Monday, December 08, 2008

Bulle envole-toi! (or Bubbles Bubbles Everywhere!)

Bubble Bubble to wash your body, and face, and hands, and feet, and behind your ears! I love bubbles and I'm on the soap bandwagon! A friend, Tania B, tried to get me interested in soapmaking a couple of years ago, and I was interested, but the thought of lye scared me to death, and I just didn't have much time, but I did manage to rebatch some soap (thanks to Tania), and made these items for Krafty Lady with my soap, I also made a recipe with soap flakes (the white ones)... and made some shaving soap for DH...



Recently my friend Ann G told me that she was going to make some Melt and Pour projects, and other things, and I thought, heck, that sounds like fun, and got some MP stuff...

Well, you can see the results on my Krafty Lady DT page for "Miscellaneous Items", or on my Flickr.


Here's one of my Krafty Lady soaps, to give you an idea: And here is my Tiramisu (Olive) soap. I call it so as I find it sort of smells like that!

BUT, that's not all, I've also started making Cold Process soap, that's when you do it the "old fashioned" way, but I'm not using any animal fats (though if I lived on a farm it might be different, I'm not at that point yet in my soap experience)...
My first one was a very simple supermarket recipe from Lisa's site, I think this will yield a soft-ish soap, which will lather beautifully:

Then I had to try Tania's Salt Bars these are quite hard, and apparently yield a soap that's gentle enough to use on the face. When I first heard "salt bar" I thought "heel exfoliation" or something of the type, but apparently not. These will also be cured in 4 weeks, but are apparently much better a couple months later.

Now that went pretty well, though I won't know how well until at least 4 weeks from now, because soap has to do it's thing until you can use it... that is turn fats and caustic soda into soap... 4 weeks... it's a long wait!!

But then, like any soaper will tell you, you're looking for the NEXT recipe, well, for me, it had to be this one, Turkish Mocha from AussieSoapSupplies with a bit of added chocolateness. It is curing at the moment and smells just wonderful!!! Below you can see a few slices and the chocolate on top (and there's some cocoa in the soap too, and some ground coffee for a gentle exfoliation -- and as the AussieSoapSupplies site mentions, coffee in soap is great to remove smells, like onion or garlic, from hands.




and a single slice: Yum, it's really tempting, like a rich fudge!!


I'm currently planning my next recipe... it's hard work! LOL! What's hard is trying to find WHICH one to make....

Julie VO also makes soap (she's also one of the temptresses of my new found passion).

oh, I've also made a calming stick for a friend who loves Lavender, a headache stick for myself, some lip balm, and a new shaving soap for hubby!!

Hope you enjoyed your trip here today!

Oh Heck, I'm going to do a giveaway... why not, seems to be the thing to do these days, only problem is you'll have to wait a month to get your prize, but on the UP side, this will give more people time to enter, and me time to get organised. This is open to any country where I can send soap! :) I'm going to give away a 100 gram (that's roughly 3 1/4 oz) Turkish Mocha Soap Bar... To be fair I will find a fair way of deciding the winner... It's either going to be a Random Generated number picker that's online, or I'm going to put all the names in a hat and get a third party to pick one, blindfolded, with their left hand, or maybe their right, haven't decided yet :) If you really hate coffee (some people do, believe it or not) we can negotiate a different bar. I also reserve the right to change my mind on which soap I find (but I'll let you know before I mail it, in case this mocha bar goes all wrong in the next 4 weeks!) - Cool, my first giveaway! :) I'll draw the winner in the first week of January. Ciao!

this giveaway is closed - winner announced 30 January 2009

16 comments:

Natalie B said...

yum yum pick me :-) and i'm also the first to comment... does that count?

Anonymous said...

That was so interesting. I have always wondered about soap making and didn't realise you have to cure it for 4 weeks. I thought it just set and that was that! Ok, I'm in!

Heather T. said...

Will it transport me magically to a different universe? I need one of those right about now... =) So nice to read your posting voice again!

Chris said...

Mmmm, they look almost edible.
Lovely work!
-Chris

Anonymous said...

I love handmade soap-please enter me!

Elaine R
emrosser@shaw.ca

Myléne Hillam said...

Love all this frothy talk of your soapy adventures. Gawd, they look good enough to eat and I can just about smell them from here!
It all sounds like you're having too much fun.... count me in too!
Myléne
P.S. It's great to see you back and creating again :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'd like to try out your fun soap. Lush is one of my fav stores ;) I hate the taste of coffee but love the smell! Are you going to sell all this fun soap?

Dawnie said...

well now lookie at all the yummie treats. nothing like a beautiful hand made soap miss France.
Love the Krafty Lady Soap. Very swish !
Coffee makes me feel ill (yep Im one of those!) but master Thomas would take it offshore to pamper himself. He does love a good bar of soap.
It all looks so good !

kelsey said...

Wow France! These look absolutely edible....and yep, I'm a coffee lover!!! Just what I need, to be squeaky clean on the outside so it'll match my pure insides!!! Stop laughing! {grin}

Kylie Mell said...

Ohhh, they look sooo yummy! Makes me want to have a go too. Especially the one that gets rid of the onion smell on your hands. Definitely want to be in the running for the mocha soap. Your house must smell great!
Ky

Julie H said...

Ooooh I can almost smell those! Count me in! Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Soap making is SO MUCH fun France, I use a slow cooker to do mine in.
Enjoy it!!

Sulea said...

Wow they look good enough to eat! Delicious!!! Please count me in!!!

NessH said...

Hi France
wow..I can almost smell the soaps from here...just kidding..but if I won I bet I could..haha.thanks for sharing..where do u find the time...

Ev said...

Oh Yummy, can't think of anything nicer than coffee soap. I would love to be in this draw please France.

Gail Kirby said...

Hi France!
I'd love one too (and maybe I'll give half of it to Chris McL *g*). I would love to have a go at soap making, yeah, like I need a new hobby lol! Candles are another attraction...

Gail