The Soap Creation Process

There is something about making soap, the creative process, that is inspiring. I love picking out the ingredients, the scents, the additives, and blending them together to make something unique and beautiful!

I am constantly asked about the soap making process, so I thought I'd take a few pictures along the way! This is our Mint Tea Handmade Soap. I didn't take pictures of every step, but took pictures of the more interesting ones! LOL!



I started by measuring out my oils and lye solution. I then added Green Tea Powder to the lye solution (as evidenced by the brackish muck in the pictures below!).


Once the oils and lye solution both cooled down, I added my essential oils to the oils (peppermint and rosemary essential oils for this batch). Then I added my lye solution to my oils and blended. This batch, because of the botanical ingredients, as well as the essential oils used, it tends to heat up very quickly. When oils & lye are combined they naturally produce heat. Certain ingredients can add to that heat. I always have to watch this soap carefully, or it will volcano up out of the mold on me!

But once the solution has achieved a light trace, I pour it into my pre-lined molds.


I then sprinkled green tea leaves onto the top for texture and aesthetics.


And after the soap mixture has thickened a little more in the mold, I took a knife and added some texture to the top of the soaps.


After several days, the soap is ready to cut into bars. They then sit in my curing rack for 3-6 weeks till they are fully cured. Once cured, they are wrapped and labeled, and ready for some lucky buyer to purchase them!!!


Each soap is a little different, with different scents, different colorants, different additives. They are all beautiful, they are all unique, they are all special in their own way!!!

Getting Into the Swing of Things!

We are working on getting back into the swing of things after our move. The move was hectic, crazy, insane, but it is almost completely behind us now! We still have a few random boxes here and there to unpack, but we mostly have things settled in. YAY!!!

I know I promised pictures of our new soap kitchen once it was set up, but I haven't taken them yet. *blushes*

I HAVE, however, been busy making soap. OMG, I LOVE MY KITCHEN! Having everything all in the same room, totally awesome! LOL! So I've been making soap as often as I can squeeze in around work, family, life, and lately... sick kids.

Several of them are new soaps, so I wanted to give you a little teaser to let you know what was coming!!! (sorry, all of the pictures are of the soaps still in the molds, not cut into bars)

MEI LI: A fabulous Asian scent of jasmine with hints of bamboo. It's absolutely beautiful, hence the name, Mei Li! It's not nearly as yellow now that it's done. This picture was taken while it was in the gel phase, which intensified the yellowness.


NO NAME SOAP: I haven't figured out what I want to name this one yet. It's a fabulous Orchid scent, deep, mysterious, enticing. The pink has also deepened to an awesome dark purple. But so far, a name for this beauty is absolutely eluding me!



I have several other new soaps made (no pics yet), as well as new batches of our tried and true line.

Also on the Curing Rack:

- Parisian Glow (fabulous new facial soap made with French Green Clay and a to die for Essential Oil Blend!)
- Tangerine Souffle
- Another No Name Soap - It's new, it's awesome, and it currently has no name.
- Mint Tea Soap
- Dead Sea Mud Facial Soap
- Gingered Orange Spice Soap
- I know there is something else, but I'm totally blanking at the moment and don't want to get up out of my comfy chair to go look! LOL!