even more soap pictures

here is the omh soap all cut into bars:


it smells delicious, i told you the cat pee smell would go away. it's sweet and homey and heavenly. this was an overlarge batch (3 full lb. of oils) compared to what i usually make (2 lb. 8 oz.) which is why the bars are extra fat.

this is a lavender buttermilk castile soap i made last week. i love swirling color into soap. imho it is so much prettier and more interesting than just a plain solid color. here it is in the mold:


and cut into bars:


i guess i'm not great at swirling, because the swirl did not go all the way through to the backside. castile soap is simply olive oil soap. traditionally it is made with 100% olive oil, but that also makes a relatively soft soap without a very good lather. this is because olive oil is largely composed of oleic acid which is very moisturizing but doesn't contribute hardness or lather to the bar. lauric, myristic, palmitic, and stearic acid do contribute hardness and fluffy lather so often soapers will add some coconut oil (up to 25%) to their castile bars to make a nicer bar. i'm a bit of a purist on this issue so i prefer not to though i did add in a little stearic acid to make the bars a little harder. literally a little - the stearic is only 2% of the oils. stearic is a fatty acid, not the kind of acid that burns your skin.

this one, i have no idea what to call it. the scent is bramble berry's cedar & saffron fo, a warm, slightly spicy, woodsy, somewhat masculine fragrance. i stirred in almond meal to make it scrubby (i love a scrubby soap) and did those swirls. swirling is pretty easy, i'll discuss in another post. in the mold:


and cut into bars:


i don't know why it looks a bit "bubbly" on top. maybe because i poured at such a thin trace. the beveling is a bit wonky because i was so insanely impatient and turned it out after only 24 hours in the mold and it was quite soft. i love love LOVE the way the swirl came out and it smells amazing. this could be my new favorite scent. name suggestions, please?

this sunshine soap is one of my favorites. the scent is bramble berry's energy fo and is to die for, and the yellow "rays" are calendula petals. i love calendula because it is so pretty in soap and really holds up. lots of botanicals don't; lavender buds look like dead bugs in soap. in the mold:


and cut into bars:


this is also a favorite of my sister's so i have a feeling it will not last long. i usually hold back a couple bars for myself anyways!

by the way, if you bevel the edges of your soap with a potato peeler, like i do? don't throw away those little curlies! i bevel into a generously-sized tupperware and save the curlies until i have a good amount of them and then make confetti soap. confetti soap is just a basic plain white (or lightly colored, if you have a lot of white shavings) soap, lightly scented if you like, with curlies and shavings stirred into it at trace. it's a great way to keep all those leftovers from going to waste and pretty to boot.

speaking of keeping things from going to waste, if your soap batch doesn't turn out, it can almost always be saved. see here or here or any of the sites i mentioned for troubleshooting help before you give up and throw it out.

if you're interested, you can purchase any of the soaps i've made. Lord knows we don't need this much soap at my house, but i'm somewhat obsessed in case you haven't noticed. send me an email to estensler (at) comcast (dot) net and we can discuss.