New soap - Almond Biscotti

Looking back, I can scarcely believe that six months have passed since I posted in English. Although my editorial politics is not to publish more than one article per week, it still did come as a surprise. Due to my editorial vision, I have chosen to post mostly in my native language as there are not many blogs with similar thematic. Adding to this, there is also a tiny-winey emotional reason. Since I am living almost 5 yeas outside of Serbia, I do sometimes miss Serbian. Occasionally, there are months in a row I don't even have the chance to speak it with anyone. For all my wonderful soapy readers around the globe, I have installed a translator button on the right margin, so that they can follow my latest outings in the soap wonderland.

More than 5 years ago when I first start soaping, the worldwide online soapmaking community was quite strong and diverse. I know that the times are changing and people are venturing into new personal & professional traits, but lately I cannot help but feel saddened by the overall demise of many blogs devoted to soapcrafting. I loved reading personal adventures, anecdotes and experiments of fellow artisans. I felt so positively inspired by all the passion and commitment they seemed to invest into this craft. Almost all of my favorite blogs are now defunct or 'on a temporary leave'. It makes me feel rather old. Am I living in a bygone era? Am I becoming a traditionalist?

Biscuit In a Soap or Soap in a Biscuit?

New soap - Coconut Lime Verbena

I have mentioned in my previous post how I still cannot get use to the fact that the summer 2014 is gasping for its dying breath. The weather Gods have been particularly merciful this year and rewarded the Netherlands with a ridiculously huge amount of sunny days. First time I saw that happening in five years.

A lot of things happened in my life in the past three months and I have been alas, unable to soap & post regularly. However, now when my soaping mojo is back, I want to extend this summer feel at least until I uncover my winter boots from the closet. Since I could not go on a beach holiday or any other holiday for that matter, I have decided to bring the beach to my shower.
I longed for tropical destinations for as long as I can remember and what else does give  that instant association with tropical islands than a juicy coconut?

Strike a Pose

Body Glow Stick

It's been a while since I posted in English. Last year was quite of a challenge for me so next to reading 40 books, writing my bachelor research thesis and communicating every day in English without visiting Serbia for almost two years, somehow I felt this is my only connection with anything Serbian at all. Next to that, one of the main reasons I started blogging in Serbian in the first place was a duty I felt towards general public in my country to present accurate and up-to-date information about handmade soaps, natural cosmetics and ingredients in general, so I also push myself to post informative, creative and hopefully inspiring posts in my own language. Well, I feel that the time has come to spice up this space with some posts in English as well. This is also my way of thanking my international readers and fellow crafters. Thank you for visiting, commenting and returning to this blog, and above all, thank you for not being intimidated by the quirky Cyrillic script.

My soapmaking craze started a whole new chapter in my handy skills and open the door to my never ending curiosity and imagination. Soon after I made my first batch of CP soap I started dreaming how would it be like to make other bath & body products from scratch as well. Over the years I documented here various projects I have been passionate about and shared many DIY recipes that had brought quite a fateful following from my lovely Serbian readers. After numerous batches of bath bombs, bath creamers, bath milks, lip balms and most recently All Natural Lavender Vanilla Body Powder, next on my to do list was a nourishing stick.

I mused for a while about the scent and use options - shall I make it scent-free, or all natural with essential oils, shall I make it with a more salve-like texture and usage intention, or more urban, multipurpose product for variety of possible users?

Shimmering Body Glow Stick

I have to admit that one crazy sunny March day made me decide to go for a shimmery glow stick with a tropical twist. I just felt so overwhelmingly positive so I thought what would be a better way to try to preserve the warm & cozy feeling of sun rays on skin surface than to try to capture it in a juicy tropical island punch delight for skin?

This product is ideal for highlighting various parts of the body and I have to add here that it looks like especially appealing on legs. It also works great for adding that extra oomph on the shoulder area and/or cheekbones.

The ingredient list is somewhat lengthy but I feel like I hit the jack pot with this formula. It is so silky, easily glides over skin, with nourishing oils and shea butter and just the right amount of pale gold mica to make it interesting. I used the combination of three waxes - beeswax, mimosa and candelilla wax. I am a big fan of beeswax as in my opinion there isn't a plant based wax that can give the same elasticity and slip to anhydrous products. But when used in abundance, it also can give to much of a waxy feeling and the potent scent can overpower other ingredients. That is why I decided to combine it with mimosa wax that I find divine! I used it previously in one test batch of CP soap, but I have to say that I prefer it in a leave-on product. Candelillla wax is a staple in my lip balms, but it is a delicate business to adapt just the right concentration of it in a product formulation, as it can be too brittle when used in a slightly higher percentage. 

As with all of my products, the emphasis is on the unity of quality ingredients, design innovation and utility comfort. Shea butter, golden jojoba oil and sweet almond oil all add the extra nourishing properties to this chubby baby. I decided to go with a pale gold mica as it gives the shimmering reflection that IMO resembles closely to the sun reflection on human skin. But do not be afraid you definitely won't get the glowing light bulb look, but rather refined, sparkly and natural shine as you can see on the swatch photo bellow. Please disregard my extreme pale forearm, it is literately impassible to get any tan in the Dutch weather.

Somehow I imagine this little fellah to be ideal for summer days and going out with friends at the beach bar in sunset when you wish to highlight that gorgeous new sun-kissed skin so I make sure to pair it up with a suggesting fragrance that I am currently totally in love with! It is a mix of Plumeria flowers, freshly drained coconut water, and sliced star fruit and papaya salad. Need I say more?

When I thought about the name Aloha somehow came self-imposed. A couple of more options came later on, but none of them struck me as appropriate. So aloha it is. Hello summer, hello sun!

Suggested Mode of Use

The product comes sealed in this handy-dandly little push up tube so you only need to push the bottom a bit to expose the stick surface and apply it gently on skin in the way you would use a deodorant. A little goes a loooong way so you might even opt to rub it in manually after applying. Use it on your body, hair and face freely but avoid eye area and do not apply on the lips.

Keep it away from source of direct light and keep the lid on. For external use only.

The Versatile Blogger Award

In the midst of a crazy busy month, I found out that Goca from the Moj Spaun blog has nominated me for the Versatile Blogger award! Yippie! Thank you Goca! This really made my whole last week feel a bit more special.

As I said, I am experiencing a hectic period of rehearsals, auditions and performances, so unfortunately, I haven't been able to spare some time to publish anything lately. Today I am catching up. While I am happy to announce that I just finished photo shooting new soaps for the upcoming post, I decided to put that one on hold and dedicate entirely my blogging hours for today to this lovely post.

Although I unfortunately did not get the chance to meet Goca in person yet, I feel that she is a great sudsy friend and a person whose posts and soaps I enjoy very much.

So here go the rules of the Versatile Blogger Award according to the Versatile Blogger website:

•  Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
•  Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.
•  Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
•  Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.
•  Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

As I mentioned, I consider Goca to be my great soapy friend and since I had the pleasure of trying several of her soaps, I also wrote about them in two previous posts. One is an interview you can read here and one more post with mention and photos.

To nominate 15 other blogs is quite difficult. There are not many that I love and some of them are on Goca's list as well. Which serves as a proof of quality in my belief so I will leave them. My list in no particular order of preference:

1. Savon de Mika
2. The Soap Bar
3. Iva did it.
4. Soap Jam
5. Ko ne voli cipele
6. Soap and Restless
7. Magrit Knits
8. Moj makeup nered
9. Budi lepa
10. Jedan frajer i bidermajer
11. Hleb i lale
12. Calendula dijaporis
13. Oil and Butter
14. Lovin Soap
15. Pasito a pasito

I always find it challenging to talk about myself cause I can't judge where to begin and where to stop, I typed & random things about myself that others seem to find most amusing and/or interesting or that I haven't yet told to anyone. Here it goes:

1. I am born ginger head and have never dyed my hair although many people don't believe me.
2. When I was a kid, I wanted to be the first female James Bond.
3.  I truly detest snow/winter even on a photo.
4. I wish to learn many handy skills and the top three on my list are bookbinding, spoon carving and paper making.
5. I am quite dreading my 30th birthday which is approaching slowly but inevitably.
6. I really didn't like neither London, Paris or New York and cannot really understand what's all the hype about.
7. One day I hope to start my own foundation for helping creative musicians to realize their dreams. Till then, I am happy to be a micro sponsor via crowd funding platforms.

That's it folks. I am off to edit some photos and prepare the fire for our first barbecue in 2014. Yum!

New Soap - Berrilicious

Some of my friends have been asking me why am I giving English names to my soap? There are few reasons. First of all, as a Serbian living in a foreign country, every day I spend in a highly diffused international surrounding where everyone must communicate in English. As many of my loyal supporters and soapy lovers are inevitably from  my immediate surrounding, it would be unfair to them to force them to pronounce words with whom they do not have even remotely any connection or understanding. Secondly, a lot of my readers are soapmakers themselves and it is fairly more easy for them to get the first impression about the soap fragrance and message it conveys judging by it's name and physical appearance (photos, packaging). Third reason is even more simple. I usually cannot find an appropriate name in Serbian for a soap I have envisioned and all the Cyrillic typeface I have met so far just take too much space on my label.

I really do my best to write in grammatically accurate English and it pains me that sometimes I do make mistakes. I triple check everything before publishing, but sometimes I am still left to wonder if I could have written a certain passage or description a bit better, more elegant, more eloquent etc. Still, I prefer to write separate posts in English and Serbian as I find bilingual blogs too aesthetically confusing. After all, there is a translator here in the corner and everyone can read every post in their preferred language with just one click.

I even considered to translate very post in English, but that would take too much valuable time and honestly, I simply do not have that fast mind set of a professional translator. Serbian is much different that Anglo-Saxon languages and once I shift into thinking and speaking in English, I cannot make fast transitions back into Serbian. To make the situation even more complicated, I am speaking more of Dutch lately, and for the sake of my profession, daily I have to deal with Italian, French and German. Sometimes even Latin, Spanish, Czech and Russian.
As you can see, I really have to keep language focus on track.

Sometimes I have a feeling that a certain soapy creation simply cannot be described in Serbian as good as in English. This is exactly the case with the latest soap you see here. Furthermore, what I love about English is that there sometimes are several ways to write something and generally to play a bit with spelling. In Slavic languages, that is absolutely impossible. I planned to name this soap BerrYlicious, but somehow overlooked the I on my label sheet and by the time I got it from the printer it was too late to change anything. But I did check and it seems to be possible to spell BerrIlicious with an i. So instead of stressing myself, I decided to keep this name. Sometimes you really have to let things go.

The Name Says it All

I love berries and I love grapes, although I generally do not find fragrance oils to be really realistic to the actual fruit. But I don't mind. Long time ago I have given up on predicting the how will people react  on a certain fragrance and could I predict their preference somehow. As I am a hobbyst and sell my soaps only to be able to re-invest into buying more supplies and making more soaps, I do not really have a vast market that can be translated in huge numbers and give some impressive statistic data. So basically I love to buy things to try out. Fragrances that I thin I would like, fragrances that I think my friends would like or fragrances that intrigue me judging by their notes descriptions.

This one I bought based on rave reviews from other fellow soapers, and I expected it to be fun, but didn't really know if I will like it. When I received this fragrance oil and got a first sniff of it, suddenly I felt like I was 9 years old. It is simply so much fun!

Chillin' on the Garden Table

The fragrance notes include all the berries you could possibly think of. A bunch of juicy blueberries, some ripe raspberries, spicy juniper berries in the background, a hint of plums, and abundant of grapes, grapes of all sorts. That's what my nose picks up the most and that's why I said it makes me feel like a little girl. When I was about 9 or 10, it was very in vogue in my school for girls to collect fragrant papers from little blocks. We would carry every day huge albums with hundreds of pieces of this small papers all with different designs and we use to swap during our lunch brakes. I think I still have some of these albums back at my home in Belgrade, but I haven't looked at them for almost 20 years now! Well, this fragrance reminds me on those days and the conjured smell of all those smelly papers. 

It reminded me that I love grape fragrances. Let them be unrealistic, but they will definitely put a smile on your face. They seem to diffuse this aura of optimism and therefore, I would say they are perfect for a  shower on every day. Next to the smiling, it may even make you want to sing, without even noticing it!

I stamped this one up side down!

I wasn't really sure about the design and I have several options, but somehow a berry-themed soap demands a some round shape to reminds us of, well of berries. There's no fuss here and as you can see the soap is two-colored with soap balls in different colors of some scraps and soap shavings I had on hand. This of course means that the next batch will be with some other soap balls. I

A Hidden Pink Ball of Soap

In this formula I have paired olive oil  and Shea butter with lanolin so it will grantee a lovely, creamy & conditioning bar. Let me know what you think about it!

Ingredients: Virgin Olive Oil, H2O, Coconut oil, NaOH, Rice Bran Oil, Castor Oil, Shea Butter, Sweet Almond Oil, Avocado Oil, Lanolin, Fragrance Oil, Natural Pigments, Jojoba Beads.

New Soap - Green Woods

In this post I already explained that I have become obsessed with lanolin. It is my new 'to die for' soaping ingredient. Strange how we all have some particular preference for a period of time, while continuing to explore, learn and experiment with new materials. This is not to say that the ingredients I used to favor are now fallen out of grace in my soaping kitchen. It's rather the fact that I added a new member to my Walk of Fame selection.

Green Woods Shea Butter & Lanolin Soap

At the beginning of my soapy adventures, I was excited by the olive pomace oil, then I raved about coconut oil, got myself absolutely in love with shea butter, flirted for years with cold pressed avocado oil and finally I reach the stage of the worst teenage crush on lanolin.

I've used so far between 3 and 5 % of my oil weight in three different cold process soaps. Although the difference with or without of lanolin is clearly visible (and tangible), I must say that I didn't not notice any difference between 3, 4 and 5 percentage. However, it does speed up a bit the trace and rocks on CP soap to the full gel. Because of this, there might be a chance for overheating and slight cracking on the top of your soap, so if you want to prevent this, I suggest you put your soap in the fridge. I was so impressed by the effect I got in the Rainbow Sherbet soap, so I decided to use it into this soap designed for my gentlemen clientele.

Well, let me tell you about this soap. Not only that it contains lanolin, but the fragrance oil I've used for it smells out of this world. Seriously people, you can't go wrong with this one. Every soapmaker knows that FOs can be deceiving and from time to time, we end up with what we didn't expect at all. Fragrance notes listed in company's official descriptions may not be present at all, or if yes, not in such a high concentration you hoped for, or the some of the notes can evaporate completely over the course of the curing period. Or the fragrance can evaporate completely. This is by far the worst option, at least in my book, as I hate rebatching and hate to see all that work (and money!) go to waste. Generally, the whole business of describing the fragrances is so personal and almost completely subjective, that usually there is no chance for you to know in advance if you're going to like a certain smell or not.

Three Handsome Fellas :)

This fragrance was a gamble as I bought the biggest bottle completely blind. Well, I read other people's reviews, bit after all, that doesn't prove anything. When I got my order, I was delighted that from more than 20 FOs, this time I got only one that I didn't like on a first sniff. I consider that a good purchase!

Before I got my smelly package, I already had in mind the design and the name for this one. I wanted it to be green, orange and white, with a delicate hanger swirl and peaky tops, and I shall call it 'Green Woods'. I realized recently that I don't have in my current line-up many products that are men-oriented, so I wanted to fill the gap. The design was inspired by the colors of the famous French haute couture fashion house Hermes. As much as I love their bags and clothing, I do not fancy their perfumes although I admit that they are indeed a work of art for themselves. Their simple, reduced beauty, almost transcendental just does not fit in my vision of soul-inspiring pleasures. Well, the fragrance oil I used for this soap is absolutely stunning to say at least. It is a rare thing that an FO for soaping is so complex. The opening is mild and spicy, with notes of cardamom and clove with a hit of cinnamon bark in the background. Then it opens to Amyris (Indian) sandalwood captured in the luscious amber accord (labdanum, benzoin and vanilla), and the whole composition sits on a dash of smoky patchouli. In one word - heaven! I wish I could be so poetically descriptive in Serbian too, but I always found it quite difficult to describe perfumery notes in my mother tongue as I guess, nobody ever talks or writes about them in a way that it reaches broad public, so we are quite handicapped by the utter voidness of literary tools. But that may be only my personal impression after all.

A Close Up

Anyway, back to this soap. Although it was thought to reach men consumers, I can definitely vouch that women will go crazy about this one too. My whole house was filled with this fabulous smell for a month, and I couldn't wait the cure time to be over that I can get one of these babies into shower!

Now add to this equation lanolin that I am raving about, and you get one  handsome, perfectly smelling soap, which gently cleans and moisturizes your skin while you enjoy the fabulously rich and thick bubbly foam.

I really hope that this soap will find enough followers so that I can keep on making it many times in the future. If you try it, let us now her what you think of it.

I love the crackle-marble look in the middle layer 

Ingredients in the Green Woods  soap are: Virgin Olive Oil, Distilled Water, Coconut Oil, Sodium Hydroxide (saponyfying agent), Castor Oil, Shea Butter, Avocado Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Fragrance Oil, Pigments (color).

New Limited Edition Soap - Raspberry Sangria

Yes, I am completely aware that I promised this post for Thursday. Do not blame me, really Vida is the one to blame. She sent me this hilarious book a couple of weeks ago, so after I finished with Kurkov, I really needed some uplifting read. So I begun reading Where'd you go, Bernadette. I have rarely read a book that is so much fun, yet one cannot simply dismiss it as a light read.

That was on Tuesday evening. After that, I found myself completely and utterly incapable of doing almost anything else but reading. This is some seriously good stuff folks, you got to get this book. Now!

So now you know how I used my carefully scheduled time for writing this post last Thursday. Now let's get back to the soap.

Raspberry Sangria

I haven't post anything in English here for a while because I got a bit overwhelmed with professional literature and finishing my thesis at last. I desperately needed some language-detox. Now, onto the soap, finally. And a completely new one as a matter of fact.

I have never made soap with a similar fragrance before. It is supper bubbly so I decided to add some fresh, sun-ripened raspberry FO to make it even more interesting. I have envisioned a slightly different design, but the mixture almost seized on me so I had to work super fast. I have to admit here, this one is a totally girly soap. I even topped it with a dash of fine gold glitter.

Don't get me wrong, the fragrance is not sickly sweet or in any other way unpleasant and/or harsh. Quite the contrary. It's kind of sparkly, refreshing, uplifting but at the same time delicate and dare I say, sophisticated. No age limit for this one, that is for sure.

When I work with a new fragrance, I do not like to experiment with the base oils, so you will find a lot of the usual skin loving oils & nourishing butters. Despite the global olive oil shortage, I still keep all my formulas rich in this gorgeous ingredient, so If you get one of SenMi soaps, be rest assured that you'll be enjoying some seriously amazing natural stuff.

This one is a limited edition soap, but I might keep it in the permanent line. That is up to you guys, if you like it, I will make some more.
We have a handmade market in a couple of weeks, so we'll see how this will go. Last year I made Crispy Clean and intended it to be a LE summer soap, but everyone who tried it went ga-ga, so now I make it all year round.

I have to admit that personally I never tried raspberry sangria, but somehow I imagine that it would smell just like this soap, hence the name. I did have couple of more runner ups, but finally decided to leave it like this. It's fun, it's bubbly, girly & summery and I like it just like that. Hmm, personal note to myself - definitely make some raspberry sangria for soap presentation at the market. Not a bad idea. I will give you a little secret here. You will be seeing more of beverage inspired soaps her until the end of the year. Do not ask me why, but suddenly I am getting all these funky ideas. Maybe it's because generally I like to experiment with refreshing drinks in the summer. Speaking of the topic, I will have some more time in July, so expect some fun & easy recipes here!

Together withe recipes, there will be some completely new products and DIY posts, so stay tuned.
I am also thinking about some fall-winter fragrances, so if you have some favorites, please leave a comment here. I really like to hear what you guys like, otherwise it can feel sometimes like I am doing everything just for myself which is definitely not the case. Even if I would want to, I cannot use up all the products alone. As you already know, I also enjoy using other people's soap and I have participated in a small European soap swap recently, so there will be a post about that soon. I still have the same old problem of having too many ideas and too less time, so although I am getting some new non-soap related project, be rest assured that this blog will keep on living until my bubbly obsession ceases, which I cannot even imagine ever to happen. ;)

Banana Testing Soaps

You may remember one of my last years' soapy experiments where I made an unscented soap with banana pure and coconut milk. This was a very limited test batch, and it has been distributed to friends and family. I already wrote that I preferred some other soaps than this one, but as it turned out, I actually got rave reviews and more requests for this soap. I believe that there is a stable audience for fruit  veggie soaps.

This winter I had the privilege to try one of Cee's soaps with buttermilk and carrot juice, and last summer I was totally in love in Goca's yogurt & cucumber soap, so I was definitely hooked up on veggie soaps. We also got a supersonic Electrolux juicer last month, and I immediately started to think how it would benefit my soaping adventures.
Adding to the fact that I am always on a mission to find great fragrance oils that would compliment my basic oils and additives, well it seems quite obvious that you'll be seeing more of new creations on this blog.

Testing Two New Banana Fragrance Oils

I ordered a bunch of fragrance oils in January, mostly for testing purposes. It took three long weeks to get my package here, and I was already becoming extremely impatient and irritated cause I haven't been soaping for over two months. With my busy February schedule, I was frustrated when realized that I won't have almost any time for soaping. A possibility of not soaping at all was not an option, thus I opted to do a few simple soaps. No fancy color combinations, design patterns or any such a thing.

I ordered two banana fragrances, one being described as creamy banana, with notes of pear, butter rum, vanilla, quince and apple. The second is a straight a banana nut bread fragrance. I decided to go with one of my tried and true recipes with unrefined cocoa butter and olive oil and not to add any color.

Yummy Banana Cream Pie (photo)

So there they were on Saturday, oils melted and my lye solution prepared, one banana waiting on the kitchen table ready to be smashed the on Sunday morning. By the time I got my equipment, I realized that someone of my fellow tenants has eaten the banana and in this village (strange as it may sound), there is no store open on Sunday. I had to soap, so I decided to go on according to the plan, and just skip the banana puree.
I made two mixtures, and the creamy banana soaped wonderfully (no acceleration or other nasty surprises), while the banana nut bread seized in a blink of an eye.

Banana Nut Bread Inspiration (click here for the recipe)

My first intention was to make a layered soap, but now I had to change my plans and just salvage all I could, while still producing a half-decent looking soap. I used a 12 bar silicone mold which only made things worse, so I had mo work really fast to get the mixture in the soap cavities.

Color and Texture Variations

The result was that all the bars contain a bit of both the mixtures (cream & nut banana), ranging from 10 till 60 percent. The creamy banana discolored only the top that was exposed to the air, while the nutty one went totally into the milk chocolate color direction.
At the end, I have to add that the banana nut bread fragrance developed beautifully in the soap,opposing to the creamy one which smelled more promising at the beginning, but not so much at the end.

I admit that these are not the prettiest bars you've ever seen, but they still contain a dose of rustic appeal, wouldn't you say? OK, that may be just my over-enthusiastic-soap-obsessed nerd speaking, but they still perform superbly!

To conclude, I will definitely be ordering the Banana Nut Bread fragrance oil again, and you may expect it in a redesigned shape in my forthcoming fall Limited Edition line. This fragrance is so good, that I'll probably make a set of complimentary products as well. As you can see, no matter the fact that our experiments may not always turn out to be what we imagined, the outcome can easily be nonetheless rewarding.

Ingredients in Banana Testing Soaps are: Virgin Olive Oil, Distilled Water, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil (from sustainable source), Sodium Hydroxide (saponyfying agent), Cocoa Butter, Castor Oil, Stearic Acid, Fragrance Oil.

Lemon Cake Soap

My friends and family know that I am not  much of a fan of sweets. I could go a lifetime without a cake, but if you ask me to spend a week without any meat, that would definitely be a big problem for me. I believe most of the readers here will agree that showering with a steak scented soap is not really a synonym for a pleasant experience, although I've seen some people offering even that kind of products. I just never seen or heard anyone actually using them.

Lemon Cake

On the other hand, bakery scented bath and body products have a huge base of fans. Everything sweet, juicy, fruity, that reminds with fragrance, colors and shape on some kind of a bakery sweet, has its audience nowadays. The most prominent example of this trend is without any doubt, chocolate. People can really go crazy over chocolate. Now, I have made chocolate scented soap couple of times before, and it was fairly popular among my crowd, although not that much as Milky Way, my milk, honey and oatmeal scented soap. Personally, I am first and foremost, a big fan of floral scents although I enjoy fragrances from all categories if they are skilfully blended and balanced.

There are only few, very specific sweet treats that I like to indulge myself with from time to time. For example, I really like lemon cheesecake. It is very easy to make and so far as I could see, everyone loves cheesecake. I prefer lemon cheesecake above other variations, because I love that juicy, sour taste that breaks the sweetness of the cake. Well, actually, I also love lemons in general. Somehow, their smell, color and taste has very uplifting and positive effect on my mood. Sicilian lemons were the inspiration behind my Crispy Clean soap few months ago.
I have a list with several soap ideas, and the time has come to try my version of a lemon cake soap.

Since it was my first time working with three completely new and different fragrances, I decided to go with a tried and true recipe with cocoa and shea butter in order to minimize possibilities for unpleasant surprises.

The bottom layer is scented with a luscious, sweet and buttery fragrance and well, I just had to add a pinch of oatmeal to it. Haven't I already told you how I love oatmeal? Here, I just wanted to add that special touch of a crumbly crust. I did expect strong discoloration, but decided nevertheless to leave it be and not to add vanilla stabilizer. Furthermore, it gives a nice color contrast to the upper layer. Here you see a photo after cutting and the upper photo is taken about two weeks in the curing time.

The upper layer is scented with two different lemon-bakery kind of fragrance oils. I deliberately choose two fragrances as I wished to avoid the overly sweet and sugary smell, but also to mellow down bitter and sour notes that sometimes are too sharp and have a not so desirable reminiscence of a toilet cleaner.













Unfortunately, I never seem to have an appropriate light here during the winter time, so all the photos tend to have a small bluish hue, but I hope that you can see the contrast between the basic ivory filling and light yellow swirl droppings inside. I didn't want to make a classic swirl, but rather to achieve a look that would look like a generous droppings of lemon syrup in the fluffy cheese cream. This time, I opted not to make fancy tops like I usually do, as I thought it wouldn't fit to the theme. I left the top just a bit swirled and uneven, as I do when I make my proper lemon cheesecake.

Well, this soap is yet to prove himself with the audience, but somehow I fell it won't be so difficult.
I called it Lemon Cake, which is simpler and shorter. I found out that nobody really likes to have to read or remember complicated names of bath and body products. And it fits better to my label too. :)

Let me know what you think if you try this soap, I like to hear feedback on my products. I still did not decide if this one is going to be in my regular line or I am going to offer it only as a limited edition special, but if you really like it, it may stick around for longer.

Soaps From Canada!

I have said few times before, but it won't hurt if I repeat myself - one of the best things in blogging is connecting with fellow soapers around the globe. I am such a horrible soap junkie, that regardless the fact that I make my own soap and have supplies for until the end of 2089, I love getting my hands on other people soap too. I love soap swaps! But, not swaps just for the sake of it, but I truly and honestly enjoy sharing the love for the soapmaking craft and enjoying superior products. That is why I am also quite picky myself when it comes to suggesting and accepting swaps with other soapmakers. I like to support handcraft, but there is only a limited number of soap artist in whom work I am so interested that no postage fee will ever stop me getting my hands on their creations. Having said that, I was so happy when Cee Gee suggested we do a swap of our soaps! I've been introduced to Cees' blog via my soapy friends Maja and Goca, and ever since June, I am regularly following her blog.

She has this amazing variety of soaps, and and an endless supply of new design ideas. Furthermore, I am also always very intrigued with different ingredients she always experiments with in her soaps, so when she asked me what soaps would I like to sample, the choice was tough indeed. I did make a preliminary list, but I had confidence that whatever she sends, there's going to definitely more than one thing that I will like.
It took some time for my parcel to arrive, but boy oh boy, was it worth it!
Here is a look of all the lovely goodies I got from Cee.

Selection of Oil&Butter Soaps

In spite of such a long way, all of them reached my house safe and sound. Just look at all these lovelies  I love getting post, it makes me feel cozy in this virtual era of instant photos and emails.

I wish I could shower 9 times per day so that I can use up all these lovelies in faster pace. I've tried so far 4 soaps: Banana Milk, Mango Butter, Sandalwood and Carrot Buttermilk. I am so in love with Carrot, words cannot describe it! I have never tried buttermilk soap, and the overall formula is so luscious that my skin really loves me for using it. So, as you can see, it is difficult for me to move on to the next soap, so I was even thinking to make a sort of a bathroom shower schedule.

And a special treat - this is a soap mug she made from a mold she made herself. Check out her post on 'how to make your own soap mold'. Seriously, people, how cute is this?!

Soap Mug

Cee was so generous that I just have not the faintest idea how and when will I be able to use up all of them!
I promise I will post here follow-ups and more impressions as I get to try more soaps. Until then, I urge you all to drop by Cee's blog and check out what's cooking in her soap workshop.

Crispy Clean

I am very excited for finally being able to introduce a new soap! I envisioned this soap long time ago, but have searched in vain for months a true fragrance oil that will match my thoroughly fantasized picture of a perfect soap. Seven years ago I had a  chance to travel to Sicily. It was the end of May, but the summer had already arrived on that beautiful island. To this day, I have not yet visited a more beautiful place in this world and still did not find a place where I would prefer to go on holiday - at any time. Textures, color, smells and sounds all created a divine mixture that stayed carved in my mind forever. Unfortunately, I did not have a camera at that time, and some video recordings that I made, are lost somewhere in the moving boxes, and being far away from home for some time now and without any intentions to go back any time soon, I seriously doubt that I will ever draw them to the light of day. I guess I will have to actually travel to Sicily again. As this is highly unlikely to happen any time soon, I decided to create my Sicily soap. With a breath of Mediterranean sea breeze, pinch of Italian sand, glimpse of sunshine at noon and luscious aroma of ripe lemons.

Crispy Clean

And here it is, finally, piled together photographed on my garden table on a last sunny day in this rainy corner of Europe.

Attention! Wet soap alert! :)

As with all my soaps, I always go for simple lines in my design. Over the years, I created my personal aesthetic preferences, and I tend to strive towards simplicity that is carefully conceived to carry the same visual message of my brand.

I never mix more than three colors in my designs, and I pay equal attention to textures as well as to beneficial proprieties of oils, butters and other additives that I decide to put in my soap.

Fresh from the mold

It is my firm belief as creators, we inevitably   transfer our thoughts and life values into our work. Our memories, strivings, experiences and fears are imprinted into everything we do. We often say that we put a lot of love into our creations and that we find it difficult and mostly impossible to soap when we feel bad, sick or anxious. And with a good reason indeed. We find it simply unimaginable to share undesirable feelings and bad energy. That is why every handmade item that you buy has a little (or more) of that extra special value. You won't find inspiration, love, happiness, excitement, laughter, personal affection and  joie de vivre in products created for hundreds of thousands of consumers. They are so often just sad little creatures sitting on some shelf of generic concept store of a popular brand. 

Chillin' in the graden

Unlike them, every handmade product has its story and a real person or people behind it. And based on the product itself, you can find out a lot about the creator as well, precisely because of the highly personal and individual nature of our output.

If you don't read this post and get one of my Crispy Clean soaps, you probably won't know that I have this dream of Sicily on my mind and that this soap is a materialization of my vision. But you will know that I had a very distinctive idea when I was making this soap. You will know that there was a reason why I mixed my base oils the way I did.You will know that I took time and effort in selecting that perfect fragrance with its subtle layers of crispy lemon peel, geranium, tarty grapefruit, blood orange, neroli and musk. You will notice wavy structure of the top, reminiscence of airy clouds on crystal blue sky and the beach sand that is soaked with salty sea water.

Nothing that is handmade can ever be repeated twice. Every handmade item that you buy or make has its story. Has your story. And they are all unique just like us. So I urge you to share those emotions, share the creativity and enjoy every second of it. No matter if it is a bubbly lather of your favorite soap in the shower, the texture of your favorite ceramic cup, the taste of you special cake recipe or the pattern of you hand knitted sweater.

Ingredients in Crispy Clean soap: Virgin Olive Oil, Palm Oil (from sustainable source), Coconut Oil, Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponyfying agent), Shea Butter, Avocado Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, Natural Pigments (Ultramarine Blue, Iron Oxide, Titanium Dioxide), Crushed Apricot Shells (Prunus Armeniaca (Apricot) Shell Powder, Fragrance Oil.

Banana Soap

It comes a time in every soapmaker's life when one is inevitably inclined to make soap out of everything. I remember when I was just starting this adventure slash obsession, I read among others 'Smart Soapmaking' by Anne L. Watson. When talking about possible additives to soap, she mentions that probably everything but the cat's pajamas has already been added to soap. At that time, I use to think, wow I may never master the art of soapmaking to that stage where I would feel comfortable with experimenting with fruits and vegetables. Well, now as anyone who has been bitten hard by the soap bug knows, I have developed my curiosity into passion and it is at that stage now, where I find myself uncontrollably thinking about soaps almost all the time. The temptation is getting greater whenever I go to regular grocery purchase. Whilst I should be thinking what am I going to make for lunch with this'n'that, I usually end up thinking how can I incorporate whatever-my-be-in-my-sight-at-given-moment, into soap.

Although I am musing myself with wild ideas, I do however, conduct a thorough research about ingredients. I guess that my academic background is ingrained so deeply into my consciousness, that I have by now developed an automatic habit of making volumes of journals with collected and scraped information. To add to that, I am cautious about wasting my supplies into experiments that are not carefully prepared in order to avoid any kind of disaster. I do not like surprises and so far so good, the soap gremlins have passed my kitchen.

The first fruity soap I chose to make was banana soap. Bananas are a great natural source of fibers, vitamins and minerals. The vast amount of vitamin C help in deep cleansing the skin and can help in preventing infalmmatory diseases. Antioxidants found in banana fruit can also help in removing and neutralizing the bad effects of free radicals on the skin.

Bananas (photo source)

I paired the benefits of bananas with coconut milk. The fatty acids in coconut milk is considered as gentle skin moisturizer with natural properties to sooth dehydrated skin. It is considered that coconut milk helps preventing wrinkles and age spots, as well as treat the symptoms of psoriasis, dermatitis and eczema. And last but not least, the high sugar content in the milk acts as an extra bubbling booster to the soap lather.

Fresh Coconut Milk (photo source)

I have decided to leave this soap without added fragrance oil partially because I was curious to see if the fruity addition would influence the natural smell of soap, and partially because I could not wait for the delivery of my new fragrance oils.

The recipe I mashed up for this experiment is as follows:

60 % Virgin Olive Oil
8 % avocado Oil
8 % Unrefined Cocoa Butter
8 % Coconut Oil
8 % Palm Oil (from sustainable source)
8 % Castor Oil
137 gr H2O
55,2 gr NaOH

Superfat was at 4 %

I tried with frozen coconut milk and ice bath, but either I did not add the lye slow enough, or the ice bath was not cold enough, either way, my milk seized and the solution was not usable any more. Well, OK, off to the plan B. I diluted the lye in 50 gr of water, added to my oils, and added the 57 gr of coconut milk. At a very light trace, I added the rest of 30 gr fresh banana puree. Sorry for the absence of process photos, but I was a bit in a hurry to finish and could not handle additional distractions when soaping a new kind of recipe for the first time. This is the first photo I took when I unmolded the soap. I used the silicone mold, and the soap popped out easily after 24 hours. Personally, I like the look of gelled soaps so this one was no exception in that way.

Fresh Banana Soap

I quite liked the specked look of the soap. The smell did not differ significantly to other unscented soaps I made before with similar basic formulation of basic oils. The only thing I was afraid of was that I may have not mashed the banana enough and that the fruit may spoil my soap. Fortunately, it did not.

Banana Soaps After One Month of Curing Time

I have been using the soap for a week now. Having tried coconut and goats milk soaps by now, I can say that I am not a big fan of using those milks in soap. This is only my (current) preference and it has nothing to do with the benefits of goats and coconut milk in the soap, so please do not misunderstand me here. I am not trying to diminish the value of the ingredients here. But then again, I don't really like to drink coconut milk either, although I love to eat coconut. Oh yes, I can be complicated. As for the banana additive, I cannot say neither that I like it or dislike it. Rather than that, I can describe it as ok. I have to emphasize here that I have a dry skin prone to dermatitis.
I have stocked a lot of soaps for fall now, so the summer is devoted to experiments. Before the banana soap, I made so far 50/50 Olive Oil-Shea Butter and 50/50 Coconut Oil-Shea Butter soaps.
I am hooked on experiments with milk and veggies. Since I enjoy a great deal in drinking the oat and rice milk, I have already envisioned the next experiment for my soap kitchen. So stay tuned, I'll be posting in English all about it.

Making of Big Blue

Big Blue is one of the soap that I like to make the most. Although I have a kind of love-hate relationship with the fragrance oil I choose for it, I still keep on making the soap. The history of this soap is different than my other soaps.

When I think about the design, it can happen that I already have a certain idea and then search for a fragrance oil that I believe it would complement my idea, or I can really like an FO and then spend weeks in composing, writing and drawing possible design solutions. As a starting point for Big Blue, I had following ideas on my mind:

• I wanted to make an ocean inspired soap
• I wanted to make a blue soap
• I wanted to make a scrubby soap

The main concept was that the soap has to transmit the message of a summer holiday on a beach with its color that would depict the blue waves, fragrance that would remind of salty water and fresh air, and scrubby layer that would remind us of a sunbathing on a beautiful tropical, sand beach.

As you can see, in this case, I had a previsioned design idea before I went on a search for correspondent fragrance oil. Although people sometimes tend to think that soapers buy FO’s randomly, I can attest that at least in my case, that is not true. I spend hours and days in research of fragrance oils alone. I read a lot of reviews about their characteristics and performance during the soaping process and after. The company from whom I order has also to be a respectful leader on the soapmaking supplies market. To conclude, it is not that simple to incorporate all the ideas and quality aspirations into creation of soap and if you admire a certain soapers work that is because usually the soap itself hides hours of most detailed and hard creative and practical work behind it.

The first version of my Big Blue was this:

Big Blue #1

It had shredded soap with crushed walnut shells throughout the whole log. Originally, I thought that it will be a good idea, but although it looked good on the finished product, it was a bit too scrubby for my taste. I decided then to modify the look leaving the half layer without shred addition. 

This is how it looked like: in the second round:

Big Blue #2

I was satisfied how the FO sticked in the cold process soap. It did not morph nor fade out which a great plus. On the other hand, it gave me a headache while soaping. I accelerated the trace and warmed up the mixture significantly which had its impact on the final look of the soap. I was tending more to the creamer, deep blue instead of a bit translucent smoky blue. I made all the precautions necessary and soaped on a low temperature, but it still did not changed the outcome. Therefore I also got a few tiny air bubbles.

For the third time, I decided to cut even more on scrubby shreds, but to elevate the bottom layer. Here is the outcome: 

Big Blue #3

I received yesterday a bunch of resin soap stamps that I ordered few weeks ago and I present you here premiere of fully finished soap before packaging took place. This one is may favorite so far!

If there is a disease called 'stamp-mania' I am suffering from it at the moment...

For the time being, I am satisfied the most with this look and probably will keep it for the future. But who knows, maybe I’ll get tired of it and decide to change something again…

You can see on the photo that I managed to get the creamy blue, but that was only because the percentage of shredded soap to the new soap mixture was 50/50.

My recipe is a bit eccentric for this one, i went a little wild with the butters here. Next to the virgin olive, sweet almond and avocado oil for moisturisation, coconut and castor for bubbly lather, you will find And loads of mango, shea AND pistachio butter. Isn’t that yummy or what? The soap is popular enough despite the design changes I made, so I decide to keep it in my regular line.

This will be the final batch of Big Blue for the summer. As you already know, all my batches are very limited and I have only 14 bars of this one available. If you live in the Netherlands, you are welcome to join my super summer sale on June 2nd in Utrecht. You can find more information on my FB event, so check it out and definitely come if you can. My friend will be hosting the event in her fanbulous historic house at Utrecht downtown and we will be serving some seriously delicious handmade cakes and tea!