* Part 3 of Three New Soaps * Naturally Color Cold Process Soap *

This is an oldie but one I really love.  MyCherriCola has combined natural colourants to create a truly exquisite looking bar of soap which goes to show that gorgeous creations can be achieved using what nature provides us.  The cranberry seeds add that 'wow' factor.

If you are interested in using natural colourants in your soap creations then check out MyCherriCola's other YouTube videos.  They have definitely inspired me to start experimenting after I get back from holidays.



https://youtu.be/pSa_-1oIqUY

Creative Marketing or Downright Deceit?

I might be old fashioned or incredibly naive but surely soap produced using a manufacturing production line should not be marketed as 'hand made'.  Yet like so often a colleague of mine came back from a market with a bundle of hand made soaps feeling very pleased that he was able to find the hand made soap he gets from the other side of the city for sale in the local market. Great I thought I love to see other handmade soap as I eagerly looked into his bag.  Then I stopped.  In the bag was soap (I'll put my hand up to say I've used them, in fact they are lovely on the skin) produced on a very large scale.  This made me angry.  I was duped previously by claims by a different market seller that the same soap was hand made on a 'local' farm.  I was annoyed that someone who at best was ignorant and at worst deliberately misled my colleague.  He honestly thought the soap had been made by an individual person.

Now I'm curious to know what other people feel about misleading the public by labeling mass produced products as handmade?  Click on my survey to let me know.

INNER EARTH SOAPS: Winter Soap Bundle - Now Available Online

INNER EARTH SOAPS: Winter Soap Bundle - Now Available Online: Our winter soap bundle is now available! Find it on our website here .

Click the link above to go to Inner Earth Soaps: Winter Soap Bundles

These soaps look absolutely amazing with their gentle swirls.  The colours complement each other beautifully.



A soap maker after my own heart, Inner Earth Soaps create their soaps using the traditional cold pressed methods allowing their soaps to cure for at least 4-6 weeks.  This 'curing' time allows for a milder bar of soap.

Aroma Shower Fizzies Out Of Control

My oh my, I recently made some shower fizzies for some friends using essential oils.  What I hadn't taken  into account was the change in the weather. With the rain and added moisture in the air, try as I might I couldn't get the fizzies to dry out.  I read several articles that you can dry out bath fizzies in the oven with the temperature set at 170 degrees.  Great, temperature set at 170 degrees fizzies in the oven, the end result was .......

They should have been the same size as the soap

Oh heck,  the articles I read were in degrees Fahrenheit instead of Celsius.   Two minutes in the oven resulted in puffed up fizzies the size of scones.  The reason?  The moisture and bicarb/citric acid mixture was activated with the heat from the oven.  Although unsightly,  they still work a treat and my kitchen smelt so lovely.

A few attempts later and a cooler oven resulted in some  fizzies fit enough to give to my mates.  I made three different blends which I adapted from the recipe kindly provided on Soapqueen's blog.

1. Energising - maychang & sweet orange essential oils

2. Soothing - lavender & ylang ylang essential oils

3. Clear the air -  peppermint, tea tree & eucalyptus essential oils

Packaged ready for my friends 

I love how you throw the fizzie down on the floor of the shower and let the essential oils waft up.  It is truly a spa like experience.

Honey & Oatmeal Soap, Yumm

I've just finished wrapping my natural honey & oatmeal palm oil free soaps ready to take with me to show my girlfriends next week when I catch up with them.  I hope they like the packaging.  I love this simple yet exquisitely moisturising soap made up of local Australian honey, oatmeal, saponified: olive oil; coconut oil; rice bran oil and cocoa butter.  It is not fragranced by any essential oils but I can definitely smell the cocoa butter and there is very light aroma of honey.  I first made a similar bar some 7/8 years ago for my husband to use with his dry skin.  I also suffer from dry skin patches and find this bar really moisturises  my skin.  Over the years I've tweaked and adapted the original recipe until I am happy with the one I have now.  Unlike many large companies that mass produce soap, I make my soap using the cold pressed method,  because of this, glycerin a natural by product of the saponification process is retained in my soaps and not removed to be used in other products.



This soap is good enough to eat so to be on the safe side I made sure I placed a label on the back clearly stating "Do not eat" :-)

Too Much Lye Is Never A Good Thing

It doesn't matter whether you are an experienced or newbie soap maker, what matters is how accurately you measure your ingredients particularly when making cold pressed soap.I realised after measuring some of my ingredients for my last batch of honey & oatmeal soap that my electronic scales were playing up.  I hoped for the best and chose to keep soaping.

Yuck, look at what my end result was.  Too much lye in the mixture resulted in something that was very brittle and unpleasant, definitely too harsh to use on the skin as it is.  My trusty old scales have now been sent to greener pastures and a shiny new set are waiting to be used.

Baby Shower Soaps All Wrapped & Ready To Go

Well the time has come to share pictures of the soaps and tea baths I made for my niece to give as thank you gifts for her baby shower..  I've been patient, truly I have and only snuck a peak at them once or twice while they were curing.  The cupcake soaps had a rattle stuck in the top and the bars of soaps were wrapped in 'nappies'.  All were made using vegetable oils, Essential Oils and natural colourants.