Soap, glorious soap!

I've been saying I'll write about this for ages. So being as we're snowed in, I'll write a nice lighthearted post about our soap making adventures, as opposed to complaining about the cold, and our temperamental boiler.

Last year, when we found out we were getting our bathroom done, both Wheelz and I mentioned that we liked the idea of making soap. So we decided to give it a go.
I got a couple of make-your-own soap kits for Christmas, had a brief read of the instructions, and we set off.
The pictures aren't suitable for sharing.



Nah, I'm kidding. We had fun, and they turned out pretty well. Wheelz made a bright pink coconut oat soap, whilst I branched out with green pina colada scented soap. They looked cute enough that we were more than happy to send them out. I just can't find the pictures.

Since then, I've made quite a few more soaps. I made a batch with Lil Monster, and neither of us died, proving that we can spend time together as a family with no casualties. We made goats milk soap, in clementine and vanilla fruit varieties.

I've loved making the soaps. I like the creative element, and I also like the ease of it. It doesn't take long to make beautiful soaps, which look and smell great, and are perfectly functional. I also like doing something where the results are fairly instantaneous. With the soap kits we've used, you just melt the base, add scents and colours, and they set within a day or so. There's something very relaxing about making something where you can see it coming together and working before your very eyes. I suspect part of that comes from my background in sugar flowers. With sugar flowers, the end result is very pretty, but there's a lot of planning and uncertainty to get there. With soaps, if it looks right and smells right, chances are you're onto a winner.

We've been sending our soaps out as birthday presents for family, save a few that we're keeping for ourselves (or would be, if Wheelz hadn't stolen my coconut scrub soap!), and they've been well received. But even if they weren't, it wouldn't take away from the sense of achievement that comes from making something with your own two hands, and being able to see that not only can you do something successfully, it can turn out beautifully.

Vanilla fruits, goats milk. Pretty swirled with pink

Clementine and chocolate, goats milk base. Although, mostly clementine...

Lemon and poppy seed.

Coconut scrub soap. This was Wheelz's, but now she has two.
Being as she stole mine, and all. Not that I'm salty...

And last but not least, coconut oil soap.
This went to Wheelz for her birthday, due to her obsession with all things coconut scented.