My First Try At Charcoal Soap!

I tried my hand at making charcoal soap a few days ago. I was planning a solid black soap, but I'm pleased with the swirls that were made! This soap is made using the cold process method.

Chocolate and Peppermint Cut and Sliced!

They smell just like a Peppermint Patty! Rich, smooth, decadent!

Peppermint Chocolate Cold Process Soap Steps!

There are lots of steps I take before I get to this first picture, but they involve measuring, measuring, measuring...oh...and wearing lots of safety gear (which I still have on).
In this first picture, I have just added the Lye/Water mixture to the Oils.

In about 10 seconds, this is what it looks like!

Here I have divided the soaps. I want to swirl and I need two different colors. I am adding chocolate to this pot.


Here they are all colored and ready to go!

After they have traced and are ready, I pour one color into the other!
Here it is in the mold. As you can see, I'm pretty messy! LOL!
Cut pictures tomorrow!

Can You Believe This Bloom!

Can you believe how big this bloom is? It's a cutting from my Endless Summer Hydrangea. I planted this bush last Spring, but it didn't bloom because of the late frost we had. I was just happy the plant survived! The bush is FULL of blooms and Endless Summer blooms all Summer!Here are the pictures I took for my Etsy shop. It's Fresh Linen.

Flowers and Soap in St. Louis!

I love taking pictures of my flowers and my soap....so why not take them together?
The flower above is an Endless Summer Hydrangea. This is its first bloom! They were planted last Spring, and about 2 weeks later we had a killer frost which severely damaged the plant and because of this, didn't produce any blooms.
Hmmmm...I wonder what soap I can use with these flowers?
Oh, the soap is called Tangerine Twist and it's handmade using the Cold Process method!

Why I Shouldn't Involve My Husband

My DH's eyes glaze over whenever I try to talk to him about "soap". He just doesn't get it!
I made a loaf of Pumpkin Spice soap yesterday and wanted to show him the process. All my oils were ready to go, and the lye/water were set. I asked if he wanted to watch me "make soap" and although the baseball game was on, he said yes (after I promised that it would take less than 5 min).
I mixed everything together and was ready to color the soap. I wanted to make an orange soap with a black swirl. I forgot to take some of the soap out (to add the black to) and added the orange to the entire pot! Oh well...I decided to go ahead and add the black anyway and instead of black, I got gray. I don't think it looks too bad, but next time, DH can sit and watch the game and I'll concentrate on my soap!
Here it is right after I poured.