Two New Handmade Natural Soaps!
This Lemon Poppyseed soap is made with completely natural ingredients. This was my first experience infusing annatto seeds in the olive oil to create a natural yellow color. It smells absolutely heavenly too! I used mostly straight-up lemon essential oil, with just a hint of litsea cubeba as well to help anchor the scent. The poppyseeds add some nice exfoliating action and help create the overall effect of a lemon poppyseed muffin.
As you can see, I’ve made another batch of Rosemary Mint soap since the first one failed so miserably. I did the colors and layering a bit differently, and it turned out quite nice! Other than the green oxide coloring, the Rosemary Mint soap is all natural as well. I used rosemary and peppermint essential oils to add a nice herbal scent.
Both of these soaps will be available at Greatcakessoapworks.com on Thursday, February 24th.
As a side note, if you look closely, you can see some little tiny air bubbles in these soaps. It would seem that my stick blender has suffered a leak around the blade and is sucking air into the soap. Again. Fortunately this is just a cosmetic issue and won’t affect the performance of the soap, but I’ve been through at least five stick blenders in the past four years. And now it’s time to go shopping for another one! If any of my soapmaking friends have suggestions for brands that might last longer, I’m all ears!
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Love the look of the rosemary mint. The green is wonderfully vibrant.
As for the stick blender you might want to try the “light commercial wand” from Soap Equipment. I’ve had mine for nearly two years and it’s still going strong, I make about 5 12lb mixes per week.
Jackie
Love ’em both! But I’m really feeling the lemon poppy seed number! And what a coincidence we’ve both made all-natural soaps recently:D
Both are very beautiful soaps, Amy!
concerning air bubbles.. are you sure the blender is busted? I have super cheap one and I know that my bubbles are coming from careless handling. meaning: I don’t pay much attention. Here’s what you can try: Insert blender into soap soup at a slightly slanted angle, rather than straight from above. This will cut down on the air you push into the soup. Then, knock blender on bottom of pot a few times which will release trapped air. In between blends, move stick blender in a figure eight through the pot, this will ‘fuse’ tiny bubbles and then all you have to do is bang the pot on the counter top a few times. I hope that’s an understandable explanation.
Hey there.. yes I agree with the above comment… try tipping the pot to the side and make sure that the stick blender is completely submerged in the soap mixture… and yes bang the pot or shake it around a bit and then continue to mix to get all air out…. may not have to buy another blender.. 🙂
@c’bong and home brewed soaps – I have been knocking the bubbles out of the stick blender each time I put it in the soap. This time I used a different recipe than I’ve used in the past and soaped at room temp (which is not unusual). I didn’t notice the bubbles in the Lemon Poppyseed soap until after I cut it. With the Rosemary Mint, I was noticing right away. I pounded as many as I could out of the first layer, and then didn’t use my stick blender much on the next two layers and they are much smoother.
As always, your soaps look fabulous! I will check the brand of my stick blender and let you know because mine has lasted 3 yrs with no issue. I actually didn’t buy it, I found it in my cupboard 3 years ago when I moved into our new house. LOL! Mine gave out at the time so I started using that one and it has worked ever since.
I knowI have (burned out a few lol)
http://www.soapequipment.com has one that I have been using since the last soap conference. I was very blessed and won it! I did have to get used to it becauseit works so much faster. and its stainless so no more plastic breaking!
holly