My Soap Diary & Christmas Gifts

My Soap Diary

05/10/11

Well the packaging has begun, I have wrapped the Oatmeal & Honey soap, The Lavender & Thyme soap & The Gardeners Soap, I have also made my first gift boxes: The Gardeners Gift Pack which contains and Gardeners Hand Cream & a Gardeners Soap, and even if I do say so myself, they look really good and I am really chuffed the Jute Gift Boxes that I'm using blend really nicely and the wrapped soap look's really bright & colourful, everything's coming together really nicely.  I will be uploading the gift boxes on to the website over the weekend so you can all have a sneaky peak.

07/10/11

Christmas Gifts:

The Count down has begun there is 77 days til Christmas Eve, I know I know, I can hear you all screaming at the computer NNNOOOOO!!!!! Lol, I went to Trago yesterday to buy my new Table Cloth for the stand and they had all their Christmas decs out, and my youngest started singing Jingle bells lol. But it is getting close and before you know it is been and gone. I do the sensible thing and start buying bits in June/ July when I see them, especially because I have 3 children it spreads the cost a little, but I do think I end up spending more lol. My Christmas Gift boxes will go on sale within the next 2 weeks, or you can make your own up and choose from the wide selection of products that I do and I can put them into a gift bag or box for you, just drop me an email. I will be attending a small selection of Christmas Events so I will keep you posted on those or check out the website under the Events Page and it will let you know what I'm doing and where I'm going. I will be at Saltash Wesley Church on the 15th October & Crackington Haven on the 16th October, so I will hopefully see you there. xxx

My Soap Diary

07/09/11

Well all three children left for school this morning, our house was like "The first day of the Next Sale" lol I didn’t know whether I was coming or going, I needed a brandy in my coffee once they had gone lol….

So now on with the important stuff, SOAP MAKING….

I have just taken my Gardeners Soap out of the mould with a little help from the freezer, yes that’s right, it was being stubborn so I put it in the freezer for half an hour and hey presto out it pops, I also checked on the 1st batch of the Sunflower & Calendula (that was the disaster at the beginning of the week) and it looks lovely, I'm still not going to take it out of the mould until Friday to give it a better chance. I made my 2nd batch of Lavender & Thyme Soap, this one is going into the chunks while the first one was sliced, hopefully this afternoon I am going to make the Sunflower & Calendula one, again this one will be in the form of chunks as well and then that will be it for the day as I have just about run out of Moulds. Yippeeee my Cornish Spring Water has just turned up, thank you Just Water Ltd.

Well over the past couple of days I've learnt so much about soap making, some of it is basic common sense, which is in very short supply in my life and some of it you learn as you go and hope beyond all hope that it turns out ok, here are just a few, for those of you that are just starting out:

1. Castor Oil seizes the mixture, so you need to move quick.
2. The Sunflower & Calendula mixture is sloppier than all the rest, even though I do nothing different.
3. The freezer is a god send when having difficulty get the soaps out of the moulds, even if you loose a little with the fragrance.

            And finally

4. 48hrs is better than 24hrs for curing.