Happy accident

As you know, I'm trying to use up leftover bits and bobs of soap. I thought I had cleaned up my work space, but what I had done was tossed my cutting board of all the leftover shaved bits of soap on top of a cabinet. The joys of being old and forgetful. :P Since these bits weren't going to clean themselves up, I had to do something with them.

In the meanwhile, a friend had asked for some more soap, so I made him his 3 bars of soap, but had some leftover. It smells so good, scented with Litsea EO, I didn't want to just use it on anything. I thought I could pour one more small bar of soap, but there was only enough to cover just about half of the mould. Then I spied the scraps and threw them on top of the poured soap. Layering, it's something I need to practice anyway. I covered the scraps with clear and then took even more leftover soap, coloured it with some leftover bubblegum pink colouring and tossed it all on top.

I'm wanting to call it Anatomy Lesson because it kind of looks like guts and whatnot and the pink is almost flesh coloured, but that's probably not a good selling point is it? 

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!

I don't pretend to be Martha

But when I do, I try her easier recipes.

I don't know how I happened upon this recipe, but of course all things Martha Stewart look so gorgeous and so easy, so I thought, I can do this.

I had some orange zest in the fridge which I was going to use in either biscotti or soap. Seeing how I didn't have enough eggs for biscotti, it went in the soap instead.

I decided to add some dried lavender into the mix as well for some colour contrast and a nice smell. Plus, I'm not much for using it in cooking, so what better place for it to end up than in some soap.

The first of the two soaps I poured ended up with way more of the orange and lavender on the bottom of the soap.

I'll know next time to spoon the soap into the mold so that it gets more evenly distributed. However, this meant the second pour came out much better.

 I used Litsea EO, which is a citrusy scent, to complement the lavender. All in all, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

What's your favourite natural ingredient to use in embedding?