made it for us to match our bath.

Today's bucket list was to include colloidal oatmeal for the first time. After I poured the bottom layer, I saw the bag that I had forgot. So I put the bag in the middle of the counter and figured the top layer would get some. Sure enough, got everyone warm and cozy under a pile of towels and guess what I see? :)

Today's morning was predicted rain so I knew I couldn't work in the yard. So of course it's a bright sunny day in the 70s. You have no idea the self control it took to remain in the house and soap and not attend to my other hobby addiction! Headed out now. Have a good weekend!
 
Planed and beveled a birthday gift, then sliced up my father's day gift--a fragrance free HP beer soap formulated for my dad's skin. It won't be dry by Father's Day, but he'll at least be able to open it (he's not out of his last soap gift yet anyway).

Also tried to slice up a batch made Thursday night... But its weirdly wet and sticky. After pulling my dividers out of the loaf mold and swirling my soap, I realized that I had forgotten to stick blend to trace. 😅😱 instead of turning the whole loaf a solid gray, I decided to see if swirling at emulsion would be enough, wrapped it up, and placed it in a warm oven. It's grainy, soft, and damp, but I'll keep waiting to see what happens. It's currently drying in 1 lb blocks for a few more days. Pretty and smells nice, though
 
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Just made a tiny little batch of CP soap to use oil I decanted from a glass jar with pickled roasted red paprikas. The oil was infused with the red from the paprikas and had a lovely intense red colour which I thought would be a shame to discard. So I decided to use it for soap although it retained much of the smell of roasted paprikas and garlic. I decided to use two thirds of beef tallow and one third of infused oil, sugar and vinegar and no fragrance.
It was a pleasant surprise that the smell mostly vanished during saponification.
It is now sitting in my yoghurt maker for CPOPing. The colour still looks intense. I'm loking forward to see and smell and feel what will become of this experiment.

Paprika infused oil (IMG_7131.JPG)
 

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Almost got to the end of the weekend without making soap (shock, horror!) SO I whipped up a double batch and split it off into an Anjou Pear loaf mold and Snowdrop Blossoms cavity molds. Both look and smell great.
One thing I have noticed more recently as a long time (49 years) hayfever sufferer is that the floral fragrances really get to me now. Particularly orange blossom, neroli, and other 'sweet' florals. Sneezing for hours and hours! Maybe that's why I don't make too many of them? I must say I love orange blossom though.
 
This was a couple days ago, but I made my second hot process soap in two weeks. Third life time total. It went really great. I stopped stick blending at a light trace, 'cause I'm not one to follow the rules (I kept seeing to get to medium trace). It cooked really well, no volcano, and plenty of water left so no sticking. But never seemed to get out of applesauce phase- unless it went all the way to vaseline? Still learning about hot process. Oh and I used a frangrace, which I never do! I've been doing unscented, uncolored soaps until I feel I have mastered the basics. That was fun.
 

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