You Can't Get Wine from a Cow

I have some great ideas for soaps, or at least I think so. But when I try and get the idea from my brain into an actual soap, it's like someone wanting to paint a replica of the Mona Lisa and ending up with a stick figure.

I found a cute mould at the thrift store while shopping with my sister (I think I mentioned that before, but I'm old and forgetful, so you'll have to bear with me) which I keep wanting to use as a wine bottle. My idea this time was to make champagne complete with bubbles and of course use the champagne FO. Oh such a great idea in my mind, the circles would be 3-D, they'd be floating in the background of the bottle like it'd been just popped. Cue to reality.

The "bubbles"were made using an ice cube mould and turned out bigger than I was hoping. No matter, they can still be bubbly. The bottle however, still looks like a freakin' milk bottle. I even added glittery mica to evoke a festive scene, but even glitter couldn't save this soap.

But it smells darn good!

So from now on, I think this mould will be saved for making soaps with goat's milk and maybe I'll learn to make some bath cookies to go with it.

On the bright side, a dear friend gave me three new moulds for my birthday, so I'll have some hopefully wonderful new soaps to show in the coming weeks.

Do you ever have ideas that just never turn out the way you think?

A Little Late

My idea was to make bath fizzies in the shape of bottles, you know, for wedding favours. Well as always I'm behind when it comes to things, but I decided to make them anyway. I scented it with Champagne FO from Brambleberry and thought since it's champagne, I'm not going to colour them. Maybe I should've coloured them green like a champagne bottle, or pink for that champagne-y colour. That can be next time.

Doesn't look like much here, but in a coloured cellophane bag, it might look kinda nice.

Of course the recipe makes a ton and a half of bath fizzies, so the next one made is for, ta da, Hallowe'en! Or for the start of The Walking Dead series, I don't know.

And sticking to the fall theme, the last fizzies for today is 

Happy first day of fall everyone!

One Step Closer to Fall

I'd love to tell you that I did this on purpose, that the cool mornings and earlier sunsets had me thinking about fall and what's great about it. Truth is, I was looking for something completely unrelated and found a bag of apple tea that we'd bought in Istanbul quite a few years ago. Still smells kinda nice, but there's not that nice apple-y flavour to it. I've heard of people using tea in soaps, so I thought I'd give it a try. (By the way, settle in, you're going to hear all the gory details).

Oh I had such great visions of how this soap was going to look like; a clear layer studded with apple tea nestled in among two white layers so you could see the tea. I'd do up a nice fluffy top and sprinkle more tea bits to contrast against the whiteness and provide more exfoliating. I'd scent it with strawberry FO because strawberries and apples are a lovely blend. Who was I kidding? I've been spending way too much time on Facebook obviously staring at Maria Angeles Galan Thayer's page and thinking I could channel her.

I was trying to figure out how to make apples, and decided I'd use the heart moulds and put little leaves on top to make it look like apples. All it does it look like strawberries without seeds. The leaves themselves were enough to make me pull my hair out.

Next problem, the bits of apple tea were supposed to float in the clear layer, not colour it a dark brown. The only thing that worked in my favour was remembering what others had said about pouring subsequent layers much later - rough up the dried layer with a fork and spray liberally with rubbing alcohol. So at least my layers stayed together.

Making a fluffy top has never been my forte, and it wasn't until I tried putting in the first couple of embeds that I realized the soap was a little hard to push them in. I ended up losing one or both leaves off each "apple". I had to use a spoon to make an indentation into the soap to get the embeds in.

This soap was supposed to be called "Apple Crisp" or "Autumn Clean" or something like that, but I'm thinking of changing that to "How to Start Drinking if You Aren't Already." Truth in advertising after all.

In the loaf mould. Looks like synchronized swimmers getting ready to dive.

See how some have leaves and some don't? And they're kinda angled. Hmm, maybe they've been dipping into the schnapps.

Cut products, one with leaves, one without.

The end result? Looks like white cake with a chocolate layer (mmmm, chocolate), which would be great if that was the goal I was going for.

Hope you all have a lovely week ahead and enjoy the final days of summer. I know I will.

Slow Transition

It's getting cooler in the mornings now, the sun isn't up as early, so I'm having a harder time getting up in the mornings. That said, the days are still nice and sunny, so I'm still able to wear shorts to work. What does that have to do with the soap I've made for this week? Absolutely nothing, but you know me, I tend to ramble.

I'm calling this one Fall on the Beach. Once again, I had a brain fart while making this and in my infinite wisdom, used the low sweat MP for the clear layer. This of course, made for a more cloudy appearance than I had originally wanted, but it does make for a more fall like appearance. Scented with Morning Rain FO.

I figure lots of starfish lose a limb, why not this one.

But you can see from the profile that I did have good intentions to make a sand and sky line.

As an added bonus, here's one I was going to call Rocky Road Bar. I think I should've cut the embeds up smaller, or put it into a bigger soap because right now, it looks more like the Horta.

Have a great week!

I'm Dreaming of a

Getaway to some tropical island.

While my sister was visiting, we hit the thrift stores as we always do. I managed to find two bags with 3 moulds each for $2.99. Score! This flower is one of the moulds in there, and I put it on a mini muffin silicone mould I had bought for half price. Don't you love a good deal?

I was going to do a swirl effect with the flower, but it didn't work out the way I planned so I went with it and poured a soft pink on the bottom and then topped the rest of the mould with the remaining oatmeal infused white base.

Hindsight being 20/20, I should've scented this one with something flowery. Well there's always next time right? Maybe something jasmine-y or the white ginger and amber cybilla FO, what do you think?

Maybe I can run fishing wire through about 6 of these and make a soap lei.