Internet trouble

I've spent over 4 hours on the 'phone this week trying to sort out a faulty internet connection and given that all technical fault calls are routed to India, does this picture explain why they are unable to sort out my problem?

Fruitarama & I are not speaking

This is REALLY unfair. If I'd wanted pink & purple soap I'd have made it. I wish I had a "strop" emoticon on here. We are not on speaking terms this monster & I. Hmph.

27 different soaps so far, and still counting......

I thought I should just post a few pics of other soaps I've made before starting the blog. Am I getting better or not?!!

Hot process Tea Rose

Hot process Anastasia

Special facial soap I made for my Mum's birthday

Left back: Antique
Right back: Orange Blossom
Front: Rice Flower

Fruitarama

This week's effort is a fruity little number - smells of all sorts of tropical fruit. I stuck to a fairly basic recipe for this one - just olive, coconut, avocado & cocoa butter. But, true to form, when I mixed the 3 colours one of them was actually turquoise (well, for a while anyway) until I turned round and it had gone - surprise surprise - brown. So, my pattern (inspired by the amazing soaps at Alkali Soap Studio) is no longer red, orange & turquoise. Who knows what'll happen when it's finished gelling etc. Your guess is as good as mine!

Hot process for a change!

I thought I'd make a hot process soap this week for a change - I get very twitchy waiting for cold process ones to be cured and ready to test. The rubbish effect on the top is NOT what I was aiming for (I was hoping for something vaguely resembling those of platypusdreams.com.au & as you can see, I didn't come remotely close!) but it looks a bit better than I was expecting when I cut it.

I don't think that'll last though - this fragrance oil is known to discolour to a dark tan, and I quite like it pale. Bum!

Garden Path

This was supposed to look like a meandering garden path surrounded by pretty flowers, not like a garden shed collapsed and flattened any flowers along the way. The base is actually green in reality - not sure why it looks yellow in the pic. I'm not gelling this one in the hope that the embeds don't move (although maybe I should gel it and it'd cover up the topping). I used lots of avocado oil in this one so hopefully the soap itself will be lovely and conditioning. We'll see what happens when I attempt to cut it later in the week.

Snow in April!

We don't often get "proper" snow this far south. It was forecast for this weekend but we don't take much notice here. Right by the coast, we rarely get what's forecast so it was a bit of a shock this morning to wake up to this. Most of it's gone now though, but it was nice to look at while it lasted.

Floral Ripple

Well, here she is, finally cut. I don't understand the chemistry but her purple swirls have decided they'll stay pink so far. It took 4 days before she was hard enough for me to cut comfortably and even then was still a bit too sticky. I used essential oils in this one and didn't allow it to gel - so far the scent is holding well and doesn't seem to have disappeared much. We'll see what happens as she cures!

GM update

Well, the goat's milk monster is out of her mould and sitting quietly in a corner. Hopefully she'll harden up soon so I can cut her. However, I checked on her this morning (the sad life of a soap addict - get up in the morning and check on your babies) and the purple swirl has morphed into a very strange pinky colour. Not only that but there is definitely ash forming on the top. Hmph. I am not a happy girl now.