I have been making small batches of soap.  I wanted to make simple soaps, yet mix fragrances and colors.  The last two I made are included in photos here. 

The fragrance of the first is mostly peppermint with a hint of baby powder to soften the scent and a little almond for softening and sweetening the scent.  It is a real nice fragrance.  The colors are yellow, orange, and scarlet with titanium dioxide lightening the colors.

The second soap has a fragrance which is strawberry, peach, pineapple, and has a carrot puree.  I used magenta, brilliant orange, titanium dioxide for the white, and left the rest alone with the carrot coloring.  Before setting up, the carrot was a very pretty yellow and it turned a darker yellow/brownish color.  The brilliant orange was very bright orange, but most of it disappeared in the final soap.  The magenta looked more brown.  Even though the colors were not as expected, the colors were very pretty in the end. 

From the Land of the Midnight Sun

I made a new soap yesterday and I took pictures at each step for about half of the soap making procedure, before I gave up.  At that point, things did come out as expected.  It is very pretty and the scent is so so wonderful!  I love the fragrance Tresor, but I had to search high and low for the fragrance.  I found it at Save On Scents.  I added a little (free) Meyer Lemon from Bramble Berry to the fragrance.  (Thank you Bramble Berry.)  I have used tangerine with the fragrance in the past and it worked well too.  The bottom of the soap was to look like wheat and it did not even come close to resembling wheat.  The top was to look like a sky and clouds, but the clouds turned yellow despite the use of titanium dioxide which helps keep the soap white.  The sky turned a purple with specks of purple.  I tried 3 different blues and 2 of them wanted to go gray since cold process soap is high acid.  The third one I mixed in and swirled it somewhat.  All is topped by glitter and the bottom had a tad bit of brown glitter to look like ground and green for the wheat that was not ripe, but it turned teal.  Well, No wheat field here.  For some reason it looked like Pop Art and "From the Land of the Midnight Sun," popped into my head.  You caught the pop pun, right?  Well, the new soap was born.  It will never be duplicated and as it cures it may change a little.  I already see the yellow clouds lightening and the purple sky darkening.  This will soon be available for purchase.  The best thing about this great smelling soap is the fact that I put shea butter in it, along with sunflower oil, coconut milk powder, and several other good things for your skin.  I think it is pretty too, but not in a wheat field way.  "Gosh I hope you like us!  (The last comment is local humor from Wichita in the late 70's.....  I think you had to be here for that one. 

Notice my new kitchen gadget.  A girl can not have too much pink!

Yes, I took the pictures at night.  The more purple pictures are closer to actual color.

I hope everyone had a wonderful mother's day.  Thank you for reading my blog.  I know you probably had better things to do.  LOL  Blessings to you and yours!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all Women!

Chocolate Covered Cherries

I just finished making a small batch of chocolate covered cherries soap.  I did have a hard time not wanting to lick the bowl because the smell was so good!  For the soapers:  It is a cold process, silicone loaf molded, in the mold 3 color semi-swirl, non-gelled soap.  I did a little different technique on the top of each mold.  This batch was made in response to a chocolate soap request.

Sty in your Eye

Have you ever had a sty in your eye?  I feel like it should be in a country song like "there's a tear in my beer, and I'm crying for you dear....."  I haven't had a sty for 40 some years.  I didn't remember how painful it was.  I had this sty for 5 days.  I had a bruise under the eye and I was in pain, so I went to the doctor for antibiotics.  It is going away now, but it was not fun. 

This is from emedhealth:

Sty Overview

A sty is an acute infection of the secretory glands of the eyelids.
This common infection results from blocked glands within the eyelid. When the gland is blocked, the oil produced by the gland occasionally backs up and extrudes through the wall of the gland, forming a lump (chalazion), which can be red, painful, and nodular. Frequently, bacteria can infect the blocked gland, causing increased inflammation, pain, and redness of the eye, and even redness of the surrounding eyelid and cheek tissue. The medical term for sty is hordeolum.
The lump can point externally (outward) or internally (inward). Frequently, the lump appears with a visible whitish or yellowish spot that looks much like a large pimple. Usually, one obvious area of swelling is apparent on one lid, but many styes can appear on one or both eyelids simultaneously.
The lump frequently goes away when the blockage of the gland opening is relieved. Furthermore, the infection goes away when the pus is drained from the sty.