Saturday 9 January 2010

new soap on the block...

Just a quick one to show what I have been up to of late. Since we are so hell bent on racing right into the new year as if Christmas never happened, it's been a challenge to find the time to just sit down and write a blog entry or two. Not to worry, am sure I will get back into the flow of things soon.
I have been wanting to get into whats known as Cold Process soap making for some time now. Our kitchen in our old house in Brisbane was so small I had no room and I am not totally sure why it has taken me so long to do this now I have the space here in Tassie - but last Wednesday I got myself a hankering and I made my first batch of soap complete from scratch!!
Cold Process is the age old way of making soap - combining a lye solution (caustic soda + water) with a fat or oil. Traditionally lard or tallow was used along with ashes from kitchen fires. But we have come a long way since then! Check out Erin from Inner Earth Soaps goodies here for an idea of some of the great possibilities!
I have always loved castille soap made from olive oil, so thats what I have made here. It can take a little longer to make and is quite a soft soap to work with, but I am looking forward to its awesome skin benefits when we start using it!
I have been wanting to make hand rolled soap balls for a while as well, so I have had a play with that and have even rolled some of them in poppyseeds to see how that goes. These ones might be good for say, a gardener, who needs a little more help with removing soil and grime.
I scented the batch with a dash of sultry Ylang Ylang, a splash of uplifting Bergamot and a squeeze of zesty Lime.
Now all I need to do is be patient for the 3-4 weeks it will take for the caustic to cure out and the soap to be safe to use! At the moment I still need to use gloves to handle the soaps.
I can see now how these kinds of hobbies can take over your spare room......then your house....then your life!!

8 comments:

Narelle Badalassi said...

those look sooo yummy Annie !
Thank you so much for the Christmas card you sent and sorry I hadn't gotten around to reply I hope you are going well and would love top catch up sometime in our travels

Narelle

Sophie said...

Annie = Awesome!
My mum would totally dig the whole poppy-seed soap, heck, she'd probably just go outside, rub some dirt between her hands - just to justify using it! LOVE IT!

Tam said...

ooooooh the soap looks awesome and your brilliant sense of yummy smells will ensure these soaps smell divine too! (i'm sure they'll also go on the skin beautifully...)

Raewyn said...

The soaps look great Annie! Such an interesting process too.

Erin Napier said...

Thes look yummy, like rum balls! I was actually looking at making some soap balls myself last night, and I read an article on rolling them in botanicals - popppy seeds, petals, etc. Yours look fantastic!

Rachael said...

These are lovely Annie! As always!

Rachael

Isis said...

i always wondered what cold pressed soap was, now i know, thank you.

these look wonderful and i really like their natural shape from hand rolling

Abigayle said...

Beautiful Annie! I got some gorgeous hand rolled blackberry soap from cocoon for Xmas, I'm in love with the stuff now! I'll track you down when I need some more!