10th ave. soapworks

Well, there are the obvious reasons, of course. It's fun! Taking a combination of oils and mixing them with an eat-away-your-skin product called lye and some liquid and watching it turn into beautiful soap is an almost magical process. And, I no longer have to buy mass-produced bars of detergent that dry my skin. And then there's the creative aspect. There are thousands of scents and color combinations, not to mention techniques like swirls, layers, embeds, and all the other ways to make the next Soap Masterpiece. All these are reasons I make soap. But I've come to realize that it is just one example of a larger reason, the drive to "create" things myself. I've always had a curiosity to know how things were originally made and like trying to make them myself. Technology aside, most of the things we use every day haven't always come from a factory. Furniture, clothing, games--these all were once made by hand from start to finish. Take food, for example, lik...

I just thought I'd show off the wooden mold my mister built for me last weekend. It's my first wooden log mold (with a few more promised!) Up until now I've been using cardboard boxes of the right shape. I'm not complaining, since they have worked well--they're cheap (free!) and sturdy. I have made hundreds of bars with my current "set" but they are beginning to bow and look their age. I was so excited when he gave it to me that I dropped everything to make a batch. He was interested in seeing how it worked out for me, too. It was a complete success. It's the perfect size for a 1 oz. sampler of fragrance oil and so easy to line! I love it!! I decided to make a goat milk soap, scented with Sweetgrass. It smells like the country in the spring to me, sans the manure-y overtones, of course! This is the first of four batches I made this week, with another one planned for today. Happiness is a new mold!

I made my first batch of soap of 2011 last week, over a month since my last batch. December was such a busy month for me that I didn't have a chance to miss making soap. Over my "break," I made some changes to my soap room--moving things out that I rarely use, rearranging supplies and storage areas to be more efficient, preparing a new cabinet to store my curing soap, and so on. But it's good to get back into my soaping routine. And since it's been a long long time since I shared any pictures, I thought I'd show you a few recent batches....   Scented with Lovespell, a dupe of Victoria's Secret. I've had a sample bottle of the fragrance oil for a long time and thought I'd finally give it a try. I love it! It was my first attempt at adding the black soap curls. I like the idea, but it needs tweaking.   Rain, a clean (soapy?) kind of scent. I'm trying out some new formulas, increasing the olive oil. I'm beginning to favor high OO soaps...