Nom de Plume

So, you want to start making soap? Well, here’s how NOT to do it. These poor, sweet guys are completely clueless, and I don’t know whether to just laugh my way through these or be scared by the fact that they lack basic safety precautions. Oh, what the heck, let’s just laugh … especially since […]

The rabid (read: foaming at the mouth) soapmaking continues, and I have more soap than I know what to do with. I was thinking about selling the stuff, but have ultimately decided not to. Frankly, I can barely keep up with my accounting as it is; forget something where I have to track inventory and […]

No one wants soap? I think my feelings are hurt! Seriously, please … take some off my hands.

So I’ve been making soap like there’s no tomorrow. I’m up to ears in it. Steve is threatening divorce. Well, that’s probably because a. I set the kitchen on fire the other day; and b. apparently the source of the kitchen drain clog was unsaponified soap from when I used to clean out all the […]

I stumbled across this somewhere, and if you need to waste two minutes, here it is … five minutes if you blog it. Google “[your name] needs” and see what you come up with.
Apparently, I am touchy feely:
“Zia needs support.”
“Zia needs to reach the heart.”
“Zia needs to reach out honestly.”
And apparently, I need to drink […]

I was sooooo looking forward to getting Brambleberry’s Karma type essential oil blend (based on the Lush perfume). I even devised a special recipe. But when it came in the mail — and I had stupidly thrown caution to the wind, buying the 4 oz size — it didn’t do a thing for me. It […]

Basic batch + 2 TB bitter almond fragrance oil and 1 TB ginger EO + vanillin sprinkled on top.

So named for the combination of frankincense, myrrh, and patchouli.
7.5 oz coil
2.5 oz olive butter
1.5 oz shea
10.5 oz oo
3.75 oz lye
8 oz water
1 TB frankincense powder melted with oils.
2 TB patchouli
1 TB clary sage
1 tsp carrot seed oil
Topped with frankincense and myrrh tears.

I despise patchouli. Or at least, I always thought I did. But when combined with other scents, it can actually be quite nice. So this is without the lime and spruce of Dave’s soap.
204g oo
218g coil
211g crisco
20g rosehip
27g cocoa butter
1 tb patchouli
1 tb bergamot
1 tb rosewood
2 tb lavender
It’s been a week since I made this, […]

All my essential oils are stored in an old file cabinet in the office, which doubles as a guest room. Dave was here when my new order came in. And every time we went out, Dave riffled through my supplies looking for something that smelled good. “Where’s the patchouli?” he’d ask. Or “Wow, rosewood smells […]

What do you mean, play some more?

No, thanks. We need to sleep now.

Or rather, soapmaking is back.
After making 20 batches in a 2-month period, I got tired of it. But my soap stock has been severely depleted. My mother wanted soap to give away — so I sent her about 60 bars. I’ve given about 40 more bars away since then. And Geoff came over the […]

Obviously, my soapmaking posts have gotten fewer and less frequent; I confess, my interest has waned. This is, in large part, due to the fact that my last three batches have used fragrance oils (sandalwood, some fresh linen thing, and honeysuckle). I don’t like them. At all. They smell cheap. I need to order more […]

“Pull up the blog,” I said. “See the picture?”
“Oh, God.”
“I really want it.”
“Oh, God.”
“Does that mean you don’t love me enough to spend $400 on something I will use twice?”
Silence.
“Okay, I’m kind of thinking about just buying it for myself.”
“That’s just crazy.”
“You can make booze in it.”
“Buy it!”

I was probably a little hasty in creating an entire category dedicated to soapmaking. A better category probably would have been “passing fancies.” Or better yet, “passing fancies on which I spend tons of money and then get bored.”
Don’t get me wrong; I’m not totally bored with it yet. It’s just that I’m up […]

This is a very very strange soap, but also very very appealing in a strange sort of way.
Basic one pound wonder x 2 with an ounce of unsweetened baking chocolate melted with the oils. Lye was mixed with very strong (even for me) coffee. At trace, added 1/4 cup freshly roasted and ground coffee […]

The basic one-pound wonder batch x 2.
I added a heaping tablespoon of ground annato powder to the oils before they were melted. At trace, added 4 TB orange EO and 1 TB sandalwood FO. Then I couldn’t resist sprinkling vanillin on the top. Did you know that vanillin is a byproduct of the paper industry? […]

My very first one pound wonder batch lost its scent during the saponification process, so I grated it up, made another pound using the same recipe with 2 TB spirulina and 1 TB each of basil and coriander. It looks very cool.

More bookcase sculpture!

**Update: Not wild about this.

No name yet, but this works for now. It’s a modification of the basic larger batch.
126 sweet almond
126 g oo
52 g jojoba
216 PKO
200 palm
95 g lye
9 oz water
1 cup finely ground oatmeal
1 TB each of lavender, lime, litsea cubeba

**Update: This is really boring scent-wise, and the oatmeal is downright annoying.