Yooooo--whoooooooo!

*waves* Well hey y'all!! Good gosh it's sure been a long time hasn't it? So much has happened and I don't even know where to begin. I had to take a slight break from making soap, not just because I was busy with schoolwork and my family, but my health put things behind too, and I was unable to open as planned. Thankfully I was able to get some things fixed (there are wonderful Doctors in Chapel Hill!), and here I am...feeling so much better than I was before! I sure have missed whipping up some soap! So now that I am doing better, I have been busy in the shop!! Without further adieu *giggles*, here's what I have been working on.

Soooo.....the other day I spent all day in the shop, and I went in with laid out plans only to decide to do something different. So I decided that I was going to break out some essential oils and herbs and see what happened!!

This is my Lavender Tea soap. Now if y'all will remember, I used to do the pictures of the complete process, but I didn't have my camera buddy out there, so it will be just the story and the finished product. Believe it or not I used purple in here but instead of using it where I was able to make the soap batter white, I used it in an attempt to make the uncolored batter a more purple color not realizing that the tea would turn a beige color. What I should have done was make the entire batter white, then used a purple color. Let's just chalk it up to me having "a moment", and remembering this lesson for next time. lol At any rate, it smells yummy with the Lavender Essential Oil that I used!!

Here is my Tea Tree with Aloe Shampoo bars. Goodness sakes I love this one! I have these little mini loaf molds that I thought would be just darling for this batch, and it did not disappoint! I love how the top textured, although on one of the loaves, the top was a little higher than the other. ;)

While I didn't like how the top textured (story coming in a moment), I do still think it came out beautiful. This one I am calling Teakberry! The fragrance is a yummy combination of bamboo, teakwood, tayberry, blackberry, mulberry, cloud berries, peaches, red clover and sweetgrass. It is berrylicious!! Now, when I got this fragrance I noticed that some folks had mentioned that it accelerated their soap just a little bit, but I figured if I soaped at lower temperatures that I would be fine. Boy was I wrong!! lol Now I managed to get the batter colored but only just. But by the time I got to the top of the loaf, I realized that the middle was higher than the rest of the loaf. So my husband, bless his heart, tried to be helpful and smooshed down the top of what I had textured to get it even. Yes...I said smooshed. Now mind you, he didn't mean to mess up the top, and I fixed it as best as I could. Unfortunately I couldn't do a whole lot with texturing the top after that since it had accelerated due to the fragrance. So I decided to use my crinkle cutter and wallah! I sure do love how the colors came out and land sakes it smells so yummy! If everyone loves this fragrance I will do it a bit differently next time.

Ok folks, there's the big update! I am trying a couple of new things out in the shop, but now I have to run and get my homework finished. I sure hope everyone is having a good summer break, and please check back in soon for another one of my adventures!
Suds & Bubbles,
Soapy