Patchouli Orange Vanilla Handmade Soap

Today I made one of my favorite scents, Patchouli Orange Vanilla! If you have not tried this combo, you MUST! I swear, it is addicting!

I used beer for some of the liquid.

 For part of the soap I used organic cocoa powder for color and ground vanilla beans for exfoliation. The soap itself will not be too dark, so the cocoa powder will provide some contrast.

 I used dark Patchouli for the blend, which darkens to soap a little.

I bought some mixing bowls at the dollar store a few weeks ago. They really come in handy, although they don't handle too much weight. I like to use them to whip body butters, or for mixing scent into liquid soap. Just be sure not to fill them to the top with heavy liquids!

I added Bentonite clay to the entire batch. That is what the dark spots are....the clay sinks down to the bottom of the pot. I stick blend the oils and clay together before adding in the lye/beer mixture.

 I sprinkled ground vanilla beans on the top for contrast. In the above picture you can see the vanilla soap swirled with the patchouli/orange soap.

The little mold is for my soap nuggets. They are perfect for sample soaps and weigh approx 1.3 ounces each. I sell sets of sample soaps in my Etsy shop.


Stay tuned for the cut soap pictures!