Rebatching

Just thought I'd share a picture of my first successful rebatch. In the past I had an awful time rebatching, I added too much water. This time I wasn't so trigger happy with the water and I'm actually quite pleased with how this came out. I really like that some chunks of soap stayed white and the texture is very smooth inside. It's scented with a fragrance oil I was really excited about but it accelerated really quickly and I was so sad I decided to save it because it smells sooo good :D It's description on Gracefruit: "...top notes of black orchid and cinnamon, a heart of Mysore sandalwood and clove on a base of amber, Tahitian vanilla, and Egyptian musk." It's kind of luxurious and feminine, I love it.

This is what it looked like halfway through the rebatch, I think it probably was a little too dry on hindsight but it turned out good so no matter :D Looks like mashed potatoes hehe.

Honey for my Honey

Yesterday was a very busy day for me, five batches of soap! This batch is a special batch though :D My boyfriend requested spa bars, I made them for him before and now it's the only soap he'll use for his face ^_^ I used a honey scent for these, it's a very creamy, comforting fragrance. The salt I use for my spa bars is a marine salt from Israel, it's naturally evaporated by the sun and then washed in purified salt water. This recipe is a little different to my previous bars; these are made with a much higher superfat and less salt, to make them kinder on his skin and a little more bubbly. I wonder if he'll like these ones better?

Busy Bee!

Again I have been uber busy but I finally found time to write a little something here. I mainly wanted to post some pretty pictures but wanted to let people know about me selling my soaps. First off I do intend to sell...eventually. I don't want to sell anything that isn't absolutely fabulous ^_^ Because I do intend to sell in the future I've already begun to put in place the foundations I'm going to need when the time is right, all the paper stuff really. I was very excited yesterday when the letter box clacked with my certificate of incorporation dropping in (halfway through lotion making). Araseth's Apothecary is an incorporated company and ready to trade from now on, yay :D I still have tons to do, insurance, forms, safety assessments. But most of the paperwork can be done while I'm perfecting my products. Will save me a lot of time in the future. So I won't be trading until soonest next year. For now this blog is just about my learning experience and having fun :D

Onto the pictures ^_^ Yesterday I was busying myself with the Honeysuckle lotion and some Lavender massage bars. I am very pleased with them, scent, colour, texture and I've been levelling up my piping skills hehe.



You'll probably be seeing me soon, I'll be soaping Monday as soon as my new fragrances arrive :D

Queen of Hearts Massage Bars

My new molds arrived today and so I just had to try my new massage bar recipe. Here they are my queen of hearts massage bars, named so because of the red and gold, the colours seem royal hehe. I am one of those people that love love love glitter ^_^I think glitter's a bit like marmite; you either love it or hate it. I'm not so pleased with the fragrance though, again I tried to blend my own but this time I don't like it. That's ok though this was more of a test batch. Tonight I'll be ordering some new fragrances and I'll keep my cheeky hands from trying to blend them :D Adding the shea butter really made a difference, they melt a lot faster and feel less like a lotion bar and more 'massagey'. I think I'll be playing with the oils part of the recipe next. By the way these are vegan, like all the products I make. They are made with almond wax, not beeswax. Almond wax is great for your nails, an awesome two way treat; your loved one gets a massage and you get a treat for your kind hands ^_^

Success ^_^

Yay I managed to control the alien bath melts hehe. Still could be a little tamer, will be trying again tomorrow. This time I used my thermometer I have been using for lotion to check the temperature I mixed at. It was 40°C when I added the dry ingredients, that's the minimum my thermometer can measure. Tomorrow I'll try a little lower. These ones were also put into the freezer quickly, so it really is down to the temperature for these. Really happy with them ^_^ I'll be making some honeysuckle scented lotion soon so I might be posting about that. I'll also be ordering some new fragrances for soaping on Friday, getting soaping withdrawal hehe :D So not so many bath melt posts and some more soaping posts coming up. I have a nice idea of pear scented soap floating in my head ^_^

Bath Melt Fail

I have been so busy today with housework and completing my batch notes so this post is really late (3 am~). Quite tired but really wanted to post about my bath and body ventures ^_^

So...my bath melts turned out kind of...alien :( I'm thinking that I added the dry ingredients whilst the cocoa butter was too hot. They started separating and expanding in the molds. Now a lot of the butter has oozed out and set on the top. Not pretty. I'll try again with a cooler temperature, see if that helps. Maybe a whisk would help too. The problem with taking the temperature lower is that I don't think I can get them as smooth. I got some amazing bath melts as a gift for Christmas last year. They looked so smooth and symmetrical. I really want to get the same look for mine. I'm still going to put one of them in the bath tomorrow, to test the ingredient percentages as the only problem I see so far is aesthetic.

All was not lost though this evening as I tried to cheer myself up with my first ever batch of massage bars. I also blended my own fragrance oil for them with some of the oils I have left from soaping and I'm pretty pleased with the scent, I think I'll call it Lily Fae. I just tried one of the bars on my hands and I decided I would like to make them melt a little sooner on skin contact. So I'm thinking adding some shea butter to start with and maybe increasing my soft oil percentage a little bit. The only butter I used for this batch was cocoa so I can see what butters and oils I like best.

So all in all not a bad day and lots of ideas ready for tomorrow. Oh and being so pleased with the massage bars I've ordered some new molds especially for them hehe. Some very cute hearts and flowers. While I was at it I ordered a new 1lb~ mold for my test soap batches yay excited! :D

Lather Testing!

So I said I'd try to show the lather from my new recipe and here it is. I'm really happy with my bubbles and lather so far. My mum (the awesome camerawoman :D) said she really likes it too. But we're both a bit worried that it feels just a little bit drying. I think it might be because it was only cut yesterday (impatient hehe) and that it will be better when it has finished curing. If it still feels as drying after the cure I'll be tweaking my recipe again. Would love to know what you think about the lather though, enough bubbles? I haven't tried adding sugar yet but I might consider it. I'll be back posting tonight or tomorrow with my new bath melt recipe, running out of melts to give away ^_^