Lavender - Take 2

Lavender - Take 2 means Lavender - Take 1 flopped. Well flopped it did, but I want to say, only partially. This soap expert wanted to try the CPOP to make some colors 'pop', but it seems like it wasn't just the color, but also most of the soap that 'popped'. A 'rough' or 'wrinkled' texture formed due to the high oven temperature. Thanks for the info, you kind fellow soapers! <3

So, moving on to Take 2...I used the same recipe as Take 1. I really wanted to see the end result of equal portions of 4 oils. Canola, Palm, Coconut and Olive. Superfatting at 10%. Scented again with just Lavender EO. Some of the soap cubes from Take 1 got used. This is what came out of the mold:

Lavender soap

I like the translucent effect

Lavender soap cubes from Take 1

Well I am quite happy with the result, so there won't be a Take 3. Thank heavens!! For my next soap, I want to make a nice facial bar with Tea Tree oil (I really don't like the smell, but I also don't like acne). Till then!!

Yours lavenderly,
~Nitya 

I can't believe it!!

While brooding over a failed batch of Lavender soap, came a lovely surprise in the form of an award!! Oh my God...I can't believe I won!! Thank you so much Claudia from alegria mediterraneo soap. What a lovely way to encourage a soap newbie!! If you haven't visited Claudia's site, don't wait any longer. She makes lovely soaps!

The rules of the Versatile Blogger Award are:

1 – Make a post and link it back to the person who gave you the award

(and include their website address)
2 – Share 7 random things about yourself
3 – Award 7 recently discovered bloggers with this award and

contact them to let them know they have won.

I enjoyed reading about the soapers who I so admire and learn so much from everyday. 7 random things about me:

1-  I love animated movies. Some of the new animated ones I feel have a nice message for adults more than kids. 

2- My marriage was arranged. In about 10 minutes of talking with my now husband I decided he was the one. We've been happily married for 8 years.  :)

3- We will be moving back to India in November....can't wait. I love all the places that we have lived in, but India is where I feel at home...quite natural. 

4- While growing up I wanted to join the armed forces but then decided against it, coz women aren't sent to the war front in India. 

5- I use a comb that is at least 15 years old. It was a new year's gift from two of my cousins who were around 10 years old then.

6- I dream of kings and brave warriors and love movies made on these lines.

7- After going back to India, my cousin (a candle-maker) and I plan to start a small business. 

Now to pass on this lovely award to other wonderful soapers. I will try to pick some who haven't already been selected, although I would love to pick everyone whose blogs I follow and new ones that I keep discovering.

1- http://soaperstar.blogspot.com

2- http://blog.manorhallsoapcompany.com/

3- http://misspollysoap.blogspot.com/

4- http://sanganatural.blogspot.com/

5- http://soapmum.blogspot.com/

6- http://soapmakingmommy.blogspot.com/

7- http://soapandrestless.blogspot.com/ 

Lavender - Take 1

With a 5% superfat drying out my skin, I got brave enough and tried a 10%. The recipe is a basic one, from Naturseife by Claudia Kasper. Easy calculations:

25% Coconut oil
25% Palm oil
25% Olive oil
25% Canola oil

Scented with just Lavender essential oil and colored with a tiny bit of food color (violet). Outcome was...well...see for yourself:

What is that uneven texture all about??

After pouring the soap into the molds, I wrapped it up and put it in the oven at around 50 C - 60 C for about an hour and then turned the oven off and let the soap rest for about 12 hours. Could it be due to the CPOP? It was just the top layer. Just below this surface is perfectly good soap.

Lavender cocktail anyone?

I cut the whole soap into tiny cubes. Even the small sample sized heart soaps had the same rough exterior.

Rolled up some scraps with lavender buds

Those tiny lavender cubes will be recycled into a new soap. The bubbles with this oil combo are great though. Stay tuned for Lavender-Take 2!

Soapnuts

Is anyone else having problems with blogger?? I am just not able to leave comments on many lovely blogs. The drop down list which enables you to select the profile.....well, there is no drop down list for me. If I try Internet Explorer, no matter how many times I sign in, it doesn't log me in. This happened before too, but it automatically corrected itself out...but not this time. :(  I use Chrome by the way. Does anyone know what to do?

On a more soapy note, some of the 'Everfresh' soaps I had poured into individual molds. The colors didn't turn out like I hoped and the soaps were still a little soft when I took them out of the molds (Yes!! Impatience can be my other name). So I cut those up and tried to re-batch. I called them 'Fuglies' for a few days before grating them up. 

Now I call them Soapnuts!!