Previously:
Soapmaking Photo Walkthrough, Part One: The Setup
Soapmaking Photo Walkthrough, Part Two: The Making
~~~
So here we are the next day, folks, just itching to get the soaps out of their moulds. Enjoy them with me!
Here are the lavender & lemongrass soaps – check out all that lovely texture. A few bars came out a little soft around the edges. I think it would have been easier to unmould them if I’d left them two days. No matter: more soap for the home slushpile!
Here are the neroli (orange blossom) swirlies. The delicate colours turned out exactly as I wanted them to in this batch. I’m squeeing a little at this point!
A closeup.
Here’s my little test batch of the Fresh Snow fragrance oil. These will be little hand soap size bars, almost cubic.
A slab of Vanilla Oak, turned out of the silicone log moulds. I do love working with silicone, it’s so easy. None of the wrestling matches or worries abotu cracking that I sometimes have with the other moulds.
And cut. I just use a regular carving knife, dedicated for soap only. Some people use special soap cutters, but I mostly use divider moulds rather than log moulds, so I’ve never bothered.
Closeup of that titanium dioxide swirl. You can see the Vanilla Oak fragrance oil starting to discolour the soap to brown in the base soap.
Little individual soaps, sandalwood-mandarin-black pepper, and unfragranced. I put these in the freezer for half an hour before unmoulding; that way, they pop out easier.
Here they are, raw and untrimmed! I’ll let them dry out for a few days before tackling the planing and trimming.
Box o’ soap. You can see some of the dings in the lavender-lemongrass soaps. There are three or four nerolis that won’t be too cosmetically gorgeous, also.
Closeup of the dino moulds and nerolis:
And the less glamorous side of things: the cleanup waiting to happen. By now, all the goop left on the buckets and pots is soap instead of lye-grease mix, so it’s actually not too hard with a bit of hot water.
Stay tuned for the trimming and planing!
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Payoff!
In some ways the shape of the soap cut from the log mould appeals to me most. It might be because commercial soap so rarely has sharp edges.
Some part of my brain is insisting on parsing all those photos as fudge instead of soap. I’m practically drooling while at the same time there’s a little voice in the back of my head yelling “It’s SOAP, you can’t eat it you twit!” Very disconcerting.
They look amazing lauredhel, as always. I’m having a little squee of delight over the neroli swirlies myself, well done! 🙂
Mmmmmmm Fudge…
Whaaaadya mean “don’t eat it”?
If someone wants to do a fudgemaking photo series on Hoyden, I’m willing to read it! And beta test.
Hah, wait for the next post! In which I plan to rant about how much I dislike new soap with sharp edges.
I really recommend not eating it, though it is technically doable with the soaps unfragranced or with tiny amounts of edible-ish oils (citrus, peppermint). People do use these soaps as a dentifrice, but biting and swallowing large amounts is disrecommended. As my kid found out as an avocado-loving toddler who I inadvertently gave pale green soap to.
But wait, we can’t disagree! This is an aesthetic hivemind! I’m sure someone promised me that when I signed the contract.
I want to eat that soap too. There’s something so sensuous about the curves and swirls.
Those soaps look wonderful. Excuse me while I sit here and covet them. Extensively.
Gorgeous! The neroli swirls are particularly beautiful. Nice work, Lauredhel!
I like the rough, curvy ones. I’d buy them as they are.