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.