the ramblings of my journey through life, following my passion and enjoying the adventure

Friday, November 18, 2011

black and white sea salt bar

(my blog posts are as erratic as my hormones)

It's a case of pre-christmas hecticness.

Made with coconut oil and some extra castor, avocado and sweet almond oil, fragranced with lemon, lavender and rosemary essential oils.


Some grated coloured soap bits and sea salt and they are good to go.



Next salt bar I make I think I will add more salt (this was 400g salt to 800g oils), or maybe just a courser grain of salt .... to add that extra bit of scrubbiness.







Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa.





Friday, August 12, 2011

Don't fix something that ain't broken!

It has been a while since I posted here, but that hasn't meant that I have not regularly read the posts of the blogs that I follow and of course been inspired.

Over the last month I have been fighting a nasty influenza virus, and just when I feel I have shaken it off it comes back to bite me on the butt! More in the ears, throat, head and (sore) body than on the butt - the butt side of things I do believe is from sitting on it too long!!

I did however muster up enough energy (been completely out of it) to make four new batches of soap....  When I say new, I mean taking a tried and tested recipes that work perfectly well and tweaking them - a little bit more of this, a little less of that and so on. You probably get the picture.

Why mess with something that is working? If only I could say my mind was fuzzy from medication; if only I had some kind of explanation that, if not for my peace of mind, then to at least convince anybody else. Silly. Silly, silly, silly is all I can say!

Sadly, two of those batches not only ended up as a disaster, they also landed in the trash can. The third batch, 100% olive oil, I unmolded when it was still too soft, and the last batch is a salt bar, which hasn't come out exactly how I envisioned it - will post pics at a later stage.

In the meantime, mostly to make me feel better about my own soap making abilities, I'll add some photo's of this season's efforts.


Petitgrain e/o, with poppy seeds and finely ground oats.


Orange, palmarosa e/o, honey and beeswax, with calendula petals.


Patchouli, orange and lemon e/o.


Sweet orange, rose geranium and lemongrass e/o, calendula petals.


Geranium, lavender, patchouli and petitgrain e/o.

Spring (I hope) is around the corner and with it comes soaps with slightly varied fragrances. I am looking forward to both!

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

It's cold out there!

There is a blustering, cold wind blowing outside, so I am off to have a hot bath ......




the essential oils of sandalwood, cedar wood and lemongrass, combined with the earthy colours of the soap, are sure to warm me up ......


And then off to bed, with a warm glass of Horlicks.

Hope I don't have nightmares about the price of sandalwood EO......