I’ve had this idea for a yummy soap rolling around in my head for several weeks now. I was contemplating what would be the most indulgent, sinfully sweet, completely over-the-top wonderful soap ever. It had to be completely luxurious for the skin and for the senses. What I came up with is about half-way there. Call it a trial batch, if you will.

First, I gathered up all my best sweet-smelling fragrances to see what would create the most intoxicating blend. I came up with a combination of orange, coconut, vanilla, almond and chocolate that is oh-so-yummy!

Then I divided the fragrances by how much they would discolor the soap, and created three different layers, adding just a bit of titanium dioxide to the top layer to keep it as light as possible, and some cocoa powder to the middle layer to keep it dark. As the soap cures, I know these colors will become even more distinct. The bottom layer will get more brown, and the middle layer will get darker.

As for skin-loving ingredients, I used fresh goat’s milk for this batch. I am imagining cocoa butter, real dark chocolate, maybe some cocoa absolute, vanilla absolute, honey, and everything else completely natural for the next batch. I read about The Sage’s experiment using virgin coconut oil in cold-processed soap, hoping that the scent would come through, but it didn’t. If anyone has any ideas about how to get a natural coconut scent, I’d love to hear it!

I posted about the soap I was making on Facebook and Twitter, and Ruth of Sirona Springs came up with the name. I definitely want to send her a bar when it’s ready! There are just 9 bars in this batch, which will surely be a Soap of the Week at the Olathe Farmer’s Market. However, now that I’ve done a trial batch, I know I can make a regular sized one that’s even better!

Here’s a heads up that I will be offering more Soap Grab Bags tomorrow! Get them while you can. I’ll have some soap ends from Soap of the Week batches that no one has ever seen before, plus lots of soap balls and other surprises!