A Day at the Beach (or how I take my soap on a field trip)

It's officially summer! Fortunately it doesn't get too hot here, but even more fortunate is that I've been in the office by myself so even if I am a little sweaty after my walks at lunch, there's no one there to smell me. :D

Last week, a dear friend came for a visit and gave me a present, a very a propos for this time of year: sand dollar mould! I know Cee made some sand dollar soaps a while back (I wasn't copying, honest!) and I hope mine turned out half as nice as hers.

I used some left over light blue clear soap with glitter for the star, and for the rest of it, I used a white based soap and put in a bit of brown to colour it lightly. For the scent, I had been making some soap with litsea EO and so rather than washing out the bowl I'd been using, I just melted the white base in the same bowl and added some Energy FO as well. I think it smells divine!

As always, I took photos of the finished soap in the photo box, but for a change of pace, and because I am close enough right now to the beach, I thought it'd be a nice change of pace to do some outdoor shots.

Hope you're enjoying your summer!

Peaceful, Easy Feeling

No soap this week. I think I've hit my inspiration wall and I've been busy with other things. So, for a change of scenery (literally) here's some pictures of where I can walk to during lunch time at my current work assignment.

While it's not white sandy beaches, it is still a beach but not the populated part either.

Hope you have a great week and if you can find the soap inspiration fairy, can you tell her to stop by my place? Please and thank you.

Out of my comfort zone

This will make Teresa laugh as she knows I normally cringe at many colour combinations. I had more soaps to re-use and wasn't sure what to do with them. I think Roxana was the one who first got me looking at colour palettes, so I went on-line for inspiration. I tried one at first that looked really nice on the website, but when I put it altogether, it looked like I was playing find the piece of parchment in the Sahara. Not quite the contrast i wanted.

Then one morning on the news, the anchorwoman was wearing a 3 coloured top and a skirt in yet a different shade. I personally would never have thought of the colour combination on my own (hence why I'm not in fashion or mixing paint colours) but it really was quite pretty. I decided to try and put that into my soap.

I started with this Victorian teardrop from Brambleberry, scented it with Peach Ginger from WSP

then I put in a base colour which was supposed to be orange (as per the outfit) but turned out a bit more brown. Which is okay too since brown is a neutral and goes with pretty much everything (if you believe Stacy and Clinton). I forgot to scent the base, so after I poured it into the oval moulds, I quickly put a few drops of Baby Rose in and swirled it up before the soap could set.

The final result? Feminine, but not over done. 

Do you have a go to colour scheme you like to use? What do you use for inspiration? Have a great week!

Summer Inspiration (or how I need to recycle)

I have a lot of soap that I need to re-make into something else. For some reason the soaps I've been making haven't turned out the way it should (the images on the water soluble paper have been going all fuzzy on the edges, but that's another post for another day) and so I cut them up and re-use what I can but that still leaves a fair bit of soap that can't just be re-melted and made into the original soaps. So I had a fair sized bowl of leftovers. What to do with them?

I went on Pinterest and Soap Queen and About.com looking for inspiration. I don't know if I am copying one particular soaper or if it was just a mish mash, combined with the nice weather we're having, but I decided to make Neopolitan soap. (Actually, now I think about it, I'm going to blame it on Cee who always seems to have food related soaps. ;)  )

Made this whole loaf first

And used the leftovers to make individual bars.

The pink section was already scented with champagne and if I hadn't flaked, I would've added some strawberry FO to it, but next time. I did remember to add vanilla to the white portion (even remembered the vanilla stabilizer!) and then chocolate frosting to the top layer. I don't know if you can see it, but the chocolate is actually two different colours. That's because as usual when I'm just playing, I don't really measure (I know, bad me) so I didn't measure how much brown colouring to add. Oops. I know, I'll distract people with a sprinkling of coffee grounds on top, that way they'll never notice the mistakes I made. :P

Taking the picture from its best side.

I think 3 of these would make a nice little gift.

Are you still making summer soaps or are your soapy thoughts well into spring? Have a great week.

My prize

Remember back when Gordana had her giveaway and I won? Guess what arrived in the mail the other day?

To back up a bit, of course Canada Post delivers it on the one half day I'm not there (their timing is always impeccable), so I had a tag hanging on our front door saying I had a letter to pick up from the post office. Being the pessimist that I am, I'm wondering did I do something wrong? Am I being sued for something I don't even know about? Obviously I'm not being sent a letter about some illegitimate child that's supposed to be mine, so it made me wonder what it was.

I was thrilled (and a little relieved) when the guy at the post office hands over a package with a Serbian stamp on it. Whee!! Happy dance!

I knew what I was getting from Gordana's post, but to see it in person was even more amazing!

I love the packaging too!

I'm showing the back side because it is beautiful.

Thank you so much Gordana, for the lovely detox soap and solid body balm. I'm torn between using it and giving in to my hoarding personality and just displaying it because it looks so fantastic.